After 10 intense days here in Vanuatu I have finally had the chance to sit down and write a proper email and look through the many hundreds of photos taken thus far. It is hard to know where to start! We have had daily Bislama lessons, and they are going well, the volunteers all find themselves speaking to each other in Bislama by accident, and if ever my spelling was bad before it is going to be awful after 12 months of writing and reading Bislama. Ill give you an example Mi wanem go long sto blong pem fis, ti mo paepa after mi go bakaken long aelan. I want to go to the store to by fish, tea and paper then I’m going to go back to the island.
Vanuatu is beautiful and the island where I will be living is like nothing I have ever seen before I can categorically say that this is living the dream. The school council are building me a shack on the point with the most incredible view I have ever seen. They say it should be ready in two weeks, and in the mean I will live with a local family in the village who have adopted me. I not have a Ni Van Mama and Papa, two sisters and a little brother and the chief of the village is my uncle. My mama had weaved me a new bag with my name on it and a matching handbag so that I can carry all my books to school and everyone in the village can learn my name! Cute or what? The Island has no running water but that said water is plentiful and easily available because it rains so much and all houses have rain water tanks with little taps. The water tastes fantastic due to the almost complete lack of pollution. There are only two cars on the whole island! There is no central electricity but some houses have solar panels or a generator. I think I will take a small generator with me so that I can keep my computer and mobile charged. Oh, we do have mobile coverage as well! Classic! There is a small island near by where someone is building a private hotel for movie stars and so they put a mobile tower on the island which covers my village as well! Nice one!
I have done so much stuff in the last few days, We caught, tagged, named and released a turtle ( I asked him how old he was, just a young fella of 35), went snorkelling for the first time, AMAZING! I kept squealing every time I saw a fish which was rather often! I found Nemo as well and freaked out when we got back to the beach because one of the boys in the village had caught a tiger shark in that spot the day before. Note to self: ask around before swimming.
We have also, been to church, danced to the local string band, had Bislama lessons on the beach, cooked Lap-Lap with the Mamas, got sunburned, been on a sunset sail in a schooner, been to Pt Villa’s answer to moonlight cinema (over the water with a full bar and pizzas) and probably a million other things that I cant remember because so much has happened.
Its so freaking hot and humid that it isn’t even worth spending energy complaining about the heat and humidity, but we still do “Hemi hot tumas!” It cools down at night time and a fan is all you need to get a good nights sleep. The solwata (sea) calls constantly and we have been swimming every day. The water is coolest in the mornings, but I managed to get burned while swimming at 8am. Lesson learned.
I will be staying in Villa or a few more days as I meet the education big wigs, go to a dinner at the Australian High Commission and get things to set my house up with. I’m really glad that I packed a few good kitchen items. Cooking will be a whole new learning experience, with no refrigeration and all the fruit you can handle growing all around. Its currently paw paw, bananas, this grapefruit which isn’t sour, avocado and fish galore!