Cyclone Times

I have heard Vanuatu is prone to natural disasters and am now learning this first hand. In the last week I have heard from friends and family about the 7.2 earthquake experienced here and then a hurricane just missed us the other night. Earthquakes here in Vanuatu are unlike any I have experienced elsewhere. Here, everything goes quiet (birds, crickets, nature noises) and then the quiet is followed by a rumbling, a warning from the earthquake that is to follow. So happened last week with the 7.2 in our vicinity. While this quake seems to have made big news around the major media, here in Vanuatu it made no mention, most likely because it felt like no more than a small tremor up in the bush.

Yesterday, I arrived in Luganville thinking to myself how strong the wind was, only to check my email and find a message from the peace corps that Becky, a tropical cyclone (called a hurricane north of the equator) should hit the island of Santo within 12 hours. So what does one do when a cyclone is in striking distance? Make like man Vanuatu, go get drunk on Kava so you can sleep through the destruction of the night. So while few preparatory steps played out around town, though to my cameras dismay, the hurricane turned south at about midnight and saved the island of Santo from any notable damage. However, going online to check the cyclone reports I observed that the local meteorological department has extended the cyclone season here in Vanuatu to now extend through 9 months of the year. Also I was informed that throughout recorded history only in the month of September has a cyclone never struck Vanuatu. So we may not be finished with cyclone scares yet.

Besides dodging natural disasters, here in Vanuatu it seems we are also dodging man made disasters. The last month in this country has seen a disturbing rise in the amount of violence which culminated in riots and brawls in the capitol between groups of men from two different islands over allegations of Black Magic poisonings. Property including houses, cars and businesses were burned and people there were speared to death with yes, spears, over an issue that most of us think to be trivial. This being the use of magic to poison someone. These actions in the capitol furthered my previous insight into the fragile nature of Vanuatu and its law enforcement. While it is a blessing that guns are strictly controlled in the country, this was in my view taken overboard when during the riots the police were not able to arm themselves until the prime minister personally declared a state of emergency. With the rioters greatly outnumbering the police and carrying axes, machetes and spears, the night sticks carried by law enforcement weren't much of a deterrent. Closer to home, when 8 inmates at the local prison here on Santo escaped last month, the correctional officers were not allowed to stop them let alone go after them or use any force until making calls to the capitol to receive permission. Of course this took much to long and hence led to the easy escape of these 8 individuals. While there are more examples, even occurring just last month, in no way am I meaning to worry anyone or do I feel like my personal safety is in jeopardy. Rather there are two things I take away from this. The first being the countries innocence because even 30 people, organized and with malicious intent, could probably take over this country for a few days. Secondly is the lack of repercussions for those who misbehave. These repercussions or the lack there of, I find to be a major threat to this country at both the local and domestic levels. As previously mentioned the prison system here is a joke and looked upon for most inmates as a vacation because of the extremely humane treatment which includes food most from the rural areas consider delicacies. Also the previously mentioned lack of being able to physically confine the inmates does not make it such a bad place to be. At least that’s what I hear from the many people I talk to who are out around their respective villages, who should still be in prison though they are not most likely because the government does not have the money to pay for the gas to send the police in a truck to a rural area an collect them. So as long as they don’t show their face in town, they for the most part don't have to worry.

In the village setting this is no different. A member of the community was found guilty at the village court/chief level of crimes against other members of the community and faced a fine because of this. However when it came time to pay the fine, he held a fund-raising kava night to earn the money for this fine, supported by the same community members who he committed the crimes against. So in effect those whom he did wrong to, also served his punishment.

Upon arriving in Vanuatu the chiefly system and the ideals of a socialist village community were given to us volunteers. The chief solves everything through fines and sorry ceremonies where there is never really a winner and a loser because both give and both receive. Once a fine is paid or a ceremony takes place it is taboo to speak of the infraction that occurred and one must go along with the ruling, etc. Everyone works for the benefit of the community one or two days a week, community land is shared and community projects and cooperatives are ideal for the socialist ingrained ni-Vanuatu. However for me this was definitely overly glorified and not only that, unrealistic. Hearing of problems that run between families spanning generations, ground disputes, and property damaging crimes cut deeply and to think one is going to receive a pig, because that is what the chief set the fine at, and forget the past seems to idealistic to be true. And that is what I have found. The wild card in all this custom problem solving is the use of shame as a punishment and while it is used and definitely felt by those standing up in front of the village and admitting their wrong, it just does not seem enough. To properly explain everything I am trying to convey it would turn this into much more of an essay than an update about my time and experiences here so let me suffice with the reason I have shared this is to try and show how fragile Vanuatu is. Again the ni-Vanuatu find themselves stuck in a critical spot between their customs and change and the need to adapt a system that works for both. Luckily they still have enough innocence and a little time to try and prevent following the paths of their closest relatives, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Fiji. Don’t get me wrong, these are some things we may consider backward or disabling, maybe ironic, to be present in a functioning society, but somehow this place gets along pretty well for themselves given the situation they are in.

Shifting to my work here in Vanuatu, things are going ahead “slow, slow” as they say and the village is showing signs of interest and progress in some of the community projects. Currently the three main projects I am trying to help with are water supply to the village, a 10 hectare (roughly 24 acre) sivio-pastoral/ agro forestry system, and sanitation education (with a new project of building effective toilets throughout the community).

The water supply is quite a challenge from every aspect of the project. Trying to spread a 25 meter drop in elevation over three kilometers of pipe, with the pipe traveling through dark bush, is not the easiest task. Adding to this finding the donor money, engineering the spring source catchment area and trying to explain to the community that this is not an overnight project and that their sustained dedication is vital to its completion all factor in as challenges. The project currently running the most reliably is the 10 hectares of the model income generating sivio-pastoral agroforestry system. Basically the goal of the project is to use one piece of land to generate income in three ways (Gardens- specifically Kava for income generation, Timber-the community will plant fast growing good timber species and by making their gardens in the same area will keep the weeds down until the canopy of these trees close. Lastly cattle as cows will be utilized in high density to clean the invasive vines presently in the area before the villagers follow with their gardening. When the gardens are taken out a 10 hectare pasture will be at the community’s use with the cattle grazing under the timber trees). With the help of my local counterpart we have received some help with the funding for this (predominantly barbed wire for the fencing of the area) and are excited as it hopes to be a model for not only Vanuatu but the south pacific as a whole. The other aspect of this project involves a tree nursery under construction just outside my house as we are raising trees to plant into these 10 hectares once the area is cleared and ready. I am hopeful that I can get the community to make arrangements now so that the benefit from the timber trees in the future will be used for scholarships for children in the community.

Lastly is my quest to raise the level of local sanitation practices. There are a few steps in this plan with the first involving the construction of toilets, one for each house in the village and two for the school. Currently there are three toilets in a village of 100+ people. One of these is for my personal use, one is at the church (which I have never seen unlocked in my time here) and the last is at the school. That means half of the community has no toilet and the other half (being all the children under 13) have a toilet but only during school hours. However I am finding that to build toilets, first one must understand why toilets are good. Which, when understood by the villagers I am hoping will stimulate interest in toilet construction. With this said I am working on a prototype VIP style toilet that combines local materials (The structure enclosing the toilet or "out house" will be completely of local material as well as using large bamboo for the vent pipe and structural supports in the cement) with the non-local materials (cement to make a seal able opening) to make a cheaper and thus more practical toilet. With a total of 15 households in the community I think it realistic to be able to achieve the goal of providing an adequate number of toilets for the community.

As far as the near future is concerned I have one more month before my first, vacation in which I am required to take vacation days from the peace corps.This will be when I meet up with Melanie in Australia before traveling with her to south east Asia for a few weeks.

I would love to hear from anyone with travel ideas or experience in the are and even if not, as always would love to hear how everyone is doing and what new is happening back in the good ole US of A. But until then, That’s all folks.