Happy Easter from Vanuatu!

At last another blog entry! I have been very busy since I last wrote wishing you all “Happy Valentine’s Day” and now it is almost Easter!! I am just ending a week of Peace Corps conferences in Vila so have been having fun catching up with my group who have all been on their outer islands since we left for our sites in early December. In listening to them talk, I realize how lucky I am to be where I am, with electricity and close to town for internet access and shopping. Many have only sporadic communication, some with cell phone access, some with “iffy” landline coverage, and some with only a satellite phone and almost all without electricity. A few carry their water from a near-by creek or spring. They are also all between 23 and 34 years of age and probably better-equipped, both mentally and physically, for these hardships! I also have come to appreciate my school, my headmaster, and my twenty-five years of teaching experience as I was able to jump right in with my library project and my reading teacher duties; some in my group are still waiting for the OK on projects or don’t feel they can use their own initiative and get just started on what they or the teachers see as a need.

I am enrolled in a weekly French class at the Alliance Francaise which I am enjoying though now, instead of English when a French word doesn’t come, I find myself using Bislama words!! Since my school is bilingual, we had a huge, all-day, all-community Francophone Day celebration recently. It is truly amazing to live in a culture where there is the possibility of four languages being spoken: individual village language which most all speak in their homes (there are 120 of these across Vanuatu’s 80 islands), Bislama, which became the national language when independence was declared in 1980, and then French and English, which, I have mentioned before, are the two languages of the schools. Since I am surrounded by French speakers, I am looking for someone to have conversations with on a regular basis on the Ifira.

I can’t believe that I have now been here for 6 months! Our school year is divided into three terms with a two-week break between each one. We are more than halfway through our first term at the Ifira Bilingual Primary and Junior Secondary School and what a few months it has been. I will tell you about what I have been doing: I have continued with the same teaching that I have been doing since the school year began, teaching all thirty-one of the second graders reading every morning for two hours; I have grouped them, as well as I can, homogeneously into four groups and take two groups at a time for an hour each. I bring the students to the library, my “second home,” where I immerse them in phonics and general word-study skills; fortunately a wonderful set of guided reading books was donated from New Zealand several years ago so I do not lack reading group materials…but I do lack library reading materials as I mentioned in my last blog entry. Many thanks to those of you who have been able to send envelopes or small boxes of books; the children are loving the wonderful new books coming; I wish you could see their faces! In fact, you WILL see their faces opening up some new books when my next photos are organized!! I am even more excited now about the library; books are being checked in and out constantly, with some children bringing their books back daily to get out another one! I have the library open before school, during our morning break, during lunch and after school so kids are always around…or waiting outside the door if I happen to be late! Classes two and five (we do not have classes three or four due to gaps in enrollment) are taking their books back and forth in small manila envelopes to protect them and each time must have a parent sign their name next to the book read, indicating that the book has been read to them. I am thrilled with both the enthusiasm and the participation!! I never imagined this would get started with such a “bang” nor did I expect to be receiving the wonderful donations from you all at home!!

I am just beginning my other big project, writing a $4000 Peace Corps Partnership Grant which I will let you all know about when I am finished. It is a way for me to raise money for the library renovation. I am requesting funding for new windows so we can keep the rain out and allow me to lock the library, flooring so badly needed to cover the very dirty and cracked cement and a bit of repair and then a new coat of paint for the walls,. I am also including bookcases and a large table and chairs where the kids can sit quietly and read or do research. The labor for thes items and for the other mentioned work will be provided by Ifira Island workers, giving the local economy a boost. It requires the school to commit to one fourth of the expenses involved, about $1000, some of which is already in the school budget for this year; the other $3000 will be raised, hopefully, from friends like you and organizations in the U.S.. Though the Peace Corps does not contribute money, it organizes a website, notifies suggested donors and handles the tax-deductable donations and then sends me the money so we can start the project. This is a big undertaking for me as I don’t consider myself a grant-writer but I can do it and will keep you posted on my progress and on the results. If you could see the condition of the library room, you would understand why I have gone from asking for books to now wanting to have a safe, clean and inviting place in which to keep them and where the children can enjoy them.

A few rather big changes are happening in my life here, besides the usual day-to-day constant changes since I never know what to expect!! I will most likely be moving off campus since my housing situation is not great; you have seen photos of my little place, basically a room and a little entry for a kitchen. Though very small, that part has been OK, though last week, in comparing notes with others in my group, I am clearly the only volunteer living in such a tiny space and without the privacy of a free-standing house. The problem is my next-door neighbor, a man who moved in in early February with his wife and 5 teenagers; his walls, which are extremely thin, adjoin mine, so the noise from his stereo is constant and his loud, bellowing voice is ever-present. But the real problem is he has huge anger-management issues and has blown up at me in a rage on two occasions; he doesn’t feel the Peace Corps has a right to have my house nor that I have a right to have my own private toilet in our outside toilet/shower building; he has twice ripped off the Peace Corps’ lock in anger. I have now involved our Security/Safety Officer who has decided I should not live near this man and the school committee is looking for a new house for me. I welcome this decision; the island is small so wherever I live, I will be close to the school; I will be glad to have a little privacy and, hopefully, a little more space.
The other change, sadly, is that my friend, Deb, has decided to leave the PC a year early and return to the U.S. next week. She has a lot of reasons, personal, financial, and professional and feels that she must leave to deal with these situations at home. I am worried she is making a hasty decision which she may soon regret; she has a great job here and, like I described in my last email, a wonderful apartment. But she needs to do what she feels she needs to do and I, of course, wish her the best. Selfishly, I am so sorry to lose her companionship; we have become good friends and I, of course, will miss her tremendously. But, speaking of friends, I have a trip planned during our May break to visit my friend, David, on the island of Santo and then spend the rest of the week with Karen, my good buddy from my group, on her island of Malecula.

Every day is full of new and amazing things! Whether I spend my almost-daily swim surrounded by several adoring children from the school, or listen to the French five/six class next door to the library practicing their beautiful songs for “Francophone Day,” or feel a reading group student stroking my arm amazed by my blond hair, or have a child bring me lemons or grapefruit from his/her tree, or have at least ten people yell, ‘Hello, Miss Julie,” as I walk to the boat or to the beach, it is an incredible experience. It is all emotions for me: I can be very happy, quite sad, overwhelmingly lonely, challenged, wanting to give up on understanding the cultural difference or somewhere inbetween. This is a very friendly culture; people are open, to say the least, not timid about asking questions, the first ones always being, in this order, “Are you married?” (they are very concerned that I am here alone!) “Where are your children?” (like since they are not married, who is taking care of them?) and “How old are you?” (upon hearing, they are amazed that I am still alive, let alone here working so hard!!) I have never wondered why I made the decision to join the PC…and most of the time realize that it is one of the more amazing things I have ever done or ever will do!! Keep the communications coming as I LOVE hearing from you!!!