Ahhh! They actually have internet in Vanuatu!

So I really don’t even know where to start with a blog update. I have been living in my little village on Ambae for a little over a month now. I spend almost all of my time reading (I think I’ve read over 30 books already). I also play tons of guitar and do various crossword puzzles and stuff. I eat basically the same thing every day. I eat either cooked bananas (sometimes upwards of 30 bananas per day) or simboro (which is a root crop, like yam, wrapped in cabbage. Soon I hope to be cooking on my own but I am for now waiting for my gas tank to arrive. The first week of December my many boxes and bags were put on the shop coming to my site. All of my stuff came within a week or two except “5 items” which included my gas tank, toilet paper, mosquito net, bug spray, CDs, and I don’t even know what else. They said that those five items were stuck in the middle of the ship and they had to go to another port but would come and drop my stuff off on the way back. Well they did come back, but the water was too rough for the ship to land. The ship then went back to Vila (the capitol) and decided to stay there until after the Christmas and New Years holidays. As of now, the ship left Vila two days ago so should be getting to my site soon. Once all my stuff arrives, I plan on moving into my own little house (for now I have a room in my host family’s house).

So Christmas and New Years have been the subject of many questions. Christmas morning, I woke up and had rice (woohoo!) and then I spent the morning reading. However in the afternoon we went down to some relative’s house and had a little “party” where we ate and because it was my grandfather’s birthday we even had a small cake. They don’t do presents or anything like that.

New Years Eve: around 8 pm we all went down to the church. We proceeded to watch 2 Bible song videos, sing hymns, and then at 11 pm had the last sermon of 2007. Traditionally around Vanuatu, people drink a lot on New Years, but my village is Seventh Day Adventist so they don’t drink alcohol. Also as a note, staying up late is quite the rarity. Since we don’t have too many generators and people don’t buy kerosene for lanterns here, normally after dinner we just go to bed. I might play some Uno first, but I’m normally in my bed between 7-8 pm.

Ok, what else? I’m sure there’s tons more. I have been walking around tons. I walk to the telephone which is about an hour or so away. Even walking down to the ocean takes about 30 minutes. I went to the post office once via a 2 hour boat ride. It was great to get packages and also I ate a meal at one of the food stalls (like a restaurant that only offers one meal). Most recently, I have come to the island of Malekula to plan some workshops with other volunteers and buy some supplies. I flew over to the island which is incredibly “developed” compared to where I am on Ambae. They have internet (hence being able to post on my blog), a grocery store, and some of the volunteers even have cell phones!

My sat phone is working great, and you should send me some messages (instructions on the side of the blog). Also, everyone that has sent me mail, I greatly appreciate it and have written back already! I love getting mail, and it seems to take less than 3 weeks for me to get mail. Packages are great too: any food, snacks, or instant meals that you just add water, puzzle books, guitar tabs for any songs, hmm, I did have a lot of things in mind, but now I can’t think. Books, magazines (any type really). Photographs of you, me, anything you’ve done, or anything American (they love looking at photographs).

Well, I can’t really update any pics, internet is still dialup. But I am guessing some people have put up some pics on the flickr website you could check. If you are too lazy to actually send me a letter, you can still send emails to volunteer@vu.peacecorps.gov with my name on the subject line and they’ll print them and mail them to me once or twice a month. But I really like real mail too.

School is supposed to start at the end of January so we’ll see if that actually happens or not. I’ve heard rumors that school tends to be delayed if teachers haven’t come back yet. My job will be to help train teachers on various methods of literacy education through co-teaching and through holding workshops but I think at the beginning I’ll just be observing a lot.

Okay that’s all for now. I should be back online in May when I go to Vila for the All-Volunteer Conference but who knows what will happen between then and now. If you want to know, send me a letter and I’ll send you one back!