Schools, cement & laplap

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Our adventures in the training village continue...

This past week was probably the toughest so far for me as well as for our group. The small things are becoming routine and we're starting to settle down and grasp the vague potential of our time here. Sometimes it's overwhelming. Sometimes it is intoxicating and emotional to realize you are living your dream. Our group also passed around a virus that affected some with diarrhea, others with vomiting, and yet others with nausea and headaches. Luckily, Justin passed the nasea/headache version on to me before I had anything trying to exit my body in a less than desirable way. My day spent in bed was mostly spent fantisizing about Dairy Queen blizzards (is the DQ in Iola still open?) and Burger King chicken sandwiches, the latter of which I was previously unaware that I was attracted to.

Passing the one month mark was part of it too. Our trainers handed back our aspiration statements that we had written months before departing to accept service in Vanuatu. Reading those put a nice perspective on the idealized visions that we had before we left with what we were actualizing already added to what we still have unknown. Speaking of unknowns, we will find out this Wednesday where our permanent, 2 year sites will be! Exciting to say the least! Following that news, we will leave that weekend for a week long "wokaboat" to visit the village and meet our host family there.

Now I am going to tell you a bit about the logisitics of the school system here. It may be boring, but I'm hoping that it will help clarify our projects here and any future stories that may come about in relation to them. During the latter part of last week, we our group split up and visited some area schools. This was definitely a much needed change in routine and broadened our scope of a "typical" school in Vanuatu. The school I visited had Kindergarten - 7. Next year they will add grade 8. In Vanuatu, you must pass an exam at the end of grade 8 to continue with your schooling. This is in place because there are not enough secondary schools to accomodate all of the students coming from the primary schools. The students who do not make it past grade 8 are referred to as "drop outs" but actually they don't have a choice. No matter how smart a given class of students are, only a set percent can continue because facilities do not exist for everyone to move on to grade 9.

The options for students who do not continue with secondary school are limited. Most return home and help with whatever their family is doing until they are old enough to be married and on their own. Some move to a larger city in hopes of finding a job there, but the reality is that there are next to no jobs to be had for someone of their age and education. They usually wind up walking the streets all day. A third option is to attend a Rural Training Center (RTC), which are similar to Tech Schools in the US. The RTC's teach practical skills that can be used for a future job or business. About 5 of our group members have been assigned to help develop the RTC program, which is still relatively new and limited.

The rest of our group will probably work with the schools themselves. Here's a doozy: About half of the teachers currently teaching in Vanuatu are untrained. The rest, after completing the teacher training program, do not receive any follow up training or observation. Teachers here go to the Teacher's College in the capital and are placed in their schools by the government. Schools get teachers based on how many students they have enrolled, regardless of age. Sometimes teachers have 50 students, sometimes they have a huge grade range (i.e. 1-4 in the same class!), and sometimes the teachers are only teachers in the sense that the community has pulled them in to supervise the class.

Teacher trainers (like me) focus on developing the skills of the teachers instead of actually teaching so that when the time comes for the volunteer to leave, there is a sustainable improvement that can continue. If I was to just jump into a classroom and take over for a few years, it would be a quick but temporary fix. The teachers who we work with will ideally be able to turn around and train their fellow or future co workers. Brilliant. "Training" may include introducing student centered teaching methods (not just lecture or copying from the chalkboard), strategies for planning and preparation, classroom management and environment, and resouce development. With our site announcement, we will get a more specific idea of where the school would like us to focus our energies.

Justin's role is a little more open ended as of yet. He will develop technology at or around our permanent site, again only in ways that can be sustained after we leave. It would be pointless to set up a computer lab that can't be trouble shooted or repaired and maintained independently of Peace Corps. He may work with a pre existing lab or start from scratch. Only time will tell...

As we anticipate finding out and visiting our sites, I constantly remind myself to stay in the moment and keep developing relationships with our awesome host family. Our parents are about the age of grandparents actually. They have 7 kids, only two of which are still living at home. Our host sister, Stella, is 19 and brother Isaac is 23. Isaac isn't around much but Stella loves to chat with us and is so patient with our fragmented Bislama. Our host mother is a remarkable woman who not only raised 7 kids, but hikes up mountains to plant yams, boils them over fire, is amazingly efficient with a bush knife, and does all of this while wearing a dress. Our host papa is a jolly guy who works as a carpenter in the village. We are truly lucky to have all of them sharing their lives with us.

Last weekend, we made laplap with our family. Laplap is a traditional Sunday meal because the sabbath as a day of rest is strictly enforced in our village (strictly, as in our group has had to apologize for playing volleyball on Sunday) and materials for the dish can be gathered the day before they are needed. The dish itself is prepared before church and cook during church.

Basically, laplap is a grated mush of grated taro, yam, or banana mixed with coconut milk. Sunday we made laplap with banana. I scraped the insides of large green bananas (not to be confused with those you can find in the states) with a seashell. How romantic. The mush was then mixed with coconut milk that Justin had prepped and some water. Then, we wrapped the mush in laplap leaves (aka nature's aluminum foil) and placed it in the local oven. We covered the leaves with hot stones that had been heated by a fire. By the time we came back from church, it was ready to cool and then eat.

Sometimes laplap can be dressed up a little with peppers, onions, tomatoes for flaver and sometimes chicken or beef. Think of it like pizza - you just top it with whatever you have on hand. As far as the actual appeal of the dish to me, it's growing on me. Justin covers his with crushed red pepper and gulps it down. I don't think it is ever anything I would go to all the work to prepare for myself, but being served laplap is okay in moderation.

Wednesday we helped work at the school in the training village. Right now, the school only goes through grade 5, but they are building classrooms to accomodate through grade 8. Until then, students have been traveling to another village for school (if they go at all...). Our help Wednesday consisted of hauling sand and coral to make cement, actually mixing the cement, and spreading it smooth. Mixing cement Ni-Van style is a trip. All of teh ingrediants are dumped to the center of the tarp and about 6 people hold it up around the edges. From a distance, the mixing looks and sounds like a tribal dance. About half of the people life their side of the tarp, and then vice versa, mixing the water throughout.

School was let out a little early and the principal as well as some of the students joined in helping with the construction. Except for the female volunteers, it was only males who were working. We girls had to wear our sarongs to walk to the site, but once we got there we could work in pants. The men were sort of hesitant to let dig in and work hard, but we convinced them we were buff. In all actuality, their women are just as capable, if not more so, than we are. After the work for the day was finished, they had all of us sign a book saying we helped on "Day 13" of construction. We also to a great group picture. As we gathered for the picture, the men were shouting "Black/White! Black/White!" and making sure we were all mixed up racially for the camera.

The foreman recommended that we all go home and ask our host mamas for "makas" or the husks of coconut to scrub the cement off our skin. Such an abundantly useful plant, that coconut tree is! Our host mama cannot believe that we don't have them in Kansas. However, I opted to cool off in the ocean with the kids and scrub up with salt water and sand. It seemed to do the trick and and kids think I am a rockstar...

That's all for now. Thanks again for the mail! For those sending snail mail, I gave you a slightly wrong address. It should be "PMB 9097." Don't worry, we're still getting the mail since Peace Corps is part of the address as well. For future letters, though, go ahead and add that "0."

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Photos

Host Mama
This day we helped out in the garden planting yams. Our host mama is cutting up the yams to be buried for the next crop.

Yam
Justin with some yams to take back for dinner.

Another Annie
One of my favorite kids. This one loves the ocean and the nature of her spirit reminds me of my little cousin Annie.

Host Papa
Here is our host papa with his birthday cake. Justin and I made pasta with alfredo sauce for him too! Comfort food for us, new experience for our family.

Local Oven
The laplap covered in hot stones to bake.

Laplap Banana
The finished product!

Construction Crew
"Black/White! Black White!"

Green Coconuts
Our host brother opened green coconuts after our afternoon of work at the school. Green coconuts are excellent for rehydration and the insides are the closest thing to natural ice cream I have found so far.

Sunset on "Hat Island"
This view is right off the beach at our training village.

Comments

[S Beshore]

Hang on for the ride!
Hey Sheridan and Justin, I'm really enjoying hearing about your time away. Isn't it amazing all that you are encountering and the tremedous latitude you are adding to your lives. Go ahead let yourselves feel the good and the bad. I know your reward will be great. Hang on for the ride! Stephanie