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