Long Awaited Photo Update

So I haven't had too great of Internet until now which I'll explain in my next post but here is a whole bunch of photos which I've been meaning to get on here:

(The pics are divided into three sections for three different islands: Vila, Ambae and Santo)

Vila:

A map of Ambae in the PC Office

We're Group 24 - so why not?

Swearing in, becoming official Peace Corps Volunteers

Mine and Sam's amazing host family in Tanilou, Efate

Papa Pascal and Brota Brandon

Sunset in Vila

Some flying fox in the market (bat for you Americans)

Ambae:

Devil's Rock on Ambae

                                               

                                      

Rory and I with our 50 cal bullets we dug out

One spot during the hike to Zack's

Manaro with it's head up in the clouds

Up by Zack's Village - the view down

The start to East Ambae..

So many miles..

Keep going..

Had to trek across a couple of these

Zack

Friendly family of bulls right?

Wrong! Run away!

This was papa cow mid charge at us

So tired...

Kara's Xmas tree!

Mmmmm turkey spam

Kara's village Xmas celebration

They split up the white man..

We had fake snow!

Our Christmas ended in a paint war..

Santo:

Champagne Beach!

Jason & Ryan grappling

Meg and I

1st place fish!

AMBAE!

Santo people

Man Ambae! (Joel, me, Zack)

That's it for now, hope you enjoyed the pics!

AMBAEleavable Christmas

So I pronounce my island Ambae as: uhm-bye so you can see how clever ambaeleavable is ;]

Anyway..

Zack and I were planning on spending Christmas together and two days before I walked up to his village and he came down to mine to hang out. One volunteer Kara on East Ambae said we should hang out with her for Christmas so we thought that was a great idea and had it in our heads to walk from West to East (which is rarely done).

I timed it using the stop watch on my watch and when we ended it was 8 hours 23 minutes. That doesn’t include a 10 minute stop for lunch – it was all walking. Needless to say I physically couldn’t move after that – it was the most intense walk of my life. Because I knew we were eventually going to Santo for New Years, I packed my kindle, laptop, ipod, speakers and cell so I basically had all of my electronics with me. I did not know that it was going to downpour like crazy and have to ford three different raging rivers. I was so scared I was going to go down and lose all my stuff but we made it through. Afterwards we found a family of cows on the beach who then proceeded to charge down the beach towards us so we had to make a run for it up in the bush. It turns out there wasn’t much of a trail so we got lost for a few hours after completely running out of water so I was survivor man style and sipping the collected rain water from lily like leaves. Apparently we only got half way and had to charter a really expensive boat to take us the rest of the way, by the time we finally got to her house my legs just could not move anymore and I slept incredibly well. Later the next day I found out that during that crazy adventure my kindle got soaked and water got under the screen ruining it. It’s pretty sad because I use my kindle a LOT and now it’s gone :’[ all is not lost though because my parents already got one and sent it to a current volunteer who’s visiting the states and he agreed to bring it back to Vanuatu with him when he comes home from vacation! So my replacement is already on its way and until then it’s back to physical books..

Our Christmas was pretty great, another volunteer Megan from North Ambae joined us and we had a whole bunch of American food! Fried turkey spam, mashed potatoes, gravy, Mac & Cheese, sweet potato fries and a pumpkin pie (which turned out more to be pumpkin pudding, but still delicious!

It was definitely a different experience and didn’t really feel like Christmas being on a hot island with no snow anywhere in the future. It was definitely sad to be away from my family and friends for the holidays but everyone here is in the same boat so it was good to share it with people who are going through the same thing and we had a great time.

We just hung out for the next two days and then found out that the Efate Queen, which is a passenger ship, was heading for Ambae to go to Santo and that’s where we needed to go. Santo is the other main city in Vanuatu and has power and Internet and all that so we all went to go stay with Ryan. We left at 7:00AM to walk two hours to the north port and didn’t get to Santo until 2:30AM the next day! The distance is only a four hour boat ride but it had to stop a few times and let people on and off. The ship system is truly inefficient to say the least, a little boat that can hold 4-5 people per trip had to keep coming and going from the trip transporting hundreds of people, adding up to several hours of just waiting. There really must be a better way but no one has seen fit to adopt that way as of yet.

So we finally made it to Santo and hung out in town for a few days which was great – cheese burgers, beers and milkshakes. There’s really nothing better than that after living off of bread and rice for the past few weeks. A bunch of us got together for New Years, partied all night – just like the states. After New Years we went to this place called Champagne Beach (which if you Google real quick you’d see it’s one of the best beaches in the world) was absolutely gorgeous (pictures to follow in next post).

All in all my first Christmas and New Years away from home was a pretty good time.

Ambae

So after spending a few days here I’ve become familiar with every part of West Ambae which is where I live. The farthest part south of me of West Ambae is Walaha airport where I flew in. Next comes Ndui Ndui which is where most people go.

The first week I was here were a bunch of football tournaments and it’s pretty strange being the only white man in the whole village. I’ve been doing a lot of walking because there isn’t too much to do right now due to the spell. So how schools work here is there is a big three month break off school right now that doesn’t resume until February where no one is on campus except for maybe one or two teachers and right now it’s just the headmaster and I.

Because I’m staying on a school campus I’m having a totally different experience than some volunteers who are staying in actual villages. I’ve visited Zack’s site who’s the closest to me and it’s about a 2 hour walk up this pretty strenuous trail which is pretty fun. Every day he has people bringing him food for breakfast, lunch and dinner which is pretty nice because I’m by myself I usually fend for myself. 

I finally met my new host family the other day and they are really cool! I have two sisters and two brothers who are 19 and 20 and we hang out a lot. I have to walk 25 minutes to their house but I do it every day just because there’s not too much else to do.   

There’s a rock called devil’s rock that’s jutting out of the water and I went with my host brother to pick up some cargo and it’s the only sand beach on the coast of West Ambae, it’s a black sand beach and pretty nice. A few days later I went back with the two Australians that came to visit and me and the guy Rory swam out there (about 30 minutes) and climbed the rock. In WWII US troops used it as target practice so when I got up there I found a 50 cal bullet lodged in which I finally got out which is pretty cool. On the way back I was snorkeling and I saw a reef shark which was pretty cool and scared Rory when I came up and told him what was there. 

Basically- Ambae is pretty hardcore and pretty awesome, can’t wait to conquer the volcano!

Leaving the Nest

So our group had one last week together at a hotel in Port Vila where we all had a lot of fun and enjoyed things we know we won’t get on the island (ice cream and beer for example). It was a great week and everyone is pretty bummed about going off on our own now but we must move on. 

Today is the first day I’m at site. It is currently 12/12/11 and I flew into Santo and then took a much smaller plane to Walaha Airport which is only about a 15 minute flight. At this point it was only Zack and I because we’re the only ones on West Ambae but he’s a bit more north. The headmaster of the college came along with my new host family for the next two years everyone was really glad and excited to see me and I felt the same. I got a tour of the area and I am pretty close (one hour walk) from a nice market which sells basically anything I would need. There are a bunch of smaller markets as well that are closer. Not only are there a bunch of soccer fields here, there happens to be one right next door to my house which is pretty cool.

My House:

So my house is pretty awesome. It’s made of woven bamboo and a thatched roof. It’s got two bedrooms and a living room (I’ll upload a pic). I’ve got my own bush kitchen (which means you have to make a fire anytime you want to cook something), my own toilet and bucket shower area. Probably the best feature of the house is the location – I’m directly above the ocean, now there is no beach here it’s all volcanic rock but just so you know I’ll have the rhythmic pounding of the ocean waves lulling me into sleep every nigh which sure beats any  white noise machine, ever. I’m pretty pleased with it but because this site was so last notice for the people here it is not fully completed. They are constructing a fence around my house right now which is pretty cool too. So where am I staying you might ask? Well I’m at this GAP house for Australian volunteers which is inside the school and is a bungalow for about 10-15 people and I’m by myself. So yes it’s pretty big and a bit lonely but there’s a generator that comes on every night usually but because school isn’t in session (It’s December now and school doesn’t come back until February) the generator only comes on Monday and Thursday for two hours but I’m pretty sure there’s somewhere else on campus that has solar power so I can charge things there if needed.

I realized I told everyone this place had Internet and I was led to believe that but apparently the modem broke so we are waiting for AUZ AID to come to the rescue and get a new one but until then (headmaster thinks February) I won’t have Internet so I guess this post won’t even go out until Phase II training (which I’ll get to later) so sorry for waiting so long to get this out! There’s no other Internet on West Ambae but there is Internet on East Ambae but it’s pretty hard/expensive to travel to the other side so until it gets fixed I don’t have too many options.

Anyway the school is pretty great and right now it only seems to be the headmaster and I but I think I’m just going to walk every day to the other more populated sections.

! SITE ANNOUNCEMENT !

OK here it is – the biggest and most important post so far! We finally had our site announcement where everyone finds out which island they’re going to be on for the next TWO YEARS. Everyone was really anticipating this day, I was super stressed as there were only five IT sites and we knew most of them. 

Here’s a quick rundown of the other IT people and their sites: (note that we are just 5 out of the 29 in Group 24, also note that I’m the youngest at 23 years when the others are between 25 and 26)

Britt – He’s a graphic designer and overall cool guy and his site is actually on Efate (where we are now) and is close to our host village (and just a short bus ride to Port Vila, the capital) – no one was expecting it and it was pretty surprising but he’s happy because his host family rocks so he won’t be having to make himself too much food over the next two years so I’m pretty jealous.

Tim M – Tim is a pretty funny man and he worked at Apple for a while and managed some Apple servers. He is headed for Malekula, sound familiar? Well that’s where my HVV was to! So I know 
his site and he’s really happy with it, and not to mention they just got Internet so that’s a huge plus.

Tim H – Timbo as we like to call him is definitely the most computer savvy person in our IT group, he’s super smart. He was also placed on Efate at the best College of Vanuatu. It has a fantastic lab setup and Internet as well so Timbo is pretty pleased.

Ryan – Ryan or R-dawg (as I’m the only one who calls him that) got the site we were all vying for – Santo. The reason all of us wanted Santo was because of the location – let me explain: for the next two years he is staying on the island of Santo in the town of Luganville which is the second biggest town in Vanuatu (behind Port Vila) and is also very developed. He has a three bedroom house, a bathroom, shower and kitchen all inside his house, oh and did I mention the shower has hot water? Not only all of the above but also he has easy Internet access from his house which is just crazy. So needless to say we are all a little bit jealous of him but pretty happy for him as well and I’m sure I’ll be visiting plenty because I am placed on the island of….

(Drum roll please…)

AMBAE

Yes! This was a last minute change because the site on Tanna was scraped because they didn’t get their act together. I will be staying on West Ambae at a Technical College teaching IT with a counterpart! I am so super excited for this and can’t wait to get out there. Apparently they do have actual computers, well notebooks (not desktops), and about 15 of them so that’s really great. When I get to site they are on break for 3 months so I’ll have that time to set up the lab how I want it and all the software and everything. I can’t wait to start teaching computers here and most of the people (especially on Ambae) have never even touched a computer before so it’s going to be a challenge I look forward too.

So now that you know I’m going to be on Ambae, how about some very interesting facts about it? First off it’s located right near Santo and Malekula so I’m pretty happy about the location because it’s a great hub to visit people. (The rest of these facts are mostly from Wikipedia) Ambae, or Leper’s Island (I have no idea why) has a population of less than 10,000 and divided into 3-4 language groups. There are three airstrips, the closest one on west Ambae called Walaha. “The island appears to be covered in nearly unbroken vegetation; inhabited areas feature large gardens and managed forests…) So I’m pretty sure I’ll definitely be starting a garden which is pretty cool too! There are no reliable sources of surface water so all water comes from wells and water tanks from rainwater! 

Volcano..

Try not to worry mom but Ambae is characterized by the large volcano at its center called Manaro “indeed, the island is little more than the peak of a volcanic mountain rising dramatically from the sea.” In 2005 it was raised to a Level 2 volcano alert and it displaced half of the islands inhabitants and the evacuation of two hospitals.

“Manaro is widely regarded as one of the world’s top ten ‘most dangerous’ volcanoes, in terms of potential for a catastrophic eruption. One theory has it that given a large eruption, the water in Manaro’s crater lakes could become superheated steam and cause a massive phreatic explosion. The resulting landslides down the island’s steep slopes could cause tsunamis within Vanuatu’s northern archipelago.”

Insane.

I really wanted adventure and I’m pretty sure I got it. I definitely also want to buy a mountain bike and go exploring all the time. Also if you look on a map of Ambae and where the volcano is, the school I’m located at is directly west and I am the closest town center to the volcano! The really cool thing is Ambae’s volcano Manaro is the one that most people talk about climbing because when you do you get a tattoo signifying your journey, I believe the hike could be about 8 hours from one volunteer who told me. The good thing about this is MANY volunteers want to climb it and my house being so close I will act as a hub and will have a bunch of people to come visit me and stay at my house!

The other really great thing is there are two other volunteers going with me to Ambae! Zack Sherrard who is also in VITEL teaching English and is also probably the other most adventurous person in the group so we are going to have a hell of a time exploring this island. He’s also the closest volunteer to me although I’m not quite sure if the road goes all the way so he’s going to have to walk to get to my site part of the way. We already made plans and he’s probably going to crash at my place for a while because since school’s are on break, people have told us that there could only be one or two teachers left at the whole school itself leaving us pretty isolated and with no human interaction. The other volunteer is probably my best guy friend, my brosef stalin – Joel Klaus. He’s a cool dude from Texas and is in Community Health so he wasn’t in our village of Tanilou, he stayed in Mangaliliu. So needless to say I am super pleased with the volunteers on the island and there are also four other female volunteers on the island already.

Everyone got a folder explaining their site a little more, now I haven’t gotten a chance to read through it all yet but I did see some pictures and I like it so far. I have a two bedroom house and then a big living room area. It’s a custom house (meaning it’s made mostly out of bamboo and weaving). I’m definitely getting a cat or two to keep the rats away and for company. What’s a bummer about the IT sites, they are all on schools/colleges and not in a village like most of the Community Health and English vols. So I don’t really have a village but I won’t know what it’s like until I get there and I do have a host family so I’m excited about that because I really have no idea how to cook, especially on a foreign island. I also have my own bathroom, shower and kitchen but these things are all separate entities and they are all outside my house. I’m pretty sure it’s a bucket shower and I’m going to have to buy a little Rocket Stove they call it here so I can cook anything. I’m pretty sure that I have the most “bush” IT site but that’s not really a problem for me and I am looking forward to it. Because I’m on the western side of Ambae and because the airport on Santo (near Luganville the big city) is on the East, I’m only a 15 minute plane ride there! That’s really exciting so whenever I feel like I need some city life with hot water and Internet I can always hop on a plan and go stay with someone there. Now there is Internet on Ambae at the North I just don’t know how accessible it is from where I’m staying so I will update you all on that later and I just checked and the site DOES have Internet (how cool is that!?)

I was pretty happy with my Lonely Planet Vanuatu book up until I tried to look up info about Ambae – where they have a two paragraph section just saying that it has a volcano. So I don’t have too much to go on but I hear it’s a beautiful place, and also my College I’ll be teaching at is right on the ocean so that’s going to be incredible and I’ll have a constant view of this tremendous volcano I’ve read so much about. 

Well that’s pretty much all I know at this point, I hope after reading this you’re as excited as I am and you’re already planning your trip to come see me :) .

Last Kakae + Leaving Tanilou

So my family had a bigfala kakae or last kakae which is like our last meal and is a big feast and it just happens to be 11/25 which is Thanksgiving in America! My family went all out and we had laplap, chicken wings, sausage, pizza and tuluk (Vanuatu hot pocket but better). It was an awesome feast and even though we aren’t technically allowed to drink alcohol in the training village, there was plenty of red wine to go around as well. It was a great time and it really reminds me how much I’m going to miss this village and my host family, life here is just so different than America. No matter where you go someone asks where you’re going – and not because they’re nosy – but because they genuinely all care about you and are curious. It really is the happiest country in the world
Leaving Tanilou is bittersweet. On the one hand we're all really excited to go and start teaching and helping the people of Vanuatu and on the other hand a lot of us (myself included) really will miss our host families because they are so awesome and cook for us all the time!

I'm going to keep this post very short word wise and just show a bunch of photos which I think are a lot more enjoyable.

The spread..

On our way to Survivor Beach (where Survivor was filmed!)

It's really not too great

some girls in their island dresses for Thanksgiving

The incredible waet man kaeka (white man food)

That my friends is some real ice cream..

Red wine from France

My new buddy (see Dan?)

Zack who was commandeering a spear gun

Parrot fish not only look good but taste good

On our way to see a grave where a great Chief was laid to rest and his 50 wives were buried alive with him

Don't worry dan we ate them all

Place where the IT guys had their practicum

Allow me to translate: Please make sure that the door is locked all the time. After you use the room on top, lock the door and double check first that it's locked or not before you leave. Ta (short form of Ta ta, which is goodbye basically)

This is all my luggage, yes it's just mine. Yes I have more luggage than any other volunteer...you were right Nic haha.

Loading everything up

All the volunteers had to line up and the entire village went down the row and shook all of our hands and all did it while crying.