In comparison to my first Xmas and New Year's in Vanuatu, the end of 2010 & beginning of 2011 has been quite tame. It was refreshing to have a relatively quiet holiday. I completed my classes in mid-November and have had plenty of time to catch up with my friends in Vila followed by visiting my host family the Wallaces and their new addition to the family, Baby Mark, or as I like to call him Marky Mark or Lil Man. Whereas in 2009 we had a village potluck (aka Lafet) full of music, tons of food and Secret Santa this year we kept it simple with the immediate family.
The last time I visited my host family was Easter so we had plenty to catch up on. I shared the latest gossip with Mama Dora who informed me that my neighbor broke my generator while I away on Epi. Proving once again how 'coconut wireless' (the act of sharing news or gossip with each other through word of month from village to village) beats technology. Needless to say, I will be having a talk with my neighbor when I return to campus as he conveniently overlooked telling me prior to leaving on holiday to the island of Santo; I babysat Marky Mark and introduced him to the solwota (aka saltwater or beach). It amazed me that although my family lives less than 40 yards from the beach they had yet to take him swimming. So as my Mama washed her cooking pots (sand is the equivalent of organic AJAX!) I splashed around in the shallow end of the beach with Baby Mark, who is in fact a Merman. He loved the water...that is, until I accidently dropped him and he choked on the saltwater...oops! He forgave me moments later. I danced in the kitchen with both my Mama and little sister, Florina, who got wasted on Tusker (local beer) and cheap rum followed by her first hangover; my little brother, Ramon, who produces his own music and loves to play DJ did just that. Unfortunately, after my Ipod battery died we were left to dance to the same String Band song that he looped over and over again for over an 1-hour.
The next day as Florina recovered from her hangover laid out in our outdoor kitchen I taught my neighbors, their kids and my little brother how to play Gin Rummy, Uno & Idiot while sitting under our mango trees praying for a breeze because this has been the hottest summer ever. But the most unforgettable time was when Papa Joseph pulled out his only beer (Victorian Bitter) from his cooler, handed it to me and later asked me if I wanted to drink kava with him and his friends that evening. My first thought....WTF! It took me a minute to process what he asked me. Thankfully, I'm a good actress because I pretended as if he always asks me to drink kava with him. In reality, the first year of my service was awkward between us. He's an awesome Papa and definitely one of the most evolved males in the village in terms of having a 50/50 partnership with my Mama. He does the cooking when she can't, babysits Mark when necessary and I'm sure he'd do the laundry if asked. Although I've yet to see him in action. However, when it came to our relationship I think the fact that I am a female made him tiptoe around me and I figured he just wanted to feel me out first before he got too close. I guess he took this holiday to try something new outside of the cultural norm.
After drinking our first shell of kava at our local nakamal we storied about his kids, how much he adores Marky Mark, my life at Onesua H.S. and how sad the family is going to be when my service ends; as I shared my fruit flavored Mentos with him as 'washem moat' (aka a snack we eat to get rid of the nasty kava taste) several village men greeted me and asked me questions about my life thus far in Vanuatu. It looked like he got a real kick out of all the attention because he and his Kool-aid smile were beaming with pride. The next night we walked to a different nakamal by the main road to drink because our local nakamal was closed and that gave me the opportunity to meet some new village men and almost get run over by my local bus driver who was drinking and driving while making a kava run for his next round of debauchery. Thanks to my Papa pulling me out of the way I lived to drink kava the next night and the incident gave us something to laugh about. Our local bus driver is a know kava-head!
I don't know exactly what caused my Papa to promote my status from 'pikinini' (aka child) to grown ass woman worthy of hanging with him and his boys. It may have had to do with the fact that he's heard good reviews about me and my dedication to my students via 'coconut wireless', that I spent so much time with his newly adopted son, Marky Mark, or perhaps it was simply that he realized that I'm a pretty cool chick. Come to think of it perhaps our relationship has grown simply because I made the effort to visit with them and kept my word that if I did not visit America for the holidays I'd spend it with them. Whatever it was I'm so appreciative that he's given me the opportunity to share a small part of his world. He and I had a really good time just being friends and it's these experiences that make my service worthwhile.
On Christmas morning (1am to be exact) the village of Paunangisu along with the majority of Vanuatu had the pleasure of experiencing a 7.6 magnitude earthquake. I was awake listening to my little sister, Florina, moaning in pain and vomiting thanks to her hangover (she and I share a very thin wall). When the rumbling first started my heart was palpitating, but after a few seconds I got a gripped on myself and started to ask the Universe to make it stop, than I started laughing because while the earth was rocking back and forth my sister was crying out "AWOOOO!" (Ni-Van version of WHOA!). All I could visualize was Florina standing over her barf bucket (she conveniently carried it to her bedroom for hurling purposes) thinking that the alcohol was causing the room to rock. HAAAA! I eventually fell asleep giggling, thanking the Universe for making it stop.
2 weeks into January we experienced another earthquake about 5.6 (a baby in comparison to Xmas) while I watched a movie with my girlfriends, Amy, Hali and Stephanie in Kalli's house. Stephanie and I felt the shaking first and looked at each other while Hali thought it was Amy who was shaking her leg and making the futon shake. We had a good laugh over Hali's silliness! Thankfully this earthquake didn't last long and we continued to watch Gone Baby Gone. Days later I experienced my first ever cyclone- Cyclone Vania. For those of you who are wondering a cyclone is the same as a hurricane except that is in a different region of the world. Many volunteers who had arrived in Port Vila from their holiday in the States wound up being stranded in Vila thanks to Peace Corps STANDFAST (no PCV is to travel due to inclement weather). Secretly, although some were not too thrilled that they could not travel, I was happy my friends were able to prolong their stay in Vila because I had enough alone time while they were away. Loud Americans in our PC Resource Center was a welcomed relief to the chirping of our neighborhood geckos.
Most recently on January 14th, ABC 20/20 aired an investigation on the safety and security (or lack thereof as they slanted it) of Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs). Most of us received an email or text from our Country Director informing us in advance of the upcoming airing of the show while others found the ABC 20/20 blurb on Facebook. I've been debating back and forth whether I should comment on it on FB or this blog and since I continue to be bothered by ABC's position and the negative individual comments on FB I've decided to write something in this blog. Below is my 2 cents:
First and foremost what happened to those young women who dedicated a part of their lives to uplifting those in need is tragic and I commend them for their courage to speak out. It was outrageous and heartbreaking to read and later watch the clips of their interview online. However, although I've not had the opportunity to watch the newscast in its entirety, the fact that ABC has sensationalized a tragedy and is informing its viewers that all female PCVs are not safe because Peace Corps and its staff are not doing their job is unfair. To make such a general statement diminishes all the experiences that the majority of us young women in Peace Corps have had. In my experience, Peace Corps done a good job of looking out for me and my safety.Case in point is this past holiday--when I informed my staff that my campus had less than 5 families and was therefore very deserted. They in turn gave me permission and insisted that I stay in town to ensure that I was safe. They were not willing to take the risk of having me stay on campus virtually alone during the holidays when many young men are known to drink and get silly. Not to mention our safety and security officer, who I have a great relationship with, is outstanding, tries her best to take care of us, is approachable any time of day and is continuously working to improve our Safety and Security Committee to ensure volunteers are equipped to deal with safety issues and/or have their safety concerns addressed.
That said, I can only speak for my experience as a Peace Corps Vanuatu volunteer as every Peace Corps country and its In-Country Staff is different. If the in-country staff for those victimized PCV young women should have done more, did not do their job, attempted to cover up the truth, and/or abandoned their volunteers shame on them! They absolutely should not be employed by Peace Corps as it goes without saying that a PCVs welfare and state of mind is the staff's first priority. Nonetheless, watching ABC paint a picture that taints all of Peace Corps, the work that we have done in developing countries and the phenomenal positive experiences the majority of PCVs have experienced is even more shameful. After watching an 18-minute clip of the show I would have appreciated a more balanced and less sensationalized program.
In a BIG nutshell, these have been my experiences and thoughts thus far in 2011. Vanuatu continues to teach me the importance of relationships. I can sincerely write that I adore my Paunangisu family. They show me that 'family' is the key to happiness. So much so that I'm happy to report that after a 3-year hiatus I've rekindled my relationship with my 'stret' BIG brother in the States, whom I've missed tremendously and I've reconnected with one of my college friends and I'm getting to know him on a deeper level, which is uplifting. Both relationships have made my life more satisfying...and isn't that what we as humans live for...happiness & personal satisfaction?
Classes begin February 14. I'm anxious to meet my new students and catch up with my Purple House dorm girls. I'll continue to keep you posted on how my last 10 months of service unravel.
