Mariel
Mariel Street Joined: September 25th 2008
Logged in: October 5th 2010
Logged in: October 5th 2010
For 2 years, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer in Vanuatu, a literacy teacher trainer at the primary school level on remote islands and in isolated villages. The work is not easy, the lifestyle takes time and patience to adjust to, but as I approach the end, i know it has all been worth it. this 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--- give.love.live
Travel Blog Posts
Yasir Volcano
There are so many stories, so many conversations, so many experiences, so many lessons, so many things that happened that could be told. I’ve tried to give an honest picture of what it has been like living here in Vanuatu, on a remote island in the south pacific, living in a hut, sleeping on a mat, cooking over fire, living by candlelight, bathing in cold water, living in a community of people of an entirely different culture, different way of thinking, different language, different values, beliefs, and traditions. It has been heaven and hell, paradise and the slums. But this country and its people are beautiful and i have loved every part of it, though sometimes it wasn’t easy to. Life is so very simple here. People don’t hope for a house of their own. People ... read more
last kava
I’m anticipating the questions I’ll get when I get home, and I know one will be “what was the hardest part?” Before I came, I thought the hardest part of this 2 years would be witnessing the poverty, domestic violence, living in huts, feeling like an outsider, the distance, the quality of life, the food, language, different beliefs... i.e all those things that come with being away from home in a very foreign culture. When I got here, I saw those things and felt those things, and thought "Yes, this is going to be the hardest part." And then I ate banana laplap and thought, “Now this might be the hardest part”. Or maybe it would be 3hr church services, or putting up with boys scratching at my walls all night, or motivating people to take ... read more
the last day
Well the stage was finally finished and officially opened on August 20th, 2010. Sure we were $2,000 over our budget, my fingerprints dissolved with cement burns and blisters, but it was completed and the entire process was one of the biggest learning experiences I’ve had in this country. There was a formal ceremony to commemorate the opening and it was an absolute success. We should all be immensely proud of the villagers in south Santo; I’ve never seen such commitment or hard work in my life. We faced so many challenges getting the stage built. It is the first permanent stage at a primary school in Vanuatu built 100% by local labor and funded 52% by locals. We raised over $3,000 at the community level to get this stage built, an amount completely unheard of. Vanuatu ... read more
So, coming home and seeing people, i realize how beyond comprehension the logistics of this experience are. How does Peace Corps work? where are you? who do you live with? how do you live? what do you do for money? how do you have internet? how many volunteers do you live with? I figure id write a blog just explaining how this whole thing works. So, Vanuatu is a country of 85+ inhabited islands. there are 79 peace corps volunteers. we are spread out over about 50 islands. many of us are on islands by ourselves (me on Aneityum; matt was there for a bit) and others live on islands with another volunteer or two (me on santo with 2 other volunteers). Vanuatu has 2 “cities”; they are very small, as in they take about 20 ... read more
land diving
For me, the best part about living abroad for a substantial amount time is being able to experience the raw culture and unique customs of an exotic land. Being a tourist for 2 weeks is great; You're experience is often handpicked for the most amazing, beautiful, and intriguing things the land has to offer. However, you don't get to see the culture, the people, and the life as it is in reality. Living in a place like this, in a village, with only locals, living as they do, for 27 months--this unlike any tourist experience out there. So, seeing as how one of my highest motivations for joining the Peace Corps was to experience a new culture in this very local and raw way, i jumped at the chance to see a truly custom landdiving ceremony. ... read more
Rob Glen
Expectations: the firm belief that certain things are so likely to happen they feel like givens, but sooner or later we all find out that they are just a false sense of security. dynamic and difficult situations are like fuses burning furiously towards a big bang that can shatter those expectations and bring a sudden loss of security and sense of stability. just when you think you have things figured out, the whole world starts to unravel or blows up entirely, into a million indiscernible pieces, a cloud of confusion. and when this happens, it doesn’t take you back to square 1; worse: it changes the game entirely. new pieces must be created, old ones no longer fitting together. When i joined the Peace Corps, I knew it was going to be a challenging experience. I ... read more
opera house
People hear about the Peace Corps and what we are doing out here, living in villages with minimum amenities, unencumbered by the burdens of modern life--mortgages, bills, bosses, time-- and they think "ahhh, you lucky kid. such possibility and freedom". Yes, in that way, yes. It has been wonderful to have an empty bank account and not worry; to be able to go to work barefoot; to be hungry and find food in the garden; to feel like spending a day sitting under a mango tree and your counterpart/'boss' say, "Ill join you". But I read a quote not long ago about how the exact thing that sustains you also constrains you; Like a ballerina being able to do plies, her skeleton, her bones are what make those graceful movements possible, but it is that same ... read more
sunset
It’s been a while. you would think Id have some material to write about, but really what triggered this blog was a lawnmower. allow me to explain: Coming back to Santo and to the school where Im working was such a good feeling. The sunflowers planted around my house stood to meet me straight in the eye, enormous and bright. The campus was quiet, the grass overgrown, the orange trees heavy with fruit. School was starting in 2 weeks and the teachers had (thankfully) begun arriving. We started a school clean-up week, and cutting the 2foot tall prickly grass was first on our list of things to do. Just below was: clean the old classrooms, build 4 new classrooms, fix our water source, and round up the chickens. I thought the last one was going to ... read more
my family
We all hope that Peace Corps is going to teach us valuable life lessons, lessons of patience, endurance, commitment, tolerance, and acceptance taught to us by our successes and failures as volunteers, as Americans living in a foreign culture. We all hope to learn great things about ourselves, the world, and everything in between. The ups and downs are part of the journey, for better and for worse; they make us stronger, they teach us, the show us our strengths and weaknesses. Ive tried to take the wins and losses, successes and failures with a grain of salt, to look at them and see what is beneath the surface, what lesson can be learned, what the world is trying to show me about myself and itself. This past month has been one of the most beautifully ... read more
