Pictures

My new home! Plus, hand-made clothes line

Inside: 2 bedrooms, living area, kitchen area: not sure about the measurements but I can walk 20 steps width and length wise

Duplex style but I don't have a neighbor yet, it's still being built

Seperate swim house with toilet

Sandy beaches only a few minutes walk

My "Most Likely Award", let's hope this doesn't come true

Island Style

First Experiences

My first week in my village was filled with settling into my new house, exploring my village, and beginning to make community relations. My host family here is amazing, I could not be more blessed. My papa is a bus transport driver, so I have a connection if and when i need to go into town, and he is an elder in the church so he is very well respected in the community. My mama is quite possibly the sweatest woman, and she does everything at the home you can think of. I have a few siblings, sisters and a brother, but all are married and moved out except 1- Evelyn. Evelyn is 22, a student at the university, and she works as a secretary in the primary school. We have already become great friends, and I am so blessed to have a companion like her to rely on for everything; also, she is fluent in English wich is a great help when Bislama gets a little much.

My home is situated in the direct center of town on the teacher compound. I live in a duplex setting, but my house is the only one so far, so it's pretty quiet. For a PCV home, I would have to say my place is flas. I have a completely cement home, with a tin roof, 12 windows, 2 bedrooms, a living space with kitchen, and ELECTRICITY 24/7!!! The only thing is that the cement gets a little hot during the mid day, but I plan to buy a fan so no worries there. Also, my place has a bed, 3 tables, 2 chairs, and a food safe inside. My bathroom and shower are outside and connected, but they are literally 10 steps away, so it's no big samting. Life here is very slow, you literally feel every hour in the day but I'm beginning to get used to it-or atleast trying too. I've filled up with a bunch of books, so I plan to do a lot of reading for the next 2 months until school starts. Also, I have a feeling I will be teaching a few pikinni how to play the piano, since all the elders think its a big deal that I know how to read music.

Also, another cool thing is that even though I'm only about a 20 minute drive from Port Vila, I have two big resorts in my village. So, I can walk a short distance to use Internet if I don't feel like going all the way to Vila. pretty sweet!

Some Things To Get Used Too:

- Properly storing food to prevent ants or other unwanted bugs
- Being addressed at Misses or White Misses
- Being the only one sitting on a chair in a room of 50+ ppl
- Having no privacy: pikinni looking in through the windows
- Having to tell every person I meet where I'm going or what I'm going to do; curious Ni Vans
- Eating LapLap
- Explaining something and then re-explaining it 10 different ways so people can understand
- Using mosquito coils and accepting bigfala bugs presence in and outside my house- this one will take a while. TIV

Hello Home!

Hello Home!                                                                                                 December 14, 2011

My village. Wow, that's really a surreal thing to say. Training is finally officially over, swearing- in is complete, and now I am left to start my 2 year service in my village. Even though I can't officially tell you the name of my village, I can report that it is AWESOME!!! I guess you all will have to come and visit me to find out exactly where I am.

The official day everyone left to go to their sites was on December 12, but my village couldn't wait to meet me so they contacted my boss and arranded for me to go and visit a day early. On Sunday, December 11th, my headmaster came and picked me up from the hotel, and he took me to my new village. Before the big welcome church service started, I met a few people and my headmasters family. Then promptly at 9:30am, which is something that doesn't happen here in Vanuatu often, everyone met in the Presbyterian church. The Presbyterian church is very flas; it's completly tiled, has electricity, and a keyboard- I'm just in heaven.

For a Welcome Ceremony, since I have never been to one before, I think it went very well. My first service lasted 3 hours, and it consisted of me sitting in the front of the church, for 45 minutes, while different community elders came and talked about me to everyone. Also, I not only had an island dress on, which in itself is unimagionably HOT, but I also had 2 layers of polyster calico draped over me with 2 real flower lays; I'm still amazed how I didn't faint.

Then I was introduced to my new host family and given a new custom name: Lei Zal (meaning: one who floats). Finally, I was able to go sit down with the rest of the congregation. The rest of the day consisted of storian with some elders, being stared and pointed at by all community members, and having my host sister show me some of the community closap. Then the headmaster brought me back in the afternoon. End of Day 1

D-Day

12-2-11

Ale, today is finally here. We learned our site placements and before I give it away, I'll describe to you how the production took place. Throughout all of training, we have been seperated into two group Community Health and Vital. CH has been living in a village called Mangalelu, and we have been in Tanoliu for Vital. But today, everyone met in Tanoliu and they closed the Peace Corps office, so there were a lot of people crowded into the village's community center.

At 1:00, everyone sat down and they immediatly started picking up these green envelopes and singing out the names of the villages, then the island, and then the volunteers name. So, there was an extra element of suspense while the site was being read, becuase you didn't know if they we're going to say your name at the end or not. On a side note, I just have to say for the most part I tried to stay calm and relaxed the whole day, but having your life pretty much completly out of your hands is a little rattling, to say the least. Anyway back to Site Placements. I would say that I was about the 11 person called. The Acting Country Director was the one who did my placement site, and I have to say that I was completly shocked. My site is here on the island of Efate; my village is about 15 minutes from Port Vila, the capital. My school is a primary school, and I will be living in teacher housing on the campus. Supposedly, I have 24/7 water and electricity, but I'll believe it when i see it. From pictures my new home looks super cute, and I am the first volunteer at the site so the house it brand new! Pictures will be coming. After everyone had been given a site, we went out to this large open space and they had mapped out the island of vanuatu on sheets of flip shart paper. Then we had to go to our islands and identify where our site will be and a few interesting facts about the area. I'll give more of a description of my assignment, housing, and site later.

After all the precidings, our village had their final kakae for us, which was very nice. There was fulap food, music, and some dancing.


Saturday, 12-3-11

Tofsy was our last full day, and I spent pratically all of it playing cards with the pikinni and hanging out with my family. Also, our water wasn't running in the beginning of the day, so I went and took a swim in a stream closap to my house; that is a fun memory that I will have forever. Later that night, my family and a few other families in our station area came together for a Final, final kakae. We roasted a full pig, had laplap, and an actual cake. really flas. Then our families presented us with some gifts: I got a new island dress, calico, lai's, and a starbucks mug. ha. Then Sunday morning came and we loaded the trucks and left the village; but before we could leave the whole community came and we stood in a line and they came one at a time to shake our hands and say goodbye. It was a really nice gesture. But Vila- with a hot shower, internet, tv, and american kakae- here I come!!

Final Count Down

11-30-11

My last week in my host village of Tanoliu is almost over. To be honest, I can't believe that it's almost over, but then at the same time I am so ready to move onto the next step. This week we had our last Bislama class, so I guess now they think I'm ready to go out on my own... scary...

On Tuesday (11-29-11), I had my praticum which was just teaching a lesson, but we had to co-teach with a Ni-Van partner so it was supposed to be a little more difficult; I think everything went fine. My Ni-Van partner was my Aunti Lea who was amazing. She had a blast, which made everything much easier. Friday, we find out our site placement.. ahhh. I'm getting a little nervous but "hemi stret" (It's all going to be good). God is in complete control.
　

Histori Presenten: Neflak System

Bislama Presentation
Neflak System

Halo, nam blo mi Elyse o kastom nam blo mi Lei Saru. Todei, presentesem blo mi hemi about wan Neflak System o umi lo Nort Eas Efate em i save kolem Nakainanga System. Prenentesem blo mi bae mi talem yufala abut everi samting abut wan Neflak System, so mi hope bae yufala i kasem wanem bae mi talem.

1. Wanem emi Neflak System?
N.S. emi wan system blo famli lo Efate mo ol narafala alean klosap. Emi wan system we i usum wan symbol blo kakae blo representem wan famli laen. Neflak System emi pueposely blo putum bak pic long ol famli lo Efate mo ol alean klosap long taem bifo. N.S. emi showem long ol famli lo efate se "Yumi was bigfala hapi famli". Mo taem yu faet or raorao, bae yu no mas agensem wan famli blo yu bakegen from se emi no wan gud samting long Efate.

2. Wanem Taem N.S. stat mo Hu i bin statem?
N.S. storian emi no stap long wan special buk blo history. Emi was storian we ol man oli talem nomo mo pasem long ol pikinni blo olgeta mo olgeta i pasem i kam kasem tedei. Wan storian i talem se N.S. emi blo Jif Roy Matta mo emi statem long 1200's/ Jif Roy Matta emi bin was paramount Jif mo emi impoten tumas long kommuniti lo Efate mo ol narafala alean klosap. Jif Roy Matta I no laekem ol man mo woman lo Efate long taem bifo taem oli faet o raorao from lan mo mani. Hemi bin tinktink long wan idea mo hemi kamap wetem wan system we nem blong hem N.S. blong stopem ol faet mo raorao bitwin ol man.

3. Olsem Wanem N.S. hemi stat?
Jif Roy Matta hemi kolem wan mitin bitwin ol impoten man lo efate mo ol alean klosap lo Efate. hemi wantem evi wan lo mit insead lo wan nakamal nam blo em farea. Jif Roy Matta i bin talem lo evri man blo kam wan kakae wetem olgeta kam lo mitin. Wanem kakae wei wan man i karem i kam lo taem blo mitin emi wan symbol blo wan famli laen. Afta, olgeta I bin gat wan bigfala lafet mo ol laen we oli bin bringim samak kakae (Ex. yam, octopus, bananna, mo tarro) naoia bae oli bikam wan famli. Evri laen noaia I gat wan symbol witim wan narafala man we I pulum olgeta witim wan narafala laen.
     Mo tu, ol bigman ol laen I bin mekem wan decision se ol laen system bae I fallem ol woman nomo, from se ol woman oli kasem ol pikinni.

4. Lastoktok, From Wanem N.S. I bin stat?

     - Putum pis bitwin ol laen lo Efate mo klosap ol alean
     - Ol laen I wok tugeta
     - blo ol laen i lukluk ol narafala laen blo mekim wan bigfala, hapi famli

From se N.S. hemi bin wan gud system blo Efate mo ol laen, Hat Alean we ol man I bin berem Jif Roy Matta ol I bin klamin wan Wol Heritage Saet.

Tank yo tumas blo lisim presentesem blo me. Presentesem blo me emi ol finis.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Presentation in English:

Hello, my name is Elyse or my custom name is Lei Saru. My presentation today is about the Neflak System or also known as the Nakainanga System on N.E. Efate. My presentation will tell you everything about th N.S., so I hope you all will understand everything I tell you.

1. What is the N.S.?

The N.S. is a clan symbol based on name symbols that are assigned to each clan in order to create peace between all tribes on Efate and other islands close to Efate. The N.S. is basically to show that everyone is a family and you don't want to fight with your own famly.

2. When was the N.S. started and Who was the founder?

The N.S. has no written record or history books to look back on, everything about the system has been passed down orally from generation by old men. According to a story, the N.S. was started in the 1200's by Chief Roy Matta. R.M was a paramount chief on N.E. Effate and he had a lot of influence. R.M. was tired of all the clans fighting over land or money between neighboring clans on Efate. He created the N.S. to stop the fighting and have peace between everyone.

3. How did the N.S. come about?

R.M. called a meeting between all the heads of clans on Efate and close islands to meet at the Nakamal name: Faera. Everyone was to bring food with them: food was used as a symbol for their clan. there was a big ceremony and the tribes who brought the same food (Yam, octopus, bananna, and tarro) would become relatives; every clan now had a physical symbol to connect them with another tribe. Also, the heads declared, at the meeting, that the clan symbol would only be passed through the woman- since they were the onees who gave birth to the children.

4. Concluding, Why was the N.S. created?

     - create peacce between all tribes on Efate and close islands
     - have all tribes work togeta
     - look out for each other like a famli

because the N.S. was a good system for Efate and other islands, Hat Island, where Chief Roy Matta is buried, has been claimed a World Heritage Site.

Thanks for listening to my presenation. My presentation is finished.

Happy Thanksgiving

11-25-11

     Finally, PST is almost over. We have one more week to go in out host community and then one more week at a hotel in Port Vila. This week has pretty much gone just like every other, but we went snorkeling in Mangalelu on Wednesday which was super cool. They have these clams here that are the size of my torso- really, really big.
     But, this week was also Thanksgiving too, how could anyone forget-even here. Well, the holiday seemed like it was just going to be another day, but I have the best host family in the world. So, on Tuesday I had a smol storian with my mama about Thanksgiving. I told her all about the Pilgrims and Indians, the Macy day Parade, bigfala kakae with fulap turkey, salads, and pies- including pumpkin. Anyway, I wasn't sure how much she comprehended my explanation or even if she was interested beyond my excitement, but I woke up Thursday morning with our kitchen area decorated with streamers, balloons, and hand turkeys, which I had showed them the day before. hahaha. Needless to say, I was both shocked and overwhelmed. I came back from taking a swim and my mama was sitting at the table all ready to give me the schedule for the day. First, we had Bislama class but after I was to come back and help/learn how to make bananna pie, pumpkin pie (Vanuatu style- not sweet), pumpkin scones, pumpkin cake, and bananna bread. Cooking with a bunch of mama's is a lot of fun-side note.
     Afta, everyone had a community lunch togeta and we all did a history presentation in front of the community. My topic was about the Neflak System (I've attached my presentation in Bislama at the bottom)
But finally after everything, everyone came to my house, just as my family/mama wanted and ate fulap kakae with all the yummy desserts! For Thanksgiving in Vanuatu and my first one away from home- I gotta say it was really great. Much better then I thought it was going to be, and I am so thankful for my host family for being the only family in the community who did anything, and I think everyone really liked having something-even though it was small.

11-26-11
    
     Today (Saturday) everyone is learning how to fish. so, we are going to the island "Hat island" where an old Chief Roy Matta is buried-who was in my presentation. So, we went and saw his grave site; that's a whole nother story. Anyway, fishing was fin and we learned how to use a spear gun, net, and line/hook fihsing (Tom Sawyer Style). Afta, we had a bigfala rus (roast) with all the fish.
       -Let me just finish by telling you how cool I am. Although i didn't catch any of the fish, I did, however, de-scale, cut open, gut, and roast my own fish; actually 3 to be exact. Just another day in Vanuatu. TIV

T.I.V. (This is Vanuatu)

How can I describe my day yesterday.  I don't think there are any words that can give you a picture of all the things that I saw, but before I get ahead of myself let me start from the beginning:  TIV (This is Vanuatu)

Sunday, so far, has been a pretty typical day for my family.  Usually, we all sleep in, eat breakfast, go to church at 9:00, and then "spel" for practically the rest of the day, but yesterday did we do the same thing - oh no.  My mama came to my door at 7:45 and tells me we're going to church on another island (Nguna) and that we're going with the whole church, so I need to put on my island dress and come eat breakfast quickly.  I speedily grab a few necessities; my P.C. approved life jacket, since we have to take a boat to Nguna, and a bottle of H2O.  After slurping down some bread and tea I join my family and 4 others at the end of the street; luckily 3 other pcv's were going with their families, so I wasn't completely alone on this adventure.  We got picked up by a transport truck at 8:30 and drove to the boat wharf.  On a side note, money and skin color really speaks here.  There were 2 boats sitting at the wharf, but they wouldn't take us across since they were waiting for the random tourist.  We waited for an hour and a half until the boat man finally gave up.  After piling about 30 people into the boat defying all natural laws, we made it the whole 45 minute boat ride; and we only had 3 stall outs with the engine, which I hear is pretty good.  Anyways even though we were technically 2.5 hours late that made no difference.  We learned yesterday that being 2 hours late is like being 10 minutes late in the U.S., so no body cared.  Being the new church group and having white people made us #1.  For the first 15 minutes we stood up in front of the 200 group crowd and listened as various elder men came up and spoke.  Finally, my family pulled me to the side, and I was able to sit down (But I got a good taste for what its going to be like being practically the only white man on an island = a lot of stares and immediate blatant gossip in front of my face.)

I think I made myself stand out more cause I had to pee so bad during the 2 hour service that my sister and I got up and walked around until we found the toilet, which I'm sure was a comical scene to everyone else.  Concluding the service was a very progressive healing session.  I have to be honest it even threw me for a loop, and I can't even imagine what it must have been like for the other PCV's who are not religious at all.  Also, being white we had guest of honor seats in the front row.  I had a literal front seat experience to everything.  Concluding the healing, everyone went to the beach, and they had about 15 water baptisms.

My family had extended family close to the village the church was in, so after we went on a small walkabout and visited them.  Finding out that there is a new white family member caused two forms of reaction:  the first is shock and misunderstanding but after everything was explained came immediate smiles and celebration.  My mama, sat by my side the whole visit holding my hand.

After visiting the family for a short time, we went back to the church, had a big community feast, sat and listened to some olfala men talk about politics and religion, listened and watched some music and dancing, then we headed home.  The boat back was just as adventurous as the first, but it just seemed natural.  All in all, a Sunday that I expected to spel all day, took more like 10 hours but I wouldn't have traded this for anything.  I love how I'm related to everyone. haha

Plain and Simple

**Since Elyse does not have access to internet she asked me to update her blog with excerpts from letters she sends to me.  Kathy Robertson**

No matter where you go, girls like to look pretty and wear lots of colors.  My host mama, Anti's and sister are not different than women are at home.  I pulled out my nail polish last night, and it was such a remarkable sight to see all these women sitting together "storian", or in this case they were just gossiping about anyone and anything.  Even though my colors were limited, they all found a way to make their nails unique and lovely.  After, since getting pedis and manis weren't enough, we made a braid train, and I got my hair custom braided - which was a sight to see for sure.

There is a beauty that comes from simplicity, I think.  Watching my family this past week has opened my eyes to just how much we take for granted in the U.S.  From as early as 5:00 am to the late night hours, the Ni-Van people are up enjoying the company of their families, friends and neighbors.  Yes, life here is very slow and unproductive from an onlookers perspective, but it just seems natural here.  Time literally stands still, and is non-existent for many - especially since most people don't wear/have watches or calenders.  I don't think that I will be able to fully integrate in that manner, but its a simplicity that I can only associate with "island life".

Everyday the ackwardness of host families and host living is slowly wearing off.  My family is beginning to let me do more things, and they eat meals with me, instead of me eating first and them watching.  This week I collected firewood with my Antis, using a bush knife, in the bush forest.  I learned how to open a coconut with a bush knife, it's really hard so I won't be doing that much.  I made a fire, learned about Black Magic, watched sea turtles getting tagged, learned how to milk, grate and husk a coconut and helped make Simboro.

Halloween is a few days away and I tried to explain the holiday as best I could.  My mama really liked the ideas of Jack-o-Lanterns.  I was surprised to wake up the next morning to find that my mama had shucked a pile of coconuts for jack-o-lanterns.  Now we have a nice little J-o-L coconut family outside our house!

My papa went deep sea fishing last night, so we had fresh fish for lunch today.  I never realized how good grilled anything was until all you eat is rice and boiled island veggies/fruit.  The fish was super fresh and served with scales, eyes, face and everything attached.  My family got a good laugh at me trying to carefully break open/tear apart the fish.  This was another opportunity to explain that in the U.S. we eat fresh fish but it is usually just the meat and not body.  But first time eating fish, and I didn't swallow a single bone.. success!

The Mockingbird has left the nest

I arrived in Los Angeles without incidence and eagerly awaited the beginning of staging.  The first person I met was my roommate for the evening, Laura.  She is from Wisconsin.  At 6:00 pm on Thursday we went down to the the Peace Corps registration area and turned in paperwork.  I found out that there are 29 of us going to Vanuatu.  Friday morning and afternoon was filled with sessions with my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV).  I was selected as 1 of 4 group leaders for the travel portion.  My responsibilities were to make sure everyone checkout out of their hotel room at noon and had their luggage stored.  When the bus arrived to pick us up to go to the airport I was responsible for making sure all the luggage was loaded on the bus and my 7 people and I got on the bus.  My seat assignment is 59J, window seat, yea!!

 I'm about to the board my 13 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand.  We only have a hour layover in Auckland so I hope our flights on time.  The flight to Port Vila is 3 1/2 hours.   Will update whenever I get internet again!!

Old -> New

    Picture Party! If you don’t know what this trendy thing is, I’ll give you the steps. Step 1: Invite really fun friends over. Step 2: Look, decorate, or just reminisce of old times past. Fun… yes, I know. I have the best set of friends, and my picture party was a success- if I don’t say so myself. As I begin a new chapter in my life, it is refreshing to look back at memories, both flattering and non-flattering, throughout the past that have helped lead me/us to the paths that we’re at today. It’s amazing to see how pictures impact people, and the side-effects memories can have on a group of friends, especially girls.  A photo can be remembered a million different ways, depending on the person(s), while also being remarkable the same, as well. Photos are special; I don’t care that the world is going digital, I still like my hard copy, film prints.
    Okay, it's officially 4 days until I leave. Everything is packed, everything is weighed, everything is almost done. I seem to be making lists, scratching off lists, making new lists, and scratching off lists; I'm pretty sure this process is going to keep on continuing until Thursday morning. I already new that I was a perpetual list maker to begin with, but I'm starting to think this is my way of keeping myself super focused since I haven't had a 'freak out' session yet. The count down has begun...

Pita bread

This morning, while I was eating some pita bread and watching Scooby Doo, I was thinking how much growing up was almost a contradiction. Even though growing up is a forward moving process, I have found that as I get older I am reflecting more and more on events, memories, and insignificant moments that happened so long ago; all the while associating them with new events that are happening now. But today is a brand new day, it is the start of a whole new chapter. For the first time it hit me that I must inevitably grow up. What? Where did the time go? This of-course was a realization that I have been awaiting for a while now, but I have to admit when it happens, or actually happened yesterday for real, I was completely caught off guard and felt like the carpet was being ripped out from under my feet. You would have thought that getting a credit card, graduating from college, applying for jobs, actually getting accepted for a job, or even turning 21 would have been plenty of siren calls for me to realize that I am now a grown-up but nooo. No, it was my brother leaving yesterday morning for my reality to finally sink in. In just a little over a month, I will be heading to the South Pacific to begin a new adventure of my own. Now all the lists that I have been jotting down, creating, and revising throughout the summer come out and need to be crossed off one-by-one. All I have to say is "Come on life, I'm ready for a new journey to begin".

     Love you Erik!!!

Christmas in July

Christmas in July, like half-birthdays, is one of those lovely concepts that you hear about all the time but never actually put into practice; well, that’s what I thought until this year. This year my mom threw me a simple yet wonderful ‘Christmas in July’ filled with a day devoted to the traditional holiday movies, food, and presents. Since I won’t be home for my favorite holiday season this year, we celebrated with palm trees and the pleasant Florida heat to get us in the holiday spirit.

Last month, I read The Catcher in the Rye, which until then, was a book that I had absolutely no interest in ever reading. Due to my student, part-time job income, I went to the bookstore looking for a couple cheap books that would help curb my boredom for the summer. In the sale section, along with a variety of other classic novels, sat the Catcher in the Rye; I’ll admit I have a really hard time passing up any kind of sales in bookstores. Anyway, I think that timing is a key factor in life and this book, I think, embodies that theme throughout. Not only was this book an unexpected similarity in my current life, since I’m in a transition faze from just graduating from college, working at a part-time job, and preparing to take the first steps into adulthood by moving overseas and teaching- inevitably being forced to grow up- it also made me think about all blessings in my life.

Even though Christmas always seems to be a painfully long time to wait each year, I personally like it being at the end. At the end, we are able to look at everything as a whole, instead of just individual parts. We are able to count all our blessings, see growth from one thing to the next, and reach the point of giving that makes Christmas so special. Even though we did it a little backwards this year, I can’t wait to see where I’ll be in the next 6 months.

  P.S. I still really, really liked celebrating Christmas early this year. Thanks mom!

Scene One

Thank you for checking out my blog! This endeavor all started in an attempt to keep track of all my adventures both at home and around the world. Through this blog, I hope to share a glimpse of my life, my thoughts, my experiences, and my travels. Although my brain is filled with inspirational and pioneering messages from literary geniuses across centuries, thanks to me being a bookworm, I am just a simple girl living in a very complicated world. I’m not profound, but I’ll try the best I can to make the journey together super exciting! Lets discover all the amazing blessings this world has to offer, and always remember to keep moving forward...