For those of you in the doldrums.

For those of you annoyed at your commute.
For those of you who are really pissed at the old lady at the counter holding up the line.
For those of you sick of shitty tippers and for those of you cringing at the harsh neon lights.
...for those of you thinking, fuck it, I should just run away and join the Peace Corps.
Here's what my life is like.

I live in Ekipe Village on North Efate. Efate is oriented around "The Big City," Port Vila. +20,000 people. But it's a big 20,000. Busy, traffic, bustling, exhaust and man are there asshole drivers. I thought FIB's were bad (they are) but in Port Vila, Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way. There is not a single stoplight in town but there should be. Big minivans that serve as public transport cruise by too fast, and hell, if it rains you WILL get splashed, just a matter of fact, no sense in arguing. So instead of just looking both ways when you cross the street, look both ways when you get near a big puddle. Especially if the puddle is near a couple of overflowing trash cans, or a flooded sewer.
I'm not complaining, Chicago is worse, in some places. Africa is worse, Latin America is worse, or so I hear.
The long arm of Globalization has stretched across Oceania with small and futile resistance. They say that Peace Corps Vanuatu is one of the last places in the world where you can actually get the advertised Peace Corps experience. The one with greenery and remote villages cut off from civilization. Where cell phones don't work, and Radio doesn't reach. For some of my colleagues this is true. But not me. The cell phone towers here have been erected, annoying rings go off in meetings here just like back home. I can write emails to my friends around the world two or three times a month, no problem. 3-4 buses travel from Ekipe to Vila each morning and back again each afternoon. It's a $5 trip one way. 6 days a week. Not remote, not cut off.
When I go back to Ekipe today I will meet one of the chiefs of my village. Chief Atanawara, aka Willie. He is part of my host family. He drives a bus, sometimes his family members drive it for him when he's busy. Krissy and I will meet him at the market. The Mama's Market is a big open building at the center of Vila Town with hundreds of Mama's and Mama's in training (young girls selling produce for their families.) The Mama's Market is the center of economic activity for Ni-Vanuatu on Efate. Though with a 6% growth rate other sectors such as construction and tourism are booming and providing lots of jobs lots of activity, people digging and pouring and picking, sweating, and taking breaks in the heat.
When we drive back to Ekipe, we will pile in with all our stuff, about 12-15 people. We will swerve to avoid potholes and I will get queasy. We will listen to reggae or Rod Stewart or Akon. Probably over and over again. People will sleep with their heads bobbing up and down. We will get to the two big, no I mean BIG, giant Banyan trees that stand like sentries, the only marker for Ekipe village, one on either side of the road. We will jump out and our neighbors and friends who happen to be near the road will sing out to us in Namakura "Daravi Javi!" which means "Good Afternoon" in local language.
We will walk down the narrow trail with our groceries and our luggage, our supplies to hold us over until the next time we go into Vila. We'll pass by all our familiar friends and neighbors greeting them all on our short walk back to our house. When we get close our dog Oreo will flip out run around jump on us and make us yell at her. She's excited because when we're gone she lives in fear of everyone else in Ekipe. The feeling is mutual. She usually barks at them and plays the role of the guard dog perfectly. Well, except that she occasionally chases small children and forces them to climb up trees to get away. This makes us mad. We yell, and try to learn her good. But alas, she really likes to chase children. Pigs on the other hand she's scared of. With good reason. There are many pigs in Ekipe running loose. Some are not normal, they are battle pigs. Remember Battle Cat from He-Man. If you put a saddle on some of these behemoths, small people, like Mugsy Bogues, could ride them into battle. When faced with two barking growling dogs, they do not always run away. About half the time they just stare them down. Occasionally they faint a charge and the dogs run away. There are many wounded dogs, and many stories of dogs killed by pigs.
After we get Oreo off of us for a second, we'll put our stuff down and sigh happily "Home Sweet Home." We'll open the six windows of our tin shack propping them up with sticks. Before everything is back in the house we will definitely have at least two kids show up to watch us and talk. Probably Joy, JoAnna, Tyline, Annitha, Sandrine, Harriet, and Tyler Moses or some combination of these 7. They are our immediate neighbors and friends. As we unpack they'll ask questions, and ask to play SET (which Lauren sent) or Uno, or Hula Hoop. Our small dog Bilavil (Bill) will jump around and bite heels, and small childrens' butts and shirts. Our pusscat will meow insistently until we pet him or give him tuna.
As we unload we'll plan dinner. Depending on what fresh vegetables we have we'll probably make one of our staple dishes: Brown rice and Lentil Curry with kumala, onion, fresh cocnut milk and whatever else is around is our current favorite. Otherwise we'll have beans and rice with a packet of Old El Paso Taco seasoning, also we make pasta with tomato sauce now and again. If we're lucky (once or twice a week) One of our host families will bring us a plate of manioc simboro, or yams and coconut milk, or white rice and chicken or tin meat (if I'm really lucky and my wife is really unlucky). I think tonight probably curry. I'll open a dry coconut with my machete, then I'll use our coconut scratcher to work it until all the shredded pieces are in a bowl. Krissy will squeeze it with water to make the coconut milk that we'll add to the dish later. I'll build a fire and get water ready to boil. If we're low on water I'll have to walk 75 yards or so with a big bucket to get our daily drinking water. I lift it onto my shoulder then walk carefully, so I don't spill it all over myself.

After dinner we'll drink Milo (Hot Cocoa like drink) or tea and either playScrabble, or read a book, or Newsweek or National Geographic. Krissy will go to bed at 8-9pm I'll usually join her from10pm-12am. We read by candlelight or sometimes kerosene lantern. we sleep on the ground on a thin mattress underneath a mosquito net. it is hot and stuffy under there. Also ants eat away at the wood in our house and the little granules of wood will be all over the sheets, so the nightly ritual involves sweeping the bed of this wooden sand. If cockroaches or spiders or geckos are running around our cat will hunt them and enjoy a latenight snack. After a few nights in the village I'll use my ipod at night to listen to the NPR Podcast of All Songs Considered or Movies. This has kept me sane. Thank you friends for the wonderful gift. I download podcasts in Vila and cherish the little bit of culture I get from them. Thanks to Bob Boilan and Fresh Air I hear new music and reviews of movies I wont see for another 6-9 months. This makes me happy.

Our days are spent washing clothes, getting water, washing dishes, preparing food: Breakfast is usually Oatmeal or Raisin Bran and powdered milk, bananas are usually involved (as they always are in Vanuatu); For lunches we usually have Ramen, or powdered soup. This is not satisfying so I spend most of my meal thinking about what I will eat in 15 months when I get home. This has turned into a game called taste of Wisconsin. Usually I play this game by myself, but sometimes Krissy plays with me, more on Taste of Wisconsin later. The rest of the day is spent exercising, scratching mosquito bites, or louse bites, or various rashes and other itches, entertaining guests (mostly kids who are entertained by looking at us (it feels a lot like being on the other side of the bars at the zoo) sometimes though we can distract them with Newsweeks, or crayons.) reading magazines, reading books and occasionally working on things. Only short bursts of energy are usually necessary to complete our work tasks.

On Mondays we eat at Bethel village a short walk away. We watch a Philipino soap opera named Sarap Gulang (everyone is crazy about this soap opera because Filipino life seems very similar to life here, stark class distinctions between natives, and expatriots; also they eat similar foods and speak a similar pidgeon dialect). A lot of people in Ekipe have TV's and DVD's and a generator to watch movies at night a couple times a week. On Wednesdays I run baseball practice at Ekipe primary school, lately we've had well over 20 kids at practice. They're getting better and their first inter-village game is next Saturday: Ekipe vs.Vila in Port Vila. Wednesday nights is also our luxury night where we eat snacks that our friends have sent us and use half the charge on our laptops battery. We just finished Band of Brothers, and I'm not sure what we'll watch now. Fridays is frisbee practice. Less kids come out for that, but popularity is growing. Sundays we go to church in the morning, we sing and sit quietly marvelling at the pious, excited, emotional worship around us for 2-4 hours. We watch kids run and throw tantrums and be naughty. Then Sunday afternoon we go and spend the day at the beach down in the next village over (Matarisu). We soak up sun and swim and look out to the North East at the island of Emao.
The next week we do it all again and usually at least one of us goes into Vila afterwards to stock up or work on something.
This is our life.

We should have already found out whether or not our water project is funded, I hope this is not a bad sign. But they were supposed to tell us this week. Please keep Ekipe in your prayers.

In a couple weeks we will have reached 1 year of service and Group 21A will come for training. They will be stationed in Epao for training which is about a 20 minute jog from Ekipe. We will be doing a lot of training for them, and see them a lot. This means lots of food, and fun times teaching the rookies. Incidentally this means we are now veterans.



So, this South by Southwest festival. (SXSW). I've been meaning to tell you about it. It's got 1700 bands playing live.

That's insane by the way. And so fucking rad. When you're angry at American mono-culture, aggro-culture, Big ass better than you culture. Please remember how cool it is that one-thousand seven hundred different bands play in one city at one time each year. And then think about if that has ever happened in the history of mankind (by the way, the answer is no, even if you're some stupid history nerd who can prove me wrong) [Dude, Brandon, Bob Boilen mentioned Troubled Hubble on the last SXSW feature on all songs considered, cool little story.]


Peace Corps is like College in Fast Forward but better and in another language.

I have never before met 98 Americans at one time in my life from all over the States. Alabama to Alaska, California to New York, Nebraska to Virginia. Is there anywhere else in American society where you can get to intimately know 90 people who more or less equally represent the fifty States? And on top of it, unlike college, they are not segregated by age. We have 71 year olds and 22 year old's. Where else can this happen? Yes most are younger or youngish but the mean is rising. The experience that is being shared here is unlike any other facet of American life.

In the Peace Corps in the modern age, I can meet people who have big music collections. They have lots of music that I don't and then we can trade and go back to site. In the Peace Corps I have found awesome new music that I love, that I didn't even know before. This is a good thing for all those who bemoan the digital age of music. I've found out about Stars, Camera Obscura, Godspeed You! Black Emporer, Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, Architecture in Helsinki, Band of Horses, Bear Vs Shark, Broken Social Scene, The Format, FourTet, Low, The National, Panda Bear, Southland, and a whole lot more I'm embarassed to say I didn't know or appreciate before. This is so cool.

Taste of Wisconsin

sometimes I get hungry.
and I think about what I want to eat when I go home. If you would like to join me in gaining back the 20lbs. that was stolen from me by Vanuatu, you can join in the journey when I return home sometime Summer-Fall 2009. In the meantime if you would like to eat at these places and then tell me about it in a letter or a comment on this blog. I will think of you with spite and envy and relish the sweet taste of awesomeness when I get home. P.S. for all those who prefer me skinny, enjoy it while you can...it will not last (Krissy I'm talking to you).
Here's my list in no particular order:
Jimmy Johns Country Club with Avocado and Salt and Vineger chips.
The Sausage Kitchen House Special on Italian Bread with Giardineira-Racine
Fulbeli Deli Brett Favre- Milwaukee
Jenny Malacara's Turkey Taco's
Grandma Malacara's Tamales
Mrs. Buchholz' Easter smorgasborg (Beef Tips, Meatballs, Ham, Green Bean Casserole, Party Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Fudgie Oatmeal Bars)
Veggie Burgers and Catfish Sandwiches with Sanddollars- The Yardarm- Racine
Ravioli's-Toteros- Racine
Wood Fired Pizzas- Mangia-Kenosha
Chile Verde, Fajitas- Baldo's or Los Mariachi's
Chili, and Hamburhers, Fresh baked pie at South Point- Stevens Point
Crunchy Spicy Tuna, and buffet- Tokyo Steak House- Stevens Point
Kai Fire Roll- Sake Tumi- Milwaukee
Buffets (watch out, I don't want to injure anyone)
Bloody Mary's and Veggie Burgers at Hilltop- Stevens Point
Salad Bar OH GOD GIVE ME A SALAD BAR
Ribs, Bread, Baked Potato, Salad, Veggies, Wine- Digger's Sting- La Crosse
Burrito Del Mar- Manny's- La Crosse
Old Dutch Custard- Racine
Kopp's Custard and Burger's and Onion Rings- Milwaukee
Muffins of all sorts- Blueberry Muffin- Stevens Point
Hot Dogs, Brats, Italian Sausages, Miller Park Parking Lot- Milwaukee
Italian Sausages Ed Pavlik's on Sundays in Racine
Homemade Salsa and Guacamole, Gourmet dinner: fish with rice and roasted veggies- Mom and Mark's
Gosa Gosa A- The Blue Nile- Minneapolis (I know but it's good anough that it gets put into Taste of Wisconsin, Cngratulations)
That little diner place in Baraboo, I don't remember the name but everything I've hd there has been sooo good.
Kringle- O& H Bakery- Racine
Coconut or Pineapple popsicles from the Mexican push carts- Racine
Sandwiches and Taco Dip and Garden of Eatin Blues from the Peoples Food Co-op- La Crosse
Super Bowl with onions, beans, cheese, oyster crackers- Chili John's- Green Bay
Brotomushapepper thingy at The Wooden Spoon- Stevens Point

Notice I didn't include fast food chains.
This is what I think about. Rich mental life.

Peace out America,
don't get jaded
I love you all, not in the grand general sense, but in the specific never got to tell you how much I loved you sense, I'm telling you now. Let me know if you ever need a reminder, I'll be happy to oblige
Javi

Quick Hits

I've been out at sight for a while so contact has been brief, as have updates. Friends I apologize, but here's the thing. Krissy and I are trying to save money while we're here and that means not coming into Port Vila too often. Shit is expensive here. The mighty dollar has fallen pretty spectacularly as you know. If I exchange $100 U.S. I get back only 9500Vatu which has the spending power of about $95. Additionally a shitty beer here is $5. a good meal at a restaurant $10-$20. Not cheap. So, sorry. Here's some quick general updates.

• Time blong spell is over which means everyone is back to work. Our water committee has kicked ass and gotten the entire community to lay all the pipe we had. We have now gotten the pipe from the source 2.5km down the bigfala hill. We have just 1.5km left before we reach the village. A number of villagers have approached us sweaty and tired after hauling pipe and cement 4km straight up a hill, saying "ok our work is done, now its your turn" ...no pressure...really none at all. Fortunately we seem to be having some preliminary success with funding sources. We have a grant into the UNDirect Aid Program, they've already accepted our concept, so now we're just adjusting the format by the end of March we'll know if we got funding or not. Also yesterday I made a proposal to Port Vila Rotary in the hopes that they will fund a secondary water support system, if anything goes wrong with the piped source (fallen tree, souce gets contaminated) it will alow us a backup of potable water. Additionally we have two other funding sources as a back up plan. Overall we are fairly confidant that by the end of our time in Ekipe (July), our water project will be funded and complete.

• I have been working with three primary schools on North Efate teaching Frisbee and Baseball and trying to re-establish a North Efate Primary Schools Sports Association that used to operate in the area. I've gotten our first donations of baseball equipment (Thanks Hinkle and Ruth). I have a teaching workshop at Onesua Presbyterian College (A high School) on Wednesday. A number of the students there learned baseball and frisbee with me in Emua and Ekipe so I'm hoping it'll be successful. Unfortunately, I am out of frisbees so even if I teach frisbee there I wont be able to leave one for them to play with... Anyone interested in sending Ultimate quality frisbees??? I'll name the teams after you.


• We have a new puppy as a replacement for Ninja. In the Ekipe tradition, the names of all dogs have to be completely inappropriate animal names. For example there are dogs named Jim, Panadol (which is a pain releiver), Medicine, occasionally this practice can extend to children, such as the little kid named Halloween. So in honor of our 42nd president here is our dog Bill. We also have an adopted dog Oreo, and our pussy, Milo. My favorite dog name of all however is the three legged dog named ...wait for it...Dancer

OK, sorry, but that's all for now. I'll give another update next time I'm in and hopefully it won be so long in between.

lots of love

Javi

To my Valentine

Dear America,

I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be writing, but I miss you. You probably wont even read this and if so, I understand. I left you, you have no obligation to still love and care for me. But I just want you to know that no matter what I still love you.

I find myself reminiscing about the silliest little things we used to do together. Carnival rides at night at Great America or St. Rita's fair. All the incredible movies and music you introduced me too. Staying up late at night watching PBS and eating frozen pizzas, bars with good beer, Brewers games, Road Trips to see all your ballparks,



all the great cosmopolitan restaurants we'd go to, cool book stores, comic books, great live music and record stores...I could go on and on.
I know I shouldn't still be thinking about you. It's been almost a year since I left, and my new country is beautiful and fun, and exciting...but I still miss all the great times we had. I hope some day you can forgive me for leaving you. And though I love my new country, I just don't think it's going to work out. So... I don't know...Maybe it's inappropriate to say this all now while I'm still here in Vanuatu, but maybe after we've spent some more time apart you'll be willing to accept me back. I know that I'm willing to come back to you.
Don't get me wrong...there were serious things that bothered me about you, and they will probably never change, I hate how much time you spend looking in the mirror, and watching stupid ego stroking TV shows, the only TV we watch in Vanuatu is an occasional sports game and a movie. Your obsession with money and accumulating stuff was seriously disheartening, and it really pissed me off when you'd compare yourself to other people and talk about how much better your stuff was than theirs. Jealousy and envy always made you look ugly. And the way you tried to cover up your wrinkles and scars with makeup, plucking out grey hairs or dyeing to hide your age. You look beautiful when you don't focus on these things, but obsessing over makeup and ways to hide your age just made me pity you. Despite some of your actions lately I know you have a good heart and generally would like to help people but you seem to be letting your desires for self satisfaction interfere with your ability to make the right decision. I know it's tough to do the right thing all the time. With everyone always watching you you're bound to slip up and people will be there to remind you about it. But I just want to say that it's ok. We all make mistakes, we need to learn from them and move on, and hopefully do better in the future.
So speaking of the future...what do you think...will you take me back? I promise to support you and be there for you if you need me. You've given me everything that I have and helped me become who I am today. I am glad for that. Thankful. I owe you my life and I want to enjoy the rest of it with you. Please think about it. I wouldn't be able to come back immediately, though I love you more, I love Vanuatu to, and it'll take me awhile to figure out the right way to tell her that I'm leaving. I don't know if she'll be disappointed, but it's better to end it now before she gets too attached. It's just not fair to string her along like this when my heart belongs to someone else...
Ok. well I should go. I'm just gonna send this and throw caution to the wind.
With hope and admiration
and eternal love

Javi

remember this ???

High Highs and Low Lows

Disclaimer: This is a long one.


Friday Jan 4

"High Highs and Low Lows,"
this is the cliche description of the quintessential Peace Corps experience. When you're happy and feeling good, it feels like the best time of your life, the top of the world, the greatest life you could possibly lead. You thank God, Fate, and anything else you can think of for your good fortune. But when you're feeling down, it feels like every decision you've made has been wrong. You feel isolated, alone, scared, sad, you long for the comforts of home and a familiar face. I guess I would say that the best thing about experiencing the Peace Corps with my wife by my side is that the lows are never as bad as they would be if I was on my own. Everything was going so well for so long, we were just constantly amazed at our good fortune. We felt blessed and lucky, and to a large extent we still are, but the last stretch here has been a little rough.
To be fair, we were warned that nothing happened in Vanuatu in December and January, but our projects in Ekipe seemed to be moving forward with such ease and support that we couldn't imagine suddenly taking a two month break. At the beginning of December Krissy and I finished the preliminary work on the water proposal. The community had held a number of productive work days. We measured all of the existing pipes, drew maps of where the community wanted the new pipes to be lain, we even received some strong words of encouragement from two different funding sources. We submitted an excellent grant request to the two potential funders and went back to Ekipe hopeful we'd hear something in late January from one or both of them. We tried to hold a final meeting with the Water/Health committee in hopes of doing a final year end report, but twice no one showed up. Not a huge deal but made us realize that December would truly not be a time for getting any work done. This was disheartening for me because we had been trying to get the community to hold a youth leadership camp for all of the youth who were home for the holidays from their boarding schools. It quickly became apparent that this was not going to happen.

I scaled back the plan and kept hope alive that we might still be able to do some sports workshops that had previously been just one component of the larger youth workshop, but as Christmas approached it became obvious that everyone was focused on the holidays and all of the travel and visitations that went along with them. We had also heard that the holidays were wild in Vanuatu and that many single female volunteers took vacation during this time, because if they didn't they would have to stay inside their houses at all times for safety. We got a few indications why in the weeks leading up to Christmas as we walked around at 9am and encountered groups of young guys bleary eyed drunk, shouting randomly and dancing. 9am mind you.

On Christmas eve Krissy and I woke up early and packed for a 2hr walk up the road to a little hotel/ hot springs/ restaurant called BeachComber Resort. It rained the entire walk there and we were soaked through and through. Fortunately it cleared up by the time we got there and we were able to enjoy the perks of electricity and refrigeration. We listened to Christmas music on the laptop, ate a big expensive lunch and in typical Vanuatu fashion, enjoyed a few Tuskers well before noon. We walked back that evening and made a big Christmas Eve meal.
Christmas morning we were awoken at 4am by a bunch of young guys still drunk from the night before. Off in the distance we could hear them chanting Whoah- Ohh-Wo to string band music on a boombox, they walked right by our house chanting the whole way. By 5am a young kid that we call Mr. Fart (I'm sure you can figure out why)showed up and told us that we were supposed to eat with our host family at their house. Our host mama had mentioned something about this late last night, she quickly told us how to walk up the road and to go through (under or over which ever we preferred) 4 no 3- no 4 barbed wire fences, she assured us it wasn't very far. As Mr. Fart led us through wet muddy trails that caked to the bottom of my sandals and eventually forced me to walk barefoot, he also assured us that the house was just a little further, we reached the first barbed wire fence after walking maybe 40 min. I asked how far and he assured us it was just over that hill, we heard that about five more times (and sure enough 3 more fences) before it was actually true. Once we got there however we had a nice breakfast of bread with peanut butter and tea and watched some string band videos.

After breakfast our host papa took us back to Ekipe in his truck which was very nice, and we proceeded to make our rounds to the various houses we had to go to. The first one was in full party mode by 11am. There was booming music, kids, adults all dancing. One mama was dancing while proudly holding a live chicken in the air and bouncing it up and down so that it flapped it's wings all about. The young guys were still drunk from the night before and were making raucous merriment. Some mamas suddenly broke out in a food fight they were rubbing raw laplap, a mushy substance with the consistency of oatmeal, into each other's hair. They were running and finging laplap at each other, one mama after getting a facefull of the yellow goop launched the big metal mixing bowl in her hand at one of the other mamas like a frisbee. The other mama just ducked it and gave out a long satisfied cackle. One of the drunk guys tried to join in the fun by getting his friend (who was not drunk) with a handful of laplap, the sober one convinced him not to and so the young guy looked around for what to do with his handful of laplap. He saw our big dog Oreo and decided that she would look better covered in yellow goop. Oreo looked at us sullenly with her best Eeyore expression, as if to say "Why did you bring me here?" One guy started dancing with another dog and a big group went on a beer run, we took that as our cue and assured them we would be back that evening, "to party until the sun comes up." We made our rounds all day and found similar situations everywhere we went. By night-time we were exhausted, but we promised adamantly that we'd be back, so we made an appearance. The situation had not gotten better. More people were drunk, and there were a number of people who just seemed kind of menacing, so after dancing to a few songs we checked out and went home quietly to sleep.

The next day was supposed to be family day, where you spend the day with your family. After an early morning run Krissy and I, and our two dogs went down to swim. This is our normal routine after a run, we all cool down with a quick dip into the water and walk back to the house about 2 minutes away. On our way back a group of young guys were coming by in a truck. As always we shouted at our dogs not to chase the truck but they never listen and we didn' do a good enough job of training them. So as usual we just kept walking assuming they'd have enough sense to get out of the way. I saw our small puppy walking in front of the truck, and kind of cringed, but the truck was going real slow, so I assumed it would stop if he didn't move. After a few steps I heard our dog Ninja yelp and two crunch sounds.
Krissy cried out and I turned around sad and scared and asked if he was dead. I saw from the look on one of the young guys faces that he had indeed had been run over, before I saw him. When I got to him, all the kids who had been walking with us gathered around and confidently assured us, he was dead. I got down and tried to talk to him as he gasped for breath. I wanted to try and give him rescue breaths but couldn't with all the kids watching. I picked him up and carried him back to our house. The truck didn't stop. When we got back home I had to ask the kids calmly and politely to let us be alone about 5 times before they left. Once they did I tried to breathe in through his nose to see if it would help, but he had loosed his bowels and bladder by this time and it was a lost cause. I closed his eyes and wrapped him in some cloth. Because it's so hot and humid here, it's important to bury anything that dies very quickly. We borrowed a shovel from one of our neighbors. Fortunately she has spent a lot of time around ex-pats and had a lot of sympathy for us because she realized that animals are like a part of our family. Most of the kids and people who heard however laughed when we told them we were sad. It would be as if someone was really sad about a dead street rat back in America. It would seem weird and almost comical. I was often unable to restrain myself from explaining somewhat curtly why it wasn't funny. After burying Ninja, we had to go eat lunch with our host family at one of the chiefs houses. It was there that we realized the young guys in the truck were all sons of our host family. Only in Vanuatu do you have to eat lunch with the guys who killed your puppy. They were ashamed a little bit, and apologized because our host mother had already found out and reamed them a new one for still being drunk and spoiling everyone's Christmas.
That night the drunkenness continued. As we ate dinner with a family we were interrupted by a frantic young guy who shouted something in language to our host who then ran off. Everyone was moving hurriedly, but they were all talking in local language so we didn't know what was going on. I got up to investigate and saw a bunch of drunk guys gathered around, some of them covered in blood. The guy laying prone on the ground had a huge gash in his leg and I immediately began giving directions to people to help me administer first aid. The leg was spurting all over and there were mostly only drunk guys around to help so it didn't go as smooth as possible but it could've been worse to. We patched him up the best we could and commandeered a bus to bring the youth to the clinic (about a 20 min. drive). I figured he would be alright when he roused himself from an unconscious stupor when he smelled a plate of food passing nearby. He reached out a hand and quickly snatched a chicken wing and began chowing down.

The rest of the week was sad as we mourned Ninja's death but we had to move on and prepare for New Years as we were hosting a party in Ekipe for a few other volunteers. A couple days before New Years Eve our host family had us over for the whole day as they had a bunch of relatives in town. We ate and made food all day, I set up a tire and hung it from a tree and we played a game to teach pitching and the strike zone. In the afternoon we had kave. Ekipe kava is strong. I have only had it about 5 times since I've been there and every time I get pretty drunk. But this time after one of the youngfalas chewed mine and his and we drank I was completely immobilized. I was trying to eat, but could barely lift up the fork. I looked up to see if everyone had noticed and was looking at me but all the other guys had the same worn out look about them and none of the 14 people sitting around were talking. All of us basically stared at our plates. after about 20 minutes of this I decided to go home, on the way I promptly puked it all up and crashed on our mattress for the next two hours.

On New Years Eve two of our fellow 20a volunteers showed up and we began preparing for the evening. One of the members of this same host family (who also happens to be a chief in the village and one of our strongest supporters and allies) brought our friends and us to our house. He had already put a few in the tank when he dropped us off and decided that he wanted to stay and drink a Tusker with me and listen to one string band song from the radio on his bus. I'd like to mention that this is one of the nicest guys we've met, always supportive, kind and friendly, and he assured us that he only drinks on New Year's once every Year. So we each drank a beer outside his bus and danced to the song as our friends and Krissy unpacked and started getting some things prepared. At this point we heard our other host papa and neighbor (who owns our house and the land we were on as well as the church that is just across the way), also a very nice man who never drinks and is the pastor of the church hollar out something from his house (maybe 50 yards away). We learned that he had told the Chief who was with us that he shouldn't be drinking and dancing in front of the church because it was disrespectful and as a chief he had to set a good example for the younger generation. We politely stopped dancing and he went on his way. Approximately two hours later just after it had become very dark, we suddenly heard a loud commotion and lots of blood curdling screams coming from our neighbors house area. We were all very worried, and thought someone was injured, I was thinking that I'd have to perform first aid yet again. We rushed out to find out what was happening. A huge group of people were gathered around and we learned that the chief of our first host family had come down and launched a bottle at the head of the pastor and patriarch of our other host family. The only thing I saw clearly in all the confusion was our host mama trying to restrain the pastor as he charged forward with a large axe in his hands. Eventually the attempts at murder were foiled and a heavy calm came over the neighborhood. We went back to our party a little shaken but happy that no one was injured.

We celebrated at the scene of the Christmas day laplap fight. This little satellite community is based around a big hostel/bungalow type thing and is about a half mile away from Ekipe. We went up there and used their generator to make steaks and dance and party until New Year's. The food was great, so was the company, so was the music. After the countdown we ran the half mile to Ekipe in the dark dragging pieces of corrugated tin, banging on bells, screaming and chanting the national party chant of Vanuatu: " Whoah-Ohh-Woah." It was a beautiful resplendent moonlit night, and we shouted our revelries to the stars.

The next day we recovered at the beach and got ready for a baseball tournament/workshop that had remained as the last remnant of my attempt to do something productive around the holidays. The workshop went great though a low turnout due to the fact that most people had just gone to sleep as we were starting it. Unfortunately something I had eaten had given me the worst case of sit-sit wota I had ever had and much of the workshop was run by my baseball partner Seth. I was indisposed searching for toilet paper and holes in the ground. After approximately 40 trips to the shitter and a long day of baseball capped off by a walk off three run triple, we closed the party and went to sleep.

Within two days our friends had left. We got a phone call from our Country Director letting us know that Krissy's Grandpa had died. We were kind of in shock and rushed into Vila to call her family. At first we thought Krissy might go home for the funeral, but we all decided that was not the best thing to do. Apparently he slipped on some ice and broke his hip on the way out of church. This led to some complications a few days later. On the bright side all but one of his children were able to be with him and Grandma in the hospital as he passed. It's very hard to deal with the guilt of not being able to attend the funeral and it really just emphasizes the hardest part about being here: that we are so far away from all of our friends and family. When we came into Vila, Krissy was able to talk to her parents on the phone and that helped her feel better. But unfortunately whatever I had seems to have appeared in Krissy and Jen (our other friend who was with us on New Years). The medical staff thinks it's giardhia, a wonderful little stomach parasite. No one knows why I got it right away and it took three days for the girls.
On top of all this I just found out my mom and step-dad just got robbed. Not sure how much was stolen, or what exactly, but that never seems to be as bad as the feeling of violation.
So I hope this is as low as it gets for us right now, because as bad as it is it could all certainly be worse. Mostly we're just hoping that our community can recover from all the craziness enough to keep momentum moving positively on our projects. And I hope that this insanity is not a sign of things to come for 2008.

P.S. My digital camera broke so no new pictures for awhile. Sorry for the blandness of type on screen.

P.P.S. I now weigh less than I did in 9th grade. I'm down to 168 from 192 when I got here 8 months ago

The Sun Also Rises

TEAM EKIPE

Here are the baseball cards I printed out for the youth in our village

The Sandlot 2: Island Ball

Seriously this script is already written. Somebody pass this photo on to their producer friends and we'll get this started.

The Hot Season

That's how hot it is

For my birthday, I went to a fellow volunteers site for a fundraiser she was hosting for her village.

Krissy couldn't come because there was a training starting in our village that she had to be around for.

I jumped in to the back of a camion (a big open trailered truck) with 20 of the new volunteers from 20B. A number of older volunteers from our group and some others also came along. It was a hot grey, rainy day, with lots of wind. There was a cyclone in the Northern most islands of Vanuatu which created heavy windy stormy conditions down here in South-Central Vanuatu.

We drove around to the North side of Efate close to our training village Emua and piled into two small boats for my first real excursion off the island of Efate.

A short 20 min ride later and we were across to Nguna

We jumped out into the choppy waves on shore and grabbed our bags in the steady drizzle. The thirty of us climbed up a giant hill, we climbed and climbed and climbed and when we got to the top, we realized we weren't at the top yet. Eventually we all reached the village ontop even the 72 year old volunteer who was a trooper the whole trip.

At Dominique's house we all unloaded played some frisbee, some Scrabble, some Cranium. We ate steaks and chicken wings for dinner, drank kava, a string band played that night, we all danced with the mamas and kids in the village.

The older volunteers set up camp down below the village at a clearing that was just 75 ft. from a huge cliff. The cliff dropped down to the GIANT boulders some 900 ft below. Big crashing waves and water as far as the eye could see.

In all it was a great birthday, fun, wonderful, inspiring.

Halloween was pretty great. Krissy and I had one of our friends, another Peace Corps Volunteer staying over cause there was a training in our village. So we got some candies from Jeff Rice and Krissy's family and we told the kids to come over when it was klosap dark for trick or treating. Halloween is An American Holiday, we explained, where kids get lollies if they dress up in costume and yell TRICK OR TREAT! Well, klosap dark can mean both afternoon and 4:30 in the fucking morning. So at a knock on our door before the sun had risen, I got out of bed to see what the hell was going on I opened a window and saw four kids dressed not in costumes, but in kastom (custom dress) which basically means some leaves strapped to various parts of their bodies. I started laughing my ass off as I went to get candy. Krissy told them that "You have to singout something, remember?" So in unison all the kids yelled AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH (A kastom war cry). To which we laughed our asses off again. I then opened the door and gave them each one measly little candy pumpkin. We laughed at how they probably went home thinking "This holiday sucks, you have to wake up at the buttcrack of dawn, put on your whole kastom dress, and all you get is one measly little candy?"

Longside Work:






We met with the newly elected water/health Committee in Ekipe and have begun plans to secure water for the village. Our engineering/mechanical genius friend Phil (also a PC Volunteer in a neighboring Village) came down to go look at the water source. We didn't really know what this would entail, but 5 hours later we had hiked through heavy bush and up and down big hills. Our guides walked in front of us and cleared new paths with their machetes. When we reached the swampy mud pits that enveloped our legs up to our knees Krissy made fun of me for wearing socks and shoes when everyone else was wearing sandals. Instant Karma struck when shorty thereafter everyone with parts of their feet exposed was attacked by big black biting ants. These little fuckers bite hard, it hurts like a bee sting, and then itches tremendously for about a week. It doesn't get better, at all for an entire week. Krissy got eleven bites in all.






After getting to the source, we came up with some plans for getting water piped from up there to the village, and have now all begun the preliminary work towards that project. We surveyed all the pipe that is currently laid throughout the village and talked to some agencies regarding funding. The village has a lot of the materials necessary to start building, so in a couple weeks we will be going up and starting to build the dam and fixtures ontap.





My sports project:


I have begun Ultimate Frisbee training with the youth in our village, to fire them up and get em motivated I've told them that this youth group in Vila has already challenged them to a game. In fact I have also set up a workshop to teach Ultimate to the youth group on Dec. 1st where I will tell them that the Ekipe team is challenging them to a game. Hopefully the Aussie volunteer at this org will be able to get a team up and playing regularly. so that the first scrimmage will be good.


I also taught kickball this week which will help in getting kids accustomed to baseball rules for when we start doing that. Elijah kicked 3 Home Run's in 3 at bats (at kicks?)

Left to Right: Elijah, Terrenson, and Keven

Me and Seth, (another volunteer and Cubs fan(bastard)) are working on this sports project together. We will be doing youth development camps the next few months teaching sports and teamwork, following that we will be doing some league management and event planning workshops where we will hopefully build capacity of individuals in the rural communities to run and take ownership of these leagues. We're hopeful that this will have a number of positive effects:


Provide something to keep youth from drifting to the urban center of Port Vila by providing something exciting to do on the other side of the island,


Teach local youth leaders skills such as fundraising, promotion, and planning which can be used in lots of different avenues,


build up sports infrastructure on Efate to increase the level of play in a number of different games,


provide local opportunities for fundraising and potential tourist draws through tournaments and games,


Draw funding for infrastructure development on North Efate


We will also be having the teams engage in workshops and trainings in first aid, waste management, and others as well as doing service projects related to these areas for their communities.


I will be sending out some materials on how you can help us secure equipment and funding necessary for these projects in the future, so stay tuned and start thinking about all your old little league and high school teams that might have old bats, gloves, Catcher's gear, helmets, shoes, etc. that they'd be willing to donate. The biggest problem will probably be shipping costs but we have some strategies we'll be developing in regards to that as well.





Alright, well that's it for now.


Peace in the Middle East

Perched precariously

Got a message from my guy Nick, went like this:

"Javi-

got your last couple of emails. sounds as though things are....i don't know, consistent? i still have a pretty hazy idea of how things go for you out there. specific questions on my part are probably key to understanding just what the fuck goes on in your lives at this point.

how can you even begin to paint a picture, anyway?

so, here are a few, if you have the time:

-what did you eat for breakfast?

-what do you wear on your feet?

-name 3 people, besides krissy, whom you spoke with throughout your day today?

-what time did you go to bed?

-wear did you go poop today?"

So here's my day in the life:

First there are actually two different styles of life here. Out in the village and here in Vila. They are totally different so if I just told you based on what I did today it would not accurately reflect my life here. So Each question will have a Vila answer and a village answer.

-what did you eat for breakfast?
Today like many days I did not eat breakfast, when I'm in Vila I gorge myself on unhealthy food. at around 11am (woke up at 7) I ate a Heaven Bar (Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Bar) Afta, I went to AU BON MARCHE (the local supermarket) and paid 300 vatu for a small (not small) dish of Spaghetti bolognese. In addition I ate a Tootsie roll and a Tootsie pop that Jeff Rice sent, I also ate some Big League Chew, and a handful of M & M's

village: On a normal day I usually wake up between 8-9am. well after the sun has risen. I get up from our mattress on the floor and emerge from my mosquito net covered in sweat (even though its the cold season). A slight breeze cools me down on my walk to the smolhaos (outhouse). Then I come back and spread some Peanut butter and Jelly on three Breakfast Crackers A uniquely South Pacific creation. White hearty cracker with a slghtly sweet taste. Usually there are a couple bananas involved since we almost always have a bundle of one of the many varieties in our house.

-what do you wear on your feet?
Great Question
I brought three pairs of footwear with me to Vanuatu.
Their fates:
1. My good Teva all purpose-sandals. These are sturdy velcro that I used for hiking, running, swimming, and everything else. Their drawbacks- they gave me blisters on various parts of my feet. In Vanuatu blisters are dangerous because every open sore gets infected, I've been pretty hearty and have only had 1 infected sore (on my hand). Most volunteers get many more. Maybe one per week? [Here's one from my favorite Alabaman]
The TEVA's got so worn out in 6 months that their straps came out of the bottom leather part. I recently found superglue and have repaired them, I probably will not be able to run or swim in them any more however.
2. Flip Flops: My pair of relatively cheap sandals with no straps just the normal slip ons were my favorite footwear because they did not give me blisters. One of them ripped at the fibrous toe part and is awaiting creative repair on my part.
3. Merrill Running/Hiking shoes: I bought these on our honeymoon last year in Utah.
In a long tradition of leaving things places I left them on a bus and made a Ni-Vanuatu bus driver very happy.

I now have four replacement pairs
Their current condition:
1. I bought a pair of flip flops for 150 Vatu ($1.50) These are the same kind as most of the locals wear. So I bought them to see how long a pair of $1.50 sandals would last me. The answer is one week. They too are awaiting creative repair.

2. Replacement Sandals pair number 2. I spent a little bit more and these have been adequate footwear for the past three weeks or so. Except when they get wet, then they are slippery and my feet slide off them and onto the muddy rocks, gravel, coral, or whatever I happen to be standing in at the time. Obviously these are unsuitable for swimming.

3. NEW SANDALS! Krissy's parents sent a pair in their most recent package, I am trying them out for the first time today. They seem to work out fine, but they are a little tight, so we'll see about blisters.

4. NEW SHOES! One of the guys in our group went home for his sisters wedding so I ordered a pair of Merrill water shoes and had them sent to his house. He brought them back a few weeks ago and I have been running in them and using them for swimming (You have to wear footwear when you swim or your feet will get cut on coral.) They are good but give me blisters on my Achilles Heels. And I have to wear socks as a result which sucks in this country.

-name 3 people, besides krissy, whom you spoke with throughout your day today?
In Vila most of the people I talk to here are other volunteers but here's three I spoke with today

Annie Api: Our counterpart and Village Health Worker and Neighbor in Ekipe was sitting outside the Mama's Market downtown with her daughter JoAnna. We talked about when Krissy and I would be coming back in to the village.

Michael Jones: An old guy who's in the Peace Corps with his wife. I did a Blues radio show with him last night and will be trying to get my own show when we move to Vila next year.

Margot: A Volunteer from group 18B who just left for home. Stuff with her site didn't work out and she terminated her service a few months early. She was one of the few volunteers left in John Roberts group. After his death and Margot leaving, they have 7 volunteers left from that group. They will be completing their service at the end of November.

Ekipe:

On any random day most of the people I talk to in the village will be kids. Here's three peeps that I usually talk to.

Manu: Our friend Manuel is one of the yungfala (young single guys) in our village. I usually see him at least once a day cause he lives near the phone (there's only one) and he likes to play frisbee with us.

Joy and JoAnna: Two neighbor girls

who like to come over and play games with us.

Small John: A hyper kid who always comes over to play games and look at us. (That would be a piece of metal stabbed through some leaves and stuck into his visor. FLASS!)

-what time did you go to bed?
In Vila:
I went to bed last night at about 2am after a night of dancing at CLUB VOODOO. Where they set the bar on fire any time you order the special FLAMING VOODOO DOLL shot. I fell asleep trying to watch Eragon and woke up today at 11:45 am the latest I have ever slept in Vanuatu.

In the Village:
I usually go to bed around 10:00 and depending on my brain usually go to sleep before the first roosters crow. Sometimes I stay up for the second roosters crow. And once or twice I've been awake all the way through to the Third Roosters crow which precedes sunrise by about 10 min.

-where did you go poop today?
Today I pooped in the Peace Corps office. There is a real toilet here, with a plastic seat and it flushes, so I was very happy to do so.

In the Village: I don't poop. I've trained my body to take a crap once a week. But when I have to I use our Smalhaos. Which is a bunch of sticks with leaves as walls, a tarp as a door. The toilet is a large cement slab that forms up ino a bowl shape. On the sides of the ground you can see where dirt has fallen into the pit and the toilet looks precarious as if the whole thing could fall in at any moment. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

First Projects

Blog Oct. 17

Sorry. I read Brandon’s comment and realized that I haven’t actually told you all what I’m doing, or what it’s like here. I guess that’s the point of this thing.

So here’s one problem. I’ve adjusted.
Things that before surprised, amazed, astonished me; They’re normalized, I’m used to them. So my point is, if you think of questions that you want to ask please ask away. I’ll answer them as best I can.

Longside work:
Krissy and I have been at site for 2 months. It seems like a lot longer. Peace Corps Volunteers are supposed to enculture themselves into their communities for the first 3 months. We’re not really supposed to start working on projects until after three months, but yeah, that’s not gonna happen. First of all we’ll only be in Ekipe for 1 year as opposed to most other volunteers who’ll be at their sites for 2 years. And on top of it Krissy is an ass-kickin, driven, goal oriented worker. I’ve never seen anyone like it, so trying to convince her to hold off and wait is a futile effort.
After about 2 weeks we started a Community Census and Needs Assessment. These are tools to help us learn the village and also to help the village learn about themselves. The Village Health Worker, Krissy, and I went around to all the families in the village. Krissy designed a cartoon visual aid to represent all the possible projects that we could help with in our time in Ekipe. 95% of the Village was united in selecting water projects as the primary need for the village. So we have our work cut out for us. The census told us that there are around 350 people in the village. Over 40% of whom are under the age of 12.
Last weekend Krissy and I ran our first collaborative project. It was pretty cool to work on something so closely and directly. We always discussed theoretically how good of a team we make, Krissy working in Health and I in Education and Youth. But this is the first time we have ever fully teamed up with equal responsibility. I helped a little bit with her Captain Condom program in LaX,
and she has given me lots of guidance and support for various projects I was heading up, but teaming up directly was exciting and encouraging. The project is called PACA- Participatory Analysis for Community Action and it’s a Peace Corps standard. Kind of a preliminary workshop to get your community prepped and open to work together towards Sustainable Development.
So we got together on our third try, two previous attempts were met with cancellations due to our Chief not being in town, and not enough people showing up. One of the bubu’s (grandpa’s) in the village helped us get people to the workshop in a creative way. He pulled out a scimitar, yes a scimitar, a pointy Arabic sword, not a bush knife/ machete (which would’ve been normal) and walked around to the houses shouting
“YU! YU KAM LO WAN WOKSOP HIA, YU NO STAP WITIM PIKININI, YU NO STAP MEKEM KAEKAE, YU KAM NAO” (Which translated means: Hey you get your ass over here to this workshop, quit playing with kids and making food, come here now)
So shortly thereafter we began our games and icebreakers which everyone loved. The laughing and clapping and cheering quickly caused our workshop population to triple. Over all we probably had about 60 people attend at least some of the workshop.
We presented our findings from the census and the needs assessment and led 4 projects: Community Mapping, Seasonal Calendar, Village Timeline, and Resource Appraisal. The villagers were enthusiastic and supportive, and the workshop was a great success.

From the workshop, all of us in Ekipe came to a clear understanding about what our needs are. Everyone wants us to help secure safe, regular access to piped drinking water.
In addition I have been asked by the chief to storian with some of the olfalas in our village and create a Village History book that each church can get a copy of.
These are two of the projects that are focused solely on our village. There are a number of others with a different scope and focus. Next week the village Health Worker Training for our province is being held in Ekipe, and I am teaching the new group of trainees in 20B how to run a Camp BILD and Camp GLOW (Boys in Leadership Development and Girls Leading Our World).

So, are you sorry you asked? There’s a lot more, but I’ll update other projects as I can.
This blog is going to be updated infrequently but thoroughly each time.
Hope this clears up a little bit what kind of stuff we’re working on.
Love
Javi and Krissy

Supposed to be.

* I remember reading a recommendation from a friend who had served in the Peace Corps. She suggested that you bring a lot of good books with you. That the most important thing you could bring was really good books. Initially to read, and then, to trade with other Peace Corps Volunteers. At the time this caused my right eyebrow to raise slightly. My left traveled in the opposite direction. The corner of my mouth went up a little bit and I found myself with a disapproving sneer upon my face. I thought: "You're supposed to be helping people with AIDS, and helping without AIDS from getting it. You're supposed to be forming friendships that will make people reconsider their hasty judgment of Americans, and learning new languages. What do you need books for when you have the Arabian Sea, why do you need books when there are monkeys 100 yards from your hut, why do you need books when there are a bunch of kids playing soccer over there. I mean, Jesus, look at them, they're playing barefoot, with a coconut for a ball!
Well…I have now been in the Peace Corps for about 5 months. I've finished 16 books. I don't know what the average American's book reading rate per month is, but I know mine, and it certainly is not 3/month. Granted, back home I read comic books almost exclusively (magazines too), but the only time in my life I could say I've read three books in one month (adult books, not the Hardy Boys when I was 13, or the BabySitters Club when I was 12(for shame, how did I ever turn out straight?) was in college where a crazy prof. who didn't show up for class for the first two months (But inexplicably kept leaving notes on the door every Tuesday and Thursday that she would not be in that day) finally showed up with half the semester gone & told us that we would not be adjusting the syllabus and we would have to read all the books as well as write reviews for them. And the only reason I read the books and did the work, instead of bitch and moan, and complain about the workload was because I had already flunked English 150 and was re-taking it to replace the F (that and the books she assigned were really good (the best of which was The Things They Carried-Tim O'Brien).
Anyway. Now…now 3 books a month is the rate at which I read books. My average over 5 months. Yeah so my point is sorry for the sneer. The Peace Corps isn't what I thought it'd be. Well that's not true. All those things I expected my friend was neglecting while reading books? Turns out you do all those things by dinner time. Then the sun goes down, and unless you're ok with going to sleep at 7:56pm, you gotta do something. No electricity, equals books. In one of the more frustrating Catch 22's I've faced, the supply of books is extremely limited during the one time in my life where I've become an avid reader. So when we Peace Corps Vanuatu volunteers see a book that we'd like to read we immediately snatch it and hide it away from the other volunteers so that no one else can take it first. We've actually had books stolen out of mailboxes by other volunteers. Desperate for entertainment.

*I had another friend who was in the Peace Corps. She put me on her email list and I got monthly updates accompanied by plaintive requests to send her stuff- anything, postcards, letters, packages, emails, anything. At the time I was bartending to make up for the deficiencies in my Americorps living allowance & a guy who came in to the bar who also knew this girl, and was also on her email list would occasionally bring her up in those notorious bartender- drinker conversations that fill bad jokes and propel crime-noir from one scene to the next. Usually he would kind of dismissively roll his eyes and suggest that she wasn't worth his attention. But one night (maybe he had one extra Vodka-Red Bull, or an extra shot of Sambuca) all this pent up anger that had apparently been building in him overflowed and was released in my presence. He ranted that she was an insensitive-uncultured priss, she was supposed to be over there helping people, learning from them, loving them, spreading international peace and goodwill, yet all she could do was send emails about how much partying she was doing, and how people smelled bad, and how she had to piss and shit in a hole in the ground, and "oh its so hard being me". Spittle flicking out he slurred "Duh dumbfuck, that's why it's the Third World and none of us want to go there! You chose to go there to help, so the least you could do is not bitch about how awful it is. I didn't sign up for your fucking email list to be told how awful it is from your unique perspective. The least you could do is provide some inspiration in my boring day at work, but no, instead I get some pile of shit saying how it sucks to eat beans and rice for every meal." Ok, well, I'm paraphrasing, and he was drunk, and this was two years ago, but that was the spirit of it…So I'll try to stop talking about all the stuff that I miss, and how bad people smell.

P.S. I would really love a pepperoni pizza and a Spotted Cow. If anyone could send these via email, I think they would still be safe to eat in three weeks. (I'd eat them even if they weren't safe.)

P.P.S. So I guess the whole point of these stories is that conceptions of what Peace Corps is "supposed to be" just really doesn't jive with "the reality on the ground." So throw out your hopelessly misguided notions and accept my words as gospel.