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