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!