Thursday, May 22, 2008

Ekipe Vs. Vila









After a month plus of rain, flash floods, digging drainage ditches, and washed out bridges and roads,
the big day finally came. The first matchup between Team Ekipe and Port Vila (Our country director's team). We piled into the camion singing take me out to the ballgame the whole way there. There were over 50 youngfala boys and papas from Ekipe that came with us or met us in Vila to watch Ekipe represent North Efate.












The game commenced at about 2pm. Team Ekipe was nervous. They saw the size of "The Port Vila Independants" and immediately became worried. A number of the kids on Vila's team are on the back end of their growth spurts while most of Team Ekipe is just starting theirs. I reassurred them that the other team might be bigger, but it didn't mean they were better. I told them they had practiced hard for the last four months and that they would do fine. They seemed doubtful, but fortunately as the visiting team we got to hit first. The hits started falling right away and after a couple errors, Ekipe realized they weren't outmatched.








It was a great game back and forth, lots of lead changes. Lots of errors on both sides. One of the Port Vila players hit a towering home run over the center fielders head, fortunately no one was on base. after a short rain delay and a bunch of muddy slides and collisions between players we decided to go five innings. Ekipe had a five run lead in the bottom of the fifth. 2 Runs scored with two outs after a controversial play at third base in which Ekipe's third baseman dropped the ball after applying the tag. The Ekipe cheering section thought the game was over and erupted into cheering as they stormed the field. Umpire Seth Dallman had to send them back to their seats so we could continue the game. The error left the bases loaded and The Independants down by three. The hitter for the Independants was clearly looking for a walk as he watched strike three go by to end the game.








Hot dogs were had all around, and all 50 plus Ekipe villagers piled into the Camion and returned home. The 1.5 hr. ride was celebratory singing the whole way home. We disturbed a number of villages on the way back to Ekipe with our hooting, hollering, and singing.


The whole Ekipe crew. Here's a fun game "Where's white man?" just like "Where's Waldo?" only easier





A great game, can't wait for the rematch next month in Ekipe.








A big thanks to everyone who has donated equipment to our project it is well used and loved already.




Ruth Bradford Johnson, Todd Johnson, Adam Hinkle, Nate (sorry, don't know your last name or your friends' who sent the lefty glove) and Karri, Who am I missing? Ruth maybe you could add the names of others that have contributed, I'd like to send some thank you's out but need their addresses, please email them to me if you have them.


Love always Javi





Thursday, May 1, 2008

Counting Chickens

My dog likes to eat chickens.

But not full grown ones, just the little baby fetal chickens that can't run away cause they're still stuck in the egg.

This is gross. They smell horrible, and thus, so does he.

But the bigger problem is that chickens are food for humans too. Thus every chicken he eats before it's hatched is a potential chicken that humans could have eaten. This makes people in my village not like my dog very much. In fact if he continues to do this they'll want to kill him. So yeah, I hope he stops.


April has been a great month. In April 2008 everything worked out the way it was supposed to.

A summary:


1. After a long tortuous wait, and lots of rumors, we found out that our water project has been completely funded by UNDP. Yes that is right the water project is a go. In the next week or two our committee will recieve funding and be able to continue the previously started water project. Photos of happy, soaked, rejoicing people soon to follow.


2. Krissy's good friend Karri and her boyfriend Nate came to visit us and we had a blast. We went to some beachside resorts, hung out and played baseball in Ekipe village, took a short boat trip to the island of Pele, and another to Nguna where we hiked up a dormant volcano. They also brought us a ton of goodies including a new digital camera so guess what, pictures on the blog are back. Thanks Mom and Mark, Tony Scalise for the video camera, everyone else for all the wonderful gifts and Karri and Nate for carryng it all.



3. Krissy and I took a group of the kids from Ekipe who have been playing baseball now for about 7 months and brought them to Port Vila for Vanuatu's first-ever Inter village baseball match. Ekipe won 13-10 and everyone had a great time.



4. A North Efate Primary School Sports Association has started. Seth and I had been working to get the Headmasters from these schools to meet and begin collaborations and now it has happened. The launching (with the second inter village baseball game and first inter village ultimate frisbee game) will be at the end of June.

Seth and I hard in the Resource Room at work on the North Efate Sports Program and a trip to Iririki Island Resort for a cure for what ails you





This is the typical island pose for a camera

Gettin on the Camion to drive to Ekipe I love it



The day after we got to Ekipe we played a baseball game with the kids, Nate's team won.








Teaching kids about the most important American that ever lived: Brett Favre and Nate learning how to open a coconut












The walk to Paonangisu and goofin off with some kids





We stopped along the way to enjoy the Beachcomber Hot Springs (about 1.5 hrs from our house)










We got to Paonangisu and celebrated the long walk with our friends Jasmine and Troy







The next day we took a boat to Nguna for a day on Pele with Seth and after that a boat to Nguna to hike up the volcano. Here we are launching the boat and riding to Nguna after. We were greeted with lots of rain. And after a month straight of rainy days....








...it made it very muddy. Nguna is basically an hour long hike straight up, and there were lots of falls... see Nate's ass








but it allowed us to get the steretypical Peace Corps shot:







The hike up the volcano was a bit of a bust, these two guys followed behind us the whole way mocking our laughs and making weird little devil noises. Meanwhile the local leaders of the trip hacked through the tall grass since no one had come up here in a long time. The slow going was made especially painful after we encountered swarms of black ants. Here's a picture of Seth and I freaking out. These things are very painful and then itch for a week after. I got three or four bites on the same foot and the whole thing was so swollen the next day I couldn't walk.



Eventually we made it to the top for a wonderfully cloudy view and a torrential downpour

After a grumpy hike back down, we returned to Ekipe village the next day. Nate was a champ and chewed his and Karri's kava himself, something I've never been able to do.



I always have a friend chew mine

After a night of candlelight stories back in Ekipe
We went to some Sunday Churchin,
After all the excitement we had another day of relaxin on the beach in Vila before Nate and Karri headed back to the States.
All in all an awesome trip. Thank you guys so much for coming to visit us and sharing our crazy life. Also thank you Mom for the awesome new digital camera, absolutely love it, the blog was hurtin in its absence and so were we, love you.
Well, coming up next, an In Service Training for 20 Volunteers in Ekipe, The All Volunteer Conference in Vila, and training the new group. Talk to you after that.