Ok, it’s been a really long time, I know. Well, a lot has happened over the past several months… Long story short, I’m the only volunteer on my island and in effort to continue my project and not completely desert Ambrym, I’ve moved villages. There were too many problems in my first village and the project just wasn’t moving ahead because of it. So just before Christmas I moved a 1.5 hour walk away to a new site-same community. So Christmas and New Year’s in Oz. I decided to spend a month in Australia over the holidays. I started off in [View Full Entry]

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Ok the last bunch of blogs my sister updated were actually pretty good, so catch up with me there. As far as all updates well I'll be moving once again but it's ok I will be able get the school going finally. One of my double classrooms (for a primary school not the RTC) is finished so we will have that opening in the new year. And I"ll be doing a small camp for the girls in my community. Focusing on the the 3 life skills of communication, decision making and relationship skills as well as making crafts (tye dye, friendship [View Full Entry]

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No I don’t have access to a computer in the bush, I’m just inundating my poor sister with blogs to update you all with. I can’t say things aren’t happening with building the training center but it’s slow. To update you all on it’s complexities would also require me to discuss the culture and other such things. In short, I could ask for money to build a classroom, manage the school and teach the classes myself, but that is not sustainable. So we have not begun. Some days, I’m optimistic, some days I feel like I’m wasting my time. With that [View Full Entry]

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Discovering Lonwolwol From 1933 to 1948, a missionary by the name of Paton lived and studied language and custom on Ambrym. He eventually published his findings in a scholarly reference book through a university in Australia. I’ve recently gotten my hands on this book and have found it very useful in learning more about the place I live but also I find it very interesting that as old as the information is much of it is still in practice today. But I’m not going to talk about custom in this blog. In Paton’s 15 years on Ambrym he learned from it’s [View Full Entry]

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Basic Burgers 2 cups cooked beans, mashed One half cup stock or water (if the beans are a bit dry) 1 cup cooked rice, millet, bulgur, and so on 1 cup toasted chopped nuts or seeds 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast One quarter cup tamari sauce One quarter teaspoon dried oregano One quarter teaspoon dried thyme Salt and pepper to taste One half cup finely shredded carrots or finely chopped cooked vegetables 2 cups rolled oats or fresh bread crumbs, use more as needed Canola oil (optional) 1. In a bowl, combine all ingredients except oats or bread crumbs and optional oil. [View Full Entry]

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It has been a long time since I’ve decided to write. Now that I have music when I want and an endless supply of DVDs (solar panel, car battery and Chinese bootleg DVDs-hey there are no copywriting laws in Vu), well books, pen and paper all seem to collect dust. Not entirely of course, but the reality of the situation is music and movies keep me sane (at least like a drug) in quicker time. But today is Sunday (which means the village is quiet with everyone at church) and I’ve just applied enough repellant to keep the mozzies away for [View Full Entry]

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Early December of last year a small black and white pup was born. His mother was unable to give her babes milk so he ate popo (paw paw/ papaya). After one month of life I carried him, an hrs walk, to my village and named him Jack. It was here where Jack began to thrive. All his siblings eventually died from lack of a proper diet, but Jack's new mom spoiled him with lots of love and tin meat (and other sorts of human food). It took no time before he grew strong and at 4 mos he started to [View Full Entry]

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My Current Mental State MAYBE, I’m going mad? Maybe it was my great big hit on the head when I passed out at Craig Cove on government payday (imagine a gas station in the middle of the desert where 2x a month everyone in a 50 mile radius comes to collect their pay. Here on Ambrym it’s where the only bank is and well everyone was there to witness my fall. No worries, mom, I’m ok and the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officers) will run all the necessary tests when I’m in Vila next month. So anyways, talk about cabin fever, [View Full Entry]

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Black Magic I know it has been a long time since I’ve written my sister to update my blog. Life here has been a bit mad. Still waiting on a new house and to build a school. So there are days when I am just “kranky” but there are also days when I’m very happy-often both occur in the same day. There has been a lot of things happening, earthquakes, tsunami (warnings), very active volcanoes, a cyclone. Yes, Mother Nature has been very busy this past month! Try sitting through a cyclone in a house made of nothing but coconut palm [View Full Entry]

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So I'm in Au Bon Marche yesterday trying to select my cans of tuna and I notice the cans are shaking, so I back away. Then I look up and the signs are swaying and more things are a shakin... so I thought of all my safety training and couldn't decide if I should leave the store or wait it out. Yes there was an earthquake yesterday - but we have them pretty much every day. This one was just a bit longer. But Minna just emailed me from Belguim that she heard we had an earthquake so I thought I'd [View Full Entry]

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