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]

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Location: Port Vila Length of Stay: 19 Days Cost per Day: $20.00 Alo…Bonjour and Hello…The 3 spoken languages here are Bislama (Pidgeon English), French and English. It is just amazing to see people switch between all three when communicating with a group of people. What a fabulous 1st destination to begin one’s journey. Port Vila is such a gorgeous little place… It is officially the capital city of Vanuatu, however, really it’s just a town sitting on the edge of a beautiful harbour. The Vanuatu people or Ni-Vans as they call themselves are without [View Full Entry]

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On leaving Lautoka, where we cleared out of Fiji, we headed for the most southerly reef pass in light winds. On passing between the islands at 18.30 we encountered fairly heavy, confused seas for the wind conditions which were surprising but a couple of low pressures south of us were affecting the area. Day two turned the seas a little sloppy but we had good winds and by day three it was a little more comfortable - we were flying along with the genniker at around 10 knots much of the time and enjoying a thrilling ride! Landfall was made in [View Full Entry]

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I flew with Air Vanuatu from Brisbane to the capital city called Port Vila in the republic of Vanuatu. Let me first tell you something about the country Vanuatu before talking about my first experiences. The country consists of around 80 islands and has a total population of around 210.000 people. It has a tropical climate and lies in the South Pacific region. The first settlements of the French and English started in the 18th century and in 1906 the Anglo-French Condominium of the new Hibreidess was created. That means that British and French nationals had equal rights and retained their [View Full Entry]

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Well everyone, it’s time to start up the ‘ol blog once again. I made it to Vanuatu after a couple hours in transit (37) and luckily all my luggage made it through too. There was a bit of hassle at the Brisbane airport that forced me to shill out a heap of cash that I didn’t want to spend but all-in-all things worked out in the end. I guess the airlines don’t like it when you travel with as many bags as I do, especially when they weigh as much as mine. Oddly, less than 25% of the gear was actually [View Full Entry]

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Hello all! Yes, this one is coming to you live from Port Vila as we are back in the capital for training and heading back in about a week. Even though this will seem out of order as there are still blogs I have written and sent for my sister to post, I'll go ahead with a few little news and tidbits and trust you all to put them into context with the letters yet to come via snail mail. Coming back to "civilization" was quite a process. For weeks, we've been making lists, phone calls, and plans on how to [View Full Entry]

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Sorta, kinda didn't really know what to expect when I first went to Vanuatu as the online information isn't terribly extensive, (http://www.vanuatutourism.com/vanuatu/cms/index.html) so while I had made some plans as to things I wanted to do, there was still the very real sense of "I wonder..." as we descended into Bauerfield International. The surrounding countryside was rough grazing land covered with coconut palms, extending away into native jungle within a few kilometres. One of the features to be savoured in Vanuatu is a product of this land- the beef. Most of the beef farms are organic ( [View Full Entry]

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Vanuatu er en oeygruppe i Stillehavet bestaaende av 83 oeyer. Den stoerste oeya er Efate, som huser hovedstaden Port Vila. Innbyggerne har et afrikansk-lignende utseende. Vanuatu er en tidligere fransk koloni, men ble erklaert selvstendig i 1980, saa vi snakker om et ungt lite land. Kakkerlakker og skjegg Auckland skjemte oss bort med svalere klima og air condition, saa varmen som slo mot oss da vi gikk av flyet paa Vanuatu var et lite sjokk. Det skulle vise seg aa ikke vaere det eneste. Da vi sto i informasjonen for aa booke et sted aa bo var det vanskelig aa fokusere [View Full Entry]

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Today begins the last month of the year and many things are coming to an end. Among the list of wrap-ups is my time here in the South Pacific. Tomorrow I head back to the states with a short stop in Fiji for a couple of hours. I love flying East over the dateline because gaining a day always makes me feel so time efficient. I'll spend 22 hours in transit and still land 3-4 hours before I left. Back to the Future indeed. Last month in Australia was not as productive as I would have preferred. My dream was to [View Full Entry]

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Here is another blog to hold you over for a few months. While all of you in the States were celebrating Thanksgiving, Justin and I were swearing in as official Peace Corps Volunteers (before, we were at the status of "trainee"). Everyone in our group was given a coordinating island dress or shirt to wear at the ceremony. It kind of felt like we were part of a big wedding, all wearing coordinating bridesmaids and groomsmen outfits. My family added an extra special accessory to my attire for the day - a scrunchie made of coordinating fabric! It is so funny [View Full Entry]

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