We meet the Director of PC, Carrie Hessler-Radelet
A PC director has never come to Vanuatu before, so her arrival and
stay here was a big to do! She was only here for two nights, one of which she
stayed in Port Vila and one she stayed on Nguna Island, which was one of our
training villages. While she was here she came and spoke to us PC volunteers,
then there was a big ceremony where she presented the Women of Courage Award to
the award winner in Vanuatu. The US Ambassador to Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and
the Solomon Islands was also here for the ceremony. There was a custom dance,
several speeches, a display of the work some of the current volunteers are
doing here in Vanuatu, and lots of pictures taken with Carrie! She is very
kind, super approachable, and it was really awesome to get to meet her. She
served in the South Pacific 30 years ago with her husband, so she was also very
relatable. She and the Ambassador also agreed to participate in the Shutup and
Dance video Jen was making, which I thought was pretty great of them! If you haven’t
seen that video yet you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94eptJzlFdI&feature=share&app=desktop
A decaying rat welcomes us home
The morning that we were leaving to head to Vila our cat, Pepper,
brought a dead rat into our hut (she loves to bring her meals inside to enjoy
them. It’s just lovely). Cole put him, with the rat in his mouth, outside. He
came back in and Cole put him outside again. We knew that our neighbor was
going to be taking Pepper to our host family’s house, where he would be staying
while we were away, in the next few minutes so we just thought he wouldn’t have
time to come back in again after we left (he can come in and out at his leisure
because of the gap between our walls and ceiling. He just scales the wall and
jumps right in). We thought wrong. The day we got back to site, 17 days after
we left, Cole went in first to survey the critter damage and was welcomed by a
terrible smell. He started to look for the cause of the stench and found
Pepper’s half eaten breakfast decaying under our bed. It had been there so long
that it was stuck to the floor and he had to pry it up with a stick. He then
swept it, along with all the maggots that were inside of it, into a dustpan and
threw it into the woods. Then, bless his heart, he had to sweep up all of its
fur and then pour bleach on the cement floor and scrub it with a rag. We still
get whiffs of it sometimes when we are laying in our bed…a gentle reminder of
our warm welcome home. Cole is such a saint. I would be seriously lost without
him!
Some projects we are working on
Many people often ask us what we are doing here in Vanuatu. The
truth is, we have no idea. BUT, here are some of the things we are trying our
best to work on while we are here!
Caroline:
- Depending on the day, I work with either class 1 or class 2/3 (combined class due to a lack of teachers) in the mornings from 9:00-10:00 on a literacy/phonics lesson. Then I work with a small group from either class 1, 2, or 3, again depending on the day, on things that they are struggling with (mainly letter names, sounds and site words). In the afternoon I take one class each day into the library. As I may have said before, the volunteer who was here before me, Jessica, made an amazing library that is unfortunately not being used at all. One of my main goals is to get the kids in there and to get someone from the village trained in taking the kids to the library each afternoon, so that it can continue once we are gone.
- I am also working on starting a Mama’s English Class in our village. Dawna, a Group 26 volunteer, started a Mama’s English Class in her village and it was wildly successful! She has created an amazing resource book for future classes to use and has inspired me to start a class here in Narango. I plan to start in September! This is a class where 7-10 mamas will come to learn English, and then have the skills to help their children with English. The mamas from Dawna’s group came and helped with a workshop that Dawna put on about the group. They spoke during the workshop about the impact the class has had on them and on their children. It brought me to tears and I can’t wait to get it started here!
- When Jessica was here she started a group called “Gel Paoa”, which means Girl Power, with class 4, 5 and 6 girls. When I got here the girls started asking me almost immediately if and when I would be starting Gel Paoa again. I started it up again on Tuesday June 30th. I had 29 girls interested in joining the group so I decided to split it into two different 7 week groups. For the first 6 weeks we will meet every Tuesday to talk about issues like self-confidence, bullying, positive relationships, education/jobs, etc. On the 7th week we will take a trip into town (which we will start fundraising for around week 4) and the girls will meet some successful women in Luganville (and we will also get ice cream which will be a major treat since there is not electricity, no refrigeration and no ice cream in our village!). I am working with the first 14 girls now and will start with the second group of 15 girls in September.
- Lastly, another volunteer, Shannon, and I are working on putting together some workshops on how to teach literacy for volunteers and the teachers at their sites. We are writing a grant right now in order to secure funding to travel to other islands and put on these workshops. We are doing this as a result of many of the other volunteers, who have little or no teaching experience, expressing stress and concern about being able to meet the expectations of their villages or communities. We did a small workshop at our last training in Vila for the volunteers and their counterparts, and got great feedback from it! And they want more! So, hopefully we will get the funding and it will all work out!
Cole:
- Cole walks to his village most weekdays and teaches phonics lessons at his school. His schedule is not quite as set as mine because of his commute, but he usually goes there 4 days a week and works with classes 1-6 on the same kinds of things that I work on here in Narango (letters, sounds, site words). He was really nervous at first about teaching since he hasn’t ever taught before, but he has great ideas and does a really good job!
- Cole has also successfully gotten a water system, called Life
Straw, to his site! It is a water filtration system that will allow the people
in his village to have clean drinking water. He got it to the village a few
weeks ago and they worked on setting it up this week! Here is a link if you
would like to learn more about Life Straw and a picture of Cole and some members from his community setting it up! http://www.buylifestraw.com/en/
- He is also working to put together a clothing drive (which some of you may have received e-mails about and others may have seen on facebook) here in Narango. Many of the kids and adults here have very little decent clothing and shoes. He would like to get the clothes donated from friends and family back home and shipped to Vanuatu. Once they are here we will sell them to people in our village (at VERY low cost) and then give the vatu we make to the school. If you would like to help with this project you can email him at smithnb21@gmail.com. We will be looking for clothing of all sizes and for shoes (flip flops or crocs).
- Lastly, Cole is working with another PC volunteer from our group, Cade, to start a Disaster Management Committee and go to villages to discuss disaster management and preparation committee. This is a very important topic here in Vanuatu, especially in the wake of Cyclone Pam. He and Cade are also working on a grant in order to secure funding and get the committee started!
Cole, Caroline, and Friends:
- World Map! We are working right now to try to get paint and paintbrushes to paint a world map and a map of Vanuatu at my school. We will be painting both maps on the walls on the outside of one of the school buildings. Many of the students have no idea where their country is, where other countries are, or where Vanuatu is in relation to other countries. Jessica put a laminated world map in the library, and the kids love to look at it when they come in there with me on their library day. But, they only come into the library once per week and so they do not get to look at and study the map often. We hope that some other PC volunteers in Santo will come to Narango and help us with our world map and our map of Vanuatu! World maps are something that many Peace Corps volunteers make in their villages, and we hope to jump on that band wagon soon!
A mared in our village
On Friday, July 3rd there was a mared in our village.
The custom here in Vanuatu, as I discussed briefly when I wrote about the
marriage of our host parents in Lelepa, Rex and Tommy, goes something like this…On
Thursday night there is a kakae (feast) at the house of the man blo mared
(groom) and a kakae at the house of the women blo mared (bride). At the groom’s
house family and friends come and give the groom money to help him pay the
80,000 vatu ($800) bride price. People come, give money, eat, story, drink
kava, hang out, listen to music, etc. At the bride’s house family and friends
go and take gifts for the couple (bins for washing clothes and dishes, mats,
plates, things like that). They also eat, story, drink kava, listen to music,
etc. On Friday morning the groom goes to the bride’s home and pays the bride
price. Then there is a wedding ceremony at the church. After the ceremony the
bride goes to her home and the groom to his. At each home there is more eating
and what not. Then, that afternoon the family of the bride walks her and all
the gifts she has received to the groom’s house and puts her there. And, as you
can probably guess, more eating, kava, music, etc. So, on Thursday night, July
2nd, we headed to the groom’s house first as he lives closer to us.
We ate rice and fresh meat from a cow that was killed that day for the occasion.
We storied with the people there for a bit and then we headed to the house of
the bride where we ate and storied more. While we were eating at the bride’s
home some men were setting up a sheet and a laptop with a projector to watch
what we thought would be a movie. The kids all sat on mats in front of the
sheet waiting patiently. After about an hour they finally got it working. First
they showed a music video of a local Christian band called Scripture Vibrations,
then when that stopped working they showed a video from a festival in Vila
about 10 years ago.
On Friday we missed the bride price and the ceremony because we
were at school. That afternoon, we stopped by the groom’s house briefly where a
man tried to give Cole a giant handful of raw meat out of a bowl on the ground.
Cole kindly refused saying that he would just enjoy the meat with everyone as a
group instead of taking it in his bare hand back to our hut. After that we went
to the bride’s house where Cole drank kava and we sat around and storied,
waiting for the time when we would walk the bride and all of her new possessions
to her new husband’s house. We hung out for a long time, me talking to our mama
and some of the other mamas and Cole hanging out with the men drinking kava and
butchering the cow, not knowing what the holdup was. Then, our mama told us
that the groom had decided he was thirsty and had gotten someone to take him
the hour and a half into town to get wine. This meant that taking the bride to
his house would not be happening for several more hours. We hung out for a
little longer, were given a pile of a rice wrapped in a giant leaf, and headed
back to the hut. On our walk back to the hut a smol pikinini came running over
to me, latched onto my leg, took her lollipop out of her mouth and handed it to
me. I said to her “no, no, hemi lolli blo yu” which means no, no it’s your
lollipop. She was persistent and insisted that I take her half eaten lolli. I
eventually took it and then said a quick prayer that she wouldn’t stick around
long enough to make sure I put it in my mouth. She didn’t, and we continued our
trek through the mud back to our hut where I disposed of the lolli, we ate our
rice out of the giant leaf, and we went to sleep! We were woken up around 1 am
to screaming and partying at the groom’s house which, like I said, is close to
our house. Guess he got back from his wine adventure and the bride made it to
her new home!
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| Pikinini watching Scripture Vibrations |
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| Our host dad and brother helping butcher the cow |
4th of July in Vanuatu
A Peace Corps committee called GAD (gender and development) was
having a week long workshop in Santo the week before the 4th of
July. This meant that there were lots of PC vols here is Santo that do not live
here (mostly from g26, the group before us). Their workshop was right next to Champagne
Beach. The workshop ended on the 3rd, but several of the PC vols
decided to extend their stay and celebrate the 4th there. We decided
to go and join them. So, on Saturday the 4th we left our village and
went into town (Luganville). We stayed in town using the internet until around
2:00 when we went with Brian, Kate and Hannah to catch a bus and go the 45
minutes to the Towac Bungalows, which is where everyone was staying and is
about a five minute walk to Champagne Beach. There were 21 of us squeezed into
the bus we got in. When we got there we reserved our tents for the night and
then walked to Champagne Beach and hung out there for an hour or two. Then we
spent the evening drinking wine and eating burgers, sausage dogs, fries and
some lap lap that the mamas there made for us. We decided at some point during
the night to walk back to Champagne beach and go skinny dipping, which I had
never done before! Sorry moms, dads, and granparents who are reading! There
were about 10 or 12 of us that went, but I won’t mention names! Shortly after
our little skinny dipping adventure we retired to our tent by the beach for the
night. Sunday morning we got a ride in the back of a truck back to town where
we used the internet again and then Lucas, Cole and I headed to the spot where
we wait for a truck back to our village. Lucas was coming to our site to visit
for a few days! 2 and a half hours later, we finally got a truck and were on
our way back to Narango after a fun 4th of July!
Lucas comes to visit
On Sunday afternoon when we arrived in Narango it was raining and
very muddy. Cole and Lucas worked on making some dinner while I straightened up
the hut. We ate and hung out and then went to bed early after a long previous
night! Lucas was coming to visit us because we are awesome and he loves us so
much, but also because he wanted to watch me teach and get some ideas. No such
luck on Monday because at 9:00 a.m. there was a grand total of ZERO out of the
5 teachers at my school here. Some kids came and I told them to go home and try
to come back tomorrow when maybe a few of the teachers would be here. At around
9:30 the headmistress/class one teacher showed up and a few kids went and hung
out in her classroom for the day. Cole had walked to his site so Lucas and I
just hung out at the hut. It was pouring rain so there wasn’t much to do
besides sit around and talk. Lucas played on his computer a little, I painted
my nails, and we drank coffee. When Cole came home we had lunch and then more
just hanging around. Cole wasn’t in the best of moods because on his walk that
morning one of his chaco flip flops got stuck in the mud and broke. He has to
walk the 45 minutes home through the mud with only one shoe. That night we
walked to a kava bar where Cole and Lucas each had a shell of kava. Then we
walked to our host family’s house and had dinner there with our mami and our
brother, Junior. Dinner was good and we had fun with Lucas and our fam! On
Tuesday a few teachers ended up showing up to school, so Lucas came and watched
me teach a lesson to class one and then hung around for a few minutes of a
small group with class one. He then decided to take some of the left over paint
from when Jessica painted the library to our house and start painting a tree on
one of our hut walls. After my small group with class one he insisted on me
helping him, which I did while Cole made lunch. After lunch I took class 2/3 to
the library and then Lucas and I took a spel (a rest) for a while before
continuing our tree painting. I was skeptical of this tree painting at first,
but I have to say I ended up having fun painting it with Lucas and it turned
out pretty good! In the afternoon it FINALLY stopped raining so Lucas convinced
us to venture out into the mud and walk about an hour to the river. We swam and
hung out at the river for an hour or two and then walked back. For some of the
way a bunch of pikinini who were walking home from school joined us. Lucas and
Cole went for kava when we got home and then Lucas made dinner. He left on
Wednesday morning. We wish the weather would have been better and more teachers
and kids would have been at school, BUT we loved having our first visitor, had
lots of fun and can’t wait for more visitors to come!
Pikinini Prayer Warriors
Our mama and some other mamas in Narango have started a pikinini
prayer warriors group where kids come to the church at night and sing and pray.
At first they were doing this every night of the week, but after a few weeks
they decided that was too much for the kids and are now doing it about 3 times
per week. The bell rings any time between 5 and 6 or 6:30. When the bell rings
people start to head to the church and
continue to join in for the next hour or so. We decided to go and check it all
out one Wednesday night. We went about 30 minutes after the bell rang, as we
have learned our lesson about going right when the bell rings and being the
only mopes in there for the next 30 minutes at least. The kids spent about an
hour singing songs, then one of the mamas who leads the group made a sermon for
about 30 minutes, and then we all got up, stood in a circle and held hands. For
the next hour or so we stood in that circle holding hands and the mamas would
name a topic, like “mamas and daddies” or “pikinini” or “people who don’t have
food”, and then they would all scream the same prayer in unison. We didn’t know
the prayer they were saying so we just stood and listened. A few times during
this circle scream praying some of the kids would leave the circle and go
whisper something in one of the mama’s ears, then we would all have to stop and
pray away the demons that the kids said they just saw. We would have to point
to the doors and then everyone would scream something else in unison so that
the demons, who the mamas said some of the kids who have a special gift can
see, would go away. Also, a few times we would stop after a pikinini went and
whispered in the ear of a mama because he or she needed to be prayed for. Some
of the group would put their hands on the child and then they would all scream
the same prayer again, and then everyone would rejoin the circle and we would continue.
After about an hour of this we sat back down, sang a few closing songs, a mama
said a closing prayer and we all shook hands and hugged. Cole and I headed
home, but when we left several people had gone back inside the church to keep
praying for kids who needed it, either because they had seen the demons or for
other reasons. It was a very interesting experience.
Sink Hole
There is a village close to Narango, about a 25 or 30 minute walk,
called fonovos (sp). Several kids from there walk to school in Narango because there
is no school there. When we got here many people told us about a big hole in
the earth near this village. We had also seen some pictures of a time when
Jessica went there and we had heard about it from an Australian volunteer named
Sky. We have been wanting to go for a long time, but weather or other things
have kept us from being able to. This past Monday it had not rained in a few
days and we had nothing going on in the afternoon so a man who lives close to
us, named Toa, said that he would take us there. So, we walked the 30 minutes
or so until we were almost to fonovos and then turned off the road and into the
bush. We walked along a makeshift path for a bit and then came to a point where
we started to go down. For the next 45 minutes or an hour we continued to
descend down a rocky, slippery, steep, intense, muddy “path”. I nearly fell
about 25 times and Toa had to help me a lot. I’m not gonna lie, it was a tiny
bit terrifying. BUT, when we got to the bottom we were greeted by a cave like
area with rocky rapids and small waterfalls. When you looked up you could see
that you were at the bottom of a giant crater like hole in the earth. It was beautiful
and cool and like nothing I have ever seen before. It’s hard to describe and
pictures don’t do it justice, so come and visit and we will take you there! We trekked
from one side to the other, I took a little dip in the water, and then we
walked back up the hole (thinking the whole time that we couldn’t believe we
had made it down that steep, slippery path without busting our buts!). We we
got back to the road we decided to walk to fonovos because Cole and I had not
been there yet. When we got there we chatted with the chief of the hole for a
bit, saw a chicken that some kids had painted, checked out the awesome view, and
then headed home and slept really well that night!
Smol Cole and Smol Caroline
This past week some of the mamas had a fundraiser in order to
raise money to send a few of the mamas to a church conference in Vila. We are
always down for supporting our village in any way so, after we walked to a kava
bar and Cole had a shell of kava, we headed to the nakamal for the fundraiser.
It was a “Tea Night” fundraiser so you payed to come in and then you got local bread
made by the mamas and tea (coffee). It was 50 vatu for kids (50 cents), 100
vatu for adults (1 dollar), and 300 vatu for mamas (3 dollars). When we got
there several mamas called us over and very excitedly told us that a smol boy
had been born that day, July 13th 2015, and that his parents had
named him COLE! Two days later on Thursday July 15th 2015, Cole was
making dinner and I had just gotten off the phone with our friend Shannon when
our neighbor, Catherine, who was standing at her house with another mama called
me over. There is a transport driver named Cliff in our village who has taken
us to and from town many times. He lives very close to us and is a super nice
guy. The other women standing with Catherine turned out to be his mom who had
come by to tell us that Cliff’s wife had given birth to a smol girl that day
(or maybe the night before, we aren’t certain) and that they had named her
Caroline! So, now both Cole and I have smil pikininis in our village named
after us, born just a few days apart! Maybe they will grow up and get married!
We are going to go and meet smol Cole and smol Caroline next week and I will be
sure to take and post lots of pics!
Fiji and AMERICA
As some of you may know, Cole and I are coming home for Christmas!
We will be in Vila for a few days at the beginning of December (I have a
meeting for the committee that I am a part of and we need to fill out some
papers for our trip), then we are heading to Fiji from December 11th
– December 15th with some PC friends, and then we fly from Fiji to
the good ole USA on December 15th. We will be home until January 9th.
We can’t wait! We are going to cuddle Murray A LOT, eat A LOT of chick fil a,
Jungle Shack, Seacow, Oysters, and Christmas dinner, hang out with our families
and friends, I am going to get a mani/pedi and a haircut, Cole is probably going
to have a few delicious brews, we are going to get to meet sweet baby Charlie
Bean and who knows what else! We are so excited!
As always, thanks for taking the time to follow our adventures and
read my super long posts! Cole has started a blog, too. You can check it out
here: http://chronicallyuncomfortable.blogspot.com/
Ale, Ta.
Okay, Bye.
