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!

Bislama and "Bastard Tongues"

I've been putting off writing about Bislama, the national and unifying language of Vanuatu, until I knew it better (and I had my laptop to type this out on instead of a smartphone). However, I just read a book titled "Bastard Tongues", and while Bislama wasn't mentioned in it, the pidgin and Creole languages it described reminded me of Bislama so I thought I would take a stab at writing briefly about this crazy language. 

I've heard and read that Bislama is a pidgin language, which according to "Bastard Tongues" is defined as "a much reduced form of language used when people speaking in two or more mutually incomprehensible languages have to communicate with each other". This certainly describes how Bislama developed. In the first half of the 19th century, there was contact between Europeans, Polynesians, and ni-Vanuatu in the whaling, sandelwood, and beche-de-mer (sea cucumber) industries. In the late 19th century, ni-Vanuatu worked on sugarcane plantations in Australia as indentured servents. According to "Bislama: An Introduction to the National Language of Vanuatu", over 50,000 ni-Vanuatu worked on plantations in Australia, Fiji, and Samoa from 1863 - 1911. With the workers coming from different islands of Vanuatu, with different languages, and also coming from countries such as the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, the language now known as Bislama (or Tok Pisin in PNG and Pijin in the Solomons) developed. 

In present day Vanuatu, the main reason that a unifying language is needed is because the country has over 100 languages. This number is staggering to me, especially considering the population of only about 220,000 (according to the Peace Corps Vanuatu language training book). I can only assume that the geography of the archipelago is what led to this. From my porch on Ambae, I can see the other two islands that make up the province- Maewo and Pentacost. Dividing the islands is often rough, open water. I can't imagine back in the day that the islands would have much interaction. In my village on Ambae, there are some people from Pentacost. People from Ambae always speak the local Ambae language to each other. The people from Pentacost speak the language of Pentacost to each other. And between the two groups (and with me), everyone speaks Bislama. The ease at which people switch between languages amazes me, especially as I haven't yet started to learn the local Ambae language other than a few words, and I often stumble over my words switching between English and Bislama. I sometimes have to remind myself that when we are speaking Bislama,  we are speaking no ones first language. 

Back to definitions. The definition of a pidgin language goes on to say that it typically had "limited vocabulary  and little if anything in the way of grammar". The vocabulary of Bislama is quite limited (which I'm reminded of every time I want to say that a view is beautiful) and mainly English based. The grammar,  however, is developed, which is where Bislama differs from the definition of a pidgin language. Everything I've read about Bislama  calls it a pidgin language, so I hadn't thought of it as anything else until I read "Bastard Tongues".

Since the vocabulary of Bislama is mainly based off English and is written as it sounds, try reading these sentences! (Translations below)

1. Mi wantem pem sam capsicum.
2. Yu go wea?
3. Mi gat wan garen klosap long haos blong mi.
4. Fulap man i gat sit sit wota. 

Although much of the vocabulary is based off of English, there are some common words that are based off of other languages. What I find interesting about these  words is that many were mentioned in "Bastard Tongues" in Creoles and pidgins across the globe, even though Bislama was never mentioned. Some examples are 'save' meaning 'to know', 'pikinini' meaning 'child", and the use of 'bin' as a past tense marker.

Translations of the sentences above:

1. I want to buy some peppers.
2. Where are you going?
3. I have a garden near my house.
4. A lot of people have diarrhea.

 Although I wasn't a huge fan of the voice of the author throughout "Bastard Tongues", it has really made me think more about the structure of Bislama, its development, and its usage. I'll end with a long quote from the book about language in schools that, while it is talking about Hawaiian in the late 19th century, is something that I now think about when I constantly hear Bislama being spoken in the classrooms, instead of English. 
"Just imagine you're a Hawaiian teacher with a class of mostly Hawaiian children,  and you're trying to teach them geometry. Some bureaucrat in Honolulu has told you that you have to teach it in English,  but hardly any of the kids know any English. You start trying to explain the square of a hypotenuse and you watch their eyes glaze over. So what do you do? You're out in the boonies, there's not an inspector in sight. Do you persevere in English,  or do you switch to Hawaiian?  I mean, get real."

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.

Swear-in

On April 1st, after 10 weeks of the ups and downs of training, the 28th group of Peace Corps in Vanuatu finally swore in to become volunteers! Today and tomorrow the 36 of us are headed to our sites for the next two years, overloaded with stuff, and ready to start meeting people and getting things done. Here's to the next two years!