LIVE!! Newsflashes

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4 November 2009

A collection of news flashes to get you all up to date on life and times on Maewo as we head out for Australia.

Our headline news:
The school’s computers are here! Justin has promptly set them up and, well, set them up. There is still the minor detail to resolve of how to power the machines. Justin has entertained ideas of re-routing some solar panels at the school (which were intended to power the classrooms but aren’t being used) to power the computers. He also thought of charging a fee to use the computers to pay for fuel needed to run a generator and power them.

However, since up until now the computers weren’t materially here, the staff and school board have been lax about making any decisions about what should be done. Now the holdup is waiting for the school board members, many of whom are attending the National Arts Festival in Port Vila, to reconvene and approve a plan of action. Since the school year will probably end before they get back (there are about two weeks left of school and ship travel is not that expedient), the computers will probably not get their first use until 2010.

Which is not to say that the computers don’t still attract a lot of attention. The whole community is talking about them. Does the school really have computers? How many? Are they big? Notice they’re not asking if they work. It is quite comical to Justin and I how captivating the static gray screens are to the teachers and anyone else who may be passing by. So many people just come to sit in our office; just sit before the computers and giggle at themselves while they pretend to type or turn it on. This is a prime time to call someone “man bush.”

Although this may seem like a slightly frustrating scenario (after all, Justin has been looking forward to working with these computers for almost a year and now here they are, right at our fingertips, and yet he’s still waiting), I can honestly report that we’re both not that shaken by the status of the computer situation. My mom (in the States) is near hysterics on the phone with me trying to get these computers plugged in and running and I’m just toeing a little design in the sand, content to report that they’re here and there is sort of a plan to try to use them next school year.

Australia Trip. We are gearing up for our second venture out of the country; this time to Australia. While you all are chowing down on turkey and stuffing, we’ll be in the air on the way to Aussie Land. Although I don’t anticipate the culture shock that we experienced last time in downtown Auckland, there are still personality quirks that I am concerned about carrying over into life outside this country; during this trip AND life after Peace Corps. But first things first, a vacation with a family that I have only been a part of for a few years in a “westernized” country probably requires that I dress, behave, and otherwise act more civilized that I have in months.

What will I wear? I’ve spent the last month and a half scrubbing banana juice stains out of articles of clothing I refer to as my “acceptable for Australia” wardrobe. Then, these clothes pass into a pile that I am not allowing myself to wear for fear of further demoting them to the “only on the island” pile. I’ve asked the other volunteers on the island to do the same, grateful for any clothes they are willing to donate to my trek back to civilization. Luckily, one has a swim suit. For the first time in over a year, I’ll swim in something other than my basketball shorts and a T-Shirt. I announce this now to deaden the shock of those who are traveling with us: my tummy and thighs have not seen sunlight in over fifteen months! Even though we do live right by the beach and swim often, it would not be acceptable for me to swim in anything less than the aforementioned outfit.

I do think we’ll be more adept to the transition than last time. We’re getting into the knack of traveling, figuring out what we like and what we don’t like, what’s worth the money to us and how to seek out memorable adventures. This time, we plan to venture out of “the city” a bit sooner than last time; though still within the realm of being able to O.D. on ice cream of course. But the fanatic food cravings and daydreams about other such amenities did not completely overwhelm our thoughts; as they were the months preceding our New Zealand trip. I like to think that speaks to how well we are assimilating to life on the island, feeling comfortable here and even calling it “home.”

Mail.
We got mail for the first time in over two months! Granted that assimilation I just mentioned, I still cannot deny how completely yet painfully satisfying it was to open a package from home laden with almost fantastic snacks inside and enjoy a belated Halloween tummy ache after gorging on a back full of candy corn.

The holiday festivities continued as we also received a package from the Brull’s with the complete fixings of a Thanksgiving dinner, all of their instant varieties that is. Before Peace Corps, my romantic ideals of home cooking and making things from scratch would have prevented me from ever buying instant mashed potatoes. But we had them here and they were sublime. We had Sandy, our fellow PCV just south of us, over to help us devour the feast. We surveyed our potential menu and debated what to do with the leftovers we assumed we’d have. Oh how wrong we were. We blissfully stuffed ourselves of instant Stove Top stuffing, canned chicken, corn, potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, biscuits, and pumpkin pie. We were so full that all three of us were able to take a traditional Thanksgiving nap, despite the heat and humidity of the afternoon. Having familiar food after months without is simply incredible. Thanksgiving should come at least once a month.

Mama’s Workshop. My workshop for the mamas of Betarara went very well. About 25 women showed up. I gave a small “toktok” on the importance of education, even for kids who never plan to leave the island. Then, we talked about skills the mamas can start developing in their home, even if they themselves don’t know how to read or speak English. A bulk of the time was spent playing games like memory and then them making their own set of shape dominos to take back to their house. With the help of a donation from a friend back home, scissors and colored pencils were provided for the mama’s use; all they had to do was bring a cardboard box to recycle into dominos.

I was very pleased with the workshop for two reasons. One was how well it was received and attended by the community. I really believe in the influence of the women here to make a positive change in light of the education system. Setting my sights on getting the mamas behind education on Maewo is a huge goal. Slowly, though, I believe there will be a little progress in the right direction; even if it starts with just a mom encouraging her daughter to go to school when it’s raining. The school’s infrastructure problems will be radically improved if the parents get behind the education system.

The second especially pleasing factor was having something other than work at the school to look forward too. I really appreciated having an excuse to hang out with the mamas. Living and working at the school, I often feel rather isolated from the community. Since many of the teachers are from other islands and only a fraction of the student-aged kids are at the school, I really sought a way to make sure my work was infiltrating the community on a larger scale. I hope that this workshop will help compliment the work I am also doing with the teachers as well as build and strengthen my relationships with people in the community.

The workshop, which I had planned would take three hours tops, pushed four and a half. At 1:00 in the afternoon, I was trying to throw my stuff together and boogie back to the school for the staff meeting (which didn’t happen, but that’s another story), when the mamas surprised me in throwing together a quick lunch for me to eat while they finished their work. They couldn’t let me go, since with me I would take the supplies they were using to finish up their dominos. Since rushing around on the island is usually pointless anyway, I cooled my jets and set down to eat.

Now is one of the many times when my mind flashes back to the scene in the movie Hook, with Robin Williams as a grown up Peter Pan. He returns to Never Land and sits down to a meal with the lost boys. Looking around at the table, all he sees are shabby, chipped platters with piles of unappetizing, gray mush, insects, slimy vegetables, and the like covering the table. The lost boys are giddy, digging into the food and stuffing their faces. They all wind up having to remind Peter how to look past what the food looks like and imagine something better. When I survey a meal here, many times I look at varying shades of mushy grays, slimy whites, and bumpy browns and yet am surrounded by enthusiastic diners. I associate a lot with Robin Williams in that scene. And, true to the movie’s plot as well, with the right state of mind, I can actually convince myself that this stuff is appetizing and chow down heartily, much to the contentment of the mamas on Maewo.

This meal was one such a time. Here, I had taro grated into rubber laplap with coconut milk on top (gray and white), taro cut into small chunks and boiled with coconut milk (grayish purple and white), and slimy island cabbage with my meat being a shell called “nasese” (say it like “nasaysay”). Sans shell, the edible part is about as long as the fingernail on my pinky finger. Half of that is a dark brown, gritty intestinal tract. I know what you’re thinking: “Oh yummy yum yum.” But in all honesty, it was a satisfying meal. Not that I didn’t follow it up with a piece of chocolate when I got back to the house, but still. Sustaining and filling to the tee.

Pre-Conception Adoption Offers. Lately, we have had a few people approach us offering to adopt our future child, should we conceive one. One teacher is rooting for a girl, planning to adopt and raise her, then marry her to his son. In an entirely separate situation, my host mom was asking me, yet again, why Justin and I didn’t have kids yet. (Since most couples are pregnant before marriage, we get asked this question A LOT) I tried explaining to her that it would be really hard to have a baby here and then apply for its’ citizenship to the USA. She brought it up a few days later, saying we could go ahead and have one and it would be just perfect because she would love to adopt it from us and raise it here.

Since kids get passed around here quite naturally, it’s not as final of a break as adoption would be in our culture. Lots of kids are “adopted” here by their aunts or parents’ cousins for one reason or another. Sometimes sisters will exchange kids to even out the gender ratio; like if I would have 3 boys and my sister 3 girls, we might exchange so we could have at least one of each. One cousin sister of mine grew up here, but her parents live on a different island. She grew up knowing her biological parents, even seeing them during summer breaks, but just spent her childhood away from them.

As for that process working out for us, it wouldn’t. Although spending a childhood mostly naked, on the beach, with unlimited access to bananas would be a prime experience for any “pikinini”, Peace Corps mandates that female volunteers do not get pregnant during their service. Before, PCV couples were allowed to start or continue families while serving; but this no longer is allowed. Though I do take the offers as a compliment to Justin and I’s genes, we’ll have to wait until after our service to start thinking about diapers and baby bonnets.

School Year Finished. In the southern hemisphere, the calendar year also dictates the school year. The final tests are issued and school is out! Before the teachers scattered to their respective homes for the holidays, I gathered them for a staff photo. They won’t find out until the end of the month whether they will be teaching at Gambule again next year or not. Some have applied for the Teacher’s College in Vila and, if they are accepted, will move there at the start of next school year. I just had to preserve them as a group, in case some aren’t here next year.

I was a little embarrassed to ask for a photo, but they were all pretty excited. Some even asked me to come take a group photo of their class. A boy in the first grade class got rushed out of the toilet for the picture and his shoes fell in! Since the toilet is a deep hole in the ground, the shoes are still sitting there as you read this, slowly being buried in human waste. He didn’t seem too worried though. Kids here spend more time out of their shoes than in them. His tough, calloused feet probably didn’t even mind that he walked home on the coral road barefoot.

The school year didn’t end without a bang. Just like the parties and accompanied finals week in college and the crazy ideas we all got at the end of the school year in high school, the secondary students had some orneriness to express at the end of the school year. Some of the boys at the secondary school made “barras” or homebrew in their dorm. Given what they have access too, they concocted this with the water from coconuts. Then they proceeded to destruct some beds and cabinets in their dorm. The boys were sent off school grounds a few days early because of their actions and the dorm windows were nailed shut to keep them out. Oh, the last days of the school and the pranks that accompanies them.

That’s all the news flashes for now. Stay tuned for our travels to the home land of my high school sweetheart, Steve Irwin.

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Photos

Island Time
The computers will be powered someday, somehow. Until then, Justin is hanging out.

Gobble Gobble
Sandy and Justin ready to eat (and me salivating behind the camera...)

An Instant Feast
Yum.

Mama's Workshop
Working on shape dominos

My lunch
Try harder Peter...

Year 1
Lots of shoe-less kids now that I look at the picture, but the one in the front row with a black vest is the one whose shoes are in the toilet.