Hey there folks!
Yes, I have safely made it to Vanuatu, through Bislama language training, and officially swore back into the Peace Corps family TODAY! After a week of training I made it to Intermediate-mid level of Bislama, so I’m feeling pretty good, just a bit more practice before I can be a true “aelan misis” (island Ms.).
Anyways, here’s the immediate update info followed by an account of my training on the island of Moso in the town of 40 people called Sunae. Totally not offended if you don’t have time to read it, but if you wanna hear about flying fruit bats, massive saltwater clams, and a foot-long poisonous centipede, then please archive as your leisure reading materials.
Contact info:
Mailing Address (will take about 3 weeks for me to get a letter, please no care packages with meat/cheese/fruit products, as it’ll either be destroyed or I’ll have to pay a hefty import tax to retrieve the package, letters n postcards are welcome!)
Kate Witt
Peace Corps Vanuatu
PMB 9097
Port Vila
Republic of Vanuatu
Phone: 678 (country code) + 5489109, company is Digicel. It’s free for me to receive texts n calls. I am 15 hours ahead of EST (eastern standard time) so I can call you for free on Google talk, just email/Facebook/Whatsapp me for a good day to call and we’ll work something out…. Evening your time is great cuz I’m getting up the next day.
We arrived safe and sound! With my training buddy, Wendy Norris
Summary of the past couple weeks:
I’m going to be working at the Vanuatu Cultural Center, which is this great spot. They have an Archaeology section, Language & Culture Documentation section (my work), and a huge museum with ancient artifacts, tribal chief skeletons, and documentation of the cannibal days all free and open to the public. Edgar, a local volunteer, taught me how to do a sandrawing without raising my finger. He recited a story about a wise kingfisher bird as he created patterns in the sand that first looked like a tribal tattoo and ended up being this cool bird. Pretty psyched to work there! Hopefully I will be going out to collect narratives on the outer islands every month, staying with PC volunteers and getting to meet a lot of Vanuatu’s 120ish tribes.
Edgar's sandrawing, courtesy of WN
Quick Glimpse at Fiji!
The "goodfella" TP
Training was rough with no electricity, running water, or fresh fruit/vegetables (cyclone Pam destroyed all local crops that grow above ground). Snapshot of a daily food schedule:
Brekkie: Black tea w/ milk n sugar, biscuits (Australian crackers) with peanut butter (locally made) and jam. Sometimes a baguette in lieu of biscuits.
10am snack: lemonade (with limes, no lemons) or teatime, with assorted biscuits or crème crackers
Lunch: Rice, yam/manioc/taro/sweet potato (either orange, purple, or white variety) with a beef stew or canned tuna w/ tomato paste or canned meat (SPAM or other mystery meat) with a coconut sauce or tomato sauce (ketchup).
4pm: afternoon teatime: black tea or Nescafe instant coffee w/ milk, assorted biscuits or small cake
6pm dinner: rice, root veggie of some sort, fresh fish (speared that day by host family) or leftovers from lunch.
Bedtime was 7-9 pm since daylight ends around 6pm and there’s no electricity save for solar charged lights and radios.
My host family was very entertaining! Mama Tifany and Papa Fred are late 20’s, with 3 kids: Fabris (4 yr), Leiwia (5 yr) and Natasha (7 yr). Fred’s brother’s house was blown away by the cyclone, so we were also housing Mama Luci, Papa Joe and their 2 kids, David (8 yr) and Isabela (15 yr). So each family shared 1 bedroom and I had one room (PC standards) with two windows and a sturdy door, even a cot to sleep on! You call any mother/father here mama/papa, it’s totally normal, or as the locals say, “numbawan!” (#1!)
We had one outside kitchen and an outhouse/bucket shower combo, which at dusk was inhabited with some feisty cockroaches that kept me waiting until dawn to see the john. It was so hot most days that cold water was amazing to shower with…and since it was only a week this time instead of 2 years, it was definitely doable! Mama Tifany had her appendix AND a hysterectomy two weeks ago, so she wasn’t the most cheerful 26-year old I had met….I can’t imagine having 3 young kids and trying to recover from that surgery where you must fetch your drinking, cooking, cleaning, bathing water every day!
Swearin' in tasty treats!
so happy to be out of the bush!
our island marriage is consummated with cake cutting
We're official! With Country Director Keith Honda
Training Diary:
Day 1: Night of the centipede
I was sitting on the straw mat showing pictures of family from Aunt Kathy’s album (was excellent, thank you!) with everyone huddled around when a child screamed and the papa Fred yelled: “jump up, get up!” as a glossy, red, at least 1 foot long centipede scurried in the living room. Fred threw the mat over the centipede and stomped it to death with his bare foot. I didn’t take a picture of the aftermath cuz I was freaked out, but I’ve included a stock photo for your convenience. Its venom can kill a 3 year old child and will make an adult’s foot swell to the size of a grapefruit, so I gladly locked my door and shivered under the sheet early that night.
stock photo but looked EXACTLY the same!
Day 2: 1 shell kava, 2 shell kava, 3 shell sleeeeeeep
I tried the kava. It tastes like bitter, milky grass, and the second shell is WAY worse tasting that the first. You gulp it all down at once, and instantly your mouth and throat go numb. You spit like a llama to get rid of the taste, and we learned that many people use soda, beer, or bar-type food to “wash out” your mouth after a shell to get rid of the nasty taste. Due to the import tax its way cheaper and less intoxicating than beer or wine IF you eat and drink between shells. After shell 2 I was very sensitive to light and sound, and was not compelled to taaaaaallllk all night like I tend to do J However, I drank water, had food, and felt great the next day, so overall was a good experience….and the place was called “Obama Nakamal” after our president!
Day 3: Dogs in Heat, Roosters with jet lag
Yep, the post cyclone pressure or SOMETHING slingshot all the farm animals into heat….every night I was blessed with the sound of dogs securing the next generations of street dogs. And roosters crowing on the hour, every hour, after 2am….it was almost impossible to sleep straight through one night…I never did. Not to mention some old man hacking his lung up next to my window…. Harmonious it twas not!
our Bislama schoolhouse
Day 4: Bigfala Clams
So the rain held off for one day of training, and I finally got to snorkel a bit. Huge purple-striped clams were right off the coast (you could kick them if you didn’t watch out) and bright schools of fish were swimming everywhere, which is why I had delicious fresh fish for dinner! There is also this massive yacht crashed into the side of the village….some guy in prison owns it and pays folks to empty out the water from its hull, would love to have that ship!
Sunae town Chief courtesy WN
Day 5: Makin’ LapLap n Scratchin’ the Kokonut
So laplap is a local dish that you make with manioc (cassava/yucca) that’s grated up, mixed with freshly cracked coconut cream , stuffed with cooked beef and chives, and cooked in a banana leaf until done. It’s then cut up like a tamale. It’s sooo good but takes a ton of work. I will be buying me a coconut scratcher though to shave coconuts, its super easy!
local mamas makin' laplap, courtesy of WN
Day 6: Flying Foxes (Fruit Bat spotting)
So as we were walking along the beach, passing where Survivor: Vanuatu was filmed, we heard a rustling in the fruit tree overhead. A huge fruit bat came out of the tree and headed for the neighboring islands. However, more bats were hanging in the tree and we got to see them come and go.
Holy bat!
Day 7: Back to Port Vila!
So Mama Tifany went all out and gave me an island dress, island jewelry, and scarves so we took a family photo. Wendy (the other person training with me) and I were exhausted and so happy to hand over our dirty laundry to the hotel service, take a hot shower, and give a sigh of relief that we hadn’t brought back any unwanted critters in our luggage, hair, or bellies (I had a bit of a cold from the kids touching all my stuff, but a day’s rest cured that).
So….long winded as that was, that was my week in review. Send me updates of yours! Look out for that first round of postcards/letters in early June, the courier pigeon is on its way!
