Lots of updates

Hey I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this but if you are, I apologize for not updating in a while. A lot has been going on so I'll do my best with this post to update everyone up to this point!

Let's see, first off and probably the biggest is that I'm getting a site change. I won't go into too much detail but my other school was the first site for a PCV and I just don't think they were ready yet for a volunteer. So I found out I was moving before I left for the USA in December. So I packed up all of my stuff, put it on a ship, and sent it to the capital (yes even my bicycle which I was a little worried about). Everything actually made it just fine which was a big relief.

So about 8 of us all bought the same plane ticket to go home for the states in December which was cool because it beats travelling alone. After some very long plane rides (Vanuatu -> Fiji -> LA -> North Carolina -> Newark) I finally made it home! It was so incredible to see my family and friends again after being away for over a year. In the US I feel like everything has changed and yet everything is the same, it's hard to explain but so much has changed but really its the same as how I left it. I had an incredible time eating all of the best foods there is. I really missed good pizza and calzones and it goes on and on but basically food is really great, don't take for granted the ease and accessibility for getting any kind of kakae (food) you want!

Some other things you shouldn't take for granted: electricity and internet. Both are few and far between in Vanuatu and having both all of the time is really crazy but also extremely convenient and nice to have.

When I was home I did a lot of stuff that I can only do in America like bowling, movies, etc... I won't go on too much about my trip back home because this blog is about being a PCV in Vanautu but one thing that I got to do was ski again which was awesome and probably the thing I miss the most when I'm over there. I even was lucky enough to go on a trip to Stratton, Vermont with my two friends which you guys can check out here if ya like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqNuPGE1krs

I just came back to Vanuatu mid January and I was really looking forward to coming back. I know I had a site change but I wasn't sure which island I was going to next until I actually got here. It turns out I'm going to central Pentecost which should be a good time. It's totally francophone which means I need to start learning French if I want to fit in! I also have a river right by my site which is really cool, never have to take a bucket shower again! I don't know too much about the site but I'll be back in Vila again soon for training and then I can update everyone on the new site.

In the meantime here are some random pics I took since my last post, enjoy:

The flier for my farwell party

Me and my host brother at my farewell feast

One of my best buddies on Ambae, the chaplain with my farwell gifts

Shaiah!!!!

I'll miss this dog

Me giving a speech at my farwell party

All of the bags the great people at Londua gave me

Tekeroi!

Me and my counterpart/best friend Samsley

The wonderful truck of Londua!

Me and my friend Calvin wearing nambas

Temporary Spel

So I have a few more updates to write but the Internet here is just really too bad to do it and I have some photos too, but here's a quick update. I've made it a year in country! That's pretty big and I'm excited to see what the next year has in store for me in this very interesting country. In more or less than a month I will be going home to NJ for whole month, I'm getting really pumped to see everyone back home and can't wait to go home, if you're reading this, you probably know me, and you should definitely make some time to see me!

Some things I want to do in America:

Walk around a mall.
Walk around Walmart.
Walk around and not get started at/asked where I'm going
Eat things other than rice & bread & bananas.
Go to a movie theater.
Go out to eat.
Eat a pizza.
Talk English with Americans.
Fist pump.
Drive a car.

These are just some off the top of my head but I'll be back home in December, can't wait to see everyone!

Dog Down

If you’ve been reading the blog, you should be aware that I have a dog, her name is Shaiah. Whenever I walk into ‘town’ (the post office and a store that has baked beans and crackers) she always follows me because dogs are pretty cool like that. No one has a leash or anything so your dog just kind of follows you wherever you go, they’re pretty loyal even though they get treated so badly. I’m sure many of you at home who have dogs notice that if a car goes by sometimes the dog goes crazy and tries to attack the tire of the car, which is obviously a death sentence for the dog. In America dogs are usually on a leash so this is not a problem, but on Ambae (and Vanuatu in general) a leash would be ridiculous. As I was starting to walk home a truck was coming pretty fast and I noticed my dog running directly towards it and something told me it wasn’t going to end well.

It’s pretty horrific to witness your first truck hitting a dog experience, and this was no exception, especially when it was your dog. Yes the back wheel hit little Shy and sort of twisted her neck around and left her in a heap of her own feces and blood. That was the first time I cried on the island and I have no problem admitting that, I really love that dog and she’s been really great to me. I was crying quite a bit and yelling and was quickly surrounded by about 50 Nivans who’s first and immediate reaction was “quick, get him a new puppy, I think this house down here has one”. It’s times like this when the cultural barrier hits you like a truck. After making it very clear that I did not want anyone’s dog and hearing everyone saying she’s dead a truck came and I brought her on and took her back to my house.

It was a really low point for me, one of those times when the dog you’ve had for over 6 months is very slowly painfully dying and there’s nothing you can do. I’m on an island that has poor healthcare for people, the only solution to this problem for a Nivan would be to kill the dog. Little Shy seemed to have other plans because although it was a very rough time for her, she was actually surviving somehow, well she wasn’t dead yet anyway. For the next three days she didn’t drink water or eat food even though I tried. End of the third day she finally ate a spoonful of peanut butter and drank 3 bowls of milk and somehow she just kept getting better after that. It was pretty amazing and I’m still amazed she was alive.

She started walking around again but her coordination was so bad that she was constantly walking into walls and tripping on her own feet, I thought it was permanent damage but it’s been over a month now and she’s seem to have made a complete recovery! Everyone who sees her walking in town with me now asks if I got another dog and I have to explain that no, this is the same dog. They give me crazy looks and think I resurrected her using black magic but I just told them I’m an animal doctor and they seem to accept it and are just as amazed as I am that she’s OK and walking around! Klosap taem blo hemi gat bel! (Almost time for her to be preggers!), oh the joys of being a dog dad!

Last Minute Updates

Sorry not much of an update this time, it's 5:45am and I'm getting ready to go to the airport soon to go back to Ambae! This is a big one because I won't have Internet again for another 3 months!! Actually when I do have Internet again will be during the next groups site announcements! It's super exciting and I can't wait to meet the new group, shout out to you guys if you're reading now, G25 woo! I did eventually make it to the top of the volcano! (pics below) It was pretty incredible. It didn't feel like I was on Ambae anymore, it was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life and the pictures just don't really do it justice. The water has sulferic acid and it's milky colored. I went in the water and it kind of burned but it also cleaned all of my cuts, also it was super warm thanks to the volcano underneath it! Well this is the last update in a while, I won't have Internet for another 3 months but when I do it'll be when I'm going home to America for a month!! Going in December and I'm super excited to see friends, family and go skiing. Oh also I gotta be at the airport early because I'm taking little Tekeroi Anga back to Ambae with me, he's 4 and I met him and he  seemed to instantly like me so that's always good. You know you're integrated when you're carrying peoples children around the islands, hope I don't lose him.

That's about all for now, bongkarea wan taem!


P.S. I hope I can find my dog, when I went to the airport to come here she chased the truck all the way because she didn't want me to leave her. It's super sad and when I got on the plane someone had to hold her because she tried to get on with me. Really hope she made it back to my house OK!

Biggest pot of rice I've ever seen for C

The most organic lunch I've ever eaten thanks to my amazing gardening skills

A dog I was watching & Shaiah!

My dog apparently is an expert hunter

Octopus - really good actually

Students just burning stuff by my house, nbd

THIS is Lake Vui

Everything is dead on top thanks to the eruption years ago

Repercussions, Vila Town & 4th of July

So I’m not going to go into too much detail but let’s just say Peace Corps wasn’t too happy with what happened and granted that’s due to me breaking some policy. A few days after everything happened I get a call from the office telling me I have a plane ticket to go in two days and that was all. Obviously I was pretty worried because at that point I thought they were bringing me in to kick me out of the Peace Corps which would have really sucked. Anyway I get into town after saying bye to some close friends telling them hopefully I would be back. I go in to one meeting and then am pretty much left to just sit in limbo for two weeks which wasn’t too fun. All I kept hearing was “no decision has been made” so there were some pretty stressful times here but then our country director came back (he was away in DC). This was an extremely good thing. Our current country director is one of the best people I know, he’s really great. We talked and he listened to my story and understood more of what happened from my perspective and asked me to do a few things so he could try to get me to stay (writing up a report of what happened, etc..)

            So what happened after that was pretty surreal, the country director himself decided to come to Ambae and see what it’s all about, and guess what else? I’d be acting as his guide. So it was pretty ironic and pretty fast planning but he asked me how to get around and where to go so I told him and he asked me to walk around Ambae with him which I of course acquiesced. We flew into East Ambae, saw some other volunteers sites and then hopped on a truck and went for a pretty bumpy ride up to Mac and Joels site and spent the night. The next day we walked to Zacks site and that was no easy walk, luckily our CD is in pretty good shape and he was able to handle it greatly and this was a real eye opener for him, he said he gets to see how hard it is and what we have to deal with every day so I’m really glad he got to come.

Anyway it wasn’t all bad being in Vila and I got to be there for 4^th of July which was really a lot of fun! Something pretty fun to do in this country is to browse through Chinese shops and find the most ridiculous and outlandish clothes you can possibly find and then wear them! This time I got pretty lucky and found some good stuff (pics below) and we got to drink bud light and party on a beach with a bonfire. It was a good night and I’m glad I got to experience the most American holiday there is with other Americans! Also everything is all good now in case you were wondering and I’m going back to Ambae very soon, so here’s to hoping I don’t get in to any more trouble!

Our chinese store clothes find!

Pidgeon blong Amerika!

Face paint!

I think mine was the most elaborate

Volcano? Nah. Lost? Yea.

So just the next weekend I wanted to go up the volcano again and two British/Australian volunteers near me (Katie + Lucinda) had a friend that was going up and invited them along, who in turn invited me to go up. The plan was that we were going to clear the road as we went up so they took up bush knives some food and a tent. The plan was also to sleep at the top when we got there and just come down the next day. So we left at 2:00AM for some reason – we were under the impression that we would get there early afternoon and be able to just relax and enjoy hanging out by the volcano for the day but boy were we wrong about that.

So we walked and we walked all day and when it was early afternoon I asked if we were close and the response was 3 more hours, so then 5 hours later I asked if we were close again, and then apparently there were 2 more hours left, and then after 4 hours I knew things weren’t going right. We were in the middle of the bush walking since 2:00AM and it was about 4:00PM now and our guide then informed me that we would not be making it to the top tonight and we are going to have to just sleep here in the middle of nowhere.  So we set up camp, but there’s something you, the reader, should know and that is where we were on Ambae is the second highest point in Vanuatu and what that means is it’s ridiculously cold up there, especially at night. Most of my friends know I got minor frostbite in Vermont skiing one time so I get super cold, super easy. Basically that night was like torture, it was super cold and the one blanket I brought just didn’t really cut it. Also it was sort of drizzling all night which doesn’t help with being cold either. Anyway me along with the two other white man were pretty miserable and didn’t really enjoy being up there and our guide said that we still have about 5 more hours tomorrow, which could mean it could be 10 hours away. So after trying to sleep all night and being super cold and super tired we decided to turn back the next morning and we let them know and they said OK! We thought it would be easy to follow the road back because we just cut it the day before, we thought.

We walked for about 3 hours and then realize that we weren’t on the same trail we were on yesterday. Uh oh. Tried to back track, tried to follow the path, it ended. So it turns out we got pretty lost and I have no idea how. Luckily we found a creek and I just said lets follow that because they all lead to the ocean and the main road. It was the best idea and the easiest to walk on because some things you should know about the creeks here – they are dry creeks and only have water if it’s raining and they were formed from old run off of the volcano lava. This means that it was much easier to walk on uneven rock than through the deep bush of Ambae so we stuck with it. It turns out that there were numerous large cliffs that were formed which were untraversable. We had to go around which turned out to be extremely difficult and way harder than I could have imagined. We left at 7:00AM and walked and walked all day, lost, and had to eventually stop at 6:00PM because that’s when the sun went down and we couldn’t see anymore. Now during this whole day we ran out of food and water, which was really bad. The dry creek had some stagnant gross pools we found and luckily didn’t get us sick but otherwise we were pretty hungry. Since the sun went down we had nothing to do but to just lay down on the rock, huddle up (it was still cold), and go to sleep.

We woke up the next morning and started walking as soon as the sun gave enough light and then we were back on our way. Luckily the night before I got random sporadic spurts of cell phone reception and was able to text my counterpart and let him know that we were lost, this is serious and we need help! My counterpart is a really great guy and he ran to some villages and started organizing some search parties, they knew we were in a creek and there weren’t TOO many so all along West Ambae there were search parties looking for us which was nice to know. Anyway we walked for half of the day and then finally heard someone far away. We walked towards the sound and eventually found a bush garden and some people saw us and were very confused to see white people wandering around the middle of nowhere. After telling them our story in Bislama (mifala bin lus lo bus!) they were very worried for us and immediately got us some mantioc, capscicum and some coconuts which we drank ravenously.

Afterwards they took us down to the main road because I could get home from there, we got to the next village only to see a large group of people wielding bush knives that came in a truck. This wasn’t just any group of random Ni-vans wielding large machetes, these were my friends! It was a lot of people from my school that just got to that site and we just about to head up into the bush to go look for me! It was crazy, I was super happy, they were super happy, it was pretty emotional because they care so much about this white person who just came from America but now I’m a part of their community and they didn’t want to lose me, which is nice. So that’s my story about getting lost in the bush, it was scary as hell, and certainly one hell of a learning experience. I’m pretty sure I’m never going to walk around without a guide in the bush ever again. 

One of the insane cliffs

Here's our road

Spel smol

First night camping with the group (wasn't lost yet so that's why I'm smiling!)

Ambae Trek & Volcano

So my friend Zack and I decided to have another adventure on Ambae. Some other volunteers were going to East at one girl’s house, Kara, to climb up to the volcano. The day before Zack and I walked from West to East which took most of the day. Afterwards we met up with the other volunteers and stayed at Kara’s for the night. We had previously arranged transport so we could get from Kara’s site to South Ambae because that’s where we were going to climb up the volcano from. It was supposed to come at 5:30AM and we were all up and ready to go but surprise, the truck never came. It was about 7:00 when we decided to just start walking to the village we needed to get to. Finally we get there and then by this time it’s too late to go to the volcano because it takes a while to get up and go down and then we’d have to worry about transport getting back once it was dark. Everyone decided to get the tattoo that day (oh did I mention you get a tattoo when you climb this volcano?) and then climb up the volcano the next day. I know how things work here and I pretty much knew it wasn’t going to happen and I really wanted to go so the guides were going up anyway and I decided to just go with them.

So we went up just me and two Ni-van boys and we were going at a pretty brisk pace. We actually made it up in 4 ½ hours and but the entire place was shrouded in clouds once we were an hour up so it was hard to see a lot but I did get to the see the big lake on top next to the volcano. From what I understand there’s one giant lake (Manarangoro) which is what I saw and then there’s lake Vui which is where the volcano is (underneath the lake). I took some pics (below) and then we went back down really fast, it only took 3 hours. We got back just at 6:00pm which is when the sun goes down so we got back just in time. I knew I wouldn’t be able to find a truck back to Kara’s so I decided to stay with the Ni-vans in the village which was pretty cool. Oh so I got my first tattoo! It’s pretty small and the meaning behind it is everyone used to have it and it means when you die you will eternally be dancing on top of the volcano where as everyone else who doesn’t have it will be swimming in the ocean with the sharks. So yeah it’s pretty cool and I’m pretty excited about it. Anyway the next day was Sunday and I knew I had to get back to school on time to teach class on Monday so I slept in the village and set off early the next day to make it back to West. So I started in South, walked to East, walked to North, got a truck for an hour of the way, eventually made my way back to West, hopped on a boat, and then walked some more and made it back to Londua at about 8:00pm. So I walked for about 10 hours but I pretty much rounded Ambae in one day which was really tiring. After telling Ni-vans what I did they were pretty amazed and said they would never make that walk so now I’m man blong walkabout.  Anyway that was the first time I climbed up Manaro so I’m excited to go back again a bunch of times and if you’re reading this and you also want to climb just contact me and that would be pretty awesome!

Our group going up