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
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Butmas Village Background
Butmas Village is a small community in the island nation of Vanuatu, home to the families of six local clan lineages. The community is comprised of around 100 villagers, 50 of which are children attending the local primary school. The village is located on the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu’s largest island, and geographically the village is quite central in the interior of the island at a relatively high altitude in relation to the surrounding plain areas. Because it is located above 500 meters in elevation the village attracts much rain and the area is home to a local rainforest that remains free from logging and plays a large role in survival of the people. Living at high altitude also inhibits the growth of many traditional local food crops that the people rely on for sustenance. Thus the population is quite nomadic, moving between gardens at lower elevations and the village above which accounts for the rough population figure given previously. There are 93 individuals that refer to the village at Butmas as their home and another 22 individuals who refer to their garden houses as their permanent homes, though they have houses in the Butmas village and their children attend the school there.
Since the village is comprised of families from a number of clans there is in theory more than one chief in the village. However the chief of Butmas clan, chief Lolos, is acknowledged as the traditional village leader as he is the chief of the ground on which the clans have come together to live.
The villagers rely mostly on agriculture and gardening for both sustenance and income generation. The major crops are kava, taro, yams, cabbage, banana, corn, pumpkin, sweet potato, and cucumber. Apart from gardening, hunting plays a very important part in their diet. Their main sources of protein are pig, chicken, cows, river prawns and eel fish, with these supplemented by fruit bat and a number of local birds.
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