The rise of smartphones and the news

I am told that in 2007, just ten years ago, all the nearby villages had just one landline phone for everyone to use. The lone phone was in the community hall in the village that I am now in, and when anyone from a 40 minute walking radius wanted to make a phone call, they had to come use that one central phone. A year ago when I arrived to my site, everyone had cell phones- mostly old push button kinds. A few visits from phone company sales people later, most people now have low end cell phones and/ or tablets. People can now access data and everyone is interested in what the internet and technology can offer, although many people think that the internet is basically Facebook.

This has given people greater access to world news, although everyone seems to take what they read at face value, without scepticism or considering the source. I have had MANY conversations recently with people about how you can’t believe everything that you read on the internet. Anyways, here is a selection of some related occurrences that have occurred in the past few months.

•          I was waiting in the back of a truck in Saratamata (the provincial center) when a guy came up to ask me if the US and Russia are going to go to war.
•           My host dad came over in a rush one morning, saying he wanted to look at the world map hanging on my wall because he heard that there was a war in Syria and he wanted to know if it was true and where Syria is.
•           The headmaster came over telling me to get prepared because someone told him that the US and Korea were going to war within 24 hours. (I have also had a lot of conversations lately about how North and South Korea are two different countries.)
•           The pastor told me at a fundraiser that he has leadership quotes e-mailed to him and that Trump has good ones.
•           An 18 year old girl asked me how to respond to random guys adding her on Facebook and sending photos of themselves to her.

The list goes on and on. It’s amazing how rapidly things change. Technology seems to change quickly in the US, but it seems expedited here- the village has skipped straight over household landline phones, Ethernet cords, and desktop computers, and went straight to smartphones and tablets. What will it- and the rest of the world- look like in ten more years? 

Random Things I've learned after 1 Year at Site

April 8th marked a year at site on Ambae. I’ve learned a lot over the past year- about myself, about life, about the South Pacific, about how much I can handle, about random inconsequential things. Here is a sampling of a few things that I can think of that I’ve learned (without getting deep):

1. I can go months without using my laptop.
My site, as most, doesn't have electricity. That makes charging things hard. I have a small solar lamp that can charge things by USB, but no way to charge my laptop. Peace Corps gave many volunteers larger solar chargers, but unfortunately I didn't get one, meaning that the majority of the time my laptop sits in my house in a drybag, unused with a dead battery.

2. Everything can mold!

Books can mold. Powdered cheese can mold. Backpacks can mold. Maple syrup can mold. Nalgenes. Clothes. Crackers. Tables. The list is endless. 

3. I can go weeks without using the internet.
This one is hard! I now have a phone that can regularly access (slow) data at site, but for the first year I didn't. Going from being able to Google things 24/7 to not was a big adjustment. Now I can regularly access social media, but data is usually too slow to Google information, and doing things such as searching for plane tickets impossible.

4. I love cats.

I’ve always liked cats, but not until being here and having my own did I realize how great they are!

5. A smartphone is the most useful thing ever. Except when it's dead. 

Without being able to use my laptop most of the time, and my Kindle also usually dead (my solar is very small and can only charge so much), my smartphone is very useful. Aside from the obvious- using data, taking pictures, playing games- I also use it to (slowly) type documents, watch movies, listen to podcasts, show pictures to students, and unlimited other things. But then there are times when we don’t see the sun for days and then the only thing it is useful for is as a paper weight.

6.  I can relax. 

I’d never been great at relaxing. I always felt that I was wasting precious time and so I should always be moving or doing something. Then I got to Ambae. Now I can sit in my hammock for stretches of time doing absolutely nothing, just relaxing. I’m not sure if it is a good improvement in my life or not- there is a fine line between relaxing and being lazy!

Sweat selfie

7.  I can live my life in another language.

I speak English in class to the students and on the phone with other volunteers, but otherwise I solely speak Bislama at site. Sometimes it is frustrating when I can't express myself how I would like through Bislama, but mostly it has gotten normal. Luckily Bislama is probably one of the easiest languages to possibly learn, coming from English. 

8. I can sweat from every pour in my body. 

On the hottest days, just lying in bed makes me sweat. So sometimes after walking on a hot day it looks like I just dumped water over myself. Salty sweat drips from my forehead into my eyes, my neck sweats, my shoulders sweat, my clothes turn a shade darker, my knees sweat. 

9. Coconut milk is the best! Mosquitoes are the worst. 

Coconut can make pretty much an food taste better! Mosquitoes can pretty much make any situation worse. 

10. I love the ocean!!

Being from Buffalo, I had never spent much time in or around the ocean before. Being here makes me all at the same time terribly in awe and frightened and amazed by this beautiful thing that covers so much of our Earth. 

Fiji Vacation

Landing in Nadi

Fiji was never really a country that I had considered going to before. It always had seemed too out-of-the way and exotic to be a place that was realistically reachable. Incidentally, while searching plane tickets out of Vanuatu I discovered that tickets to Fiji are cheaper than going pretty much any where else. While before coming to Vanuatu I didn't think that a tropical vacation would be the kind of trip that I would like, WOW have I realized how wrong that impression was. I also had thought that Fiji would be very similar to Vanuatu as geographically the countries are so close. While there are a lot of similarities between the two countries, Fiji has a very different vibe from Vanuatu and I came back to Vanuatu grateful for my Vanuatu Peace Corps placement.

The beach at the Beachhouse

Fijian market food

A few friends and I landed in Nadi to start off our two week vacation. After a couple of days there, we bused on Fiji's awesome buses to The Beachhouse, a backpacker resort on the Coral Coast. It was nice to spend a few days relaxing in hammocks, kayaking, and horseback riding. We then journeyed on to Suva, the capital of Fiji. Suva is definitely a buzzing metropolis compared to Port Vila! It was refreshing to get a big-city vibe after a year of island life. Suva has a variety of restaurants and I was pleased to be able to eat Korean food. Surprisingly, there was also a lot of lamb on the menus, so I ate lamb more times than one probably should in a two week time span. While in Suva we stayed at an Airbnb, which was exciting since it had a washing machine. It's the little things!

Sand dunes

Natadola Beach

After a few days in Suva we backtracked the way we came down the Coral Coast and stayed in another cheap, but nice, place right on the ocean. We spent our time there snorkeling, trying Fijian kava, and walking around some large sand dunes at Fiji's only national park.

After a few days there we headed back to Nadi to spend the rest of our vacation, as accommodation is cheap and it is a good base for day trips. One day trip was to Natadola beach, which was advertised as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It was a very nice beach, but a very expensive hotel is there and we felt a bit like squatters trying to crouch in some shade while security patrolled the perimeter of the hotel grounds to ensure that people like us didn't step on their grass.

Mud baths

Small island

Another day we went to the mud baths. Basically we just slathered ourselves in mud, let it dry, and then washed ourselves in various hot springs. Our last full day in Fiji we splurged and went on a booze cruise. We ate, drank, and snorkeled. An absolutely gorgeous day!

Snorkeling

After two weeks we said goodbye to that beautiful country and flew back to Vanuatu. What a great trip! I've been so fortunate over the past few years that I am able to take vacations in places like Fiji. How am I supposed to go back and get a job in the US after this??

Usage of Leaves in Vanuatu

I am constantly amazed by the vegetation in Vanuatu, and how people use items from nature in their daily lives. Leaves play an important role in daily life and there doesn’t seem to be anything that they can’t be used for! Here are a few ways that ni-Vans use various types of leaves.  
          

•    Making Roofs

Natangura leaves are dried  and used as roofs of houses. It is A LOT of work to cut down, dry, and then arrange the natangura leaves into 'shingles' for the roof. I spent one full day (eight hours) with some women, and in that time they didn't even make enough to cover the roof of a tiny kitchen. It's amazing how long the roofs hold up, although in times of high wind there are always repairs that must be made afterwards. 

•        To-go food containers
• 
  
  

         Often at fundraisers, events, funerals, etc, lap lap or other food is parceled to go in leaves. Two leaves are laid out like an X, food is put in the middle, and then the leaves are folded up and tied with the 'boon'- the middle hard part of the leaf. It's very environmentally friendly- no garbage or dishes to do after the food is eaten!

• Eating

            Never did I think that I would ever walk behind my house to pick some leaves to eat for dinner. Nevertheless, aelen kabis (island cabbage) is a regular part of my diet in Vanuatu. Unfortunately snails and other bugs also like to eat aelen kabis, so my leafy dinner is usually full of holes. I tell myself that it's local and organic to try to get my mind off of the fact that snails were hanging out on my dinner.

•        Making baskets

       Many people earn their income by selling food- such as                    taro, manioc, kumala, and cabbage- at the market. People 

      weave baskets out of coconut leaves to hold the food. 

•       Weaving mats, purses, and crafts
• 
  
  

      Mats are an important part of life and culture in Vanuatu. On Ambae, mats are woven and dyed red. These mats (not pictured, but can be seen at this link) are used in ceremonies, weddings, and deaths. Other mats (such as the one pictured) are used in daily life for sitting on in the house, in the kitchen, or outside. Women use dried pandanas leaves to make mats as well as purses and fans. 

•                  Baking

  Baking is hard work in Vanuatu! It's often done, daily in some families, although I only bake when I am with a neighbor. First, a

pile of rocks is put on top of a fire for about an hour to make the 

rocks hot. Then the rocks are taken off of the fire (which is now 

just a hot area). Food, such as taro or lap lap, is wrapped in 

leaves, either banana leaves or another leaf that when I ask what it

is I am just told it is a lap lap leaf. The food wrapped in leaves is placed on the hot area and then the rocks are placed on top. After a few hours of cooking, the rocks are taken off again, the leaves are unwrapped, and then it is finally time to eat! 

There are many many more uses of leaves in Vanuatu, but these are a few that I commonly see. The ability of the people of Vanuatu to use the local resources to do anything from bake to weave purses to make roofs is truly incredible. 

Holidays

Holidays can be a fun time to be abroad. Here's how I celebrated the holidays at the end of 2016!

Halloween

Carved green papaya

I did a Halloween day at school with classes 2-6. None of the students (or teachers) had heard of Halloween before. It does sound pretty odd when you explain it: "Kids go to houses dressed up in costumes asking for candy". The students played a Halloween game, made masks out of paper plates, and trick-or-treated in the classrooms. They all had a good time and so did I!

Some students with their masks

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday- it is all about good food and thinking about what you are thankful for, with no stress to go along with it (maybe that will change in the future if I ever have to cook a turkey). The weekend after the actual Thanksgiving date, a fellow volunteer came to visit and we made tacos, mashed kumala, corn, and fudge. Some of my host family and teachers from the school with their children came to my house and we had a feast! They brought lap lap and a chicken- never did I think that I would have a taco and lap lap on my plate at the same time! Everyone went around and said what they were thankful for before we ate. Everyone seemed to really have a good time, and suggested that we should have a community wide Thanksgiving next year.

Everyone enjoying Thanksgiving kakae

Our Thanksgiving feast!

Christmas

Christmas 2016 definitely didn't feel like Christmas- I didn't exchange presents with anyone, there were few decorations, no Christmas parties, very little talk of Christmas leading up to it, and it was hot. On Christmas day, the whole village went to church and then had a Christmas breakfast together. After, I just hung out with a friend and ate lap lap with a family in the evening. It felt like a holiday, but it just didn't really feel like Christmas.

Christmas breakfast

New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve I boated to West Ambae to celebrate with a friend. We went to a celebration in the afternoon at her host parent's village, drank kava, and struggled to stay up until midnight. It was fun to celebrate in a new place!