September/October in Vanuatu

I arrived here exactly one year and a month ago today I don’t know what is harder to believe, that it has really been a whole year, not just a few months or, maybe, sometimes it seems like part of a lifetime! This is typical of life here in general, full of confusing, contradicting feelings. As I have mentioned before, there are the highs and less often, fortunately, the lows. Sometimes I feel like I could stay here forever and then I have moments doubting my ability to last another 14 months!! The loneliness gets to me sometimes; for those of you asking what to send, I will say
"DVDs , please, please." Watching films, any films, on my laptop, really has been wonderful...
and I just borrowed the first two seasons of Madmen...I hope some will eventually send the new season!!


I spent a wonderful week in and around Brisbane, Australia, during our term break in early September. I visited three generations of a great family that had brought very generous book and supply donations in May. The first two days I spent exploring the city on my own, visiting a fantastic American/Australian Impressionist exhibit at the art gallery and also discovering the weekly Sunday market where several vendors that I chatted with kindly gave me some donations for the school. And I ate a few meals at Lonely Planet-recommended restaurants, both times sampling wonderful Australian wines. I then took a train, an hour’s ride, to the Gold Coast and two spent nights with the Bancroft family which included a great day at a wildlife park; the highlight, petting kangaroos and watching a joey climb in and out of its mother’s pouch. And then there were the dingos, the wombats, the koalas, the Tasmanian devils and the ichnidas! Then another train ride took me to the Sunshine Coast where my friends and Libby Bancroft’s parents, the Fowles, also entertained me and played tour guide; we visited the rain forest and the magnificent coastline all in a day’s trip then ended the evening by attending a local Rotary meeting where I spoke briefly about my life in Vanuatu and also thanked them for their organization providing my two daughters such enriching experiences in their Rotary Inter-national Exchanges. I left with a generous Ifira School library donation from members of $150 which I plan to use to buy at least part of the wooden table and chairs that is badly needed for our secondary students; they come to the library now for studying and research and must sit at desks and a small table meant for the primary children.

Our forty new Peace Corps trainees received a wonderful welcome on September 13 upon their arrival at Port Vila’s airport; it was very reminiscent of my group’s welcome with leis, lava lavas (sarongs) and coconuts cut open and ready for milk-drinking. A string band played island music, adding to the festivities which were attended by almost twenty volunteers plus ten staff members. Some of us had a chance to meet with them again the next week when our Country Director and his wife invited us all over to their beautiful bayfront home for a barbeque which also included an introduction to and advice about drinking kava, the drink of choice here for, especially, the Ni-Van men but also for many Peace Corps volunteers; me, I stick to Tusker, Vanuatu’s beer or, of course, red wine, as most will agree that kava both looks and tastes a bit like mud!!

Speaking of our new arrivals, I have been involved in several training sessions, traveling an hour and a half to the north of our island, Efate, to present literacy workshops with my friend, Karen. There are thirteen new teacher trainers in this group and we had fun presenting them with lots of ideas and answering lots of questions…about working in the schools, for sure, but also about life in general in the Peace Corps in Vanuatu! It reminded us of our days of training and all the wondering if the weeks of training would ever end the anxiety about our up-coming site assignments. It will be fun to attend this group’s swearing in on November 4. Ours was on Thanksgiving Day last year; this year I will celebrate the holiday with Karen and other volunteers on their island of Malekula. Then Rachel, who arrives December 2, and I will celebrate the Christmas holidays with Josh in New Zealand!!

My biggest news, Joshua arrived on September 29 for a one-month stay. What a gift to have him here…I was really ready for a visit from home!! He has been staying with me, of course, and is the hit of the neighborhood!! The local boys and men think he is amazing and he is smothered with attention by all. Of course, it helps that he drinks a few “shells” of kava with them most every night. And it also helps that he, with his fluency in French, can speak like a native to all of the Francophones…and there are many, including the Chief and his family where I live. He has been a great help at school, from teaching drawing to assisting with my Charlotte’s Web eighth grade class to reading to the younger children and leading soccer and Frisbee activities with the new equipment that he brought. We have been snorkeling, swimming, and sailing, all of which have provided some relief from the hot and humid weather that has been arriving! Today we are leaving to spend a long weekend with my host family in my training village where I lived for ten weeks last fall; then we will hop on a tiny plane and head for the island of Tanna and, among other things, visit the very active volcano, Mt.Yassir.

Since I am late with this September blog, I will write more about Josh’s visit soon and also tell a bit about our tsunami warning experience!! Untii then, happy October from Vanuatu!!