Off the Island

We did it. We completed two years of Peace Corps service on the island. We packed up our things, said goodbye to our families, friends and pets and left the village. We caught our flight off the island on the 23rd of October and made it back to Vila that afternoon. We had four going away parties over the last two weeks and we got lots of gifts and even more flowers. At the party at our school, each of the kids gave us a flower necklace or a bouquet.
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Our families walked us to Sola for the last time and we stayed for a couple of days to finish up work at the Provincial Education Office and to say goodbye to the family there. We got a little bit of rain the night before we left and our parents said the young kids would have to stay in the village. But as this was their big chance to go and see the plane for the first time, they refused to stay home and came with us. Fortunately the weather dried up and we had an easy walk.
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We had to wait a couple hours at the airport so we did what we usually do when we're bored and played with the kids. Took lots of photos and tried not to think about the fact that we were saying goodbye for who knows how many years.

We arrived in Vila around 3pm dirty, tired and hungry. A nice hot shower took care of the first problem, but here in Vila it's not very easy to find a restaraunt open between lunch and dinner hours. So, instead of going to the store and buying food we decided to wait a couple hours and then head to the top of the nicest hotel in town (the Sebel) for their happy hour drinks and free appetizers.

The view from the top of the Sebel looks out west over Port Vila Harbor and around 5pm it is spectacular. As we sat there watching the sunset and drinking wine on empty stomachs we thought about how different Vila is from the rest of Vanuatu. Now, granted, we lived in a very remote village in the far north of the country. But, as we listened to the ex-pats at the table next to us talk excitedly about their matching nose jobs and upcoming liposuction and thought about how my sisters had just seen an airplane for the first time and just the day before had used a 'white-man toilet' for the first time (which by the way she thought was a pretty cool invention) it really sunk in that while physically and legally Port Vila is part of Vanuatu, in reality it's like another planet.

Anyways, two years down, six days to go. We will finish our last work this week and fly out of Vanuatu on Saturday. As we told everyone in the village, we will come back, but we don't know when. My papa said that was fine and the kava I planted the week before we left would grow and wait for me to come back. He'll look after it for 6 or 7 or however many years and when we come back, I'll pull it out and we'll grind it and drink it. Nambawan.

During our last few weeks at school we finally started and completed our hand painted flag of Vanuatu. Every student and teacher was able to put two or three hand prints on the wall. We had to deal with some rain and running paint during the process, and a lack of ladders, but we made it work.