Chillin in the Capital

So I’ve been in Vila for a week and a half now. Why haven’t I been online every day? I’m in the big city. Normally when I come to the capital, I spend my days chatting online, devouring pizza, and taking hot showers. This current trip has been a little bit different.

I have a meeting for Peace Corps this week, but I came in early because I had some work to take care of. Also my school was on break, so I didn’t have much to do on the island. When I came, I decided to stay with some extended family of mine who live in a village on the outskirts of Vila. The good thing about Vanuatu is that no matter where you go, you have family. It doesn’t matter if it’s your mother’s uncle’s grand-daughter’s brother-in-law, if you show up that their house, you can stay with them. Anyway, I’m really glad I’ve been able to stay with some of my Futuna family in Vila.

What have I been doing? Well I pretty much lie in bed and watch movies, which has been awesome. Also I read (that’s new huh?). I haven’t been coming in to the office because I’m too lazy and cheap to pay the $1.50 for bus fare. I’ve come in a couple times though and that time I managed to get my ticket to come home. I arrive in the U.S. November 8th, so get ready! Also last week I went with my family to the other side of the island to a small village so that they could collect firewood and hunt for flying foxes (bats). Living near the capital, there’s not many places to collect firewood for cooking and then flying foxes, well that’s just a delicacy. We returned to the house and baked some flying foxes with yam in stones for dinner. Yum.

Now this week we have a conference for Peace Corps. It’s for all the people that I came with when we first came to Vanuatu in 2007. Since we’re all (or most of us at least) are leaving in the next few months, we have a conference to help us to readjust to life in the US. I’m excited because they’ll be putting us up at a nice resort and giving us food and it should be a nice time to reunite with all my Peace Corps friends one last time before we go to the States.

Well that’s all for now. Today I have my Close of Service medical to check me out before I go back and make sure I’m all healthy. I’m going to miss this free medical care when I go back.