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