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