Wowo- first 2 months

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Hello friends, it's been a while. I have a chance to write a short update because I'm in town paying a lot to use the internet. I have been at my site in Wowo for almost 2 months and things are going very well overall. I started work at the training center a few weeks ago with advertising and working on the strategic plan so I've been pretty busy. Classes start technically next Monday although usually students don't start coming until a few weeks later. So far we only have 1 registered student, Bob, who lives in the next village over. But about 6 people have expressed interest so hopefully they will just come to start class. It's a challenge for everyone in the area to pay the school fee now because most people earn money from selling copra, but the price has been falling. We also have an option for people to pay in custom economy or pay with chickens or mats, so hopefully people will take advantage of that too.

I can't believe I have been at my site for almost 2 months, the time has actually gone by really quickly. When I first got to my site the days would pass unbearably slow, but now I have more work to do and starting to get to know more people. We play volleyball in my village almost every afternoon thanks to the net we now have (Thanks mom) and volleyball. I was surprised to find that everyone here is really good at volleyball. Everyone knows the rules and plays a lot better than I do not that that's hard to do. We also have a volleyball tournament in the works for a fundraiser for the RTC in March, which hopefully should attract a lot of people.

I'm almost out of time so that's all I'll write for now. My address is
PMB 14 Wowo Village
NW Malekula
Republic of Vanuatu
South Pacific

Thank you everyone for the letters and fun packages. I am enjoying all of the goodies!
-Marie

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