Is the World Ending?

June 6^th, we in the South Pacific, had the AMAZING, WONDERFUL, EXCITING opportunity to look at the entire Transit of Venus; or simply, Venus crossing in-between of the sun and earth. In all, I think it took about 6 hours, and that’s about all the time I needed running around my village showing people this once-in-a-lifetime event.

 NASA so graciously sent a few information packets to our Peace Corps Office, in Vanuatu, explaining what the Transit of Venus was and why it was important. Being close to the office, I was luckily one of the first to grab a packet and give my village/students a very interesting science lesson. In the information packets, was various materials, special sun-viewing glasses, and charts to figure out when the T.O.V. was going to occur. So, on the Monday before, I went around to all the classes and very briefly explained what we were going to see, preparing them for the solar event.

 After doing the lessons on Monday to Wednesday I was a nervous wreck. I kept checking the sun every hour terrified I was going to miss it, and ergo spoil the event for all the students at the school. However, with the help of some other volunteers, Wednesday morning bright and early there was a little black dot on our sun. Battling clouds, which at the time seemed like the end-of-the-world, everyone was able to take a good look at Venus on the sun. And after sharing this experience with Year 1 students- Year 8, I decided to run around and show anyone and everyone who was out and about in the village, at the time. The most common question I got was, ‘So, does this mean the world is ending?’ haha. At first, I just couldn’t help but laugh, but after having a serious discussion with my host mama about other planets in the solar system, I completely understand the fear of my villagers and their anxiety of what was taking place. And I’m almost certain my frantic running around and jabbing sunglasses over grandfathers eyes didn’t make their uneasiness any better.

   All I can say is Thanks so much NASA for sending those packets. Not only did I have a very cool experience, but I can tell you all seeing the students and even old men’s/women’s faces when they realized they were looking at another planet was just simply AMAZING! Now, I might try an Astrology activity, since you can literally see every star in the galaxy directly outside my bedroom window.