Blogs from Efate, Vanuatu, Oceania - page 4

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 ... read more

Hello Friends! I have been in my training village Mangaliliu for almost 2 weeks now, and today we are taking a little field trip into Port Vila so I have some time to send an update. Everything is going really well, almost too well. We are really lucky to have Managaliliu as our training village. Let me backtrack a little to when we first arrived a few weeks ago on Sunday... Our group received another warm welcome from the entire village. When we first arrived, they first had us walk down the main road and some boys popped out of the woods dressed in costume and sung as we followed them into the village. All of the mamas were lined up and we shook all us they're hands down the line and one of them gave ... read more

Our last day in Port Vila before we move into our training site. Our day was packed with non-classroom style teaching, a nice break but still LOTS of information! First stop, a troop of us went running through town. I have been so lucky to find some fellow runners. I've been getting up around 5:30 am each morning, so instead of waking Justin up to chat, I have a run to look forward to. Plus it has been a great way to get a better idea of the layout of the town. Today we ran through the residential area and found two great hills. Another guy in my group joked that we must not have hills in Kansas because I was so excited about that one. Anway, running - check and therefore mental health - check. ... read more

It's raining raining raining! The rain is beautiful here because, as of yet, there hasn't been any thunder or lightning. Just the calming sound of rain. Some volunteers complain of rain making them depressed or mellow, but I am rather hyper about it. The fauna of the area definitely reflect the constant rain and warm weather. Even our hotel has a mini rainforest in the center. One bad side effect, however, is that the rain drives the cockroaches up to higher ground - this morning we found a dead one in our room. This week, our training group has been taking classes on everything. We have learned how to use iodine to prevent against infection, about geography and ocean currents around Vanuatu, brushed up our our sex ed knowledge, some history on Bislama, and even how ... read more

2 things upfront: 1) Vanuatu's newspaper is online! AND, our training group is in it! Now, I haven't taken the time to look up the article on the website, but here is the site in case you'd like to keep up on the news: www.dailypost.vu 2) I'm rating this entry "PG." Moms and Dads, you may want to glance through this one real quick before reading aloud with your kiddos. Alright - Kava. My understanding of kava is constantly under reconstruction. I will tell you what I know and modify it as need be. Kava is a ceremonial drink that comes with it's own set of unwritten rules. Our first night in Vanuatu, some current volunteers took us out for kava so that we could learn a few of those rules and not offend any of ... read more