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!

All-Vol

It's been a long time friends, 4 months in fact since I posted, for that I apologize.
It's been a busy, jam-packed, adventure filled, exciting stretch of time that zipped by in a flash.
I got no time to lose so I'll just start in with May- June
In early May we had the biggest awesomest annual event in Peace Corps Vanuatu
The madness that is All-Vol
aka The 2008 Peace Corps Vanuatu All Volunteer Conference

All-Vol brings together all 100+ Peace Corps Volunteers in Vanuatu, from their various sites and islands. It is a chance for volunteers to meet with the other volunteers in their project areas, attend workshops on sanitation systems, locally available grants, how to support local village committees, gender and development, and a wide variety of other workshop topics. Also it allows us to meet the other volunteers we've never seen before, exchange stories, ideas, challenges, successes.

As a whole I've been really amazed at the quality of people in Peace Corps. There are just a lot of really great people here and All-Vol is an amazing opportunity to network with them all. I've never been anywhere in my life that had such a wide variety of Americans with diverse skills, backgrounds, and home states. And as a result of the experiences we've all shared, it really feels like we have a network of close friends all over the country that would open their homes to us if we showed up on the doorstep someday. Additionally all of these people have lots of experience with development work, and I can't imagine NOT using these contacts in my future efforts to make the world a better place.

Obviously with 100 volunteers all gathered together after months of isolation in remote rural island villages, there was also a lot of celebrating and cutting loose. I can't understate how isolated a lot of these places feel, though I have had frequent access to the big city of Port Vila, and all the things that come with it (internet, grocery stores, soap) Many volunteers only get these things once every three or four months. The psychological impact of this is very strong and frequently leads to what are called Wack-e-vacs (or evacuations due to psychological issues(i.e. going bat-shit crazy beacause of all the religion, black magic, and hallucinogenic malaria medications mixing around in your mind). So when you see these pics, realize that this socialization is so necessary to our mental well-being, that even if all the other workshops, networking, collaborations, and other work related business were not going on, this would be a very valuable important conference to have.
So without further ado:
pics of All-Vol

(aka evidence)


There were a number of after hours events that involved costumes. This one of Krissy and I shows our costumes for our group talent show.









Here's a pic of fellow Wisconsinite from our training group, Tim Staffeld and his little monkey friend Troy (a good friend of ours who lived just up the road from us with his wife Jasmine, while we were in Ekipe)





Krissy and I dressed as a fellow PCV married couple Dennis and Sandra Melo
Everyone was really wierded out, because I shaved my beard, cut my hair, wore his clothes, and consequently looked TOO MUCH like Dennis. A number of people actually confused me for him and talked to me as if I was him. One volunteer, after a double take actually said "Hey Dennis, for a second there I thought you were Javi"




A final costume pic of me in my super player creepazoid mode (which was ok because everyone thought I was some other guy), with fellow volunteers Noelle, Neely, Krissy and the lonely Peace Corps Volunteers' best friend: a goat (played by Jasmine)









I organized a Physical Skills Challenge that each training group participated in.

Each group sent a male and a female to compete in each specific event.

Events were

1. Holding your breath underwater

2. Handstands

3. Push-ups

4. Splits Contest

5. and a Footrace



Here I am getting ready to start the female foot race competition.





Here's Krissy winning the women's push up contest


Next year I'm planning some additions and changes that'll make the competition even better- sports skills and mental skills components will make it the awesomest competition in Peace Corps Vanuatu Volunteer History.

Lo and behold, someone thankfully remembered to bring the camera to the Gender and Development workshop, so we have proof that work was being done.



A final pic from our balcony overlooking beautiful Port Vila Harbor at Sunset. This made all the lice, bedbugs, worms, mosquitos, tics, chiggers, scabies, ringworm, and every other parasite of our first year in country worth it.