Flying on a 5 Seater Plane

Going to Ambae, I flew on a 5 seater plane which was awesome!  The views were gorgeous as we flew by many islands. The plane flew lower than a regular plane so views were clear.

Photos: the plane, view from the back seat, view of Ambae from the air

Wokabaot Week

2/24/16

Vanuatu is unique among other Peace Corps countries in that we found out our site placements before we arrived in Vanuatu. This allowed us to have a week at our permanent site during training, which is where I'm writing this from now (In anticipation of internet usage this weekend as I'm going to the capital for the first time). I'll set the scene as I'm writing this: sitting on the porch of what will be my house for the next 2 years, looking at the ocean, the school, and birds flying,  listening to chicks chirp, flies buzz, and leaves rustle. 

I flew to Ambae with a few others on a 5 seater plane, landed on an unpaved runway and was greeted by some current volunteers at the tiny airport. We hung out for a while all together, then me and a current volunteer got on the back of a truck with the headmaster of the school I'll be at and went to the village I'll be at for the next 2 years. I got taken to my house which is really nice! It's cement with a tin roof. It has a porch from which I can see so much greenery, the ocean, and 2 islands. It's on a hill behind the school and overlooking the village. I have a separate building with my toilet (I have a real toilet which I feel very lucky about! ) and place to shower (bucket bath). Next to my bathroom I have a tap with running water so I don't have to carry water far! The school has a rain tank for drinking water which is convenient. There's a separate building for a kitchen, where I could build a fire, but I think I'll splurge and buy a small gas stovetop. There's no electricity but I have a solar light.

I'm spending my days during this week hanging out with my host family, meeting the community, and  seeing the school. The school is a small primary school, almost entirely boys. A few days after I arrived I was welcomed into the village. The students sang some songs and I got given a lot of fabric,  which I've been told is given often. It was a little overwhelming,  but everyone seems friendly. The village is very small, although there are apparently a bunch of villages surrounding it. I think I'll be doing a lot of walking here!I have a couple more days here and then I will finish training with everyone else during the month of March,  and I'll return to this village as an actual volunteer early April. I'm sure I'll write a lot more about this village once I actually am living here!

Things that are driving me crazy so far: flies and mosquito bites.

Beginning of Peace Corps Training

2/16/16

I am hoping to get internet in a few days, so I'm writing this in anticipation of that! I'm typing on a phone as my laptop is in storage, so I'll see how this works.

Let me set the scene: I'm currently writing this in bed under my mosquito net, listening to the sound of the ocean waves, and watching two lizards scurry around on my wall.

I have now been in Vanuatu for 3.5 weeks. I've been living in a village on the east coast of Efate, an island of Vanuatu, with a host family although by the time I post this I'll have moved.  Days have been spent having classes on things like Bislama,  medical, safety, and education. Evenings and weekends have been spent talking Bislama with my host family and learning things such as making simboro, a common food here. There are a total of 38 volunteers in G28, the group I came with. We are split between 4 training villages,  and in a week and a half we will switch villages and host families. It will be good to experience another village here, but it will be sad to leave my current host family as they have been extremely good to me. I have two host mamas and there are always at least 5 or 6 (or more!) kids running around the yard. The house is small (there are actually 2 houses- 1 mama in each) and are made of tin, so very hot. The kitchen is a seperate building (they cook over a fire) as is the toilet and bathing area. There is no electricity, but there is a solar panal so there are a few lights at night. I brush my teeth looking up at the stars every night- the view of the stars from here is incredible. 

The weather here is very hot and humid. I don't think I've stopped sweating since I stepped out of the plane! There are a lot of bugs everywhere- mosquitoes, ants, spiders (which left some gross bites on my legs), huge flying red cockroaches, milipods, and just lots of little different bugs everywhere. I feel like I constantly have bugs crawling on me!  There are fruit trees everywhere here. Papaya and coconut are especially plentiful in this village, but I've also had pineapple, bananas, mangos, and watermelon.I'm really liking eating fruit every day! 

Many of my fellow volunteers have been getting sick, but so far I've stayed healthy. I know my time will come eventually! We had a whole medical session on fun things we can get such as worms and other things that can go wrong medically- not very pleasant. 

This was just a big mishmosh of what came to my head as I was writing it. Sorry if it's all over the place! 

Soon: Snow to Sun

I'm leaving in a couple days! Yay! I'm excited and nervous, packed and ready to go. Two years sounds like a long time, but then I remember that I was in Korea for 2 years and that flew by! So that is a reminder to appreciate the days and experience while there because days and weeks and months can pass by quickly without even realizing it.

It will be weird going from this:

to the South Pacific! I'm used to dealing with cold over humidity. 

People have been asking a lot of questions, so I'll write some quick info about what I know.

I am going to the country Vanuatu  with the Peace Corps (I didn't know that was a country before I got an e-mail from  Peace Corps saying I was being considered to go there haha). Vanuatu is an archipelago kind of between Australia and Fiji. The capital is Port Vila and the national language is Bislama. The time is GMT + 11, so 16 hours ahead of Buffalo currently.

I recently found out which island I will be going to (there are 65 inhabited islands that make up the country) and I am very excited about my placement! I will be living on Ambae, a volcanic island in the middle of a bunch of other islands.

Map of Vanuatu, with Ambae marked

I will be an education volunteer. I'm not exactly sure what I will be doing, but I am assigned to a school. I'll have to post more about that while I'm there!

Before becoming an actual volunteer, there are 10 weeks of pre-service training in Vanuatu. I'll swear in as an actual Peace Corps volunteer on April 1st.

Last but definitely not least, I'd love mail! I love sending and receiving letters and postcards, so if you have some free time and are bored, want something to do while watching Netflix, or have spare postcards lying around, write to me! My address (for training at least) is:

Liz Atallah PCT

Peace Corps/ Vanuatu

PMB 9097

Port Vila

Vanuatu

I also have it in the 'address' tab above. A regular 1 oz letter should cost $1.20 to mail. I'm not sure what my internet situation will be, so this will probably be the best way to tell me everything going on in your life! 

Flag of Vanuatu

Needless to say, I am very excited about going to Vanuatu with the Peace Corps! I don't know how often I'll be able I'll be able to post, but you can put your e-mail in the 'subscribe' box to get an e-mail when I do if you are interested. 

Ok, I don't know how to end a blog post. Tata!

8,105 miles...

...is the approximate distance from Buffalo, NY to Ambae, Vanuatu. 

5 Months in the USA

The last 5 years continued...

As sad as I was to leave my great life in Korea, I was excited to have time to spend with family and friends in Buffalo and to see more of the USA. Turns out the time was a bit longer than I was expecting it to be, but I got to visit many people and places. Having people scattered around is a definite con when I am in Buffalo and want to hang out, but luckily I always love visiting people and am well acquainted with the Buffalo airport and bus terminal.

Places visited August - December 2015

Before these trips I had never been west of Kansas, so being able to see a bit of the west was VERY exciting. The majority of the places I've been to in the US are in the Northeast, so it was interesting to be able to expand that just a little bit. What a beautiful country this is!

I felt like I had so much time at home, but now I only have 1.5 weeks left! Lots of things to do, people to see, and food to eat before then! 

2 Years in Korea

The past 5 years continued...

While in Georgia I met many people who had taught in Korea previously and I also had a cousin there, so I applied to the EPIK program. After a month in Buffalo, I was ready to head to Korea in August of 2013. I lived in Gwangju, a city of 1.5 million people about a 3.5 hour bus ride south of Seoul. There is a national park (Mudeung) on the east edge of Gwangju- near where I lived- which was a great escape when the city felt too crowded. I taught at 2 elementary schools, both which were walking distance from my apartment. It was a great life! I was able to save money even while often travelling around the country on weekends and abroad on vacations.

Teaching in Korea was interesting, and my situations were quite different at both schools. Altogether, I had over 300 students a year so it was difficult to get to know everyone. Luckily I had a group of 30 students at 1 school for the entire 2 years multiple times a week, so I grew close and was able to do a lot of fun things with them. I also did 7 weeks total of camps (2 weeks of overnight camp, 5 weeks of day camp) which were some of the best teaching times there!

I tried to see as much as I could of Korea while I was there. Some of my favorite trips were to Seoul (often, to visit my cousin), some islands, and the mountains. Actually it's hard to say "my favorite" trips around Korea because really every trip I took-either with people or alone-was great. There's a lot to see around Korea and it is really easy to get around with their public transportation. I was very sad to take Greyhound when I got back to the US after riding on Korean buses for 2 years. 

Around Korea 

During school vacations I took trips to Cambodia, Taiwan, Japan, and China. Prior to coming to Korea, I had very little interest in East or South Asia. (And, well, before I went to Georgia I had little interest in Eastern Europe). I think a lot of that was ignorance- I had no idea of the diversity of cultures and food between and within the countries. I also thought of it as so foreign until I internalized that people are people and cities are cities and schools are schools no matter where you are. In college I never would have imagined that I'd spend time living in Asia. I don't know if I'll ever make it back to Korea, but more of Asia is definitely on my list.