Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Vanuatu!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Ifira Island, Vanuatu! I am feeling somewhat settled in my little house on my little island. It has been a busy time since our swearing-in on Thanksgiving Day. I spent most of the following week in the “Peace Corps Motel” in Vila with the other 18 in my group, all of whom were using most every minute to shop for “evri samting” they’ll need or think they’ll need until the end of March when we all come back here for a week-long conference. As I have mentioned before, everyone else in my group is going to live and work an outer island and mostly to quite remote places where supplies are limited so shopping here in Vila is important. Most will have only access to “island food,” which means local crops such as taro, maniok, kumela (a bit like sweet potato), yams, island cabbage, banana and other fruit when in season…pineapple at the moment and papaya all year. I am still missing mango and also just had a taste of watermelon before the short season ended. I can buy all of these foods at Vila’s “Mama’s Market,” the foods I ate almost exclusively in Mangalilui during training, though I must admit that shopping at our local Bon Marche reminds me of home and, yes, they even have M&M’s and an occasional jar of semi-decent salsa. My best finds yet have been flour tortillas and a can of refried beans!

But back to Mama’s Market, one of the gems of Vila. It is located in a very large open-air building in the center of town. It is a place where women from all over Efate, Vila’s island, come to sell their garden products. Some spend the entire week here, sleeping on the floor beside their wares; it is open 24 hours a day, from Monday morning until Saturday afternoon. The small profit that results from this time-consuming endeavor is often a family’s only income. Besides endless stalls of tropical fruits and vegetables, there are flowers galore, flowers whose colors and shapes are beyond description. And always, too, wonderful woven baskets and mats that cover all Vanuatu floors, including those in my house. It is hard to write an adequate description of this place, Vila’s amazing center of activity with the island music blaring amidst the loud Bislama voices. I never go to town without taking a few minutes to pass though, even if I am not buying food. Today I just stopped by for a 100 vatu sack of limes (about $1.00) and a 50 vatu slice of pineapple to eat on my way to the PC office.

It hardly seems like the Christmas season around here, with the intense summer heat and humidity, though I must say commercialism has not escaped the South Pacific; even these people, most of whom have very, very little money, are being surrounded by the “buy this, buy that” pressures when they come into Vila. It is an odd little town, this capital, with shops along the main street running through town which hugs the waterfront; it reminds me very much of Avarura, the capital of the Cook Islands, where I was volunteering this time 2 years ago, only much bigger, with many shops full of a great deal of outdated, behind-the-times merchandise and a few shops with the latest and expensive items, like cameras and DVD players. There are plenty of nice seafront bars and very good restaurants that cater to the tourists when they pour off one of the immense cruise ships that arrive every week or two for a day. We have a post office, several banks including the always-crowded one where the PC deposits our $500 living allowance every month (we do not get paid for our work), a library; there are many blocks of “fulap samting” as we say in Bislama, meaning lots of stores!! Buses the size and shape of VW vans run through town; they will stop with a wave of the hand and take you to the door of where you want to go…which sometimes means you go exactly where you want to go but it may take a little longer as you wait to drop someone else off at their destination…*bus stops* do not exist. My little boat landing is in the center of town which makes it very convenient; usually the first thing I do after “disembarking” and paying the driver 100 vatu ($1.00) is walk the 15 minutes to the PC office, lugging my laptop in my backpack. We have several community computers at our big resource center (next door to of main offices of all the PC staff of which there are many) with a few old couches, a refrig and sink, bathrooms, a long row of our mailboxes, and a separate computer room and extensive resource library. I now have a wireless connection so no longer have to wait to use the Internet. The first stop is always my mailbox…and I do thank so many of you for mail and care packages!! And emails!!

I just got back from my training village for a few days to spend the New Year’s holiday with my host family; they had my mosquito-netted bed ready and I my host mama was ready to heat water for my morning bucket shower. My fan and trays of ice cubes, my best friends right now, were left behind with my electricity! I took a bus to get there and enjoyed sharing some of their traditions; New Year's Eve was especially nice, starting with the village gathering at the beach to sing and then at the exact moment the sun dropped behind the sea, we threw flowers in the water, signaling the end of the last day of 2008. Speaking of holidays, needless to say, this last month, starting with Thanksgiving, then Amy and Josh’s birthdays, Christmas and the 2 year anniversary of my mother’s death has not been easy for me, especially being alone and so far from family and close friends. But it is all part of this thing they call the Peace Corps challenge and I definitely am being challenged. I will be happy when school starts up again on January 26; those of us who are teacher trainers have a long wait between the end of training and the beginning of our work. I do find lots to do, including a swim almost every day. Each day is full of surprises and new adventures. About ten of us gathered for Christmas Eve at one PC couple’s house and we each brought a favorite traditional dish from home; I, of course, for those of you familiar with Romberg traditions, brought Aunt Peggy’s sweet potatoes, complete with butter, brown sugar and cream/coconut milk…and topped with a $8 very small sack of pecans. I used kumula instead of sweet potatoes, a less sweet but tasty and similar local root crop. What a hit they were, as usual!

I often I have to pinch myself and say “Is this really my life right now? Am I really in this beautiful island country in the middle of the South Pacific? Am I really having a conversation with these amazing people in their language, Bislama?” So, as I go into my fourth month of being here, I think often of all of you at home and have plenty of lonely times but also try to relish and appreciate each moment. I know that it will go by quickly and soon I will be settling into my beautiful new, 109 year told home in Portland, visiting friends in Ashland and once again enjoying our wonderful cabin at Lake of the Woods. Amy, who is living in the house, reports that my “girls,” Golden Retrievers Zoe (13) and Isabella (10) have adapted well to their new home, their new “brother,” Amy’s dog, Levi, and their new mama, Amy. May you be surrounded in 2009 by loved ones, happiness, good health and peace…and maybe a visit to Vanuatu??