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!