Break up day at school: All of the parents were welcome and
the kids were given awards by their teachers. There were academic awards,
behavior awards, cleanliness awards, etc. There was also a speech made by the
chairman, the zone curriculum advisor (our uncle) and the headmistress (our
auntie). After the awards were given, there was a feast for all
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| Award Ceremony Time! |
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| Cole helping give out awards |
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| In line for food with their leaf plates! |
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| Sweet Brenda! |
Teacher Celebration/Secret Friend: On the last night we were
in town, which also happened to be Thanksgiving, all of the teachers got
together to eat and exchange gifts. We had drawn secret friend names the
previous week. We all ate together and then each person went up and told a
story about their secret friend and we all had to guess who it was. It was fun
and it was really nice to have a meal with our Vanuatu family on Thanksgiving!
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| Us with all of the school staff and some of their children |
Lope Lope: Lope Lope is a resort outside of Luganville with
a beach next to it that is usually open to tourists. We took a taxi there the
Saturday after Thanksgiving, but were sad to see the gates locked. We were
determined though, so we jumped into the river next to the locked gates and
floated our way to the ocean. We enjoyed a nice relaxing afternoon swimming and
hanging out with the Laufenburgs! That night we had dinner at their house and
watched Elf!
Oyster Island: There is a resort that is a car ride and then
a boat ride away from Luganville called Oyster Island and every Sunday they
have a delicious lunch buffet. We have been hearing about said buffet since
moving to Santo and decided to check it out the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We
got to the resort in the morning and kayaked to Matevulu Blue Hole which was so
fun and oh so beautiful! We spent a few hours there swimming and swinging from
the giant rope swing before kayaking back and resting for a few minutes before
our big meal! After we ate we hung out a while longer swimming and reading
before catching the boat back to the landing and a car back to Bryan and
Kate’s.
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| Kayaking to Matevule Blue Hole |
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| Kayak Party! |
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| Rope swinging |
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| Delicious lunch buffet! Such a treat! |
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| Lounging after our huge lunch! |
Pus Cats: As I have mentioned in previous posts, our cat Black Tiger became impregnated by our other cat Pepper a few days after they met. Two days before leaving our site for our holiday, Black Tiger had 3 tiny kittens right on top of a pile of my nice clean clothes. I am sad to say that since we got back to site on January 16th we haven't seen Pepper or any of the kittens. Black Tiger came home a few hours after we arrived. We are hoping to find Pepper and the kittens soon.
Vila: We were in Vila for about 10 days before we left for
Fiji. Cole attended a Disaster Risk Reduction Workshop, we both attended
meetings for the Peace Corps Volunteer Advisory Committee which we are both a
part of, we hung with friends that were in town, I volunteered with UN Women
for a day, we both volunteered on International Volunteer Day, we shopped for
souvenirs/Christmas presents, we celebrated Lea’s birthday and we got ready for
our big trip!
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| Happy Birthday, Lea! |
FUN IN FIJI!
Although our trip started out with a little luggage
trouble-- and by a little luggage trouble I mean the people at Air Vanuatu
forgot to put any luggage for any of the passengers flying from Port Vila to
Fiji on the plane. Seriously, no luggage. Like, they opened the doors to get
the luggage out for us and it was empty. Nada. Nothing-- it ended up being a
lot of fun! We got in a little late on the first night and ended up eating
fried chicken and then checking into our hostel, Bamboo. Bamboo was cool and
quirky. There were backpackers everywhere, we slept in a room with 16 others
and we met a few PC Fiji volunteers. We spent our first full day in the same
clothes as the day before palling around Nadi Town buying secret friend
presents for each other! We visited a Hindu Temple, we went to the airport and
got our luggage, we ate dinner at Bamboo and then we enjoyed a fun night out on
the town! The next day we traveled about an hour and a half to our next hostel,
Beachhouse. We stopped at a Sand Dune National Park on our way! Beachhouse was
very nice and really beautiful! Still full of backpackers, and this time us 6
girls slept in one room and the 3 guys slept in a room across from us along
with 3 other travelers. We swam in the pool, met more PC Fiji volunteers, hung
out by a campfire on the beach, kayaked and swam in the ocean, ate delicious
food, watched the sunset, got massages, and had a grand ole time!
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| Fiji, Here we come! |
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| Hindu Temple |
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| Hiking to the sand dunes |
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| View from the top of the sand dunes |
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| kayaking at sunset |
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| All of us with our secret friend gifts after our exchange :) |
On Monday December 11th we left Fiji and started
our journey to the USA!!!
We had the most amazing trip home… We cuddled Murray (a
lot); we celebrated Cole’s birthday with a fun welcome home/birthday party at
his house; we celebrated Christmas and spent a lot of time with both of our
families; we went to visit Annma at her grave; we had dinner in Charleston with
some of our college friends; we went to Charlotte, saw some family, hung out
with friends there, and went to a Charlotte Hornets basketball game; we ate at
the Jungle Shack (a lot); I got a manicure and pedicure…twice; we met my best
friend Amanda’s sweet baby girl/our Goddaughter, Charlie and got to hang out
with her and Amanda for 3 days; we went to the beach with Murr and friends a
few times; I met my lifelong friend Brittany’s new baby, Lillian and hung out
with her 1 and a half year old, Benjamin; we had a New Year’s party at Cole and
Kathleen’s house; we celebrated Murray’s 6th birthday; we roasted
hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire; we went to a Panthers game in Charlotte
with some of our best friends; we cuddled and played with Murray some more; we
had a Vanuatu Culture Night that ended up being a huge success that we cannot
begin to thank people enough for; we hung out more with friends and family; oh
and we cuddled Murray. On the way home we had a long layover in LA and got to
see Matt and Meng!
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| So excited to see our sweet Murr at the airport! |
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| With Cole's family in Charlotte |
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| After dinner at Pacos Tacos with Charlotte friends! |
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| Hornets Game! |
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| Hornets Game! |
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| Hornets Game! |
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| Merry Christmas from Edisto Beach! |
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| Go Panthers! |
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| Go Panthers! |
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| Go Panthers! |
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| Charlie! I love that face! |
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| Just, you know, sharing a french fry with Uncle Cole |
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| Best Friends |
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| Future PCV! |
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| My first New Year's kiss |
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| My second New Year's kiss |
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| Dinner with friends in Charleston! |
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| Birthday Boy |
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| Me and my nephews |
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| At Santa Monica Pier in LA |
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| Look what we found! And we only had to walk a mile to find it! |
It was hard to say goodbye and it feels a bit weird being
back in Vanuatu. When we got back we spent a few days in Vila and then a few
days in Luganville before coming back to site. We saw some PC friends and
celebrated our friend Hannah’s birthday. When we got back our house was full of
dust and bugs, so we spent a few days doing damage control, unpacking, cleaning
and doing laundry. Our running water is on and off because of El Nino. We have some back up water in rain tanks, so when the running water turns of for good we'll be back to bucket baths!! Our neighbors had come back the day before we got there and were the only
teachers back at school so far. They left again the next day and will be gone
for the week, making us the only people on our school grounds at the moment.
Since there is no one here and nothing going on, we are back in town for the
day before heading to East
Santo for a few days to visit our friend Jeffery. School
doesn’t start back until February 8th so we are trying to keep
ourselves busy until then!
We are looking forward to the school year starting,
working with the teachers and kids here at Ebenezer and continuing to work on
our projects!
Thanks for reading! :) I'll put a lot more pictures on Facebook another day, I've had all the slow internet I can take for now!
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