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. 

August-December Roundup

I had thought that I would do a quick round up of what I have been doing every two months or so, but I haven’t since the end of July! So here are the main points of what has been going on and what I have been doing from August until now (mid-December).

-          -August brought about the end of the second (of three) terms at the school. During the break I did an English camp with classes 5 and 6. I basically did the same kind of English camp that I did in Korea, but I just took out or modified anything that required money or technology. It was a fun week!

Some students at camp.

  -       -At the end of August I went to Santo for vacation for a week. I already wrote about this in another blog post so I won’t elaborate on it. I also visited two volunteers on Ambae, in my quest to walk to all the volunteers on Ambae (four down, three to go). 

A blue hole in Santo

-      - September brought the start of the third and last term at school. I continued to teach English every day until the end of November, when the school year ended.

Some students playing a game during break.

-         - In the middle of September, a group of Australians came to the village for a week. They are trying to set up a partnership between their church in Australia and some of the churches on Ambae. It was an interesting week, filled with a lot of church and English.

The Australians at the school for a day.

-         - In October I went to a Project Design and Management workshop in Port Vila. The workshop itself was just alright, but the best parts of the week were being able to eat different food, see other volunteers, and go to a music festival that luckily happened to be going on that week.

Music festival in Port Vila.

-          -At the end of October a safety and security manager from Peace Corps headquarters came to Vanuatu and our country director took him to Ambae and Maewo (one of the islands I can see from my porch). I was lucky that they let me hop on the trip and I got to see all nine volunteers on Maewo! Maewo is stunning. It was a quick two day trip, but I am hoping to get a chance to go back again!

View from a hike to see a volunteer on Maewo.

-        -  In October the community had a meeting and it was decided that I will work on a solar project. In November I submitted a grant to help cover the costs, and I am hoping that that project can be successfully completed in the next few months. 

-        -  In November a friend stayed with me for a week. Luckily she was here when the presidential election happened so I didn’t have to be alone for that! We just sat on my porch staring at the view waiting for people from the US/people with internet to message us with the updates and the final result. It was surreal. 

-        -  I celebrated Thanksgiving with another volunteer and some people from the village. I’ll probably write a blog post about the holidays later, but it was a really nice Thanksgiving celebration!

Thanksgiving!

-         - In the beginning of December I went to gorgeous Nguna, an offshore island of Efate, for a Kamp GLOW/BILD (girls leading our world/boys in leadership development) training of trainers. It was a really fun and informative week, made all the better that we could swim in the ocean every day!

A view on Nguna island.

 -An old chief from the village died while I was in Nguna, but I arrived back in the village for the memorial service and the 10 day commemoration after his death. The village killed seven cows and cooked mountains of taro. It took a whole day of preparation but the food was delicious! It was interesting to see the kustom surrounding death, although it was hard to handle all the loud wailing continuously happening.

Preparing food for the 10 day

So that is basically what I have been up to for the past few months. When I write it down it seems like a lot has been going on, although I haven’t really accomplished anything and I still have a lot of free time. Here’s to a busy and productive 2017!

Life is Different Here

A list of some things that are normal here that are maybe not normal at home:

-Using only rainwater for all water needs- drinking, washing, cooking, etc
-Having no light pollution and being able to clearly see the night sky
-Charging everything by solar power
-Wearing skirts and flip flops everyday
- Having to go outside to use the toilet and bathe
-Eating all local and organic produce
-Walking over 2 hours (each way) through the bush to see a friend
-Stocking up on dried foods, coffee, spices, and hot sauce while in one of the two towns since they're not available on Ambae
-Taking small planes to leave the island
-Never looking at a mirror bigger than my head
-Walking 1 hour and 40 minutes (each way) to pay to use the internet
-Spending a lot of time at church and at church related activities
-Hiking in flip flops
-Watching how bananas grow
-People showing up at your house at 6 am and they're surprised that you were still in bed
-Classes being dismissed early because their teacher didn't show up
-Kids running around with big knifes
-Being really excited when apples show up in the store in town
-Waiting for the bell (an empty gas canister) to ring to know that events are starting
-Sitting and waiting hours for a truck that may or may not come

September in Numbers

I like keeping track of things, so here is a snapshot of a normal (as normal as things can be) month in numbers.

In September, the number of...

...days I wore a skirt:  30
...meals I ate a root vegetable:  31
...books I read:  6
...meals I ate peanut butter:  28
...days I taught at the school: 17
...days I saw another Peace Corps Volunteer: 6
...Vatu spent: 20,280 (about $186)
...vegetables harvested from my garden: 24 capsicum, 38 tomatoes, 50 green beans
...hours spent at church or church related activities: about 18

Letters From Students, Part 3

The schools in Vanuatu recently started their third and last term of the school year. Thanks mom for the postcard! The students love seeing pictures of Niagara Falls. Some things from the postcard that I had to explain were what "pepperoni pizza" is (although hard when most don't know what cheese is) and what is an "animal shelter".

Here is a transcript from the student's letter:

"Hello!

My name is Eddie. I am from East Ambae in Vanuatu. My teacher is Miss Elizabeth. I like to learn things from school, because when I will get old I already know everything. I like to eat laplap taro. Laplap is a food that is grated and baked with coconut milk.

I like to go to the garden to plant taro, cabbage, and banana.

 During my free time I like to read and play soccer with my friends at school.

Thank you for sending a postcard.

 Eddie"

Letters From Students, Part 2

Thanks Kate for the second letter to students! They were especially interested to learn about the Kiwi bird. I didn't include the travel brochures that were also sent- I'll use those for a lesson next term instead, since we were coming to the end of the second term. Much appreciated! Here is a picture of the student who responded and a transcript of his letter: 

"Hi teacher :)
My name is Jayden Garae. I am from Vanuatu. It's nice to meet you.

Miss Elizabeth is teaching us in English,  and I like her because she is kind to us and helps us in our work.

I live in Ambae. Our capital city of Vanuatu is Port Vila. I am a student. I'm in year 6 and my favorite subject that I love most is English and maths.

I like to play soccer and volleyball. 

My favorite sport is soccer. But I also like to watch movies and listen to music.

I have two younger brothers and one younger sister. And we all live with our parents on Ambae. 

Yours fairhfully, 
Jayden Garae"

Letters From Students, Part 1

A few months ago I asked if friends and family would send letters to my students. Thanks to those that did! If you haven't but still want to, more letters is better! I'll be posting students with their responses. Here is the first one. Thank you Katie for the card! Transcript of letter:

"Hello! My name is Rowayn and I am from Ambae Island in Vanuatu. I am a student in class 6. At my house I have a fish pond. And I also have a cat named Tommy. I live with my parents and my older sister. During school break I am going to Port Vila and I can't wait. In my free time I like to play soccer and I like to go swimming in the sea. I enjoy playing with my friends. Thanks for sending a card to me.
Rowayn"

June-July Roundup

There has been a lot going on the past two months which has been great since I like keeping busy. The downside is that a lot of it was out of site, which hasn't helped with figuring out a community project that I can work on while I'm here. Anyways, here's what has been going on these past two months.

- I started a vegetable garden! At the beginning of June I planted tomatoes, peppers, and cabbage. They should be ready for picking soon! More recently I planted lettuce, beans, and lemons. This has been very satisfying and makes me feel more connected with the community, since everyone has gardens (although most people don't have a vegetable garden, mainly just root crops and island cabbage). Somehow everyone knows about my garden, even though it is behind my house in an out of the way spot, and I get asked about it a lot. A hassle has been keeping chickens out of the garden and they've dug up some plants more times than I can count. Relatedly, I recently started a compost pit to deal with my food waste.

- I've been teaching grades 4-6 every day that I've been at site. The headmaster wants me to do an extra class, not teaching out of their textbook, which is what I've been doing but I might have to change that eventually. This isn't really what Peace Corps wants me to be doing, since we're supposed to be co-teaching, but it's working out for now. The students are great and I've been enjoying getting to know them.

-A psychologist from D.C. along with our Peace Corps Vanuatu nurse came to Ambae for a visit. They visited my site and then I went with them to visit another site I hadn't seen yet. It's really great to visit other sites because they are all so different, even on the same island. 

-I spent a week translating for a medical ship that docked at Ambae. What a week it was! I spent the week translating during the day, swimming and eating delicious ship food in the evening, and sleeping on a friend's hammock at night. I'm not sure of the exact numbers,  but a few hundred people came to go to the dentist, get reading glasses, and see a doctor. This was something I never thought I would ever do because I am not good at languages, so I never thought I'd be translating anything, and I can't look at needles so anything medical is not in my future. However, it was really interesting and sad to see what people's common medical problems are. The following week they were supposed to go to another island,  but ended up staying in Ambae and sending out trucks to villages. A truck full of people came to my school to give checkups to the students and some members of the community. Here is a video of their time on Ambae (I'm in a few pictures): 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/5B8Zu4A8KyU

- I went to Port Vila with the headmaster of the school for reconnect, a training that happens after 3 months at site. The training was pretty good and mostly focused on working with the counterparts. The week was also good because I got to see all the education volunteers, eat pizza and yogurt, use a lot of internet, stock up on dried food such as lentils, and meet people from my village who live in Vila. I also ended up going to a diversity workshop, which was thought provoking. 

- I just finished re-reading all the Harry Potter books. Wow, what a great writer JK Rowling is!

- I ended July celebrating Vanuatu's 36th Independence Day in North Ambae. There was lots of good food, sports, and dancing.

A Tour of My House

My mom has been asking me to make a video of my house since before I even arrived in Vanuatu, so here one is.

A Rainy Day at the Ocean

One Sunday morning I was waiting for the bell to ring to signal it was time for church. My host dad came over to tell me that church was happening in another village that day, so instead we were going to go swimming. Good deal! It didn't really look like swimming weather- it was gray and windy- but I don't get to go swimming too often (well, I go swimming more than I ever have in my life, but relative to other volunteers who live closer to the water) so I take any chance I can get! 

People from my village have land at the coconut plantation by the ocean, so that's where they go when they want to go swimming. Avoiding the main road so that we wouldn't pass any church-going people, we walked through the bush trails. On the way we picked papaya, cocoa, and navara (dried coconuts) to snack on. My host brother used a long bamboo pole to knock down breadfruit from a tree for our lunch. Almost two hours later, we arrived at their swimming area. The waves were rough and the tide was low, exposing a lot of coral, but we had walked all that way to go swimming so swimming we went. It wasn't so much swimming as try-to-avoid-cutting-legs-on-coral, but it was enjoyable nonetheless especially since we had brought snorkels and I saw a lot of colorful fish.

My host dad had made a fire and roasted breadfruit, so as soon as that was done we got out of the water to eat. Almost immediately, it started to downpour. There wasn't any shelter, so we just stood there, laughing and eating soggy breadfruit. My host dad started calling people who own trucks to ask if someone could pick us up, but no one answered. After a while it stopped raining, and we walked the almost 2 hours back soaking wet. It was a pretty hilarious Sunday.

A Day at the Garden

On a Saturday morning, I found myself wondering what I was going to do for the rest of the day. It was 9:30 and I had already finished my Saturday washing and cleaning. Just then, my host brother came over to say that I should go to the garden with my host family. Perfect!  I love when plans are made for me here. And I had been wanting to go to the garden with them- people's gardens are essential to life here and everyone has one.

Their garden is a leisurely 40 minute uphill walk from the village. When we started walking, I was the only person wearing anything on my feet. I realized why after a few minutes when my flip flops kept getting stuck in the mud on the narrow, wet path and eventually joined them in their barefootness. The view and atmosphere from my host family's garden is incredible. When we first got there, we sat eating sugar cane my host papa had just cut, looking down at Maewo, the ocean, and the surrounding greenery. There are no villages around, and therefore the only noises we could hear were the birds, insects,  leaves, and each others chewing. 

Their garden grows taro, manioc, and yams. Compared to other people's gardens it is quite small, since my host mama is a nurse and doesn't rely on selling food at the market in town like many people. The only things we had brought with us were matches, fabric, and some big knives. The matches were used to start a fire to cook lunch, the fabric was used to carry yams down on the way back, and the knives were used for everything else. 

The goal of the day was to harvest some yams. To do that, we sat on the ground and dug with the knives and our hands. It seemed pretty inefficient, but we dug up quite a few yams. I was very surprised to see the yams that were dug up- there were a few different kinds, and none were the yam that I know from the US. Many were huge! Some were a foot long and a few inches wide, some reminded me of the shape of the state of Ohio, some looked like giant turnips. After we dug up a few, my host brother made a fire and put some yams directly in it to cook. He cut some bamboo, and then roasted some taro leaves in it. He broke a branch and whittled it into small utensils. I am also so impressed how ni-Vans always seem to make things out of what I think of as nothing! I tried to forget  the fact that the knive being used for our food was a knife that had just been digging up yams in the dirt a few minutes before.

I 'bamba-d' on the way back- carrying yams in fabric on my back. My host family thought it was hilarious to see a dudurani (white person) doing that, and laughed a good part of the walk down. All in all, a good and eye opening day at the garden!

An Uninvited Guest at a Wedding

On a Thursday morning,  I was waiting for the other teachers to arrive at school even though it was already 8:20 and school should start at 8. Anyways, that's not relevant. My host papa came over to tell me that there was going to be a wedding (mared) in a nearby village in the afternoon,  and I should go. The question of "What should I wear?" provoked laughter, apparently most people just wear their normal everyday clothes to a wedding here.  That afternoon, we went to the "nearby village" ( an hour walk away), and I sat with some women from my village who had already arrived. It felt like a giant picnic! There were people-hundreds- sitting everywhere on the ground, eating and chatting. Everyone was waiting for the bride and groom and their families to arrive. Apparently they went to the bride's village in the morning to do some kustom things and pack her stuff to bring to her soon-to-be husband's village. Once they arrived by truck, the bride changed into her wedding dress. While she was doing that, all the aunts of the groom went into the couple's house and locked the door, while the aunts of the bride walked around the house 4 times and then knocked on the door incessantly until the groom's aunts let them in. I have no idea why. 

The couple had a short church ceremony, although almost everyone stayed outside and didn't pay attention. The couple cut their cake (yum), and then the most interesting part began! In Vanuatu the family of the groom must pay a bride price, consisting of money, mats, pigs, pigs' tusks, and probably other things I missed. The bride price ceremony was chaos. Dozens of women carried mats, tied in bundles, on their heads to a central area. Some men behind carried small pigs, chickens, and pigs' skulls. The women were all in a colorful clump unrolling the mats and piling them. Unfortunately that's all I saw, because it was getting dark and none of the group I was walking back with had flashlights. I've been assured I'll have more chances to go to weddings in the future, though!  

First Few Weeks at Site

I'm currently sitting on my porch, drinking tea while listening to the rustling of the leaves of a banana tree which are slightly lit by the light of my solar lamp. It's breezy and actually slightly chilly- the cooler months are coming. I can see some stars twinkling and the easy to spot Southern Cross constellation. I feel bizarre typing on my smartphone while observing all of this. I've had some people ask me what I've been up to here, so I'll attempt to make a post about that.I've been at site now for about five and a half weeks.

After the initial setting up my house, I wasn't exactly sure what to do. Peace Corps stressed during training that integrating into the community should be our number 1 priority at the beginning- easier said than done. It's not like it was when I was in Korea and had a set job with a set schedule and I was living in a big city with a lot of other English speaking non- Koreans. Now I'm living in a small village where everyone knows what I'm doing all the time, I'm constantly speaking Bislama even though most people usually talk in the local language that I don't know, and I have a pretty open ended job description. Other education volunteers over the past few years have done a wide range of projects and activities and teaching, both inside and outside of the classroom. Some of what I've heard about sounds interesting and things that I'd think about doing, while others don't. I have ideas of things I'd like to do but it's hard to distinguish what's actually needed and wanted by the school and local community, so most of what I've been thinking about has just stayed in my head or I've talked about it with other volunteers for now. I've been reminded over and over not to jump into things here, that it's important to gain the trust of the community first. So with that winding introduction,  here's an overview of what I've been up to the past 5.5 weeks.

- I spent the first week observing at the school. It was actually pretty boring,  but it was good to see the routines of the school, how the teachers taught, and how the students responded to me being there. Which was mostly silent giggles with bowed heads- most kids at the beginning were too shy/scared/I don't know what to talk to me. That got better over the few weeks, since I would just hang out at or around the school everyday.

- I did reading assessments with classes 4-6, the main classes I will be working with at the beginning (I think). This was good to get some 1 on 1 talking time with the students and to see if they could read, and if they could if they understood what they had read. 

- I've been going to church every Sunday. Church is very important and prevalent in daily life in this community. It's good that I show my face there and chat with people. I've met a lot of the community this way. Often there is a village potluck lunch afterwards which is my favorite part of Sunday here.

- I spent last week working on the library with some teachers, high school students,  and a fellow volunteer who stayed with me for the week. We cleaned the room, rearranged the shelves, and  labeled and organized all of the books. The manual labor got done last week, and now the more soft things remain- making a system to keep it used by students and organized. 

- I got a cat, loved her, and now I think she ran away from me. I'm hoping for her return as my searching for her has turned up nothing.

- I spent a long weekend visiting another volunteer's site. It was interesting to compare mine with hers, and while there were some things I loved about her site it made me appreciate mine.

- I spend many afternoons just wandering around and saying hello to people that I pass.

- I've had a lot of free time, so I've been reading a lot. It's amazing to think of how much time before I would waste just mindlessly browsing the internet, and now I have all that open time for reading. On that note, though, I really miss googling my questions and reading the news. If anyone is reading this, please fill me in on what's going on in the world. Also, projects to reuse tin cans, how to raise chickens for eggs while letting them roam free, if mayonaise reallllllly has to be refrigerated, the difference betwern sweet potatoes and yams, if capsicum and kumala are English words, how to compost, if solar power is a major source of energy in any countries, how to cook chicken wings, and anything else interesting. 

Ambae Bound

April 8, 2016

Twelve new volunteers waited around at the Port Vila airport,  ready to head to sites on Ambae and Maewo. We were prepared to eat aelen kakae, take bucket baths, and not have electricity. All that got pushed back a few days when our flights got canceled, as we are learning they are apt to do. Instead we got put up in a nice hotel and lived the high life for two nights with food vouchers, a pool, and AC. It was not at all how any of us were expecting to spend our time, but it was a nice little surprise vacation before we all got to finally head off to our sites.

With much doubt, we lugged our things back to the airport two days later, but this time the flights actually ran and off we went. After a plane change we landed on East Ambae, the final destination for some of us. I got met at the airport by my host brother,  and we got on the back of a truck filled with people headed to the village.

There had been a small cyclone/ tropical storm a few days before and some damage was evident. Around my house was a mess, so immediately after arriving my host brother and I started cleaning debris so that there would be a good path to my door. After about 30 minutes in the village,  dirty and sweaty and my shirt torn from a wire on the truck ride, my mama came to get me. Apparently the village had been holding some workshops and I had arrived on the last day of one. She led me to a room full of people, some of whom I had met before but many who were from other places in the province and are in charge of curriculum in the schools. I met many of them, got welcomed back from some people in the community, all embarrassingly still in my torn shirt and with dirty hands.

Later,  when I finally got a moment to myself in my house,  I went to hang my mosquito net. I love sleeping in one because it makes me feel protected from the big spiders, rats, and all other gross things. Anyways, by the time I went to hang it up it was almost dark. Because the ceiling is so high, hanging it involved a table and chair and lots of sweat,  and resulted in a hung net but also a broken bed slat and some bruises added to my body.

Now comes figuring out what the heck I'm actually supposed to be doing here.

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.

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.