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!

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.

Letters to Students in Vanuatu!

How many times do you get to write to a student in the South Pacific? Probably not often. If you want to check "send a letter to Vanuatu" off your bucket list (I'm sure it's on there somewhere! ), read on!

Interested in sending a letter to my 5th and 6th grade students in Vanuatu? If so, send a postcard or short letter addressed to me. In return a student will write a reply. I'll take a picture of the student with their reply, and post it on my here, on my blog.

The students are interested in who you are, how you know me, what your family is like, what your job is, if you have a pet, where you live, favorite activities, favorite sports, and/or favorite foods. They are also interested in reading about animals that live in your area, narural landmarks (like Niagara Falls), traditions, and anything else about other countries. Feel free to ask questions of them for their reply! 

The address is:
Liz Atallah
P.O. Box 60
Saratamata
East Ambae Island
Vanuatu
South Pacific

Thanks in advance!

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.