Mariel - Mariel Street

some call it a quarter life crisis....some call it the fulfillment of a naive childhood dream. its a bit of both is suppose. Deciding to join the Peace Corps was the easy part. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer, thats hard. Im 24 years old, got no strings, my future is relatively wide open. My past brought me here , and there is no doubt that this experience at this point in my life will shape my future. For the next 2 years, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer in Vanuatu, a literacy teacher trainer at the primary school level on the island of Aneityum, in the village of Analcauhat. The work is not easy, the lifestyle takes time and patience to adjust to, but in the end i hope it will all be worth it. the blog is a medium through which i hope you all can catch a glimpse of a world so very unlike the one we are accustomed to. A world full of people and not things. A world of no modern conveniences yet no true inconveniences. Words could never explain what this experience is truly like, but this blog is a mediocre effort at giving you all some idea. i hope you enjoy

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Joined on: September 25th 2008
Last Login: November 26th 2009

Blog Entries: 22
Photos: 263
Recommended by 1

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Blogs & Travel Journals

by Mariel, order by Date newest first.

By Mariel
November 26th 2009

Thanksgiving in COOL-a Oceania » Vanuatu » Malekula

Hi from Santo! HAPPPPPPPY THANKSGIVINGGGGG!! It is a time of changing seasons for many; hot becomes cold, cold becomes hot; leaves change; change of wardrobe; the clock changes with daylight savings time; new fruits come into season. Though the Pacific doesn’t go through the changing of the seasons I’ve grown up adoring, we are having our own change of seasons, too. The heat and humidity are starting; apples and pineapples are filling the markets; school is winding down; couples are being married; villages are preparing for Christmas. Even though I don’t have the distinct [View Full Entry]

By Mariel
October 29th 2009

Coming back to the beginning Oceania » Vanuatu » Santo

my kitchen
this is looking from my bedroom to my kitchen in my house. fabric on the walls covers the bamboo. the shape of te bar is made of wild cane. the awning at the top is woven natangura leaves. thats my hu... [more]

I’ve just come back from visiting my new site and what an experience it was. You know, we think and speak of Vanuatu as a single country, an archipelago of connected islands bound by the name "Vanuatu", but in reality Vanuatu is a mosaic of islands, languages, cultures, and customs. The traditions and histories, beliefs and languages, customs and "fashions" are very different from island to island. I’m lucky to have the opportunity to live on two different islands and deeply experience the uniqueness of each. But seriously, learning the local language bakegen....excited but...eh..T [View Full Entry]

By Mariel
October 16th 2009

Letting Go Oceania » Vanuatu » Efate » Port Vila

I am having the biggest exercise in letting go that ive ever had in my life. Learning to let go is something I think most of wish to master, but few of toil to accomplish. Living in a material world with a deadly grasp on possessions, who can blame us? My flashdrive went missing, was lost, was taken. My flashdrive that holds 600+ photos of my entire peace corps experience. The first photo on there is of me and my mom at the airport, red faced and crying, as I am about to walk through security and board the plan to [View Full Entry]

By Mariel
October 9th 2009

My last goodbye Oceania » Vanuatu

where my last kakae was
this is behind my kitchen and to the side of my house.

The two blogs “Around the Island in 10 days” and “Last update from Aneityum” were written before I actually left the island. This blog is to explain a bit of why im leaving and where im going. As you read or perhaps will read in the School Section of “Last Update” blog, school was… well not really working. After the fire at the headmaster’s house, we haven’t really been able to get back on track. There is also a Presbyterian Assembly happening in November, which was reason enough to cancel school until February. When peace corps loo [View Full Entry]

By Mariel
October 8th 2009

Last Update from Aneityum Oceania » Vanuatu

independence
The guy with the megaphone is the Area Councelor, the guy looking at the camera is the headmaster who was burned in the school fire, and the other guys are heads of families (kind of like chiefs)--the... [more]

A year has come and gone so quickly I can hardly believe it! September 16th, I read through my journal over a deliciously fresh lobster and a bottle of red wine, reflecting over the ups and downs, the joys and frustrations, the achievements and the failures. Lobster and red wine…I know..im not sure how many Peace Corps Volunteers can say that. To be a PC Volunteer in the South Pacific does have its perks. There is always so much to write about, but really I’m going to skip a lot. INDEPENDENCE DAY- July 30 Independence day was great and very different [View Full Entry]

By Mariel
October 8th 2009

Around the Island in 10 days Oceania » Vanuatu

uninhabited cove
from the beach to where the waves break is all reef, where the waves break, the reef drops off to the deep blue ocean. thats where the best snorkeling is

Ive been at sight, on Aneityum, for nearly a year now, but until September, I had yet to walk around the whole island. So, for the 2 week break between term 2 and 3 I decided the time had come; I was going to “round” the island. It goes without saying that our island is beautiful. Ask any of us and we’d say it’s probably the most, or at least one of the most, beautiful islands in the South Pacific. We’ve got white sand beaches and black sand beaches, hills and mountains, dry red ground and clay red ground, palm trees [View Full Entry]

By Mariel
July 15th 2009

ups and downs, its all about the ride Oceania » Vanuatu

brushin brushin brushin
bubbling with clean teeth

Hello again, Im back in Port Vila after a 3-4 month island stint. Going from one extreme to the other— from the island to Vila, from no phones, no trucks, no English, to hot showers, internet, and stores—really makes you appreciate the different qualities of each environment. After 4 months at site on Aneityum, I start to go a little island stir crazy. But a week or two in Vila, and im itchin to get back to the simple life. A lot has changed since I last posted, which wasn’t really that long ago. Probably the biggest change is that I [View Full Entry]

By Mariel
June 9th 2009

equanimity is where its at Oceania » Vanuatu

Fishing with a plastic bottle
This is Steve, a small boy from Tanna island that one of my relatives adopted after he was abandoned. He is a master fisherman of reef fish.

It amazes me how time can pass so slowly yet seem to fly by. I look at the calendar, realize it is June which means ive been here for 9 months… but I can hardly believe it. Is it because life feels so unstructured here (compared to the rigidity of my life in America)? Or maybe not having the familiar change in seasons has kept my head in ‘summertime mode’. Im not sure, but my time-tracking tendencies are long gone, lost in the day-blending current of these past 9 months. The rain has gone but left its mark: the vegetation around [View Full Entry]

By Mariel
March 9th 2009

“Everything you’re sure is right can be so wrong in another place” Oceania » Vanuatu

earth overn
this is them uncovering the earth oven where we have cooked hundreds of taro, two cows, and a pig in the earth for a full day. mmmm

This blog is all about the color. On custom. On culture. On traditions. I’ve only been here on Aneityum a handful of months (what month is it again?), so this is my account of what i have experienced. By no means is it meant to be a comprehensive look at their life and custom. I don’t know everything. Far from it. you could spend a decade here and still be surprised. But this is my experience. The knowledge I have acquired thus far in the journey. And im not, as i hope you wont, judging or criticizing. Just trying to explain [View Full Entry]

By Mariel
March 9th 2009

reading and writing doesnt make you 'smart' Oceania » Vanuatu

what tha...
ya, that chicken is relieving himself in my coffee...shamelessly. this is where i sleep when i go to my mama's village, with the chickens and everything

What it means to be smart, i have learned, depends on what culture you’re in. Qualities and capabilities we associate with intelligence do not translate in this culture. When i am referred to as ‘smart’ it is when i completed a walkabout tour of the island, when i go to the garden and people see me walking back with a basket full of crops suspended by a branch i hacked off a tree, when i come home filthy and covered in mud from my waist down. That is smart. That is when they tell me i am a smart woman. The [View Full Entry]

chewing kava and getting ready for the night

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