Let's try a video...

I uploaded that last post and it was so quick! I love broadband internet. I decided to try to upload a video too. This is some people from Futuna performing a custom dance at the Tanna Art Festival.

From the big city

Well I'm in the capital now so as a treat, I've posted a photo from my trip to Tanna. That's at the circumsion ceremony when we're all dressed up in custom clothes.

I'm in Vila now for a couple of weeks. Today I accomplished a lot of the work I had to do so that's good. Normally it takes awhile to get anything done, but today things went fairly smoothly. I even had time to eat a Greek salad for lunch! Yum.

Measles Vaccination Campaign

So what's happening in Vanuatu now? We're trying to eradicate measles. That's probably a good idea since last month at least 4 kids in my village got it. They decided in all of Vanuatu they'd vaccinate every child ages 1-5. Then they decided to have Peace Corps Volunteers go and check on the vaccinations to see if every single child in the country get vaccinated. I guess I'm lucky, since I think in total on Futuna, there were less than 70 kids or something vaccinated, but on some of the other islands there's a lot more. Anyway, I had to walk around the island and check to see if the kids got vaccinated or not by the health workers here on the island. Well I found out that lots of kids hadn't been vaccinated because the day of the vaccinations the Mamas were busy with a church workshop. I wrote a note to the health worker who lives in a different village and luckily he returned to vaccinate all the kids. This past weekend I walked around the island to check on the other villages as well and it looks like everyone's been vaccinated so hopefully no more measles. Also while I was on the other side I bought a chicken for $5 and we should be killing it and cooking it up tomorrow for my birthday. That's about it on the what's new front here. We're in our last week of school for this term and on Thursday we are having an Open Day/ Music Day for the parents to come to school and receive the report cards and then for the students to perform some songs and dances. Should be exciting.

Things that wouldn't happen at a school in the States

-Announcement to all students: You must bring your big knives to school tomorrow. If you forget, you will be punished.
-Instead of having normal classes, all students grades 1-8 will be required to spend 2 hours collecting stones and coral in bags bigger than their bodies and carrying them up the massive hill to the school in order to “beautify” the school. … And the next week, “why are all our students sick?” Maybe because school has turned into a labor camp. The funny thing is the students prefer the hard labor to actual classes.
-What do we do with all these old books that we no longer need? Put them in the toilets for toilet paper.
-Some students don’t have desks or chairs and sit on the floor or on cement blocks. however when it’s time to fundraise, the main priority for the school is a sound system.
-Students in the 10th grade have never seen a dictionary and don’t even know what it’s for. (Now our school just got a supply so they’re learning).
-A prayer group comes to the school to run out the devils that are haunting the school and causing the students to get sick.
-When it rains, some classes go home because the classrooms leak, and others shut all the windows and light candles to continue with their work.
-A teacher doesn’t come to school for a whole week, but their students still sit in their classroom without any supervision.
-The “school aid room” which is a cabinet in the office consists of cotton balls and medicine for Big Leg which is most likely expired.
-Students are suspended from school for helping their friends meet up with a girlfriend or boyfriend.
-Students spend the afternoon weeding the flower beds or cutting the grass with a machete.
-2nd graders take final exams even though they can’t read.

Long time, no blog: an explanation

Maybe you’ve been wondering where I’ve been. Well I went on a fun-filled trip to the nearby island of Tanna. Although Tanna is more developed than Futuna, I did not have internet access there. I will try my best to recall the evenets of the last few weeks.

I arrived on Tanna on Saturday July 11th. There are 5 Peace Corps Volunteers on the island who were such a great help in hosting me. Also two other PCVs from another island ame down just to “lukluk ples” (look place or sight see). We spent our first two nights in the village of Port Resolution where we explored the natural hot springs. Some were boiling and we coked bananas in them. Others were the perfect hot tub temperature although whenever a wave came from the ocean it felt a little chilly. We also fot to paint our bodies with multicolred mud- a real spa experience.

After that we went to another village to witness a circumcision ceremony. Eight boys ranging in age from 4-8 years old had been circumcised and then in hiding for over a month. While in hiding the older men of the village looked after them. The ceremony was like their coming out party. Everyone got all dressed up (women in grass skirts and men in pieces of cloth wrapped around their waists) and painted their faces. They shared out tons of food and killed lots of pigs. Then we danced until the sun came up the next morning, and by we, I mean them. I went to sleep around 2 am I think.

After the ceremony we explored other parts of Tanna. We climbed the world’s third largest banyan tree and had an interesting experience bathing in a creek in the middle of the jungle. We also made lots of delicious food over the fire including enchilladas (tortillas from scratch) and pizza.

The next week there was a large arts festival for our province (Tafea) and the indigenous people of New Caledonia (a French territory that neighbors Vanuatu). There were lots of custom dances, concerts, soccer games, and foo. For the opening the Vanuatu military marching band performed the macarena. I love that the highest (and only) military body in the nation has time to do that. Also there were 2 official pig killings during the opening to strengthen the bond between Tafea and New Caledonia. Nothing better than killing a pig. Throughout the week I ate lots of ice cream and hamburgers and also caught giardia- a water borne parasite that makes you “sit sit wota” (shit shit water, try to figure that one out).

The festivities ran until July 30th which is Vanuatu’s Independence Day. 29 years now. I returned to Futuna and now am going to relax and recooperate from all the fun. Tanna was lots of fun but there were tons of people who I didn’t know and it’s nice to be back on an island where everyone knows my name.

I sent a CD of photos home so hopefully my mom'll get a chance to post those on my webshots at: http://community.webshots.com/user/alyssathielpcv/