10 January 2008

Hello, everyone (or in Bislama: Halo, olgeta),It's been a busy two months since the last time I've been in the capital city... I can't believe it's only been two months! I got back to my island before October was over, and a week and a half later, I was on my way to the island on Tongoa to participate in a village health worker training. I didn't do much besides observe, becoming a teacher once to run a session on sexually transmitted infections, HIV and AIDS (a subject I'm very knowledgeable about... or at least I am now). It was a great experience because five other health volunteers were there doing the same thing I was. We were able to talk to each other, to brainstorm ideas for projects, and the three of us that were newer were able to hear stories about what seemed to work and what did not work for the three others. And, of course, we had a lot of fun hanging out together! We were together for Thanksgiving - a day pretty much like the other days of the training, only we watched a movie on Noelle's laptop, using some of her precious battery power. But besides the other volunteers at this training, the other exciting part about it was that I got to travel by... you guessed it, ship! Being an island country, lots of transportation, communication, and lifestyles revolve around the ships. It's very important to the islands... but it sure is a difficult way to travel. On the way down there, I was barely on the ship for an hour before we experienced engine trouble. Then, all of us passengers were brought to shore, where it turned out we were sleeping the night. Of course, I had nothing helpful with me for an overnight stay (it was all on the ship, which isn't really a ship, but an old fishing boat - see picture 2), but it turns out all I really need is a dry mat and it's a good nights' rest. The next day, the engine was fixed, and we were back onboard, on a journey that became more and more like a floating zoo every stop we made. The ships normally stop at every village around the islands, and this journey just needed to go past every village south of mine on the island, and next island would be where we got off. But between my village and Tongoa Island, three cows, several pigs, and two chickens were loaded on. And that's in addition to the three pigs and one cow that were already on the ship when I got on, and all the other cargo. And if you can't tell by looking at the picture, this is a pretty small "ship". And the return journey was even more fun - got on, and it immediately started raining, got sent to sleep ashore at the very south of Epi, spent another whole day on the ship, during which time the weather got worse and worse. We ended up sleeping ashore that night again, and the bad weather (a tropical depression - sort of a precursor to a cyclone) got so bad we were not able get back on the ship. Luckily we were on the right island - before 5 am, I started walking with the other passengers over the flooded roads back to my village. It only took two hours, but the worst part was that all of my clean clothes were still on the ship! It was raining and the water was not running in my village, but I still had to do laundry since I did not know when my luggage would appear. Everything turned out alright, and I've either taken "work on a ship" completely off my list of "things to do while I'm still alive" or definitely left it on there. Riding on the ship was a lot of fun, but I'm not sure if that was because I knew it wouldn't be a very long journey... Before I knew it, it was December, and then December was over. During the first week of December, the new group of volunteers (they swore in the last week of November) arrived on the island. We got three new teachers, one posted about an hour and a half plus walk away from me, one in the very remote south, and one close to my friend, Kristin. (Kristin went through training with me, and was the closest volunteer to me at a 5 hour walk before these three came.) Then, the week after, Dominique, another friend from my training group arrived to spend Christmas with us. We all spent Christmas in the village of Nuvi, on the north west side of Epi, and then New Years' in my village. Despite all this travelling around, I did manage to do some work in the past few months... I decided that since my village wasn't really asking me to do anything and I wasn't sure where I could help, the first thing I should do was do a survey of perceived health problems. It was very interesting and I learned a lot about the way my village works. Hopefully, I'll be able to take the information I gathered to produce done to produce some quality toktoks, posters, workshops, and everything else. So, that's been my two months... and now to explain the pictures that are quite large and probably have taken forever to load on your computers...Number 1: a group picture from Tongoa of all of us health volunteers. This was supposed to be the funny picture, hence the reason why I am displaying my bicep and my farmers tan. Standing next to me is Kevin, another Epi volunteer, then Amanda, Nancy, Noelle, and Sarah. Number 2: the M.V. Brooklyn. It's a very fun way to travel...Number 3: myself and Vivian, standing on top of the Brooklyn. It's very safe, as I'm sure you can see from all of the railings...Number 4: Evelyn (from Lamen Bay, the closest volunteer to me), ready to walk down to Nuvi for Christmas. Yes, I walked the 5 hours from my village with that backpack that is way too big...Number 5: This is our Epi Christmas card picture. Christmas Eve Eve was spent at the beach, and I insisted we take a group picture using the self timer. And when you have six people, of course you have to make a pyramid... Evelyn, Kristin, and Dominique on the bottom, Ryan and myself in the middle, and Jade on top. This was the fourth take, but finally, we were successful! Number 6: Christmas day in Nuvi. So much fun! Us PCVs ended up leading large group games for the village for two hours in the afternoon. I was definitely homesick that day, but that didn't stop me from having fun! And now, Kristin, Dominique and I are flying out to New Zealand for a little break on Saturday morning. We're going to do all the touristy things: eat ice cream, wear pants, be cold...I miss you all!Steph

18 October 2007

Halo bakegen,Mi bin promisem yufala smol pija, mo afta mi bin lukaot olgeta. Naoiami save sendem long yu, mi hopse yufala laekem! (basically, that sayshere are the pictures I promised, and I hope they make your wildestdreams come true)The first one is of my host brother's girlfriend and their nine-monthold daughter Samantha. Well, she was only six months old when thispicture was taken, but she's nine months old now. Samantha is great,she's a very quiet child who loves to see me. Whenever someonecarries her over to my house or I go to where she is, she likes itwhen I saw "Samantha! Hey!" in a high pitched voice. She laughs andmoves her hands up and down, usually hitting whoever is holding her.She's one of few babies in the village, and the one that is the leastscared of my skin color (it's so weird to them - one girl just looksat me, and if it's anybody besides her mama holding her, she startsbawling).The second picture was taken randomly one day when these pikininisshowed up at my house. The pikininis had come over and had asked tocolor, and had produced many worthy artistic works by the time Ithought to take a picture (look at the second to last picture to seethe results. I've had so many produced, I've run out of room and hadto take all of them down to give a chance to the new pictures).Thirdly, is a picture of my garden. Gardens here are located nowherenear our houses; mine is a 15 minute walk away up in the bush. (A 15minute-ravining-with-Tabbi walk away.) Obviously, it needs a littleweeding. Well, not so much anymore because this picture was takenbefore I got my hands and bush knife all dirty. On the ground arelots of kumala vine mixed in with the weeds and a popo tree is in themiddle (just a small one). You can also see a small banana treebehind the popo, some sticks that used to have my long bean vinegrowing on it, and the broad leaved plants on the left are taro.Fourth (namba 56) is a picture of my host papa, Tony, sitting in theaid post just waiting for somebody to show up and give him some workto do. No, I'm kidding, I made him pose. But pay special attentionto the posters in the background - some are kinda funny.Fifth, is a picture taken yesterday after I walked from one side ofPort Vila to the other. Yes, that is sweat, and in case you aren'tvery imaginative, it's in the shape of a bunny rabbit. I think it'sfunny, anywayOkay, now the pictures are a little out of order because I keptremembering good ones I wanted to add. Namba 6 is a picture I took atElaine's las kakae of our nasara family group. I'm not in the picturebecause I was taking it, but all these people are my new relatives.It didn't turn out very well because it was very dark, but notablepeople include Mama Emma on the bottom right in the brown islanddress. Behind her in the red/pink dress is Auntie Lolot, next to themis Lesou (the wonder 10-year-old), in the orange hat in front isMassi, Lesou's little sister, and on the left in the worn purpleisland dress is Mama Lilly. I could name everybody else, but it'dprobably get a little confusing...I already covered picture number 31 (see above, when I talk about thesecond picture, number 37) so I won't say anymore here. Except try toimagine me explaining what some of these pictures actually are of.Not many kids here know what ice cream or penguins are. That's alwaysvery fun.Okay, and the last one is one of my favorites. When I flew outyesterday, we were in this little tiny baby planlet (seats for tenpeople, including pilot and co-pilot). But the small plane meant thatwe had to take our time getting up in the air, and the wings weren'tin the way of the window view of land. This picture is of Malvasifrom the air, and you can see about half of the roof of my house. Thedescription is a little confusing, but I'll try: the building farthestto the left and closest to the solwota is the kindy. Perpendicular tothat building is another pretty close, which is the covered areabelonging to the kindy. Just a tad above and to the right of thesetwo places is my house. You can see the whole roof to my attachedkitchen, which slants down towards the solwata, and part of the roofof my house, which is attached above the kitchen. Other notablebuildings include the aid post (the cement building a little to theright of my house), the mamas house (the big cement building in themiddle a little closer to the solwota than the partially completedcement building right behind it) and the Presbyterian church (the bluebuilding in the middle of the far right).That's it for the pictures. In other news, my first cyclone is on itsway. Look it up, they're calling it Cyclone Xavier. If I were onEpi, the weather would be getting a little less pleasant right now...I wondered why the sky looked a little dark today.Well, have a good morning (for all of you who wake up to check your email)love,Stephthe disclaimer still applies

18 October 2007

Hello Everybody bakegen,

So in the first 36 hours that I've been off the island, I've managed to break my toe (the right pinky toe) and not be able to function doors properly. But I think I'm figuring out how things in the big city work, although slowly. My island skills are really superb, my bush knife skills, eating in the dark skills, cooking in the dark skills, weeding skills (but unlike Napoleon Dynamite, I'm not working on my bow hunting skills, that's for the next three months).

When I first got out to Epi, Elaine, the volunteer before me was still there. It was great to have her there to teach me as much as she could and I was able to ask any questions that I thought of. The first week, Elaine was running her last workshop in the village, on how to make a compost toilet, so within days I was an expert on mixing cement and making cinder blocks, then putting the whole thing together. The second week, Elaine's last, we were very busy saying goodbye, having ceremonies, and moving her out while moving me in. On the day Elaine flew out, most of our family (I suddenly have a lot more mamas and papas, aunties and uncles) jumped on the truck to take Elaine to the airport. And then there was one...

The first few weeks were after Elaine left were a little uncomfortable. When I first got out to Epi, Elaine was there to speak English to me to make sure I understood what was going on, translating if necessary. She also knew who everybody was, and I was learning slowly. But after she left I was really on my own. Or so I thought. My Mama Emma is great, and she made sure I was eating and doing things everyday. I arranged with the chiefs to eat with a different family everyday, so for breakfast, lunch and supper I ate with the same family, and then moved to the next house the day after. The mornings were a little awkward, because we were just meeting each other, lunches were a little better, and then by supper, I had amazing conversations, explaining to people in my village why it can be dark in Malvasi and day anywhere in America. It usually involved using my fists to show how the earth revolved around the sun while rotating. I'm not sure how many people actually understood what I was trying to explain, but I think after the sixth time of explaining, I got pretty good. I also had amazing conversations about camels and how one rides them, dinosaurs, Lake Michigan being like the ocean, and snow.

I didn't think I'd have the chance so early to see other parts of my island, but I've already visited the east side, staying with Kristin, another volunteer from my group, and even went down to the southern tip to do some site development (we met with a village and had a village meeting) with one of my trainers. But other than that, I've pretty much stayed in Malvasi, learning as much as I could about the people. After eating with so many families, the children are certainly more comfortable with me. At first they were a little scared because I was strange to them, but now children love to come by and visit my house. Thankfully, my mom sent so coloring books and pencils & crayons, so when I didn't know how to keep entertaining the children, we would go outside and color. I think all the kids in the village have come to see me at some point, and it's gotten to the point where the pictures these kids produce and don't want to bring home with them have filled up the walls in my kitchen. At the most, I've had about 20 people (kids and adults) hanging out at my house (yes, the adults were coloring, too, but they also looked at my old NewsWeeks), but usually it's more around 10.

Besides being a pikinini magnet, I spend a little time working in my garden. I have a lot of lettuce that's growing as well as tomatoes and some root crops. I'm very thankful for the lettuce, because during the kakae program when I ate with families, I ate a lot of yams, manioc, and kumala. It was all very good, but I was very happy to add vegetables. I also spend a lot of time "living", washing clothes, cooking, cleaning my house. It's definitely more work than I thought it would be!

Well, I think I've rambled on enough. It's so nice to do it in English! Unfortunately, I can't send pictures right now because of the slow internet here and because I also forgot my memory stick at the place where I'm staying, but expect another email soon!

And of course, the shameless plea for mail (I really do answer them!)

Stephanie Oegema/Volentia blong Pis Kops
Malvasi Vilej
c/o Rovo Bay Post
Epi Aelan
Vanuatu, Southwest Pacific Ocean

Ale, mi lavem yufala tumas,
Steph

Disclaimer: (Peace Corps likes us to add this part, just in case, you know?)
Anything said or interpreted from this communication and others are based on the experiences of myself and nobody else. All Peace Corps' experiences are different because all Peace Corps Volunteers are different and work in different areas. Please understand that whatever I write is coming from me, not Peace Corps, Peace Corps Vanuatu, the Republic of Vanuatu, or any other organization, group, or individual.

17 October 2007

Hi Everyone,

I'm in to Vila for a little bit to do some research/attend some meetings, and guess what? They have electricity and internet here! While I was out on the island, I was thinking I didn't have a ton of stuff to do here, but now that I'm here, there's so much that I need to do. I haven't had enough time to write a proper email detailing all the exciting happenings of the last three and a half months, but I'm working on it. I also have a few pictures to share, and I'm working on that, too. I just wanted to send a short note to let all of you know that yes, in fact, I do still exist, and that I'd be more than glad to get email from you. It's so much faster than snail mail.

I'll write more later, there's so much to tell all of you, especially those I haven't sent letters to. I think about you a lot, and wonder how you're doing, but as soon as I can find an hour, I'll be able to tell you how I'm doing.

Anyway, more news later, this is just a warm-up

love,
Steph

29 June 2007

Good morning, everyone!

This is my last day with internet access for awhile, so I thought I'd mark the occasion with an email containing pictures. The first one is of Sarah and Krissy, two health volunteers and I, at Iririki resort, a nice expensive place for tourists that likes Peace Corps volunteers so much, they let us come and spend the day at their pool for free. The second picture is all of us after our swearing-in ceremony. I didn't have a good one on my camera because the setting was off a little, but I found this one on the harddrive of a computer yesterday. Yes, we are all wearing matching dresses and island shirts, but if you enjoy "Where's Waldo", here's some things to look for: 1) the two people that don't match, but match each other, 2) the 3 dresses that are not the same color as everyone else's but are the same, 3) the 3 shirts that go the wrong direction, 4) me with my mouth wide open because I'm trying to tell the guy with my camera he has it upside down.
back row from left: Matthew, the driver, Adam, Tim, Nathan, Richard (another trainer), Javi (in the white shirt), Dom, Seth, Kristin, Juliana, Noah, Matt (with the red eyes), Sarah (in the different pattern); middle row: David (the oldest volunteer here at 65), Julie, Amanda (bending down), Krissy (in the white dress), me (with my mouth open for some reason), Jennifer (with the weird spot on her forhead); front row: Christina (on of our trainers), Amanda (I've already said her, but I'm not sure which row she fits in), Chris, Solo (in the white pants, also one of our trainers), Judy hiding behind a little (again, a trainer), Jarrod, Sandra, and Erin.

The last picture needs a little explanation: Sarah and I went grocery shopping together. We were shopping for three months and no refrigeration, which is a little difficult. I got lots of dried beans and peas, dried soup mixes, and powdered milk. Not a lot, but I did spend 20,000 vatu (close to $200, when I was in the bank yesterday, the exchange rate was 106 vatu to $1). So, the next problem is how to get it back to our hotel. It's a short distance, but trying to catch a bus with all our boxes did not sound appealing. Nor did walking with them or carrying some and coming back for more. So, we asked the man (well, Sarah did) if we could take the carts with us and bring them back empty. He looked confused, but said we could. Apparently, no one has ever tried to do this before. I checked to make sure he wouldn't get in trouble if he let us walk off. He said he wouldn't. So we took off, crossed the road, lifted our carts on the opposite sidewalk, and started pushing them back to the hotel. And then a security guard started yelling at us from the parking lot. I yelled back, "mifala stap lo hotel Formule, bae mifala karem everi samting, mo kam bak quiktaem! Bae mifala kam bak!" He was satisfied, but then another security guard got the idea to follow us. So, there's Sarah and I, pushing our carts down the road (quite a busy road, actually), and we were honked at by busses, expats looked at us out their car windows, other pedestrians looked at us like we were crazy and laughed openly at us, and we eventually made it to the hotel where the security guard caught up with us. I asked him if he was cross with us, and it seems he was just coming to make sure we returned the carts. Sarah and I wanted to bring them back ourselves, but he helped us empty them on the front steps of the hotel, and then pushed them back for us. I forgot to buy a three-month supply of toilet paper so I have to go back in the store today - maybe I should think about wearing a disguise.

Tomorrow I fly out to Epi, and if everything works out, I will get the stuff I shipped in the middle of the night on Wednesday when the ship comes to Malvasi's harbor. Starting Tuesday, Elaine, who is still working at my site, is running a compost toilet workshop. I will get to Epi in time to see her run a workshop and to be trained on how to make a compost toilet. I'm ready to leave this city and get to my village, but I think I'm going to miss having things around to eat like cheese in a little while.

Again, here's my addresses:

Stephanie Oegema/Volentia blong Pis Kops
Malvasi Village
c/o Rovo Bay Post Office
Epi Island
Vanuatu/SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN

or the office address; mail sent here will be packaged up with my weekly Newsweek and newspaper and sent out to me:
Stephanie Oegema/Peace Corps Volunteer
PMB 9097
Port Vila
Vanuatu/SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN

the other option is to keep sending emails to volunteer@vu.peacecorps.gov, which after printing will be sent out with my Newsweek and newspaper. I have had emails go missing, so make sure you put my name in the subject line and hope for the best! I'm also getting a communication device that can receive incoming text messages, emails, and phone calls, but I don't know the number for it yet. Bambae yufala save.

I'll be able to check email one last time before I go, so if anybody has anything they want to tell me that can't wait four weeks, you still have a chance! If these pictures aren't enough for you, you can also look at www.flickr.com/photos/peacecorps20a for more pictures, some I put up, and some from others. If you have any questions about the culture or what you see in the pictures, please ask, because there are so many things going on in these pictures it's hard to understand everything just by looking at them.

Hope all your wildest dreams come true!

Love,
Steph

from 24 June

Hi everybody!

I hope everyone is well, I certainly am. On Thursday (most of your Wednesday), I swore in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. I'm no longer a trainee! For the rest of this week, I'll be in Port Vila, before I fly out to Epi for about three months before I decide I'd like to see a city again. The first picture shows all but two of us girls (well, actually three, but it's a long story about the third girl) in our matching aelan dresses, and the second picture is of me receiving my certificate from the US consolate stationed in Papua New Guinea (the man with the khaki colored pants) after it was passed to him from Kevin George, my country director (the man in the blue print shirt). It's official! There's evidence!

This week has been crazy busy. On Monday and Tuesday, all of us trainees organized a Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and Camp BILD (Boys In Leadership Development - I think it's obvious why it wasn't named Boys Leading Our World), a Peace Corps worldwide activity/workshop to not only give us some form of hands-on experience, but also to do something for the village. We invited school leavers to the camp (those yangfala that either could not afford to continue school or did not pass the test at the end of year 8), and had about 15 guys and 20 girls. We even made it a sleep over camp and all of us girls slept in the Kindy (the kindergarden building). The whole experience was really great - I got to know a few girls in the village that I did not know before, got to play some of the camp games I have been missing, and got to practice tons and tons of Bislama. On Tuesday, we did a ceremony to celebrate the end of camp, but then the mamas and the papas took over the ceremony, and made it into our las kakae (farewell feast) and presentation of gifts. My family got me my own personalized pandanus leaf bag with "Stephanie" woven in one side, and "Leivau" my kastom nem, on the other side. I also got a really large mat, a coffee mug, a plate, a fork, and a lava lava that is a map of Vanuatu. I gave my family a framed picture of all of us wrapped in calico, and then when I started packing on Wednesday, I gave my family an etch-a-sketch, a frisbee, more playing cards, colored pencils, and a big box of tea bags and a bunch of matches. I also bought all the stuff for no-bake cookies and taught my mama how to make them over a fire on Saturday, as well as teaching her how to make pizza over the fire (which was learning experience for me, too... I had to make all the pizzas in a frying pan!) After the las kakae, we had what I would call a presentation, and some of the mamas showed us a few kastom danis (custom dances). Then on Wednesday, we had our last few sessions, and Thursday, the whole day was devoted to swearing in. The village built a stage over the solwota so that when the tide was in, the stage was a like a huge dock and the audience sat on chairs on the beach (it was gorgeous)... but during the ceremony, the tide went out. There were several speeches, then we swore in, presented a song to the village (a string band song Chris, one of my group members, had re-written to thank the village for letting us stay there and to tell them that we love them). We even convinced the village's string band to accompany us, and it was great. Then people from the village made speeches and the mamas sang two songs to us. After, there was a kava ceremony and really large feast, and then after that, everybody went crazy. The sun had gone down by then, and we had a really large dance party and Sarah's (a health volunteer) abu man (her host grandfather) danced (he's the village MC for all events, and is really, really funny. I wish I had a video camera to record him dancing, but I had already taken my camera back to my house so it wouldn't get lost). I turned in pretty early, and got up at 5am on Friday to finish packing. My family helped me carry my luggage to the truck, and then they followed me to the village club house, where everyone got in a large line and we all went through and shook everyone's hand before getting on buses and leaving.

I'll be in Vila until Saturday when I fly out to Epi, so I'll have internet access for the rest of the week. Send me emails! Or snail mails!

Stephanie Oegema/Volentia blong Pis Kops
Malvasi Village
c/o Rovo Bay Post Office
Epi Aelan (Island)
Vanuatu/South Pacific Ocean
(by the way, if you put packages of Arby's Sauce or Ketchup, Mustard, any packet of sauce, really, I will really, really appreciate your letter and my root crop dinner will be so much more interesting that day)

I'd love to hear from you!

Love,
Steph

from 15 June 2007

Hello, Everybody!Well, technical training is over, and there is one week left of official training. We're in Vila today to do a session on Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluating (as fun as it sounds)... and also to sneak away from our families to buy thank you gifts for them. I'm going to print both of these pictures that I'm attaching, but put the one that I'm not in in a frame, wrap it in calico, and present it to my family as a thank you gift. I'm sure some of you could put names to the faces of my family, but I'll tell you who they are, anyway. In the first picture, from left to right, is Leisei, Armstrong, my papa (Kenneth), in front of him is Liline, next is my mama (Anita) in the back, who has Edmon in front of her and Bianca in front of him, next is my abu woman (Bislama for Grandma; I just realized I don't actually know her first name), and our neighbor Joanna, who happened to be in the kitchen and everyone made sure she was in the photo. They look like a serious bunch - I made sure to say "smile!" before I took the picture, yet no one is actually, really smiling. I love all of them very much, and will miss them when I move away in a week.Everything that I've learned (which, I'm surprised to realize, is actually a lot) is finally going to be useful very soon when I find myself on a plane by myself to live in Epi for two years. It sounds scary when I put it like that, but I'm trying not to let that intimidate me. Elaine (my predecessor) will be there with me for the first two weeks or so to help me settle in (and luckily, since she's leaving, she pretty much already has everything I need so I don't need to rush around buying things and shipping tons of stuff like everybody else, I can buy most of it from her when I get out there), so I think the hardest part might be after Elaine leaves and I'm suddenly the only American in a three hour walk radius. I'm sure I'll get through it, though.Thursday, the 21 of June, is the day that we all swear in. It's a pretty official ceremony and we all say the Peace Corps oath. Right now, the community is working on building a pretty intense stage for us to do the ceremony on that goes out on the solwota. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm told it's quite amazing. I'll be sure to get a few pictures next week so you can see how ingenious the Emua community is, and also how proud they are of all of us. I'm sure they wouldn't bother to build something so intense (just like camping! in tents, get it?) if they didn't like us. Our community really is pretty awesome. And then, we leave them and move out the 22. The week after that until Saturday the 30 something ish or around there I'll be in Vila (where there's stores and internet) to get ready to move. So much to do...Okay, now here comes the shameless plug for mail: I really like it! We all were assigned mail boxes, and it was really humourous today when I got a letter from Tabbi (btw, Tabbi, I read through the first half thinking that your first letter was lost in the mail) and a random letter from a man who goes to my family's church who works with my dad (Don Westhof, because I know you're wondering, Mom). For the rest of my service, you can send emails to this address or send them to volunteer@vu.peacecorps.gov if you know I won't be coming near the internet soon, and they will be mailed out from the Peace Corps Office with any mail that was sent there. That address isStephanie Oegema/Peace Corps VolunteerPMB 9097Port VilaVanuatuSOUTH PACIFIC OCEANbut a more direct address that might be quicker and won't have to have extra postage paid by myself (things sent to the office have to be mailed, and I help with that postage) is my address on EpiStephanie Oegema/Peace Corps Volunteer (or Volunteer blong Pis Kops, if you want to write it in Bislama)Malvasi Villagec/o Rovo Bay Post OfficeEpi IslandVanuatuSOUTH PACIFIC OCEANwell, my time is out on the computer, I hope everyone is well!Steph