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 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!