Life in Vanuatu!

Hey Everyone!
First of all, THANK YOU to everyone who has emailed us, posted on the blog (which im sorry is so difficult), posted on facebook or even just thought of us! I LOVE reading all of the emails and posts when we get a chance to (which has been twice since we've been here!). I'm sorry about not responding to each of you individually, but we only have a limited amount of internet time and I figure a lengthy blog post is the best way to get respond to everyone! I am also going to TRY to post an album on FB with more pics than I will put on here!

So...here goes!!...
For a little over two weeks we have been on Lelepa Island (which is where survivor was filmed!!!). It is small and beautiful and the people are all so wonderful and nice! You can only get there by boat, so there are no cars on the island. We have been staying with an amazing host family, who now consider us a part of their family. The are about our age (a little younger) and have a two year old son. Host mom, Tommy, works at a resort in Port Vila, so she has to travel first by boat and then by bus to get to work each day. Host dad, Rex, is the nurse on the island (an RN) so we live at the dispensary and he works from there or rides his bike to give people medicine, injections, etc, when someone walks to our house to tell him someone is sick. Brother, Talviroa (Talvi for short), is really independent, super cute, very energetic and very sweet. He has no toys and plays in trees, with coconuts, with other children, with knifes (yes, I said that he plays with knifes. terrifying and totally normal), etc. We also have two dogs, Flash and Limbo. Most dogs on the island, and in Vanuatu in general, are not treated well at all, but our family treats our dogs pretty well. They feed them and dont throw stones at them. Our house is one of the nicest on the island because we live at the dispensary. We have our own little room separate from their house, which is not what most people have. Most other volunteers are staying in the house with their family. We share a swim house (where we take our bucket bath) and smol house (where you use the bathroom) with our family. The smol house and swim house are made of tin and wood and are each about 5ft by 5ft. There is a wood ledge in each where we put toilet paper (in the smol house) and shampoo, soap, etc (in the swim house). When we use the bathroom, we fill a bucket with water and pour it down to make whatever is in the toilet go down. When we take a swim (a shower) we fill a bucket with water, have a small container in the bucket, take the bucket in the swim house (along with our towel and clothes), and dump the water on us using the container. It is actually pretty easy, we have gotten used to it and it feels quite nice since it is about one million degrees here with 100% humidity! We fill up our water bottle from a water tank that is a short walk from our house. We use our water bottle to brush our teeth. We cant drink the water that we use to swim unless we boil it.
To wash clothes, we fill two buckets or container with water, put soap in one, lay a board across the container and put the clothes across the board to scrub them, rinse the clothes in the other container, ring them out and hang them to dry.
Washing dishes is done about the same way...2 buckets, one for washing and one for rinsing, and set them out to dry.
I have been learning to cook some of the island food and have been helping Tommy cook. We eat as a family each morning and night, either on a mat on the floor in their house or at a table on the porch. We eat on the mat inside if the mosquitoes are too bad.
During the week we go to the nakamal (which is a building in the center of the island where people meet) for language lessons, cultural sessions, safety and security sessions, educations sessions, etc. The mamas each bring a dish to the nakamal at 12 and we all eat lunch together from 12-1. Its really great! The food is good and we are definitely getting spoiled by the mamas! Learning the language is going pretty well. We can both communicate to an extent in Bislama at this point.
Next week we go to our site and, from what we understand, will be speaking a lot more in Bislama. Our host family now speaks to us in English and in Bislama.
We have been able to swim in the ocean a lot which has been great! We walked to a HUGE cave one afternoon with our family which was cool! Last Saturday our host family took us and one of the other couples in our group, Sean and Lyndsey, on a boat tour of Lelepa Island, which was really fun! We went to the beach where they filmed survivor, went to a cave and went to an AWESOME snorkeling spot. We had some bread with us and when we got in the water with the bread in our hands, HUNDREDS of fish swarmed us and ate the bread from our hands! We sat on a beautiful beach and had a snack after snorkeling and then headed back home. It was a great day. I even got to wear my one piece suit because we were only with our family. So, I worked on my mad tan lines! Someone asked is tourist wear bikinis, and yes they do. But we want to integrate as much as we can into the culture here so we do not. Unless we are only with our family and no one else is around or we are at a resort.
We have gone to church both Sundays that we have been on Lelepa. We wear island dresses and island shirts. It is really really hot and the kids run up and down the concrete isle and in and out of the church constantly! The women sit on one side of the church and the men on the other.
On Wednesday the community had a farewell dinner for us because one of the guys in our group was leaving for his site on Thursday. It was so nice! All of our families gave us island dress and island shirts (we had been wearing borrowed ones for church) and there was a ton of food. The chief made a speech, our mama made a speech on behalf of all the other mamas, one other mama gave a speech, and yours truly gave a speech on behalf of all the volunteers! I gave it half in English and Bislama! Our group also prepared a little song/skit that we performed as a thank you for everything they have done for us in the last two weeks!
We have both gotten a sunburn, Cole got a weird rash, which the docs think was from the anti maleria meds he was on. They switched him to a different medicine and the rash is gone now. Cole also got a little foot injury, which is now also gone. He was very very sick with a stomach bug yesterday but is feeling much better today. Good news since it is Valentines and we are in Port Vila to celebrate!
We have not gotten too home sick yet. I cried some when Charlie was born (WHICH IS SO EXCITING AND I LOVE HER SO MUCH AND WAS SO HAPPY TO SEE HER ON FACETIME TODAY) because I really wanted to be home for that. And I got really sad one night we we were laying in our bed, nice and sweaty under our mosquito net, and I was really missing Murray and wishing he was there. We do miss everyone a lot, but we are doing well on the homesickness so far.. It has only been 3 weeks though so that could change!
So, that is a quick overview of whats happened over the last few weeks...

What's next....
So tomorrow, Sunday the 15th for us, we head to Santo with the 3 other vols who will be on Santo with us. We will be about an hour or less from the other vols. We will be there through Sunday the 22nd. We will get to see our houses (We have two), meet our host families (we have two), see our schools (we are in separate schools), and meet the people in our communties (we have two which are a 15-20 min walk from each other). So basically they have prepared for two single volunteers instead of a married couple so we get two of everything. We will choose which house to live in most of the time. We are so excited to finally see where we will be living for the majority of our two years here!
After the week at our site, we head to another training village, Nguna, for 3 weeks. We will stay with a host family there too. We found out yesterday that their names are Luna and Christina and they have a great house and RUNNING WATER AND A FLUSH TOILET! We are pumped!
We probably will not have any access to internet over the next 4 weeks.


We were sorry to hear about Burley Lyons and about Dr. Spears from Columbia College -- Thank you to those who have updated us on those things.
PLEASE keep the emails coming! We really really do love them.
Pictures arent loading for some reason. Im gonna post this and then try to make another post of just pics. If that doesnt work I will try to post on facebook...

Also, we do have cell phones from about 2001. You can text us or skype us if you want...
Coles number is 6785421666 and mine is 6785421687

We made it!

Like I said in the previous post...WE HAVE MADE IT TO VANUATU! I thought for this post I would just do more of a bullet list of information, things that have happened, etc...So, here goes...

• There are 31 volunteers in our group ranging in age from 22 to in their 60's. There are four couples.
• When we arrived we were greeted with the best welcome by a band, several peace corps volunteers and staff member, coconuts, lava lava's (which are like wraps or sarongs), and leis! It was so great and got us all very excited! 
• After introductions and pictures we all loaded into 4 buses (with one more bus behind us carrying all of our luggage) and went on a quick tour of the town of Port Vila and then headed about a 20 minute drive to the IDS site where we are currently staying and will be staying until Friday. 
• On Friday, the Vitel (Education) volunteers will head to one village for training and the Community Health Vols will head to a different training village. We will be there for two weeks.
• At the end of the two weeks, we will switch, and be on the other training village for 3 weeks. 
• After being in the second village for 3 weeks, we will get to visit our site (Narango, Santo for Cole and I) for one week! 
• The place where we are staying now has running water and electricity for some of the day.
• The water is cold, but it is VERY HOT so the cold showers aren't so bad. 
• We sweat all day and all night. 
• It is strange to sleep under a mosquito net. It is also strange to sleep with no blankets. 
• We have gone to bed around 8 or 9 each night and gotten up when the roosters wake us around 5. 
• Cole and I are currently sharing a little "bungalow" with two other couples. Pictures below. 
• Johanna and Aaron (one of the couples) found a GIANT spider on their ceiling last night which Cole and Aaron trapped in two buckets and took outside. 
• Lisa, Colt (another couple), Cole and I found one HUGE hermit crab in the small common area of our bungalow. 
• I got up around 4:00 am last night to use the bathroom and saw a centipede (maybe about 6 inches) on the floor of our room when I came back in. I became immediately frozen with fear and was unable to kill it before it crawled into a hole in our closet. Terrifying. 
• The place where we are staying is beautiful.We have had time to swim once. The coral is amazing and there are some pretty fish that several people saw while snorkeling. 
• It is weird swimming in board shorts and a tank top!
• The night sky is really beautiful here. You can see a ton of stars and they are all very bright. 
• We tried Kava for the first time last night. It is disgusting. I had one shell. Cole has 3. It didnt do much other than make us feel chilled out and relaxed. 
• Other volunteers from G25 and G26 (so people who have been here for one year or who have extended and been here for over two years) have come to talk to us some and came to our first kava experience. It has been very reassuring to talk to them and have Storian (Bislama for conversations or story telling) with them. They are all so happy here and have only wonderful things to say. They have also given us some great information and advice. 
• We had our first Bislama lesson today! We learned vowel sounds, consonants, dipthongs, and some common words! We have been trying to speak it some with the local Peace Corps staff members who are training us.
• The mamas have been preparing amazing meals for us each day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and two tea times where we are served snacks! (I have gained about 5 pounds. I know this for a fact because I was weighed today in my medical interview!) 
• We each got three shots today and got our malaria medicine which we will take daily. 
• I've been able to drink instant coffee each day and I really like it! YES!!!!
• We are doing well. Happy, healthy, overwhelmed, hot, excited, etc, etc..
• We miss you all very much (especially Murray). 
• Please email us or comment here and let us know how you are and what you are up to! After this post, we probably will not be able to get online for a ling while, but we would love to have lots of email updates, messages, etc when we check it again. Thank you to those of you who have emailed so far! I'm sorry we havent been able to email you back individually. We should be able to get online a bit more once we are at our site permanently, which will be in about 10 weeks. 
• Use this email: coleandcarooverseas@gmail.com
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  We're here!!! With our coconuts, Lava lavas and Leis!

  
  
  
  
  

  

  Group 27!

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Some volunteers and locals playing frisbee and soccer

  
  
  
  
  

  

  About to try Kava... I was unsu

  
  

  

  Drinking Kava

  
  
  

  

  Getting rid of the GIANT spider!

  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Our bungalow that we share with Lisa, Colt, Johanna and Aaron!

Our few days in Cali before departure

So...... right now we are in Vanutau and have been for about 3 days. It is Tuesday, January 27th. We are in Port Vila today to set up our bank accounts, have a medical interview and have another initial PC interview. I thought I would take this time being connected to post a few blog updates! We are doing well and are happy and healthy! After this, we may not be able to update for several weeks.
I'll start with our time in California...

We arrived in Cali on Jan 21st around lunch time and took a shuttle to the rental car place. We waited for about 2 hours, got our sweet minivan and headed to Newport. We stopped at Huntington Beach along the way and walked down a long pier and had lunch on the beach at a place called Sandys. After our late lunch, we headed to our hotel in Newport, freshened up and then met up with Matt and Meng for a drink and dinner.
The next day, Jan 22nd, we got up around 8:00, discovered we had a parking ticket (Thanks for taking care of that, FIL!), had some breakfast and walked around for a bit. While walking around we saw DENNIS RODMAN sitting outside of a bar. Cole didnt want to bother him, but I said YOLO and insisted! We proceeded to have the weirdest 10 minute convo of our lives! He is so strange! He gave us a lot of high fives, told us a bunch of lies and insulted us about 4 times. After a bit, we said we had to go, took a few pictures and got the heck out of there!
We then hopped in our minivan, went and said our goodbyes to Matt and headed back to LA.
Once in LA, we checked into our hotel, returned our rental and then headed to Venice Beach for a few hours. We waked up and down the board walk, had lunch, and got in about 2 hours of some of the best people watching EVER!
When we got back to the hotel, we took a little rest, freshened up and then headed down to the lobby to register and meet the other 29 volunteers who we would be spending the next few years with!
Registration went well, and afterwards we all went to eat one last delicious cheeseburger at IN and OUT!
The next morning we got up at 7, took one last LONG HOT SHOWER, and went down to the lobby for a day of staging. We had staging sessions on safety and security, anxieties and aspirations, and core expectations throughout the day. At 4 we were all done, we packed our bags and headed to the lobby to wait for the bus to arrive an take us to the airport. Lots of nerves and emotions at this point.
When we got to the airport, it was discovered that there was a little problem with our tickets, everyone's, and that we may not be able to leave that night. We ended up getting it all worked out, after 3 agonizing hours, and got to our gate just in time to board our plane at about 9:30!
The long flight from LAX went fine. We ate dinner, slept, watched movies and ate breakfast.
We got to New Zealand on Jan 25th, logged onto wifi, changed clothes and freshened up and then boarded our final flight to Port Vila!
Here are a few pics from Cali... They are not in order but have captions to explain!

Getting comfy for our flight from ATL to LAX

A quick pic with the LAX sign on our walk home from IN and OUT

Last American cheeseburger at IN and OUT! 

Walking down a little alley in Venice Beach!

High Five with Dennis Rodman!

Hand Shake with Dennis Rodman!

Venice Beach Selfie

Dinner with Matt and Meng :)

Newport Beach Sunset

Huntington Beach Selfie

Going Away Party

Thanks to our AMAZING friends, we just had the best weekend complete with the most perfect going away party that we could have ever hoped for. We had such a blast and we can't thank everyone enough for putting it together, for coming, and for supporting and encouraging us as we embark on what is sure to be quite an adventure.
I cannot believe how lucky we are to have such wonderful people in our lives, who love and care about us enough to have put on and/or attended such a fun and sweet get-together. It was a great ending to our time in the USA for a few years, and a perfect way for us to get to spend time with and say goodbye to so many of the people that we love!
We will miss everyone very much and we can't wait to see all of you when we get back....or in Vanuatu if you come and visit --which we would LOVE!
Thank you so much to everyone who was a part of it. It meant a lot to us and we appreciate it very much. Please keep in touch with us! Here are a few pictures! We love you all!

Missing Amanda!

 

The best of the group shots! Lots of closed eyes and people not looking, but I still love it!

 

 

Our Contact Information

Many of you have asked about how to keep in touch with us while we are away. We will be doing our best to update this blog as much as possible. We will also try to post updates and pictures on facebook. Also, feel free to email us.

Cole: smithnb21@gmail.com
Caroline: annecaro525@gmail.com

In addition to keeping in touch online, we would also LOVE for you to send us letters and/or packages! It is my goal to post a care package wish list after we have been there a little while and know more about what we will need/want.
Below you will see a "Letter to Families" given to us from the Peace Corps. It includes our address (which may change after training...we will update if necessary.) and information about how to reach us in case of any emergency.

Communicating With Your Peace Corps Volunteer

While Overseas

December 2014

Dear Families,

Greetings from the Pacific Desk in Washington, D.C.! It is with great pleasure that we welcome
your family member to the Vanuatu training program. We receive many questions from
Volunteers and family members regarding travel plans, sending money, relaying messages and
mail, etc. As we are unable to involve ourselves in the personal arrangements of Volunteers,
we would like to offer you advice and assistance in advance by providing specific examples of
situations and how we suggest handling them.

1. Written Communication. (Please see #3 for the mailing address to the Peace Corps office
in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu) The mail service in Vanuatu is not as efficient as the U.S.
Postal Service; thus, it is important to be patient. It can take 4 to 6 weeks for mail coming from
Vanuatu to arrive in the United States via the Vanuatu postal system.

If you would like to correspond via regular mail, we suggest that you monitor how long it takes
the first few pieces of mail to arrive in, or from, Vanuatu so that you can have realistic
expectations of the time necessary to send or receive letters. If you are concerned about letters
being lost, you can number your letters so that the Volunteer knows if one has been missed.
We recommend that you send postcards in envelopes--otherwise they may be found on the wall
of the local post office!

Volunteers often enjoy telling their “war” stories when they write home. This is one of the
exciting and adventurous elements of serving as a Volunteer. Anecdotes in letters might
describe recent illnesses, lack of good food, isolation, transportation challenges, etc. We
wholeheartedly encourage the communication, but want to share our observation that events
described by a volunteer can become misinterpreted (and intensified) by concerned readers
back home. Should you hear things that cause concern, please feel free to contact the Country
Desk at the number provided in the final paragraph of this letter. Family members should be
aware that at the Peace Corps office in Vanuatu there are two Peace Corps medical officers
who are available to provide medical care for all Volunteers. In the event of a serious illness,
the Volunteer is sent to Port Vila and is cared for by our medical staff. If Volunteers require
medical care that is not available in Vanuatu, they are medically evacuated to a nearby country
(Australia, New Zealand, Thailand) or the United States.

If for some reason your normal communication pattern is broken and you do not hear from your
family member for an abnormal amount of time, you may want to contact the Counseling and
Outreach Unit (COU) at Peace Corps Washington at 1-855-855-1961, then press 2; or
directly at 202-692-1470. Also, in the case of an emergency at home (death in the family,
sudden illness, etc.), please do not hesitate to call COU immediately so that we can inform the
Trainee or Volunteer. Use the above number at all times. After business hours, tell the operator 
your name, telephone number, and the nature of the emergency, and the Duty Officer will return
your call.

2. Telephone Calls. The telephone service in Vanuatu can be inconsistent at times, as well as
pricey. During training, your family member may have scarce access to email, but all trainees
will be provided with cell phones upon arrival and your family member will communicate that
phone number to you.

During their service, access to internet – at most sites – will not be available, but Volunteers will
have access while in Port Vila or most provincial centers.

The Pacific Desk maintains regular contact with the Peace Corps office in Vanuatu through
phone calls and e-mail. However, these communications are reserved for business only and
cannot be used to relay personal messages. All communication between family members and
the Volunteer should be done via international mail, e-mail, or personal phone call, unless there
is an emergency and you cannot reach your family member.

3. Sending packages. Family and friends like to send care packages through the mail.
Unfortunately, sending packages can be a frustrating experience for all involved due to the
incidence of theft, heavy customs taxes, and delays in forwarding mail from the office to the
volunteer’s site. You may want to try to send inexpensive items through the mail, but there is no
guarantee that these items will arrive. We do not recommend, however, that costly items be
sent through the mail. You may use the following address to send letters and/or packages to
your family member until he/she has informed you of a different address:

[Trainee’s Name]
Peace Corps/Vanuatu
PMB 9097
Port Vila
Republic of Vanuatu

It is recommended that packages be sent in padded envelopes if possible, as boxes tend to
be taxed and opened more frequently. Any parcel that is valued at more than 100 USD will
incur a customs fee.

We hope this information is helpful to you during the time your family member is serving as a
Peace Corps Volunteer in Vanuatu. We understand how frustrating it is to communicate with
your family member overseas and we appreciate your using this information as a guideline.
Please feel free to contact us at the Pacific Desk in Washington, D.C. if you have any further
questions. Our phone numbers are 1-855-855-1961, press 1 for the staff directory, then ext.
2502; or directly at 202-692-2502; and the email address is VanuatuDesk@peacecorps.gov.

Sincerely,
Sasha Cooper-Morrison
Desk Officer (Micronesia, Palau and Vanuatu)

Site Placement!

With exactly 2 weeks until we fly from Charleston to LAX and 16 days until we fly from LAX to Auckland and Auckland to Port Vila, we -- finally! -- got a very exciting email containing our site placement information!
So, here it is.....
Upon completion of training in Port Vila (the capital of Vanuatu) and our swearing in ceremony, we will head to the island of Espiritu Santo! It is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu. It is a Category 1 (out of 4) site, meaning that it is the least remote of the sites where Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV's) are placed.
Cole will be working at Narango School and I will be working at Tavuemai School. Cole will be the second PCV to work in his school, and I will be the first PCV to work in mine. That is all of the information we have about the schools and our placement right now.
From the little research we have done so far, it seems like a place where we will be very happy-- and hopefully very helpful!
I have attached some information about Santo, but here are some basic facts/information...

• Like I said, it is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu. It has a population of around 40,000. 
• It is in the Sanma Province 
• It is a popular tourist destination, especially for divers who travel there to explore the "SS President Coolidge" which is the largest wreck in the world accessible to divers. 
• There seem to be a lot of fun things to do there (SO START SAVING AND COME VISIT!!!) including: diving, snorkeling, caves, blue holes, hiking, waterfalls and fishing! 
• The average high year round is 82 degrees, and the average low year round is 72 degrees. 
• The rainy season starts around December and lasts until April with average rainfall ranging from 10-13 inches of rain per month. The dry season is from May until October/November. 

Wikipedia Info
Travel/Tourism Info.
Map of Espiritu Santo

Blog title

Any creative suggestions are welcome!