http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/MarieB/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from MarieB en-us Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:01:09 +0000 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:01:09 +0000 There's this word in Bislama Manbus pronounced man bush and it refers to someone who's been in the bush too long. In the village they call people manbush when they like dont know how to work something or haven't been out of the rural area much. Like if theres a kid staring at me because im white they'll be like stop staring manbush Well turns out ive only been in Vanuatu a year but manbus http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/blog-442862.html I am still in Port Vila and have been here for about a week. Before I came here I was in Santo for a week doing some work on my Masters Intl project. I came to Port Vila for a safety and security meeting because right before I left for Santo I had some more issues with creeping. I think I explained before but creeping is what guys do here when they like a girl. They go to her house in the midd http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/blog-434742.html It's a good thing I've learned not to keep my expectations too high here. The first leg of the journey went pretty much as planned. But after that pretty much all the plans to visit various bungalows and custom dances started falling through. The tourism office developed their budget for this trip based on the assumption that I would be traveling on the cameraman's yacht without talking with h http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/blog-433416.html Hello friends hope all is well. I'm using the internet at the tourism office now. I was supposed to leave today for my work for the tourism office but not surprisingly there was a problem with the funding so i am leaving tomorrow and they put me in a guesthouse for the night with electricity and everything so i cant complain. I'm going to be making a tourism audit for Malampa Province and at http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/blog-427529.html Hey everyoneIts been a while since I updated the blog so i'll give a quick update on whats been going on over here. Overall things are going really well and i'm really happy here. I'm in town today to pick up some baby chickens for the RTC yep thats right i love my life and run some errands. We're doing a faol project at the RTC with some egg layers that came from New Zealand there's about http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Vanuatu/Malekula/blog-405392.html Hey everyone I finally have more than a few minutes and internet that actually works so I can update everyone a little more on what's been going on with me here in the pacific. I'm in Port Vila for about 3 more days got here last Sunday for early service training. Coming in to Port Vila felt like driving in to New York City which is really odd because my first impression of Vila was completel http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Vanuatu/Malekula/blog-385397.html Hello friends it's been a while. I have a chance to write a short update because I'm in town paying a lot to use the internet. I have been at my site in Wowo for almost 2 months and things are going very well overall. I started work at the training center a few weeks ago with advertising and working on the strategic plan so I've been pretty busy. Classes start technically next Monday although http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Vanuatu/Malekula/blog-368528.html Hey friends It's my last night in Port Vila so my last chance to update my blog in a while. I'm heading out to my village tomorrow at 6 am. I've been here since last Friday and it's been a very busy week filled wth shopping for supplies for my house drinking beers in the pool and packing. I bought kitchen supplies a stove mattress food buckets a bunch of calico sewing kit ping pong pa http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Vanuatu/Malekula/blog-350884.html Hello again I have a lot to write because I just came back from my site on Malekula Wowo village last Sunday night. Wowo is in Northwest Malekula if you look on a map Malekula is the island shaped like a sitting dog and Wowo is on the top of the dog's head. I have a lot to write about but unfortunately don't have much time. Overall I love my site. Another trainee Karen is going to Maleku http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Vanuatu/Malekula/blog-345171.html Hey everyone Irsquom in Port Vila for the morning today since it will be the last chance before we leave for ldquowokabaot week.rdquo Itrsquos about the end of week 5 of training and sometimes I am ready for it to finish. We finally find out our sites next Wednesday and I am really looking forward to finally knowing where Irsquoll be living for the next 2 years. They have been telling http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Vanuatu/Efate/blog-338124.html Hello Friends I have been in my training village Mangaliliu for almost 2 weeks now and today we are taking a little field trip into Port Vila so I have some time to send an update. Everything is going really well almost too well. We are really lucky to have Managaliliu as our training village. Let me backtrack a little to when we first arrived a few weeks ago on Sunday...Our group received a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Vanuatu/Efate/blog-332736.html Hey everyone This will be my last chance to update the blog for a while so just wanted to write a quick note. Things have been going very well and we've been kept really busy this past week. We've had some sort of training during the day from 84 everyday either medical safety health or language all orientation type stuff. Then we are free and usually run errands and go to dinner kava or http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Vanuatu/Efate/Port-Vila/blog-328088.html Hi friends I am finally here in Port Vila Vanuatu We arrived Saturday and it has been a busy and incredible few days already. When we first arrived in the airport after a long trip and almost having to stay in the airport another week because some of us were accidentally booked on standby we were welcomed by smiling faces and a string band playing as we waited in line for customs. The islan http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Vanuatu/Efate/Port-Vila/blog-326214.html Hey everyone My Vanuatu adventure is almost underway. I just spent 2 days in orientation in LA getting to know the other volunteers there's 21 of us going and preparing for what we can expect once we arrive. The other volunteers are from all over the US and we will all be participating in some sort of education program as our assignment. I am in the airport in New Zealand now with a 5 hour la http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/blog-325385.html