We were walking back from a Sunday barbeque in Kerebeta when my brother asked if we could take a photo overlooking the gardens.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Out for a Sunday Hike
We were walking back from a Sunday barbeque in Kerebeta when my brother asked if we could take a photo overlooking the gardens.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
School Uniforms
These are the uniforms that we wear to school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Only the teachers wear them, we don't have enough money or fabric to have them for the students. The headmaster is standing to the left of me and Noche is at the far right.
Class 6 and 7
So we just finished our second of three school terms. Everyone is now enjoying the two week holiday between terms. We took this class photo on one of the last days of the term in between exams and work. Our class is combined 6th and 7th grades because we don't have enough teachers at the school to have one for each class. We're hoping that will change next year. There are 10 students in class 6 and 10 in class 7. In the background of the photo are two of our three old school buildings. There is a new double classroom building that is almost complete. We're going to move 7th and 8th grade into those classrooms sometime in the next term.
We're spending one week of the break here in Vila and the second week back on the island. We were asked to come to Vila to attend a training workshop so that we can work as trainers of the new group of volunteers that arrives next month. The fact that the new group is almost here marks the arrival of our one year anniversary in Vanuatu. Pretty wild.
The second picture was taken outside of my uncle's house in of Port Vila. We spent yesterday afternoon with him and his family and some others from Vanua Lava who are living here. Most people tend to stick in neighborhoods made up of people and relatives from their home island. So it's great for us since we can be in town but still have some family to go and hang out with and talk about the island.
More later.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Hello All, June 1, 2008
Well, instead of sending an email from Vila two weeks ago, I an sending this update by mail and my dad will post it online for me, three weeks from now (depending on when I can make it to Sola to mail this). I really should have sent this in an email from Vila, bit was distracted by all those things available in the big city: electricity,, indoor plumbing, refrigeration and restaurants.
Since I last wrote in March Sandra and I have spent a lot of time at school and a lot of our free time doing projects around the house. When we were in Santo last, we bought a hand saw and some paint, which have both come in extremely handy. We cut a back door into our house, we built the frame with old lumber carried up from the school on our shoulders. We also did some "remodeling" of our kitchen. We rebuilt our kitchen table and built two stools. The little projects are great because they take our minds off things and both ended up rally improving our daily live. More light in our house and more comfortable place to eat.
At school things have been going well. The second term has started and I have one math class (combined 6th and 7th grades) and Im teaching PE three time a week. Sandra is working with the teachers of classes 1-5 and is also getting ready to do a phonics workshop/training.
The other big news, this is quite possibly the best news, is that our summer is over and the weather has finally started to cool off. When we got back to our island from Vila at the end of May, the weather at night was cool enough to wear a blanket. Once it got as low as 68 deg and everyone was staying bundled up and close to the fire. Mostly it just gets down to 78-80 deg, which is very comfortable. That combined with the drop in humidity has made it a lot easier to be here. We're hoping now that it starts to rain less, but that hasn't been the case. We should be moving into the dry season, but everyone here says it's been raining more and more the last few years. I saw some data from the Meteorological Office in Vila and in the 1970's the average rainfall on our island was 4.2 meters or about 12ft of rain. I thought that was a lot until I saw the figures for the last few years- over 6 meters abut 18ft of rainfall. This is definitely becoming a wetter place. Climate change caused by global warming? Most people think so. It's good for some crops but very bad for others and terrible for the grass airfield.
I think I've said it before, but we've never been so attuned to the weather or so much at it's mercy. Alot of that has to do with the infrastructure on our island. In Vila or Santo, the rain won't close the airport and if lightning strikes a phone tower, it's replaced in a day or two. We heard yesterday that the phone lines in our group of islands have been down for almost two weeks, meaning all communication is being done by 2-way radio.
One of the most interesting things we learned at our All-Volunteer Conference in Vila was how different everyone lives are on the different islands in Vanuatu. There are almost 100 Peace Corps Volunteers in the country, but only 9 that are as far north as we are. Many of the other volunteers have mild weather, access to electricity, refrigeration and are close to other volunteers. While their lives are easier in some respects, they are harder in others. For instance, we can go weeks in our village without spending $20. But others to through that much every day. We also have a lot of very good food (fresh root crops and seafood), whereas others are eating only rice and canned tuna(which we eat too, fairly often).
Aside from all the hardships, I am very glad we live where we do. Our adopted families are wonderful and we are really starting to feel at home. We are slowly picking up the local language but it's quite difficult. I'll explain the language situation again to clear things up. The two official language's in Vanuatu are English and French (thanks to a joint colonial government) That means all government work and all public schools are either English or French or both. The national language of Vanuatu is called Bislama. It's pidgeon language that combines French, English and local languages. Nearly everyone in Vanuatu speaks Bislama, because most people leave school at the 6th grade and are not fluent in English or French. Everyone also has a language local to their island or village. In Vanuatu there are somewhere around 112 local languages.
So at school we teach in English. We speak to our families and others in the village in Bislama and we are trying to learn Vures, which is the language that everyone in the village speaks to each other. Most people have have started to speak to us first in Vures and when they get a blank stare back (quite often) they say it again in Bislama. So by next year we hope to be able to speak in Vures.
A quick story to illustrate how different life is here. Last Friday, Sandra and I came to school late because we don't teach on Fridays. We arrived about 10am to see all the students outside getting ready to work. The headmaster had told all the students that the rest of the day classes were cancelled and that they were all going to bring sand and coral gravel up from the beach. At the school, there is a new building being built, funded by the EU. They fund most all the materials, but the sand and gravel must be supplied by the village. The building is delayed by a few months and the village has been slow about bringing sand and coral up the hill from the water. So instead of class the students all carried bags of sand up the very steep and slippery hill form the waters edge. In the US most parents wouldn't even let their kids walk up and down this hill by themselves. If that wasn't enough, on Tuesday, the building crew was running short on cider blocks so class was cancelled again and all the students and teachers carried cinder blocks up the hill. The smaller ones carried one block on a stick between the two of them. and the very small ones just carried sand. And they all loved it. They were tired but they felt like grownup to be helping with the school.
That's it for now. I should mail this today from Sola. We are taking a break on the road right now, waiting for a truck to take us the last hour.
Today is June 6th.
Thanks everyone,who has sent letter and care packages. We love getting mail.
Dennis
Since I last wrote in March Sandra and I have spent a lot of time at school and a lot of our free time doing projects around the house. When we were in Santo last, we bought a hand saw and some paint, which have both come in extremely handy. We cut a back door into our house, we built the frame with old lumber carried up from the school on our shoulders. We also did some "remodeling" of our kitchen. We rebuilt our kitchen table and built two stools. The little projects are great because they take our minds off things and both ended up rally improving our daily live. More light in our house and more comfortable place to eat.
At school things have been going well. The second term has started and I have one math class (combined 6th and 7th grades) and Im teaching PE three time a week. Sandra is working with the teachers of classes 1-5 and is also getting ready to do a phonics workshop/training.
The other big news, this is quite possibly the best news, is that our summer is over and the weather has finally started to cool off. When we got back to our island from Vila at the end of May, the weather at night was cool enough to wear a blanket. Once it got as low as 68 deg and everyone was staying bundled up and close to the fire. Mostly it just gets down to 78-80 deg, which is very comfortable. That combined with the drop in humidity has made it a lot easier to be here. We're hoping now that it starts to rain less, but that hasn't been the case. We should be moving into the dry season, but everyone here says it's been raining more and more the last few years. I saw some data from the Meteorological Office in Vila and in the 1970's the average rainfall on our island was 4.2 meters or about 12ft of rain. I thought that was a lot until I saw the figures for the last few years- over 6 meters abut 18ft of rainfall. This is definitely becoming a wetter place. Climate change caused by global warming? Most people think so. It's good for some crops but very bad for others and terrible for the grass airfield.
I think I've said it before, but we've never been so attuned to the weather or so much at it's mercy. Alot of that has to do with the infrastructure on our island. In Vila or Santo, the rain won't close the airport and if lightning strikes a phone tower, it's replaced in a day or two. We heard yesterday that the phone lines in our group of islands have been down for almost two weeks, meaning all communication is being done by 2-way radio.
One of the most interesting things we learned at our All-Volunteer Conference in Vila was how different everyone lives are on the different islands in Vanuatu. There are almost 100 Peace Corps Volunteers in the country, but only 9 that are as far north as we are. Many of the other volunteers have mild weather, access to electricity, refrigeration and are close to other volunteers. While their lives are easier in some respects, they are harder in others. For instance, we can go weeks in our village without spending $20. But others to through that much every day. We also have a lot of very good food (fresh root crops and seafood), whereas others are eating only rice and canned tuna(which we eat too, fairly often).
Aside from all the hardships, I am very glad we live where we do. Our adopted families are wonderful and we are really starting to feel at home. We are slowly picking up the local language but it's quite difficult. I'll explain the language situation again to clear things up. The two official language's in Vanuatu are English and French (thanks to a joint colonial government) That means all government work and all public schools are either English or French or both. The national language of Vanuatu is called Bislama. It's pidgeon language that combines French, English and local languages. Nearly everyone in Vanuatu speaks Bislama, because most people leave school at the 6th grade and are not fluent in English or French. Everyone also has a language local to their island or village. In Vanuatu there are somewhere around 112 local languages.
So at school we teach in English. We speak to our families and others in the village in Bislama and we are trying to learn Vures, which is the language that everyone in the village speaks to each other. Most people have have started to speak to us first in Vures and when they get a blank stare back (quite often) they say it again in Bislama. So by next year we hope to be able to speak in Vures.
A quick story to illustrate how different life is here. Last Friday, Sandra and I came to school late because we don't teach on Fridays. We arrived about 10am to see all the students outside getting ready to work. The headmaster had told all the students that the rest of the day classes were cancelled and that they were all going to bring sand and coral gravel up from the beach. At the school, there is a new building being built, funded by the EU. They fund most all the materials, but the sand and gravel must be supplied by the village. The building is delayed by a few months and the village has been slow about bringing sand and coral up the hill from the water. So instead of class the students all carried bags of sand up the very steep and slippery hill form the waters edge. In the US most parents wouldn't even let their kids walk up and down this hill by themselves. If that wasn't enough, on Tuesday, the building crew was running short on cider blocks so class was cancelled again and all the students and teachers carried cinder blocks up the hill. The smaller ones carried one block on a stick between the two of them. and the very small ones just carried sand. And they all loved it. They were tired but they felt like grownup to be helping with the school.
That's it for now. I should mail this today from Sola. We are taking a break on the road right now, waiting for a truck to take us the last hour.
Today is June 6th.
Thanks everyone,who has sent letter and care packages. We love getting mail.
Dennis
Friday, May 23, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Feb 4, 2008
Hello again,
If the internet comes back up here on santo, thismessage will come to you all as an email with somevideos attached. if not, then i'll just print this,mail it home and have my brother post it on our blogsometime in march. either way, i wanted to tell you alittle bit more about our lives out here over the lastcouple months. it's hard to know which stories to tell because somuch has happened. so i'll start with our trip tosanto. that will give you a good idea of how we live. on thursday morning last week, sandra and i finallygot permission from Peace Corps in Vila to travel to Santo. Cyclone Gene was far enough to the south of usthat it was deemed safe for us to go. i spoke with my papa and he said it was too late to make the tripto Sola that afternoon, so we would wake up before dawn and start the hike. Our village is on the westside of Vanua Lava and is connected to the provincial capital, Sola, by a bush trail about 8 miles long. wewent to bed around 9pm (pretty normal for us...it'shard to stay up too late after the sun goes down, lack ofelectricity and all.) my mama came and knocked on our door at a little past3am to ask what time it was (not too many clocks or watches in the village) and to tell us that my papawas ready to go when we were. we said we wanted to sleep for another hour and then we'd go. so at 4am wewoke up, had some coffee and got our bags ready. we locked up the house and said goodbye to our dog,noche, and then hit the trail. we hiked for the firsthour with flashlights and by about 5:45 it was lightenough to put them away. the trail to Sola crosses 6or 7 streams and rivers, two villages (keripeta and mosina)and through some pretty spectacular scenery. after coming down from the hill where our village sits, weparallel the coast for most of the walk. about 3/4 ofthe way there the foot path turns into a crushed coraltruck road. much easier to walk on and occasionallyyou get lucky enough that a truck comes to carry you thelast hour. we weren't so lucky this time, so wearrived in sola at about 8am. as we passed the village ofmosina, we came to the house of one of my grandma's. my papa called out to them and they came out with waterand fresh doughnuts for us. it was great. once we made it into sola we rested a bit at my uncle's house,had some tea and then made our way to the airport. the airport is really just a grass strip with a smalltwo room concrete building that serves as the airtraffic control tower, ticket counter, security, check incounter and restaurant. after about 20 minutes oftalking on the radio with santo and vila, the ticket agent wasable to confirm that we did have seats on the flightand checked us in. two other peace corps volunteers werecoming back to sola on the morning flight, so we got to see them and talk for a while which was reallynice. we said goodbye to my papa. he planned to head backto our village and then come back to meet us at the airport on wednesday. by 11am we were on the planeand headed to santo. sandra had to avoid the coconut crabs that were tied up under her seat but wewere really excited to be on our way.so now, after a few days of relaxing and shopping insanto, we're getting ready to head back to vanua lava. santo is an interesting town. one main road with afew dozen shops and about a dozen restaurants. you can still see kwanzat huts that the US Army builtduring there stay here in the 1940's. there's also anumber of mostly ruined boat ramps and docks. and in a fewplaces you can see the remains of cars, trucks and tanks that were dumped into the water before the USleft. at the restaurants you can hear australians andkiwis talking about developing land they've justbought and you can see their enormous new homes being built. there are a lot of changes taking place, butit's still a very quiet town far away from the rest ofthe world. okay, that's it for now. sorry for the long email. but this is my last chance to write for the next twomonths, so i figured i should put as much in as icould. i will try to send some more videos in aseparate email.thanks again for all the emails, letters and packages. we miss you all.
love, dennis and sandra
If the internet comes back up here on santo, thismessage will come to you all as an email with somevideos attached. if not, then i'll just print this,mail it home and have my brother post it on our blogsometime in march. either way, i wanted to tell you alittle bit more about our lives out here over the lastcouple months. it's hard to know which stories to tell because somuch has happened. so i'll start with our trip tosanto. that will give you a good idea of how we live. on thursday morning last week, sandra and i finallygot permission from Peace Corps in Vila to travel to Santo. Cyclone Gene was far enough to the south of usthat it was deemed safe for us to go. i spoke with my papa and he said it was too late to make the tripto Sola that afternoon, so we would wake up before dawn and start the hike. Our village is on the westside of Vanua Lava and is connected to the provincial capital, Sola, by a bush trail about 8 miles long. wewent to bed around 9pm (pretty normal for us...it'shard to stay up too late after the sun goes down, lack ofelectricity and all.) my mama came and knocked on our door at a little past3am to ask what time it was (not too many clocks or watches in the village) and to tell us that my papawas ready to go when we were. we said we wanted to sleep for another hour and then we'd go. so at 4am wewoke up, had some coffee and got our bags ready. we locked up the house and said goodbye to our dog,noche, and then hit the trail. we hiked for the firsthour with flashlights and by about 5:45 it was lightenough to put them away. the trail to Sola crosses 6or 7 streams and rivers, two villages (keripeta and mosina)and through some pretty spectacular scenery. after coming down from the hill where our village sits, weparallel the coast for most of the walk. about 3/4 ofthe way there the foot path turns into a crushed coraltruck road. much easier to walk on and occasionallyyou get lucky enough that a truck comes to carry you thelast hour. we weren't so lucky this time, so wearrived in sola at about 8am. as we passed the village ofmosina, we came to the house of one of my grandma's. my papa called out to them and they came out with waterand fresh doughnuts for us. it was great. once we made it into sola we rested a bit at my uncle's house,had some tea and then made our way to the airport. the airport is really just a grass strip with a smalltwo room concrete building that serves as the airtraffic control tower, ticket counter, security, check incounter and restaurant. after about 20 minutes oftalking on the radio with santo and vila, the ticket agent wasable to confirm that we did have seats on the flightand checked us in. two other peace corps volunteers werecoming back to sola on the morning flight, so we got to see them and talk for a while which was reallynice. we said goodbye to my papa. he planned to head backto our village and then come back to meet us at the airport on wednesday. by 11am we were on the planeand headed to santo. sandra had to avoid the coconut crabs that were tied up under her seat but wewere really excited to be on our way.so now, after a few days of relaxing and shopping insanto, we're getting ready to head back to vanua lava. santo is an interesting town. one main road with afew dozen shops and about a dozen restaurants. you can still see kwanzat huts that the US Army builtduring there stay here in the 1940's. there's also anumber of mostly ruined boat ramps and docks. and in a fewplaces you can see the remains of cars, trucks and tanks that were dumped into the water before the USleft. at the restaurants you can hear australians andkiwis talking about developing land they've justbought and you can see their enormous new homes being built. there are a lot of changes taking place, butit's still a very quiet town far away from the rest ofthe world. okay, that's it for now. sorry for the long email. but this is my last chance to write for the next twomonths, so i figured i should put as much in as icould. i will try to send some more videos in aseparate email.thanks again for all the emails, letters and packages. we miss you all.
love, dennis and sandra
Back in Sola Mar 25, 2008
Hello Again,
We've made it back to Santo after almost a week where we were sort of stranded on our island. Last Wednesday we were scheduled to fly from our island toPort Vila for a meeting with Peace Corps and a little break. We left our house around 5am, hiked for about an hour before the sun came up enough to put away our flashlights, and were in really good spirits. The weather stayed dry until we were about an hour away from Sola. The rain came and didn't stop until we made it into Sola. We found out as we made it into town that the flight had been cancelled because of the rain. We were worried that that might happen, but had been holding out hope. So when we tried to find out if we could get on Friday's flight to go to Vila, we were told that there was no longer a reason for us to come because we would miss the meeting anyways. Thankfully we were allowed to come into Santo for a resupply trip. Well, it ended up that Friday's flight was overbooked,so we had to wait for Monday's flight and hope that itdidn't rain on Monday. As word spread around Sola that we hadn't gotten on the Friday flight, everyone started trying to help us get on Monday's flight. The woman who runs the bungalow we stayed at called her son in law, in Vila who works at the Air Vanuatu flight scheduling to ask him to check and make sure we were on the flight. It's one of the plusses of being in such a small country where pretty much everyone knows everyone else. So we made it on the flight and arrived in Santo on Monday afternoon.The last two months have been pretty eventful. School started in the middle of February. The students spent the first week back cleaning up the school grounds and classrooms. Some of them helped Sandra and I organize the piles of books into a small library. Sandra was nominated as the librarian for the school by the other teachers.
We've made it back to Santo after almost a week where we were sort of stranded on our island. Last Wednesday we were scheduled to fly from our island toPort Vila for a meeting with Peace Corps and a little break. We left our house around 5am, hiked for about an hour before the sun came up enough to put away our flashlights, and were in really good spirits. The weather stayed dry until we were about an hour away from Sola. The rain came and didn't stop until we made it into Sola. We found out as we made it into town that the flight had been cancelled because of the rain. We were worried that that might happen, but had been holding out hope. So when we tried to find out if we could get on Friday's flight to go to Vila, we were told that there was no longer a reason for us to come because we would miss the meeting anyways. Thankfully we were allowed to come into Santo for a resupply trip. Well, it ended up that Friday's flight was overbooked,so we had to wait for Monday's flight and hope that itdidn't rain on Monday. As word spread around Sola that we hadn't gotten on the Friday flight, everyone started trying to help us get on Monday's flight. The woman who runs the bungalow we stayed at called her son in law, in Vila who works at the Air Vanuatu flight scheduling to ask him to check and make sure we were on the flight. It's one of the plusses of being in such a small country where pretty much everyone knows everyone else. So we made it on the flight and arrived in Santo on Monday afternoon.The last two months have been pretty eventful. School started in the middle of February. The students spent the first week back cleaning up the school grounds and classrooms. Some of them helped Sandra and I organize the piles of books into a small library. Sandra was nominated as the librarian for the school by the other teachers.
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