Happy Holidays Olgeta (Everyone),
As the Holiday season approaches and I find myself apart from familyand friends it brings back many memories of previous holidays(Chanukah, Christmas, New Years) spent with many of you and the goodtimes we had. I have been receiving many updates from family andfriends since Thanksgiving, Hanukah and now Christmas about theongoing celebrations and let me tell you I am jealous. Largely I missthe food, Taro can get a little old after a while As for my current times here in Vanuatu, things are finally becomingnormal for me to the point where I am eagerly trying to get projectsstarted to keep me busy. Currently in the village we have receivedfunding to start work on a 10 hectare (250m x 400m) area of land thatwas disturbed by logging activity in the past. Our goal is to usegrazing cattle to clean the area so that the community can then comeand make gardens on the grounds and plant native timber species, witha large percentage of the trees going to a community fund. Inaddition, I have just learned about a water source that lies above thecommunity approximately two miles away. Thus I am looking into thisspring as a possible source for a gravity fed water system for thecommunity, as water in my major goal at present. However working onthese two projects is in no way a full time job as I am finding andone can only work in the garden, read and try to occupy one's time inso many ways before becoming bored, especially when one enjoys beingreally busy as I do. So to occupy my time in a productive manner Ihave started two more endeavours. First there are some communitiespast me in the bush ranging from 3 to 15 miles away that have askedfor some simple help with different projects. In order to be able toservice these outer communities I am in need of transportation.Therefore I am currently looking for ways to acquire a descent qualitybicycle for myself, which would put many of these communities inreach. Secondly a saw millers association in town has been trying torun a timber yard with no capitol to benefit the "small guys" orlocally owned saw millers that can't fill huge orders. This lumberyardis in desperate need of a manager and some capitol, so I may try tospend one week or so a month in town working on this project as well.
For some of you the above mentioned information might be enoughlogistics. As Melanie tells me most of the time my emails are mostlylogistics as I try to recount my activities and what I am doing here.Therefore I thought I would take a few moments to share a few thoughtsand reflect upon what has now been almost 9 months (1/3 of my service)in Vanuatu and 9 months of substantial growth to my global perspectiveof today's world. As you may imagine and I said previously, there is alot of down time here and thus I am sure my head has had too much timeto ponder things big and small, important and extremely insignificant.Also without the daily American lifestyle to keep one busy andconstantly mult-tasking it is amazing to observe where my thoughtstravel to, what memories of the past come back at random times and howmuch my head can get stuck on the most trivial of ideas and ideals.Having this time, I have been fortunate enough to be able to read amultitude of books and have been fortunate to come across quite a fewthat have been powerful, motivating, and guiding. Yet, being able toindulge in reading of books along with the weekly delivery of Newsweekby the peace corps at times has led my brain further into a slurry oftangent thinking. Though Newsweek is usually filled with the sametopics week after week; Iraq, Iraq, Korea, Iraq, Election, Iraq,latest movies which I am not able to watch, Iraq and Iraq. Anyway,with my head constantly running in a hundred directions I decided toattempt to harness a few of the most dominating themes of myexperience here so far and reflect upon them
One of the biggest changes in coming to Vanuatu has been the changeof culture. I have found and believe that it is not until living here,working, and trying to accomplish things rather than visiting that onefully experiences and begins to understand a different perspective onlife and the world held by the local people. Coming from the West Ihave become aware that ingrained in me is a way of thinking that getsme from point A to point B in what I would consider the most "commonsense" fashion (something for the most part I have had to throw outhere). Also, coming from the West I had the perception that if apeople could easily increase their standard of living; it would be anobvious choice to do so and people would jump on any opportunity to doso.
Never did I ever consider that a village would not want such things,or rather, not want to put in the minimum effort required to achievesuch things. I ask myself, why doesn't this community want to changeand why should they change. In response to the question "why shouldthey change", unfortunately or fortunately, the country of Vanuatu(and I imagine everywhere in the world now) is changing and changingfast, due to outside influence and whether they like it or not theirlives will be changing in the not too distant future. The idea ofliving a custom, traditional, uninfluenced organic/ holistic life inthe bush is great in its ideals but unrealistic. So if they don'tchange with the times they are going to get left behind or exploitedor maybe those are the same. I believe that to this point what is keeping them from changing is the lack of pressing need to change andan uneducated population. The community at present has not oneindividual that ever sleeps on an empty stomach, their gardens areplentiful and large with every dietary need available and the amountof ground belonging to each family clan is immense (each family clanthat resides in the Butmas area consists of about 15-30 people andthey own thousands of hectares of mostly undisturbed bush). Topping itoff is an abundance of an intoxicating substance, Kava, which is alsobeyond plentiful in their gardens. So if currently there are nopressing hardships their motivation for change is quite small.On the side, education, one could infer that someone who is educatedor has more of a global perspective and could understand and realizethe possibilities for change and get motivated about it. At the leastthey will have left and spent time outside the village, sampled adifferent style of life and bring some of the modernizations back tothe village, if they think the influences are advantageous to thechanging times. However, a common problem is that anyone with furthereducation beyond that of year 6 (US year 2 or 3) leaves the villageand settles somewhere else (usually urban). So there has been somewhatof a brain drain to the rural communities. The remaining youth arethose who finished school to year six, who left to try furthereducation in town, who didn't agree with the change in lifestyle andcame back to pick up their bush knives, make gardens and start rearingchildren. So the population that is left also are those that are notas keen to change or as prepared. This is evident by the villagersglobal perspective or lack there of. I am continually amazed and havenot yet been accustomed to some of the questions and ideas presentedby my villagers. Their exposure to geography and basic ideas of howpeople live in the rest of the world are either very little orinfluenced largely by a few small things they have seen here or there.Thus sometimes I get questions that I can't even begin to explain theanswers to, within their realm of understanding.
Another major influence that has negatively affected this community'sand others desire to change or motivation to change is that there hasbeen a long history of receiving freebies starting with the jointcolonization by the French and British and continuing through presenttimes. The History of Vanuatu is full of receiving handouts and thishas spread into the peoples attitudes on community development andlargely into politics. There has been so much aid money squanderedhere because of donors overlooking sustainability for a projectsfuture. One strategy in creating sustainable projects is to involvethe community and require some sort of investment from the communitythat makes the village have a sense of ownership over the project.Because this was not done with either the arrival of the forestryproject or with me coming as a peace corps volunteer I have a had ahard time getting the community to get motivated and have had to useultimatums to see if change was something they really want. However Ifeel as though as of recently the community has rallied strongly andis very excited and committed to some of the community developmentprojects.
Another cultural difference / cultural behaviour which has beenchallenging to deal with is the people of Vanuatu's ignorance of anyreligion besides Christianity and their interpretations of followingthe Christian faith. When gallivanting around the rural areas and evencommonly in the urban areas when I meet or am introduced to someoneone of the fi5rst questions they ask in conversation is "yu blongwanem jej?" or of what church are you a member. There is no idea that1) possibly someone is not a member of a church thus not Christian or2) anything other than Christianity persists in the world. If onetries to explain, while the villagers pour over my Newsweek magazineswith pictures of Muslims praying in Mecca or Monks in a monastery,they can't even begin to comprehend, not even an iota of connection ismade that there could be anything besides the Bible, Jesus andChristianity. To add to this Vanautu has got to have one of thesmallest ratios of population to church denominations as everyone fromthe Mormons, seventh day Adventist, Jehovah 's Witness, Catholicism,Presbyterian, Church of Christ, etc are here along with many Christianbased cults with local prophets. My favourite is Neil Thomasministries, an Australian who named his branch of the church afterhimself as was instructed to do so by G-d in a dream. To top it offevery church is in competition with one another, there is nointerdenominational cooperation and in a great majority of villagesthere are dividing arguments and alliances based on the churchdenominations present. When asked why one resides with onedenomination rather than another they often can not give an answer. Ifeel it is more of a competition thing where different people rallybehind opposite churches to fuel existing fires between families orindividuals and there is not really a logical explanation for theirchoice of denomination. That is of course unless one church is moreforgiving if you don't tithe than the other, in which obviously you'llgo to the one that doesn't take as much of ones money.
I assume and am supported by much of the local history that beforethe missionaries the people of Vanuatu lived a very custom life withtheir beliefs of a higher, guiding presence or ideas of creation etcexplained by custom myths and legends that gave the ni-Vanuatu a senseof understanding about their place of existence. As the missionariescame and spread Christianity their previous beliefs were discouraged,many customs such as dances and festivals banned, and Christianitypreached. Along with this is the usual piggy backers of disease,coastal migration and internal warfare. Where I am trying to go withthis is that now, I find the people of Vanuatu to be caught in themiddle between Christianity and their custom beliefs taking just wantthey want from each. Sickness, the weather, natural disasters, areexplained by custom, while they go to church so that their sins can beforgotten from the past week and next week they'll go commit some moresins and then go to church again next week. For every ni-Vanuatu thatI have asked the question "why do you like Christianity" the responsehas been "because I can sin and then be forgiven". So from what I havefound this has left most of the population caught in the middle,taking what they want and as a result not being a spiritually basedpeople or having a resolved understanding of any bigger picture fortheir lives. Granted they have never encountered enough to ask thesequestions for themselves so I am making these deductions about thepeople from my own experiences in living and working with them.The last major challenge I am going to share about living in anotherculture for a prolonged period of time is being able to talk tosomeone about anything from your own culture. As I said I have beenreading a lot on a number of different topics. How nice it would be toread about love, passion, art, religion, economics, systems ofgovernment, war, or history and have someone to talk with aboutdifferent ideas. This has got to be one of the hardest things aboutlife here. And even when I get to town that still doesn't guarantee Iwill be able to share these thoughts with anyone, actually usually Istill am not able to find someone with whom to share these thoughts.One can only convey so much by email to family and friends. Nothaving anyone to talk to week after week about such things has provento be a challenge.
I hope the last few paragraphs didn't seemed depressing or convey theidea that I am not enjoying my time here. I think that after havingsuch a dream of the first three months in training and then a busyfirst few months at site trying to finish my house and everything wasstill so new to me, it was very exciting. Now I am getting down towork and the reasons this country is labelled "developing" arebecoming much more apparent. I imagine similar challenges are faced bythose trying to help throughout the world and if there is one finalthought I have, it is that grass roots development is probably themost practical sustainable development strategy, however slow andtedious and sacrificial it may be.
I love hearing from you all and hope this email has sparked somethoughts you wish to tell me because I would love to hear them. I misseveryone and remember strange small activities here and there or timesI have shared with many of you.
Wishing everyone a happy Chanukah/Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy new year.
Peace and Love to All
December 22, 2006
October 29, 2006
Email Update
Hello all,
Sorry it has been quite a long time since an update has been sent out but at least this one will have pictures! So as far as the last month an a half, my house is finally finished and things are starting to slow down, well at least in terms of getting everything established in the village. Since then I got to travel to a few custom ceremonies in some of the bush villages and keep working with the red tape of bush politics. Below the first two pictures are of one of the feasts and some of the girls in their everyday custom dress. The custom ceremony I attended was about a 4.5 hour walk 2 hours being on the road and the next 2.5 through bush trails. The village was rather small and consisted of a single extended family with 6 or seven houses, a nakamal (meeting house) and gardens in the surrounding vicinity. So over about 24 hours the village filled up with about 150 people sleeping in one of these six houses. The sleeping arrangement consisted of coconut mats spread along the walls of each house with fires set up between each pair of mats for warmth during the night. A custom in the bush is that when a close family member dies a family member gives up a certain food for some extended period of time and then there is usually some kind of ceremony to follow. So this three-day feast was for a woman who had given up eating yams after her father had died and so daily they made huge feasts of not only yams but taro, cassava and for protein killed 2 pigs daily as well as a cow the first day and about 15 chickens daily as well. Kava started the first night and continued on 24 hours a day for the entire three days. On the second night the men took part in a custom dance/singing ceremony that lasted from sun down to sun up that involved carrying a shaker back an forth between one of the houses and the nakamal while singing and dancing the whole time. Definitely an interesting experience.
Then as most of you know Melanie came to visit on October 3rd. She flew in to Luganville and after a couple brief days in town we headed up into the bush to stay in Butmas for a couple weeks. Upon entering the village the family who is like my host family in Butmas had decorated my house in preparation for Melanie's welcome ceremony. We arrived (Melanie in her island dress, basically the same as a Mumu in Hawaii, one of the many culture-curbing introductions of the missionaries) and the chief adopted Melanie into his family and the village also took this to formally welcome me finally and make the ceremony they never had a chance to previously. After a some small eating the village then proceeded to do what would be most culturally acceptable which was to "block" Melanie. This entailed making a small laplap (traditional food prepared by pulverizing taro and then cooking it on heated stones) and presenting it to the chief and then sharing a big meal afterward. This deemed it culturally appropriate for Melanie and myself to be walking around together, talking and her staying at my house as two people who are not married. However during this Melanie was accompanied by my counterpart William and his wife colleen and as in the ni-vanuatu culture there is no dating or mingling between the sexes, they translated the blocking ceremony to Melanie as an engagement. So as you can imagine with me in the house of my adopted family and Melanie in the house of the chief being told she was getting customly engaged when I finally was able to see here again after 2 hours her jaw was hanging as in "what is going on and what didn't you tell me". But luckily she is rather open minded and flexible to everything that was going on.
We stayed in Butmas for two weeks and Melanie helped me brush my garden, weed and plant seeds around my house, and observe the ins and outs of everyday life. What I really enjoyed was her company and an outside, fresh perspective of my life, work and Vanuatu. But I'll leave her thoughts for an email she is planning on sending, which she wrote and then lost on the peace corps computers so now it may be until she gets back to the states before she can get it out.
What I really enjoyed about her visit was having someone to share what I have been working on for the last three months. A big observation I made while Melanie was here is how much the women of the village and community would benefit from having a female to share their ideas and concerns with. While Melanie was not able to speak their language there was a gravitation of women to her and it was obvious that they would be much more open and sharing with a female than they are to me. One day in a walk to a neighboring village where one of the women is from an outside community and had schooled in English she immediately took Melanie aside and wanted to talk with her and in no time brought up issues of birth control and child bearing customs and wanted advice on such things. Hopefully I will be able to have another female volunteer from the area come up and host some workshops targeting the women of the village and the surrounding villages. Lastly I think her visit gave her a first hand experience of what I am going through so it will be easier to relate to her in our written communication in the future months.
After two weeks in the bush we came back down to town as Melanie was ready for cheese, ice cream and the sort. We came down and the second night in town went and spent 24 hours on one of the small islands with all inclusive meals and activities and relaxed near the ocean for the first time during her visit. After too brief of a time the Peace Corps was all over the country's communication because hurricane Xavier was threatening the north of the country. So we jetted out of Santo on quick notice before the travel ban was imposed on the country by Peace Corps headquarters. Thus since Tuesday we have been in the capitol, Port Villa, making good meals at our guest houses kitchen, spending two days and one night on Lelepa island with my training host family and waiting for this weird weather to pass so we can get to the beach. As for my next plans, Melanie heads back to the states on Halloween and then I am on the first boat up to Santo. Currently I am trying to find some resources to engineer a water system at site as well as continuing on with the other endevours I have set out on with the village. Hope all is well back in the states or whereer one might be and look forward to hearing from you all.
Sorry it has been quite a long time since an update has been sent out but at least this one will have pictures! So as far as the last month an a half, my house is finally finished and things are starting to slow down, well at least in terms of getting everything established in the village. Since then I got to travel to a few custom ceremonies in some of the bush villages and keep working with the red tape of bush politics. Below the first two pictures are of one of the feasts and some of the girls in their everyday custom dress. The custom ceremony I attended was about a 4.5 hour walk 2 hours being on the road and the next 2.5 through bush trails. The village was rather small and consisted of a single extended family with 6 or seven houses, a nakamal (meeting house) and gardens in the surrounding vicinity. So over about 24 hours the village filled up with about 150 people sleeping in one of these six houses. The sleeping arrangement consisted of coconut mats spread along the walls of each house with fires set up between each pair of mats for warmth during the night. A custom in the bush is that when a close family member dies a family member gives up a certain food for some extended period of time and then there is usually some kind of ceremony to follow. So this three-day feast was for a woman who had given up eating yams after her father had died and so daily they made huge feasts of not only yams but taro, cassava and for protein killed 2 pigs daily as well as a cow the first day and about 15 chickens daily as well. Kava started the first night and continued on 24 hours a day for the entire three days. On the second night the men took part in a custom dance/singing ceremony that lasted from sun down to sun up that involved carrying a shaker back an forth between one of the houses and the nakamal while singing and dancing the whole time. Definitely an interesting experience.
Then as most of you know Melanie came to visit on October 3rd. She flew in to Luganville and after a couple brief days in town we headed up into the bush to stay in Butmas for a couple weeks. Upon entering the village the family who is like my host family in Butmas had decorated my house in preparation for Melanie's welcome ceremony. We arrived (Melanie in her island dress, basically the same as a Mumu in Hawaii, one of the many culture-curbing introductions of the missionaries) and the chief adopted Melanie into his family and the village also took this to formally welcome me finally and make the ceremony they never had a chance to previously. After a some small eating the village then proceeded to do what would be most culturally acceptable which was to "block" Melanie. This entailed making a small laplap (traditional food prepared by pulverizing taro and then cooking it on heated stones) and presenting it to the chief and then sharing a big meal afterward. This deemed it culturally appropriate for Melanie and myself to be walking around together, talking and her staying at my house as two people who are not married. However during this Melanie was accompanied by my counterpart William and his wife colleen and as in the ni-vanuatu culture there is no dating or mingling between the sexes, they translated the blocking ceremony to Melanie as an engagement. So as you can imagine with me in the house of my adopted family and Melanie in the house of the chief being told she was getting customly engaged when I finally was able to see here again after 2 hours her jaw was hanging as in "what is going on and what didn't you tell me". But luckily she is rather open minded and flexible to everything that was going on.
We stayed in Butmas for two weeks and Melanie helped me brush my garden, weed and plant seeds around my house, and observe the ins and outs of everyday life. What I really enjoyed was her company and an outside, fresh perspective of my life, work and Vanuatu. But I'll leave her thoughts for an email she is planning on sending, which she wrote and then lost on the peace corps computers so now it may be until she gets back to the states before she can get it out.
What I really enjoyed about her visit was having someone to share what I have been working on for the last three months. A big observation I made while Melanie was here is how much the women of the village and community would benefit from having a female to share their ideas and concerns with. While Melanie was not able to speak their language there was a gravitation of women to her and it was obvious that they would be much more open and sharing with a female than they are to me. One day in a walk to a neighboring village where one of the women is from an outside community and had schooled in English she immediately took Melanie aside and wanted to talk with her and in no time brought up issues of birth control and child bearing customs and wanted advice on such things. Hopefully I will be able to have another female volunteer from the area come up and host some workshops targeting the women of the village and the surrounding villages. Lastly I think her visit gave her a first hand experience of what I am going through so it will be easier to relate to her in our written communication in the future months.
After two weeks in the bush we came back down to town as Melanie was ready for cheese, ice cream and the sort. We came down and the second night in town went and spent 24 hours on one of the small islands with all inclusive meals and activities and relaxed near the ocean for the first time during her visit. After too brief of a time the Peace Corps was all over the country's communication because hurricane Xavier was threatening the north of the country. So we jetted out of Santo on quick notice before the travel ban was imposed on the country by Peace Corps headquarters. Thus since Tuesday we have been in the capitol, Port Villa, making good meals at our guest houses kitchen, spending two days and one night on Lelepa island with my training host family and waiting for this weird weather to pass so we can get to the beach. As for my next plans, Melanie heads back to the states on Halloween and then I am on the first boat up to Santo. Currently I am trying to find some resources to engineer a water system at site as well as continuing on with the other endevours I have set out on with the village. Hope all is well back in the states or whereer one might be and look forward to hearing from you all.
September 11, 2006
Email Update
Hello All,
Hope all is well back in the states or wherever one might be. I am continuing on with my endeavors and new experiences here in the south pacific. Lately the schools have been on a two week break so the entire village picked up and left. Most of the village went down to their houses in the gardens while some went around the bush to visit family. For the first week of the break I followed some of the villagers down to the gardens and helped work with some of the different families and brushed a small area again for a garden for myself. Unfortunately some pigs ravaged my garden near my house and so rather than replant it with the fear of pigs again I am moving the garden down to areas without wild pigs. Following some of the techniques encouraged by the department of forestry as well as the top agriculturalists in the pacific I am going to try and set up an agro forestry system of root crops, fruit trees, timber species and an improved fallow in a rotation of alleys that are bordered by legumous species of trees for shade, firewood, and soil integrity. Hopefully this garden will serve me as well as being an example plot for mine and the surrounding communities. Another project we are looking into is using cows to eat away invasive species on border areas of the dark bush and re-introducing native species. I am also trying to devise a water project to utilize the existing structures in the village as well as the village topography to bring water to the village. Lastly I will be teaching an hour or so per week in the primary school this term. I believe I will first start talking about forests and very basic needs of a healthy forest and eventually try and get to health and first aid. However without water the health is hard to preach.
While it sounds like this may be a lot in actuality things in Vanuatu move so slow I am trying to find whatever I can to have things to go ahead with, so in no way am I overwhelmed by projects.
This week another volunteer from my training group has come to Santo and so he is following me up to my village this afternoon to go around for a night or two. Also there is a project that starts this week called "Santo 2006" where 164 scientists from something like 50 countries have showed up to try and determine if this island is a "world biodiversity hotspot". It so happens that the series of underground rivers and caves in my area as well as virgin limestone forests are to be studied so the village and scientists have asked me to go along and follow the work through the bush. So I am also excited about this experience.
Besides that all is well here and I enjoy hearing from all of you so don't hesitate to write. Best wishes to all and hope to hear from you soon
Hope all is well back in the states or wherever one might be. I am continuing on with my endeavors and new experiences here in the south pacific. Lately the schools have been on a two week break so the entire village picked up and left. Most of the village went down to their houses in the gardens while some went around the bush to visit family. For the first week of the break I followed some of the villagers down to the gardens and helped work with some of the different families and brushed a small area again for a garden for myself. Unfortunately some pigs ravaged my garden near my house and so rather than replant it with the fear of pigs again I am moving the garden down to areas without wild pigs. Following some of the techniques encouraged by the department of forestry as well as the top agriculturalists in the pacific I am going to try and set up an agro forestry system of root crops, fruit trees, timber species and an improved fallow in a rotation of alleys that are bordered by legumous species of trees for shade, firewood, and soil integrity. Hopefully this garden will serve me as well as being an example plot for mine and the surrounding communities. Another project we are looking into is using cows to eat away invasive species on border areas of the dark bush and re-introducing native species. I am also trying to devise a water project to utilize the existing structures in the village as well as the village topography to bring water to the village. Lastly I will be teaching an hour or so per week in the primary school this term. I believe I will first start talking about forests and very basic needs of a healthy forest and eventually try and get to health and first aid. However without water the health is hard to preach.
While it sounds like this may be a lot in actuality things in Vanuatu move so slow I am trying to find whatever I can to have things to go ahead with, so in no way am I overwhelmed by projects.
This week another volunteer from my training group has come to Santo and so he is following me up to my village this afternoon to go around for a night or two. Also there is a project that starts this week called "Santo 2006" where 164 scientists from something like 50 countries have showed up to try and determine if this island is a "world biodiversity hotspot". It so happens that the series of underground rivers and caves in my area as well as virgin limestone forests are to be studied so the village and scientists have asked me to go along and follow the work through the bush. So I am also excited about this experience.
Besides that all is well here and I enjoy hearing from all of you so don't hesitate to write. Best wishes to all and hope to hear from you soon
August 9, 2006
Email Update
Hello All,
So it has been a long time since my last update. I went up to my new Village of Butmas on my 23 rd Birthday the Fourth of July. For the last month I have been working on finishing a house which was given to me to use and getting a feel for the area. I have planted a garden (100 heads of Kava, some taro, island cabbage, sugar cane, tomatoes, eggplant, corn, bell pepper, cucumber, sweet potato, onion, green beans, etc…) and am slowly becoming accustomed to the life in the bush. In the last month I have gone to two soccer tournaments with the guys from the village which entails 15 mile walks through the bush to a village with grass mowed by cows (very hilly and full of holes) with bamboo used as goal posts, and rules that are not fully understood (offsides especially) and each team sleeping in different thatched huts with beds comprised of banana leafs placed on the ground. So unlike any soccer tournament I have ever attended before to say the least. Also unlike any soccer tournament previously attended you can eat three meals a day and be full for roughly $5 for a 4 day tournament with fruit along the road (papayas, bananas, other native fruits and nuts) for travel days through the bush and green coconuts, all supplemented with a little peanut butter of course. Unfortunately here I am down to dial up and as of yet do not have an efficient way to attach photos. So far the village has been extremely supportive and good to me in the move in and set up process and some of the boys are helping me everyday whether it is with gathering materials for the house, working on the house or bringing me food. While most of the main house is finished I have had to build a toilet and am now building a bath house as well as a bush kitchen which is a place to cook on open fire. Lastly I need to put walls on the bedroom so until then I am sleeping in the main room of the house. Hopefully sometime soon I can get some pictures out of the house. Unfortunately my time when I get down to town is very rushed as I usually have about 8 hours here and need to go around town hunting for the things for my house, talk with the guys at forestry, try and check emails, try and make phone calls throughout Vanuatu and to Home but the phone system here is a joke, and then use the Internet on a dial up connection which makes what should be 30min using the Internet as a resource take 3 hours.
Supposedly it is the dry season here and coming from Hilo I never thought rain would ever be an issue again but I think I have moved to a place with even more rain. I am trying to get used to everything being damp, all my clothes are mildewed and anything left close to a wall or floor mildews in 24 hours. I am hoping once I get a place for a fire set up and the weather shifts a little I can dry myself out. They keep telling me it is sunny sometimes though I have not seen a full day or even a half day of sun yet. But rain 9 out of 10 days. Custom in the village is that when a man has his first shave there is a ceremony and small feast. The village and I are looking forward to a feast to celebrate the completion of the house and my first shave in the village. However for the time being they have had a blast shaping my beard and they also chopped off most of my hair.
Other than that life is good here. Diet has never been healthier and I probably walk between 5-7 miles a day on average, many times carrying food or timbers so I feel good and healthy as my body is adapting to the changes in diet and lifestyle.
-Until then much love
So it has been a long time since my last update. I went up to my new Village of Butmas on my 23 rd Birthday the Fourth of July. For the last month I have been working on finishing a house which was given to me to use and getting a feel for the area. I have planted a garden (100 heads of Kava, some taro, island cabbage, sugar cane, tomatoes, eggplant, corn, bell pepper, cucumber, sweet potato, onion, green beans, etc…) and am slowly becoming accustomed to the life in the bush. In the last month I have gone to two soccer tournaments with the guys from the village which entails 15 mile walks through the bush to a village with grass mowed by cows (very hilly and full of holes) with bamboo used as goal posts, and rules that are not fully understood (offsides especially) and each team sleeping in different thatched huts with beds comprised of banana leafs placed on the ground. So unlike any soccer tournament I have ever attended before to say the least. Also unlike any soccer tournament previously attended you can eat three meals a day and be full for roughly $5 for a 4 day tournament with fruit along the road (papayas, bananas, other native fruits and nuts) for travel days through the bush and green coconuts, all supplemented with a little peanut butter of course. Unfortunately here I am down to dial up and as of yet do not have an efficient way to attach photos. So far the village has been extremely supportive and good to me in the move in and set up process and some of the boys are helping me everyday whether it is with gathering materials for the house, working on the house or bringing me food. While most of the main house is finished I have had to build a toilet and am now building a bath house as well as a bush kitchen which is a place to cook on open fire. Lastly I need to put walls on the bedroom so until then I am sleeping in the main room of the house. Hopefully sometime soon I can get some pictures out of the house. Unfortunately my time when I get down to town is very rushed as I usually have about 8 hours here and need to go around town hunting for the things for my house, talk with the guys at forestry, try and check emails, try and make phone calls throughout Vanuatu and to Home but the phone system here is a joke, and then use the Internet on a dial up connection which makes what should be 30min using the Internet as a resource take 3 hours.
Supposedly it is the dry season here and coming from Hilo I never thought rain would ever be an issue again but I think I have moved to a place with even more rain. I am trying to get used to everything being damp, all my clothes are mildewed and anything left close to a wall or floor mildews in 24 hours. I am hoping once I get a place for a fire set up and the weather shifts a little I can dry myself out. They keep telling me it is sunny sometimes though I have not seen a full day or even a half day of sun yet. But rain 9 out of 10 days. Custom in the village is that when a man has his first shave there is a ceremony and small feast. The village and I are looking forward to a feast to celebrate the completion of the house and my first shave in the village. However for the time being they have had a blast shaping my beard and they also chopped off most of my hair.
Other than that life is good here. Diet has never been healthier and I probably walk between 5-7 miles a day on average, many times carrying food or timbers so I feel good and healthy as my body is adapting to the changes in diet and lifestyle.
-Until then much love
July 3, 2006
Email From Luganville Arrival
Hello everyone,
So I arrived last night after an eventful 30 hour cargo ship ride to Luganville filled with a satellite falling into the atmosphere and a active, active volcano shooting lava and rivers of lava flowing into the ocean as we passed at night. Quite a trip. I arrived safe and sound and am now going to be receiving mail here at the department of forestry office in Luganville where they will be responsible for holding it and or shuttling it up to me while I am at my site. This address is good for all letters and padded envelopes again where you declare very little value. Anything else should be sent to the headquarters in Vila where they will clear it through customs before forwarding it up to me. I should be back in town around the world cup final and at that time get out some pictures of my house and anything else going on here on this end. Regards to all.
Peace and love,
Eddie
Eddie Ruhland PCV
C/O Department of Forestry
PMB 004
Luganville
Vanuatu, South Pacific
So I arrived last night after an eventful 30 hour cargo ship ride to Luganville filled with a satellite falling into the atmosphere and a active, active volcano shooting lava and rivers of lava flowing into the ocean as we passed at night. Quite a trip. I arrived safe and sound and am now going to be receiving mail here at the department of forestry office in Luganville where they will be responsible for holding it and or shuttling it up to me while I am at my site. This address is good for all letters and padded envelopes again where you declare very little value. Anything else should be sent to the headquarters in Vila where they will clear it through customs before forwarding it up to me. I should be back in town around the world cup final and at that time get out some pictures of my house and anything else going on here on this end. Regards to all.
Peace and love,
Eddie
Eddie Ruhland PCV
C/O Department of Forestry
PMB 004
Luganville
Vanuatu, South Pacific
June 21, 2006
Email Update
Hello Everyone,
It has been some time since my last email so I will try to get everyone up to date here. After receiving my site assignment I went to my village two weeks ago and met the community, checked out the saw mill and walked around the surrounding area. The name of the community is Butmas or spelled Putmas as well. As I said before it is on the largest island of Vanuatu Espiritu Santo. The village is in the center of the island at almost 2000 ft of elevation almost a two hour truck ride from the capitol where the airport is. The village has almost 100 people and probably half are kids under 17. The village too is very, very rural. The food staple is water taro with island cabbage (spinach like leafy green) and lots of wild pig and cow. Because there are lots of cattle in the coastal plain areas grazing in the dormant coconut plantations some have run wild up into the bush (hence the wild cow). The community has built me a house and I have a water tank and when I get there I plan to build a small Bush Kitchen which is a little shed with a fireplace to do my cooking. While I was originally designated to go to this community with forestry and to work on the portable saw mill there, upon meeting the community and a brief talk with the administration here at peace corps I will probably be more of a community volunteer helping them with whatever they feel is necessary. Some of the families in the community are still very custom and wear nothing more than a loincloth. They mostly live in longer houses that sleep anywhere from 10-20 people. The attached photos are of the inside of the chief's house and a shot upon entering the community as well as the local Nakamal or gathering place for the men to eat and drink kava.
Yesterday we took an excursion to a little island that is uninhabited about a 45 minute boat ride off shore and had a spear fishing competition and a day at the beach barbecuing local food and making due with local materials to cook and eat. The place was incredible with some of the nicest reefs and biggest fish I have seen. I was fortunate enough to spear a 10lb trevally or papio for those of you in Hawaii. I took it back to our training village and cooked it up because it happened to be the night of our last dinner together with all the host families and volunteers.
Another thing I have been partaking in is all-night marathon world cup watching. We got a satellite dish brought to the island and in combination with a TV and generator we have been able to watch just about every game so far. Another experience that is unlike any soccer watching I have ever done.
6/27/06
Yesterday afternoon and evening we had our swearing in ceremony and the 20 of us became official Peace Corps volunteers. The ceremony was amazing and every volunteer was given an island shirt or island dress of the same fabric so we all had special swearing in attire. The village built a stage in front of the main meeting hall and we had a ceremony, followed by the swearing in, then I gave a speech on behalf of the group in Bislama and then there was music going long into the night. Today when we left Lelepa every Mama and papa as well as sister and brother with many more of the village residents too came down to the beach to tell us good-bye. They arranged into a large circle of probably 250 people and we walked around shaking hands with every single person before we got on the boat to leave.
Unfortunately I have to get off the computer but I will send some pictures of my last days on the island hopefully tomorrow and the next day. Miss everyone and keep in touch. Let me know how your doing before I go to the bush and excommunicate for a while.
Eddie
It has been some time since my last email so I will try to get everyone up to date here. After receiving my site assignment I went to my village two weeks ago and met the community, checked out the saw mill and walked around the surrounding area. The name of the community is Butmas or spelled Putmas as well. As I said before it is on the largest island of Vanuatu Espiritu Santo. The village is in the center of the island at almost 2000 ft of elevation almost a two hour truck ride from the capitol where the airport is. The village has almost 100 people and probably half are kids under 17. The village too is very, very rural. The food staple is water taro with island cabbage (spinach like leafy green) and lots of wild pig and cow. Because there are lots of cattle in the coastal plain areas grazing in the dormant coconut plantations some have run wild up into the bush (hence the wild cow). The community has built me a house and I have a water tank and when I get there I plan to build a small Bush Kitchen which is a little shed with a fireplace to do my cooking. While I was originally designated to go to this community with forestry and to work on the portable saw mill there, upon meeting the community and a brief talk with the administration here at peace corps I will probably be more of a community volunteer helping them with whatever they feel is necessary. Some of the families in the community are still very custom and wear nothing more than a loincloth. They mostly live in longer houses that sleep anywhere from 10-20 people. The attached photos are of the inside of the chief's house and a shot upon entering the community as well as the local Nakamal or gathering place for the men to eat and drink kava.
Yesterday we took an excursion to a little island that is uninhabited about a 45 minute boat ride off shore and had a spear fishing competition and a day at the beach barbecuing local food and making due with local materials to cook and eat. The place was incredible with some of the nicest reefs and biggest fish I have seen. I was fortunate enough to spear a 10lb trevally or papio for those of you in Hawaii. I took it back to our training village and cooked it up because it happened to be the night of our last dinner together with all the host families and volunteers.
Another thing I have been partaking in is all-night marathon world cup watching. We got a satellite dish brought to the island and in combination with a TV and generator we have been able to watch just about every game so far. Another experience that is unlike any soccer watching I have ever done.
6/27/06
Yesterday afternoon and evening we had our swearing in ceremony and the 20 of us became official Peace Corps volunteers. The ceremony was amazing and every volunteer was given an island shirt or island dress of the same fabric so we all had special swearing in attire. The village built a stage in front of the main meeting hall and we had a ceremony, followed by the swearing in, then I gave a speech on behalf of the group in Bislama and then there was music going long into the night. Today when we left Lelepa every Mama and papa as well as sister and brother with many more of the village residents too came down to the beach to tell us good-bye. They arranged into a large circle of probably 250 people and we walked around shaking hands with every single person before we got on the boat to leave.
Unfortunately I have to get off the computer but I will send some pictures of my last days on the island hopefully tomorrow and the next day. Miss everyone and keep in touch. Let me know how your doing before I go to the bush and excommunicate for a while.
Eddie
April 21, 2006
Email Update
Again I hope this email finds everyone well,
I figured I would send out one more email while I can before I go out to the bush for a while. And this time with some pictures. So these four pictures are of our flight into the main island and a picture off the wing of the little island that looks like a hat which is very near to where they filmed survivor and the island I will be at is just past this island out of the frame. The next picture off the wing shows a coconut plantation in the very bottom and the extremely dense green of the bush just beyond it. I have never seen anything as green as these mountains here. Next are a view looking back over part of the bay at the capitol and lastly is the open market on the seafront at the center of town. Tomorrow we have an exciting day with a tour of the market in the am to practice our bislama and learn all the names of the local foods and buy necessities such as our bush knifes (machetes) for the village training. Then we go to the head nurses house for a lesson in island cooking and nutrition. From there it is back to the water for a water safety lesson (snorkeling off a catamaran) an then wrapping up the day eating what we prepared earlier. A hard job for us US government employees. Today after too long in an extremely hot classroom I went and played soccer with the husband of the head nurse and he is also the coach of the Vanuatu national Rugby team. The soccer here is probably the most unorganized I have ever seen but very fun. After the game what really struck me was how the different races segregated and even though they may have been intermixed on the field, when the game was done, the white men sat in a circle and drank beer while the ni-vans sat by themselves in their own circle and drank beer. Vanuatu's ex-pat population still has a long way to come. It is a shame that they are the only ones who can bring sustainable industry and the ni-vans can not do that independently.
Well everything so far has been better than expected. I learned more about where I am going to be staying in the training village and I think I am very close to the ocean, like my family's house is15 feet from the beach. Which leads me to the fact that I still can't believe we are all here getting paid to do this. I have met many more of the volunteers here both at the peace corps office and at the nakamals (kava bars) and they are so extremely nice and helpful as well. Anyhow, I'm off for the night and for the next few weeks. If you want to send an email that will reach me before then you can address is to this gmail account and cc: it to
volunteer@vu.peacecorps.gov\u003c/a\> and use my name in the subject line. If you do this someone here will print it out and bring it to the training village for me and I will receive it. Other than that everyone take care and I'm out, peace
I figured I would send out one more email while I can before I go out to the bush for a while. And this time with some pictures. So these four pictures are of our flight into the main island and a picture off the wing of the little island that looks like a hat which is very near to where they filmed survivor and the island I will be at is just past this island out of the frame. The next picture off the wing shows a coconut plantation in the very bottom and the extremely dense green of the bush just beyond it. I have never seen anything as green as these mountains here. Next are a view looking back over part of the bay at the capitol and lastly is the open market on the seafront at the center of town. Tomorrow we have an exciting day with a tour of the market in the am to practice our bislama and learn all the names of the local foods and buy necessities such as our bush knifes (machetes) for the village training. Then we go to the head nurses house for a lesson in island cooking and nutrition. From there it is back to the water for a water safety lesson (snorkeling off a catamaran) an then wrapping up the day eating what we prepared earlier. A hard job for us US government employees. Today after too long in an extremely hot classroom I went and played soccer with the husband of the head nurse and he is also the coach of the Vanuatu national Rugby team. The soccer here is probably the most unorganized I have ever seen but very fun. After the game what really struck me was how the different races segregated and even though they may have been intermixed on the field, when the game was done, the white men sat in a circle and drank beer while the ni-vans sat by themselves in their own circle and drank beer. Vanuatu's ex-pat population still has a long way to come. It is a shame that they are the only ones who can bring sustainable industry and the ni-vans can not do that independently.
Well everything so far has been better than expected. I learned more about where I am going to be staying in the training village and I think I am very close to the ocean, like my family's house is15 feet from the beach. Which leads me to the fact that I still can't believe we are all here getting paid to do this. I have met many more of the volunteers here both at the peace corps office and at the nakamals (kava bars) and they are so extremely nice and helpful as well. Anyhow, I'm off for the night and for the next few weeks. If you want to send an email that will reach me before then you can address is to this gmail account and cc: it to
volunteer@vu.peacecorps.gov\u003c/a\> and use my name in the subject line. If you do this someone here will print it out and bring it to the training village for me and I will receive it. Other than that everyone take care and I'm out, peace
April 18, 2006
Halo Long Vanuatu
Hello,
So I am in my first week of peace corps volunteer training. There are 23 of us and I am the youngest in the group. 15 guys, 8 girls, two volunteers in their 30's, a couple in their 50's. Everyone is so interesting and comes from such a diverse background. We arrived in Vanuatu on Saturday after a really long flight from LA to New Zealand and then New Zealand to Port Villa. While Vila has almost 30,000 people it is very, very small as compared to any city in Hawaii with 30,000 people. There is a huge waterfront market five days a week with awesome fruits, veggies, and prepared foods too. The bay vila is situated on is amazing with crystal clear water and lush vegetation up to the waters edge. It pretty much ridiculous. Something out of a magazine. At that the city has almost everything you can think of, Grocery stores with everything from local foods to ramen, french wine, Australian cheese, in other words it is in no way third world inside the grocery store bedsides the prices. Items that they know niVanatu (the local people) dont eat are extremely expensive. There is a hardware store, car dealerships, the like. However this week this all changes. Starting Sunday we load up in a few boats and go to a small island with one community off the coast of the main island of efate. Here we will all live with separate host familys in little bamboo huts with no sort of technology. We will collect rainwater and drink coconuts, eat from the gardens and the sea, go to class which is held at the beach under a banyan tree. I feel this is the selection period where usually 10% of volunteers will drop out. After 5 weeks of language, culture, training we have a week where we travel individually to our prospective sites and spend a week in what will become our new home. And this I mean literally. We look at the hut the community has constructed for us and talk with them about what else needs to be done before arrival. We familiarize ourselves with the community, the geography, and the schedule of cargo ships that come in and out for various transport and mail purposes. After this week it is back to the training village for 3 weeks and in these weeks I will receive my formal forestry training as well as the cross cutting health, and agricultural trainings.
All in all so far everything I have experienced and what I see for the future this whole process is like the most ultimate camp ever. We are trained so well in every aspect of everything. This weekend we learn to cook the local foods and we build an imu and roast a pig. There is a coral reef conservation group here that gives us all an in-service into reef management because part of our jobs is to snorkel and observe the fish and reefs here, this weekend we also get taken out on a catamaran for "ocean safety" and familiarity with the local marine life. I have been playing soccer nightly with the locals and they are extremely good soccer players and so friendly there is not a word to describe how friendly people here are.
Not surprisingly another volunteer brought a surf board though I did not. However he happens to be one of the "inland" surfing type and actually brought a board that is too big for him and perfect for me. He is also perfectly happy to share that board. While we have not tried to surf yet we checked out the local spot and hope to head there this afternoon.
While we start language training tomorrow many of us have started looking into it ourselves and the language is extremely comical. The favorites around the training area are Bra which translates to "basket blong titi" and Seagull which translates to "Pidgin blong salt water". While it is very English influenced in actuality it has allot of french and is definitely a real language, unlike Hawaiian pidgin.
While I have so much to say and speak of my head has too many ideas going through it all at once and thus I will tell more in my next emails before I head out to the bush next week. Hope all is well and in good health. I'll try to get some pictures together for the next email and also I am gettign new insight into the mail situation.
Until then
So I am in my first week of peace corps volunteer training. There are 23 of us and I am the youngest in the group. 15 guys, 8 girls, two volunteers in their 30's, a couple in their 50's. Everyone is so interesting and comes from such a diverse background. We arrived in Vanuatu on Saturday after a really long flight from LA to New Zealand and then New Zealand to Port Villa. While Vila has almost 30,000 people it is very, very small as compared to any city in Hawaii with 30,000 people. There is a huge waterfront market five days a week with awesome fruits, veggies, and prepared foods too. The bay vila is situated on is amazing with crystal clear water and lush vegetation up to the waters edge. It pretty much ridiculous. Something out of a magazine. At that the city has almost everything you can think of, Grocery stores with everything from local foods to ramen, french wine, Australian cheese, in other words it is in no way third world inside the grocery store bedsides the prices. Items that they know niVanatu (the local people) dont eat are extremely expensive. There is a hardware store, car dealerships, the like. However this week this all changes. Starting Sunday we load up in a few boats and go to a small island with one community off the coast of the main island of efate. Here we will all live with separate host familys in little bamboo huts with no sort of technology. We will collect rainwater and drink coconuts, eat from the gardens and the sea, go to class which is held at the beach under a banyan tree. I feel this is the selection period where usually 10% of volunteers will drop out. After 5 weeks of language, culture, training we have a week where we travel individually to our prospective sites and spend a week in what will become our new home. And this I mean literally. We look at the hut the community has constructed for us and talk with them about what else needs to be done before arrival. We familiarize ourselves with the community, the geography, and the schedule of cargo ships that come in and out for various transport and mail purposes. After this week it is back to the training village for 3 weeks and in these weeks I will receive my formal forestry training as well as the cross cutting health, and agricultural trainings.
All in all so far everything I have experienced and what I see for the future this whole process is like the most ultimate camp ever. We are trained so well in every aspect of everything. This weekend we learn to cook the local foods and we build an imu and roast a pig. There is a coral reef conservation group here that gives us all an in-service into reef management because part of our jobs is to snorkel and observe the fish and reefs here, this weekend we also get taken out on a catamaran for "ocean safety" and familiarity with the local marine life. I have been playing soccer nightly with the locals and they are extremely good soccer players and so friendly there is not a word to describe how friendly people here are.
Not surprisingly another volunteer brought a surf board though I did not. However he happens to be one of the "inland" surfing type and actually brought a board that is too big for him and perfect for me. He is also perfectly happy to share that board. While we have not tried to surf yet we checked out the local spot and hope to head there this afternoon.
While we start language training tomorrow many of us have started looking into it ourselves and the language is extremely comical. The favorites around the training area are Bra which translates to "basket blong titi" and Seagull which translates to "Pidgin blong salt water". While it is very English influenced in actuality it has allot of french and is definitely a real language, unlike Hawaiian pidgin.
While I have so much to say and speak of my head has too many ideas going through it all at once and thus I will tell more in my next emails before I head out to the bush next week. Hope all is well and in good health. I'll try to get some pictures together for the next email and also I am gettign new insight into the mail situation.
Until then
April 14, 2006
Departure To Vanuatu
Hello All,
Hope this finds everyone happy and in good health. I am currently in Los Angeles attending my second day of orientation before I leave to Vanuatu tonight with a stop over in Auckland New Zealand on the way. I am one of 23 volunteers on the trip and the demographics of the group are quite interesting. Although quite surprising to everyone else I am the youngest one in the group however eight of us have just recently finished school within the last year. There are two married couples in the group with one being in their mid twenties and the other retired in their mid 50's. Three of us have been assigned to forestry and the other tasks include health care awareness and nutrition, small business advisers and sustainable developers. Also some volunteers are very different than what I imagined was the "typical" peace corps volunteer. We have one guy who has been a buyer for Saks 5th ave for 5 years, grocery clerks, small business owners, just to name a few. As I have just met everyone yesterday we are still all becoming acquainted. I learned some new facts about the peace corps and as part of our "mission" is to educate fellow Americans about the peace corps I thought I would fill you all in on a few peace corps stats: Average volunteer age is 28, median 25. minority percent=16, countries served in its history 138, countries currently served=73, active current volunteers=7,800, total volunteers to date 184,000. And how did the peace corps start? supposedly in October 1960 JFK and president Hoover showed up at the university of Michigan at 2am on the campaign trail. While the press was asleep there were 10,000 students outside the door when Kennedy arrived and he was told he had to "say something". Hoover who had proposed an idea previously of a peace corps, nudged Kennedy and said "why don't you share that peace corps idea". This is what Kennedy did and 6 months later legislation was passed enacting the peace corps.
Though we are just embarking on our journey I have started to realize how much one is going to need to learn to successfully integrate into a new culture much different than their own. Patience and flexibility as the peace corps emphasises will be very key. Going in with a group of another 22 Americans also adds some complexity I think to the issue.
We are arriving in Vanuatu Saturday the 15th and will be in the capitol for about 7 days. from there we head to a small little village on the island of Lelepa in the town of Natapao (an island off the coast about an hour from the capitol, see map) where we will spend the next 9 weeks with intensive language classes and living with a host family.
As far as communication goes from this point I will let everyone know when I get there. My address is at the end of this email and this is where I can receive letters and packages. According to some of the peace corps literature from the country desk if packages are sent they should contain items of little monetary value as they are mostly all searched and if the inspectors like what they see, it becomes theirs. Supposedly padded envelopes are better and not opened and searched as frequently. Also, it is good to number your letters and envelopes so that it is possible to keep track of how many letters are received and get a feel for the accuracy of the postal system. Also, I will always be at some time able to check this email address so this is still the best way of communication. Take care all and hope to hear from you and keep in contact from Vanuatu in the very near future.
love and peace,
Eddie
Hope this finds everyone happy and in good health. I am currently in Los Angeles attending my second day of orientation before I leave to Vanuatu tonight with a stop over in Auckland New Zealand on the way. I am one of 23 volunteers on the trip and the demographics of the group are quite interesting. Although quite surprising to everyone else I am the youngest one in the group however eight of us have just recently finished school within the last year. There are two married couples in the group with one being in their mid twenties and the other retired in their mid 50's. Three of us have been assigned to forestry and the other tasks include health care awareness and nutrition, small business advisers and sustainable developers. Also some volunteers are very different than what I imagined was the "typical" peace corps volunteer. We have one guy who has been a buyer for Saks 5th ave for 5 years, grocery clerks, small business owners, just to name a few. As I have just met everyone yesterday we are still all becoming acquainted. I learned some new facts about the peace corps and as part of our "mission" is to educate fellow Americans about the peace corps I thought I would fill you all in on a few peace corps stats: Average volunteer age is 28, median 25. minority percent=16, countries served in its history 138, countries currently served=73, active current volunteers=7,800, total volunteers to date 184,000. And how did the peace corps start? supposedly in October 1960 JFK and president Hoover showed up at the university of Michigan at 2am on the campaign trail. While the press was asleep there were 10,000 students outside the door when Kennedy arrived and he was told he had to "say something". Hoover who had proposed an idea previously of a peace corps, nudged Kennedy and said "why don't you share that peace corps idea". This is what Kennedy did and 6 months later legislation was passed enacting the peace corps.
Though we are just embarking on our journey I have started to realize how much one is going to need to learn to successfully integrate into a new culture much different than their own. Patience and flexibility as the peace corps emphasises will be very key. Going in with a group of another 22 Americans also adds some complexity I think to the issue.
We are arriving in Vanuatu Saturday the 15th and will be in the capitol for about 7 days. from there we head to a small little village on the island of Lelepa in the town of Natapao (an island off the coast about an hour from the capitol, see map) where we will spend the next 9 weeks with intensive language classes and living with a host family.
As far as communication goes from this point I will let everyone know when I get there. My address is at the end of this email and this is where I can receive letters and packages. According to some of the peace corps literature from the country desk if packages are sent they should contain items of little monetary value as they are mostly all searched and if the inspectors like what they see, it becomes theirs. Supposedly padded envelopes are better and not opened and searched as frequently. Also, it is good to number your letters and envelopes so that it is possible to keep track of how many letters are received and get a feel for the accuracy of the postal system. Also, I will always be at some time able to check this email address so this is still the best way of communication. Take care all and hope to hear from you and keep in contact from Vanuatu in the very near future.
love and peace,
Eddie
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