a trip to the garden

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sorry it's taken me so long to get this one published, this week just got a way from me! -b

5 march 2009

"halo yufala" from "mitufala" on maewo! yes, we are still here, sweating, and enjoying it. we are looking forward to a trip to the capital in about two weeks where we will have an early service training conference. also, we are hoping to take advantage of air conditioning, ice cream, and internet as well. i hope to update the blog with pictures, which will probably get there before this letter makes it to the usa, but writing the blogs is such a release for me and i'll go on ahead with this one. we've got lots of to-do and shopping lists in the works for the port vila trip; including plans to buy canned tuna and nutella in bulk from wholesale. the bare essentials you know.

last week i had my first workshop with the primary (grades 1-7) teachers at gambule school. it was received well, but i definitely overestimated the teachers' comfort level in english as well as creative initiative. i jumped right in to suggested phonics and "letter focus" activities when i should have first covered the basics of: this letter makes this sound and specifically listing items they could bring inside the classroom to correspond with the letter for that lesson. it is hard for me to fill in all the blanks for the teachers here when my own experiences teaching tell me that i should "make it my own" and fashion activities after the experiences and cultures of the students. i hate to rob them of the chance to create and mold and find their forte in the teaching realm, but that seems to be what they expect and are comfortable with. so, instead of my planned observation week to follow the workshop, i hopped into the teachers role myself and modeled phonics activities for grades 1 through 3. following my next workshop, i'll pick back up with observations. in the meantime, i dream up new phonics activities that would gel well with the school system and needs here. it's like sesame street, but island style.

justin has been clocking some hours in the classroom as well. the teacher of grade 7 went to santo (another larger island) to visit an ill family member in the hospital. he asked justin to fill in for him while he was gone; and since he is traveling by ship, that has been a week and counting. he covers the math and english lessons and it's been interesting to hear his commentary on the ups and downs of teaching. to ensure that the substitute teaching thing doesn't become a regular habit, he pushed his first workshop (originally planned for this week) back so that the teachers see the consequences of the time crunch that while he is teaching he cannot prepare the workshop. otherwise, every teacher needing a sick day or special leave would be coming for him. since the school is still waiting for the computers (as, incidentally, are we) he's hoping to do the first few workshops on the basics sans computers.

as i am writing this, three boys from the secondary school are pounding away, dismantling the bed in our spare bedroom with a large stone and my small hammer head, reset in a new handle by grandpa brock. when they asked for a hammer and i handed it to them, they asked who worked the handle. i answered, "bumbu blong mi" or "my grandpa." the new principal has asked that the bunk bed be returned to the school. but, not to worry, justin has been asking around to find someone to build another spare bed, and we hope to have it replaced in the next month or so. hardware and tools are hard to come by here, so i'll have to make sure i get my hammer back before thye leave!

this afternoon, justin's brother kenny and some of his buddies used our kitchen to cook. we hear often the complaints of secondary school students not getting enough to eat. they often bring taro to boil or bake at our house in addition to the rice and cabbage they have for meals. kenny and my sister sophie often drop by in the evening conveniently just as we are cooking. they are interested in our concoctions. we heard kenny boasting about the "sushi" justin whipped up, using canned tuna and island cabbage. the kids are pretty good about keeping the kitchen stocked with firewood and coconut husks, so with that and their company it is a pretty good exchange. when they don't use our kitchen, we hear them romping around in the bush, harvesting green coconuts to drink or bananas, oranges, naos (a fruit kind of like a pear) and avocado to snack on. sometimes the guys come borrow our goggles to go diving for ish. they are impressively resourceful in regards to hunting down food.

last saturday we went to my host family's taro garden with my mama and two brothers. going to the garden is currently my favorite island activity. the five of us set off at the same time, bush knives and and island basket in hand, but our group was soon scattered. ronald meandered off the road with his sling shot and pouch of stones, following the fluttering trail of birds and trying to stone one for our supper. aldai pulled justin off the road to go look at his kindergarten classroom. this left my mama and i making our way through a coconut plantation on a winding footpath to the open clearings of the garden. we came out of the shade of the trees to the open sun. luckily, the water taro must grow in running water, so our hand sand feet kept cool as we worked. we went ahead without the boys; my mama pulling taro and me cleaning the soft mud and snapping the excess roots. we stacked the taro in even pyramids and tied them into bundles with rope made from a young limb of a burrow tree; still wondering where the rest of our team was. we moved on to dry ground where island cabbage, corn, and bananas were growing. we weeded and were starting to haul the rubbish grass away when ronald came back, smugly revealing the small green parrot he had stoned. "mit blong yumi" my mama proudly responded, planning to use the bird's meat for our lunch. he sat to work cleaning his catch while we kept on in the cabbage garden. then, we heard aldiah's fearless sing sing coming from the coconut plantation; accompanied by justin's laughs of amusement. we listened as they picked their way towards us, wondering what had kept them so long. turns out they too had scored some food. beside aldiah's kindy classroom they found a mandarine tree. aldiah had climbed the tree for fruit and justin's pants pockets now boasted with their find. we all took a break from our work, peeling and eating the mandarines in the sun with our feet cooled by the streams funneling to the water taro garden. the dirt under my fingernails mixed with the sharp citrus fruit actually had a rather natural, refreshing taste (and who knows - maybe some hidden insects for protein?). we finished the weeding and cut some cabbage to take back as well. the boys all had limbs with balanced bundles of taro on each end that they carried on their backs across their shoulders. first ones there and last to leave, we two gals followed behind, carrying the island cabbage, knives, and ronald's bird.

back at their house and instantly aware of how hungry we were, we boiled some rice with island cabbage and a little salt of lunch. then, our tummies full of warm food, we spread out on mats in the kitchen and made plans for the garden trip next weekend. my mama suggested we plant a cabbage and corn garden for justin and i; and we're pretty pumped about that. then, she thought friday night we should make a "banana cake" (known to us as banana bread) so that we can get up early in the morning, "drink tea hurryup" and go straight to the garden while it is still cool. we're pretty lucky to have come to a place where food is not a problem and our host families' are arranging for us to "borrow" some of their land for a garden. even though we have money allotted to us by peace corps to spend on food, the nutrient rich fresh produce items like taro, cabbage, and other fresh fruits and vegetables, are impossible to buy here. there is no need to sell them because everyone has gardens from which to gather food. occasionally there are markets on saturdays, but they mostly sell laplap or occasionally produce that is leftover or early or late in season. but the everyday produce staples would be pointless to bring to the market because no one (with the exception of us) would want to spend money on something they have unlimited access to. on the same note, our families think nothing of pulling a few extra taro to send in our direction, because there is plenty to go around. we are truly blessed to be in a community where hunger and starvation do not exist. this is a communal culture where one thinks nothing of feeding their neighbor (who is probably family) and shares everything.

so, hopefully, this weekend we'll be in the gardens again clearing a garden especially for us. we have saved the green tops of three pinapples that we will plant as well, and hopefully in about a year have fruit from our own garden. the soil here is extremely fertile and rich. the beans we planted in the yard when we first got here are now pruducing, even though it looks like they are growing on soil-less ground. we have planted decorative shrubs by our house just by sticking a small twig from the plant we like into soil, no pre-rooting or tlc required. justin noticed fenceposts made of tree branches that are budding new, small growths once they have been stuck back into the ground. we'll be watching the progression of this fence-soon-to-be-natural-wall-of-trees with curiosity.

my host papa has been back for about a week. his ship is waiting on a new part ordered from australia and then a mechanic to fix it, so he is waiting for all that to be taken care of before he sets out again. when he is here, he insists that all his food is backed with hot stones because on the ship all they eat is boiled rice, etc. we were over the other day as he "ras ras"ed green bananas for laplap. he and justin got to talking about deer and hearing justin describe them in bislama just cracked me up. he is getting pretty creative with his metaphors. translated into english, it would sound sort of like this: "it's tall like a cow, but skinny a little bit and it can run really fast, but it doesn't just run, it jumps too. and man can't keep them inside a fence because they can jump over fences. they have forks on their heads with different numbers of points and the more points the fork has, the more valuable the deer is if you can catch it. it's just like when you all look for a wild pig with big tusks that go in a circle. we look for deer with lots of points on their forks." he was amused. so was i.

our most loyal penpals, my aunt and uncle in durango, have asked if we are homesick or are too busy to notice. it definitely hepends on the day, but having the chance to share and explain about things from home (like deer) make it easier. sometimes really random things make me think of people i wish i could just teleport here for a few hours of catching up. it's hard not having facebook to stay updated on everyone's social lives and a cell phone full of people just a phone call away to chat with. at the same time, it puts more importance and gravity on the letters we write and phone conversations we do have isnce they are so few and far between. when i start getting nostalgic about home, i try to remember that a huge chunk of the peace corps' goals is sharing the u.s. culture with other countries and through this blog, letters, and other interactions with people back home we are justifying our two hear sebatacle from the daily ties and toils of family life. in short, our time away does make us homesick for the familiar and at the same time even more grateful for the place and especially people that we call "home."

before i wrap this up, justin wants to make sure we announce that our cat had three kittens a few weeks ago. we've got our eyes on a black striped one and are hoping it will hang around. he also adds that his "current favorite island passtime" is laying on the cool cement floor of our house during the hot afternoons with a good book. he keeps joking that when people fantasize about remote island getaways, they often forget the luxuries that would require doing without - like air conditioning, familiar food, and laundry machines.

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