The Move

Not sure why I can't move these pics around, so sorry, they're all at the beginning

4 of us in the Round Island Relay

Me passing off the baton to JJ

Speech to Ekipe

L to R: Kennedy, Parra, Me , Grenly, Dick, Johnny

Joel and the new chiefs

the small chiefs lined up for the ceremony

crushed skull

Chief Joel

On the way to his doom

Joel is on the right with the kastom pig killer

All the bubu's (grandpas) sitting together


OK, I know its Christmas. 

My blogging has been infrequent and late.

for that I'm sorry

Here's some meet on a stick to make up for it

July was full of great experiences. It's amazing how much we were able to pack into this one month. After Krissy's parents left we turned our attention to spending as much time in Ekipe as we could, since we knew that at the end of the month we would be leaving Ekipe Village for the big city: Port Vila. 

Most Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV's) are placed at a site for the full 2 years of their service. For Krissy and I, this was not the case. We knew right away, while still in Milwaukee that we would be living in a rural site for the first year and an urban site the second year. This happened because Krissy has her Masters in Public Health and was picked as a replacement for another PCV with her MPH living in Port Vila. Though we were well aware of this planned move it did not make it any easier. 

About halfway through our time in Ekipe, everyone started asking us when we would be leaving, how soon it would be and if we would ever come back. This was frustrating because we were still trying to do work on various projects but all anyone could talk about was us leaving. Well the time finally arrived and we were pretty sad about it. 

Though on this very blog, I bitched and moaned about bugs, heat, food, toilets, and other physical discomforts, the amazing feeling of truly being part of a tight knit community was very difficult to let go. Neighbors who eat together, worship together, greet each other when they come back from travels, play together, work together, all surrounding you day in and day out, this situation is unprecedented in my life. The comfort and confidence and happiness that are borne from living this life are palpable. And they are hard to leave. Even with the lure of electricity, refrigerators, tv's, DVD's, music, ice cream, etc.

Fortunately we had some big events to distract us from the move. One of our host families who we ate dinner with every Monday, began preparing for their patriarch's chiefly name-giving ceremony more than a month in advance. For the month leading up to the big day, families from Ekipe made the short walk up to a satellite village called Matthiew to bring gifts and show their respect to Joel who would soon be taking his chiefly name (becoming one of the six paramount chiefs of Ekipe). 

While the village made preparations for the big shindig, Krissy and I trained for the Round Island Relay. A 10 person relay race around the island of Efate (AKA "My Island"). So since there would be all these people running around my island, I figured I better take part, lest somebody think it was THEIR island. So yeah, I trained, a little, and prepared myself for the thought of running in a race, something I have never done before. And never wanted to do before. 

Crazily, these two events coincided on the same weekend. That is, our last one in Ekipe. 

The Chiefly ceremony came first. It was beautiful, lots of custom songs, custom dress, pigs killed ceremoniously, besides the random white tourists who lucked into staying at Joel's Bungalows that weekend, it felt very traditional and authentic. What is it with living here that has made me racist against white people. Well not really white people, just white tourists. I hate it when I'm mistaken for a tourist, and it pissed me off that in our entire year in Ekipe this was the first custom ceremony we got to see, yet two kids from Oz on holiday from school got to see it on their 1 week visit. as if this happened every day! Anyway, I'm not REALLY angry, and not really racist either, I dunno, race relations here mean something totally different back home, so please excuse me if I sound insensitive...or whatever. 

Anyway, so after standing around for hours, climbing into a camion (Big flatbed truck), driving up into the hills, herding cattle, watching a couple of them get killed, and then butchered right there in the bush, pieces of it roasted and eaten while the bull was still twitching, we returned to the ceremony and stood around watching stuff for a few more hours before going home to rest up for the big race the next day.

The race was a lot of fun before hand and right at the beginning. I got to start my section in Ekipe, So I had all our friends and everyone at the ceremony there to cheer me on as we started out. We then ran through the neighboring village of Epao, which is my normal running route, so everyone there was cheering me on too. But once I got past the end of my normal route, my legs started to tell me that I had done too much standing around the day before. the grew wobbly and jelly like, and my pace slowed significantly as the hot hot sun came directly over head. Somehow I pushed through (TV on the Radio-Wolf Like Me, and Outkast- Bomb's Over Baghdad helped a lot with that) and completed my section. Our team placed solidly in the middle of the pack, not spectacular, but not too bad either. 

The next day was our last day in Ekipe. Our supervisor Linda came out to pick us up. Our replacement, Carol, and the entire village gathered outside of the New Covenent Church to say goodbye. We all gave speeches talking about our time together in Ekipe and what it meant to us. We ate good food, showed a slideshow of photos from our time there, and sadly walked around shking hands and saying goodbye. In the rain we packed up the last bits of our stuff and drove away.  After a  bumpy two hour drive as we approached Vila, we stopped at the scene of a recent accident. There were a bunch of people gathered around a van that had obviously been in a head on collision. There was a woman trapped in the front seat. Though they were trying to figure out how to extricate her from the vehicle, no one had thought to call police, or an ambulance. That's Vanuatu for you. a hundred people all standing around with cell phones, but no one calls an ambulance. So we called  and I tried to get people to give her some room and not crowd around her as we waited. Eventually the ambulance came and they were able to get her out. This all felt very symbolic of the new community we were moving to. 

I'll never forget my time in Ekipe, and even now, while still here in Vila, I frequently miss it.

Idyllic Independence Field

I had a great moment playing ball yesterday.
It was our former country director Kevin George's last game before he leaves for the States. He has been here in Vanuatu for seven years and has been playing baseball with his team of kids in Port Vila for 5 years. There happens to be a lot of volunteers in town right now because a new group just swore in and an old group is leaving. So along with the 15 or so kids we had playing we also had 10-15 Peace Corps volunteers at the game watching or playing.
So I'm standing in Left Field with my back to the descending sun. Barefoot in the grass, shouting encouragement to the kids we work with on a hot Sunday afternoon. The sky has started to turn it's peculiar Pacific Sky Blue/Purple/Pink color with not a cloud in sight. We've got White Americans, a Black American, Black Ni-Vanutu, Asian Americans, a Puerto Rican, and a bunch of "Halfie-Castes" (Which is what they call people like me who are half white and half something else) all playing baseball together on the same field: Independence Park in Port Vila, Vanuatu. I was sitting thinking about how amazing this all was and suddenly I hear "America the Beautiful" drifting on the drafts of humid air faintly into my ears. I really thought I was imagining it at first, it even sounded like an organist at a baseball game. I turned around and saw a congregation coming out of the big church across the street, and for whatever reason that Sunday afternoon, their church keyboard player was playing "America" on the organ setting. And just like in that scene from the Sandlot where they play the 4th of July game by the light of the fireworks,and Ray Charles starts singing "O Beautiful for spacious skies..." and all the kids turn around and stand mesmerized as the ball sails up into the fireworks, just like that, I stood mesmerized gazing off at the setting sun over Port Vila Harbor, and the happy laughing kids doing handstands on second base, and the Peace Corps Volunteers giving up two years of their lives to their country, all playing together on this idyllic, beautiful day.
Thank you God, for moments like this.

Port Vila Harbour on a particularly beautiful night (Thanks for the camera mom, it's doing great things)

Crew blong Brew

It is 3:04 a.m. in the island nation of Vanuatu. I'm awake writing this blog because I can't sleep. I can't sleep because I have butterflies in my stomach. I have butterflies in my stomach because in two hours the Milwaukee Brewers will be playing their first playoff game since Oct.20 1982. On October 21, 1982, the Brewers went home from St. Louis losers of their only World Series. Many miles away in Oakland, California, on that same day, I turned 1 year old. Being three years away from being moved to Wisconsin, I was not yet a Brewer fan. So forgive me for not watching any of these games.

So here I am 26 years later, on the island of Efate, in the capital city Port Vila, Southern Hemisphere, far far away from Milwaukee yet again. Apparently if Milwaukee is to get anywhere near the post-season, I have to live in a different time zone. Which is pretty damn unfair as much as I love the Brewers. Fortunately for me there is a new take Away Restaurant near my house that has an outside TV, that they leave on all night for their security guards. This establishment has agreed to leave on Fox Sports 3, an Australian sport channel that amazingly will be playing all playoff games LIVE as well as replays at night.

As a Brewer fan who watched religiously through the rough years, I just want to give a moments notice and a moment of silence for Ned Yost...

I know he caught a lot of hell from fans over the past two years. But I remember when he and Doug Melvin came in and turned around the culture of suck-city. Where the rest of the NL just came into Milwaukee for an easy 3 day holiday every time they had to play us. They'd beat the crap out of us and laugh at the pitiful defense, poor pitching, and shitty strikeout prone offense. When Ned came in he didn't have immediate success, but he did have an immediate effect on the team. the garbage was cut loose (Jeffrey Hammonds, Ruben Quevedo, Alex Sanchez) and players that worked hard and gave their all for every minute of every game, were given a chance to play (Brady Clark, Scott Podsednick). I remember Ned saying when he joined the Brewers that he remembered how great a city Milwaukee was when he was with the Brewers in the playoffs, and all he wanted to do was bring that feeling back to the people of Milwaukee. Now, after working tirelessly for what? 5 years? He has to sit at home watching as the Brewers celebrate and begin they're first playoff series in over a quarter century. Ned, I feel sorry for you, and if I ever see you someplace I'll buy you a beer, and tell you thanks for getting us here. We'll never know if the Brewers would've made it to the post season had you not been fired. Maybe they would've turned it around just in time to salvage their season, just like they did under Svuem. Or maybe they would've caved in and missed the playoffs, in which case you certainly would've been let go anyway. We'll never know that now, and I'm sorry you don't get to be there to see this project you started through to the end. But just know, that there are fans out there who are aware that this would've never happened if you hadn't joined us 5 years ago. So Ned, Thanks for all your hard work and good luck in the future.

A few words on the Cubs, and Cubs fans.
As long as I've been a Brewers fan I've been resentful (and quietly envious) of the Cubs and having to live in the shadow of their city. While the lovable losers of the North side of Chicago drew fans from all over the country on WGN, the just plain-losers of Milwaukee aired maybe 5 games a year on the local TV networks. Growing up without cable, I got to watch the Cubs more often then the Brewers, and this only made me hate 'em more. The fact that it was this trendy thing to do, and there were all these people living in Wisconsin, who apparently LOVED the Cubs but couldn't care less about the Brewers. The only reason the Brewers mattered at all to these people was that they provided a cheap alternative place to watch the Cubs every season. So as FIB's do, they'd drive up to Milwaukee on I-90/I-94 like they owned the road, take over our home field, call it Wrigley North, and then drive home drunk and reckless, celebrating the Cubs inevitable victory in Milwaukee. So this year it felt especially humiliating to see the Cubs sweep the Brewers at home over 4 games and then adding insult to injury, celebrate a no-hitter on our field while the Brewers were getting swept...over four games in Philly. Thanks Bud Selig and MLB for officially making Miller Park into Wrigley North.
As a small disclaimer I have to say that over the years I've met a number of Cubs fans that have become good, important friends to me. I was amazed to find out that they actually had real fans, that knew baseball, respected the game, and weren't assholes. According to these three: Carl Johnson (Racine, WI), Joe Engel (Kenosha, WI), and Seth Dallman (all over); according to them, there actually is a whole fan base of Chicago fans that are similar, it just so happens that those other Cubs fans outnumber and drown out the real fans.
So anyway, because of these guys, my animosity towards Cubs fans has decreased in general (it's just the ones who come to Miller Park, talk shit about Milwaukee (not the Brewers mind you, but Milwaukee, and its' people), that still get me real mad)...Let me tell you a secret though. A secret that may be in the heart of every Brewers fan...
I say all of this because I'm scared.
As a Brewer fan, I'm already satisfied. I know you're not supposed to say this but I'm just happy they made the playoffs, that's enough for me. Especially since I'm not there to see it. But I have this horrible dread that the Brewers and the Cubs are going to advance to the NLCS, and the Cubs fans will yet again take over Miller Park, and simply embarrass us in "Wrigley North," going on to win the World Series, forever condemning us to our traditional place of inconsequential laughing stocks. The other side of this masochistic fantasy, is that somehow, the Brewers will pull an amazing upset in remarkable comeback fashion and stun the Cubs in historic fashion, then go on to do the same to the South side in a White Sox- Brewers Word Series. If they were able to pull this off, it would spoil the Cubs 100 year anniversary party (that apparently entitles them to the World Series this year), and forever end the Brewers life in the Cubs shadow, simply by defeating the Cubs in the NLCS, the Brewers would become legendary as the team that beat the Cubs, the year they were destined to win it all.

I'll end this blog entry with a few shout-outs. First to Bill Hall and Rickie Weeks. Bill Hall became my favorite player when he came up as a September call-up in 2003. With a flair for the dramatic, game winning hit, and a willingness to play anywhere, and do anything for the team, he made me a fan. Here's hoping Svuem doesn't forget that ability in the playoffs. Rickie has had a shitty year, a lot like last year actually. He hasn't put it together and it's becoming less clear if he ever will. That said, numbers don't tell the whole story and I agreed with Yost when he said that despite the .230 avg Rickie always seemed to find a way to get on base and score important runs. Good Luck in the playoffs Rickie, I hope you can pull it together in the clutch and redeem your season and standing with the team.
Second, I gotta give a shout out to Ben Sheets.

I know it seems like no one cares about you right now Benny, what with all the (well-deserved) hype around Sabathia. But just like Yost you toiled with us through the lean years, and the injuries are not your fault. i'm sad to see that after all these years with us your arm is dead right as we finally make the playoffs. Rest up buddy, and maybe you can get in the World Series, if we make it that far.
Next I gotta go across to the opposing clubhouse in Philly and give a shout out to Goeff Jenkins. After 13 years with us, we sent you away and you finally made the playoffs, sadly you'll be playing against us instead of with us. Congrats nonetheless, you still have a lot of fans in Wisconsin who appreciate the way you played the game while you were here. (a side note, isn't it ironic that Brett Favre the player who defined his team for the last decade+ left the Packers for the Jets, the same year his look-alike Geoff Jenkins, who defined the Brewers for the past decade+ also left Wisconsin for an East Coast team? Does this mean the Jets and the Packers are destined to meet in the playoffs this year? Now that would be a story).

Sticking with the NL East I gotta sey hey to Wes Helms. Once a Brewer, always a Brewer huh? That go ahead solo HR you hit was the most important hit you ever got for Milwaukee, thanks for thinking of us when it mattered.

One more shout out goes to Yovani Gallardo, the 100th Mexican Major Leaguer, coming back as the future face of the franchise, and stepping up to the plate, after two knee-surgeries. Good effort kid, looking forward to seeing you today and for a long time to come.

And finally...A shout out to Lou Piniella and the Cubs. You guys have been the best team in the League all year, what's more your team is exciting, fun to watch, and just plain scary to play against. Thanks however for switching pitchers in that last game of the season until we found one we could hit. We appreciate the help and hope to see you in the NLCS. Though I would be scared to death of losing to you guys, it would be an exciting series to watch.

Peace Out Baseball Fans,

Go BREWERS!!!

Arrival of the In-Laws

In June, we got our second arrival of visitors, Krissy's parents, Jim and Kathy Buchholz, flew to Vanuatu, to experience this Melanesian culture on the frontlines of Globalization

Coincidentally, two other volunteers had their families coming to visit them on the same flight as Krissy's parents so we all got in a bus to pick them up together. As we got to the airport to pick up Jim and Kathy, a soft mist came from a hazy grey blanket of clouds. As there often is in Vanuatu for everything, there was a long delay with their flight. We didn't think much of this until 1hr.30min had passed and still the airline hadn't communicated why there was a delay. Eventually they told us the plane couldn't land because of the weather?! and that the airplane had turned around and gone back to Fiji. Turns out theytried to land the plane twice, but both times the pilot was unable to do it, so they flew to The Solomon Islands (the island nation North of Vanuatu) to refuel. They also flew to Noumea (or New Caledonia) before returning to Fiji for the night. All this flying took up the entire first day and night. We had to restructure our plans because we were supposed to fly to Pentecost and spend the next 5 days there. Anyway they finally arrived after this crazy ordeal and landed the next morning...in the exact same weather...don't ask me.

With our plans messed up we were forced to spend the next three days in Vila, most of the time it rained and unfortunately there is not much to do in Vila when it rains. However one good thing that came out of it was that we were around for the swearing in ceremony of group 21A. We got to go up to Epao village and watch a VERY long but interesting (for Jim and Kathy at least) series of speeches. More importantly we got to talk meet and talk with the President and first lady of Vanuatu.

Here is the US ambassador to Fiji, with Vanuatu's President, Chief Mormor (an important chief who has a really strong relationship with Peace Corps), and Kevin George, Peace Corps Country Director, all drinking kava. We drank right after them, but yeah, I got stuck as photographer, so we were'nt in the shot.

Jim's first Tusker

With all the Vila sitting around out of the way we were off to the isle of Pentecost, a long skinny island that has a unique custom called land-diving.

the tiny, little plane to Pentecost. 7 seater. small.

The story of land-diving goes something like this.

A long time ago a man was angry at his wife, he was looking for her trying to kill her, and she was running away from him, hiding from him. Eventually she climbed up a tall tree to hide, but he saw her and followed her she had tied a vine around her leg and when he approached she jumped off and he jumped after her. the vine caught her and kept her alive, but he (lacking said vine) fell and died. After that, every year in Pentecost people erected towers, climbed them, attached vines to their ankles, and jumped off.

Here's Krissy and I in front of one of the towers

The land-diving ceremony is one of the most interesting, exciting, custum traditions practised in Vanuatu, and it is only done on Pentecost. A lot of tourists come to watch now, but it is still really cool and feels like looking back in time, here's a bunch of pics from the ceremony

The ceremony was incredible.

Here's a shot of "Cook's Rock" a rock that Captain James Cook made some nautical inscriptions on when he was first "discovering" all the islands round these parts. You can still see them. (but not in this picture.

Jim and Krissy and I taking a shell back at our house in Ekipe

bottom's up

Our two sets of parents, Only need Jill and Mark there now (Whattaya say guys, you ready for the trip?)

Krissy and Kathy on Pentecost with flowers

Jim with a coconut bra

climbing the tower, I would've jumped if I could've

LONGfala bamboo

Krissy and Mary, the volunteer on Pentecost who hosted us and showed us around

The three of us swimming in this beautiful river right by Mary's village

And a nice honeymoon shot to close it out.

We had a great time with Krissy's parents, thank you two so much for coming to visit us, all the gifts and food were really nice too, especially the Oatmeal Fudge bars, ohhhh I'm salivating just thinking about them

Who's next to visit Vanuatu?

come on guys, only 9 months left to join us in this little paradise

Junior Year: Water World

In mid-May, Water, the precious life giving water, surrounded us and our Peace Corps Service, literally, and figuratively.


Ekipe Village tabbed as a host site for the Peace Corps Water and Sanitation In Service Training. This is a training put on by Peace Corps Volunteers for other PCV's. Due to our success with our Water and Health Committe in Ekipe, and our good fortune at securing funding for our big Ekipe water project, and our now extensive knowledge of water and sanitation related matters here in Vanuatu, Krissy and I were included as trainers. The day before the Water IST came however it started raining hard. The whole night it kept raining straight on through and the morning that the IST was supposed to start we awoke to find our kitchen underwater and our house surrounded by what seemed like a lake.

some mamas wading through "town"



I ran around in the rain to find a shovel and started digging a trench around our house as the water crept closer to our doorstep by the minute. I spent all day digging channels for the water to try and divert it to different places around the house, in hopes it wouldn't go inside.

our neighbor's house, (the kid with the umbrella doesn't seem too concerned)

As afternoon went on and we learned that much of the rest of village was flooded, everyone began asking us when Peace Corps would be coming to start the IST. They needed to know so that the mamas would have enough time to cook. Unfortunately the village phone (run on solar power) is the only way for us to contact anyone, and surprise, surprise, solar power doesn't work when it's been raining for a month. So we had no idea if they were coming or not. The rain kept coming down and we began to hear tok tok blong road (rumors) that some tourist buses had gone South to Port Vila but had been turned back at the rivers and had to spend the night on North Efate. Apparently the rivers in either direction from North Efate to South Efate had come so high that the bridges had big holes in them and had water flowing over them, making them impassable.
Since Peace Corps was supposed to arrive at 3:00 and it was starting to get dark, we told the mamas that they weren't coming and they should not cook for them. Some had already started and so they brought us big plates of food, so as not to waste it, and we started eating and going into relax mode. Just then we got word that Peace Corps was here.
Apparently the Peace Corps driver didn't think the the river flowing over the bridge with big holes in it, was a big deal. All the local villgers who were standing around watching were saying they had to go back, that they couldn't cross, but our heroic driver shrugged off their silly worries. He had one guy stand on the edge of the bridge and another stand on the edge of the hole, and just drove between them with the river swirling all around them.
So back in the village we quickly had to jump up and run around through the flood to all the houses that could still cook and get them started so that the 20+ volunteers would have something to eat for dinner. The Ekipe mamas rallied through the adversity and still got dinner ready, as we scrambled to make sure everything was in order for the workshop.

And so the show went on...
We pushed forward and had a very good training for all involved, and got excellent feedback, and cooperation from all participants. Fortunately the rain held off enough for the flooding to subside and everyone to have a great time.

The In Service Training participants


Ekipe Villagers who helped to organize and put on the training



All the while, down the road from us about a 45 min. walk, in the neighboring village of Epao the newest group of Peace Corps Trainees, "21a" had arrived and begun their training. This is the second group to arrive after us, which means once they swear in we become "Juniors," upper classmen in Peace Corps Vanuatu. Because we're close to Epao, and because we don't have a ton of actual busy work to do, Krissy (and I) decided to try and help out with the new groups training. Krissy organized the all of the Health Volunteers Technical Training (i.e. all the Health related stuff they'd need to know before becoming volunteers here) as well as a number of other trainings for the whole group;

Krissy in action at our house in Ekipe


The Health Team on a field trip to Lelepa island



a group shot from Lelepa

while I did trainings in Water, Toilets, and Waste Disposal; and for the whole group, Working with Schools, and Youth and Sports in Vanuatu.

After Technical Training the new volunteers put on a Reproductive Health Workshop for youth from Epao and Ekipe.

All of these trainings went well, as we got to know the new group, including Carol, our replacement in Ekipe.

Here's Carol talking about sex with teenagers in Epao


And Travis teaching 20 young men about the menstrual cycle
can you imagine being here for 2 months and teaching people something like that in a new language? Not an easy feat, but they all did a great job


A final group picture of the Health Team with all the youth participants of the Reproductive Health workshop


Well that's all for now, coming up next:
The In-Laws arrive!