the lost blog =)

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did you think i'd fallen into a deep dark hole? no? well fine then. what ACTUALLY happened is i indeed lost sher's jumpdrive. shh. don't tell. i just so happened to find the sneaky little devil hiding in a very obvious place: the envelope she sent it to me in. i brought my mail from college home over christmas break and i guess i stuck it in there. smart idea at the time i suppose. i hope everyone is doing well. it's been forever since i've posted a sheridan blog. this is the last on the jumpdrive, then i'm planning to fill it chalk full of new music and pop culture for s & j. enjoy... - b

17 October 2009

Though this news will reach you all well after the fact, I must make note of the recent earthquakes and tsunami warnings in our area. On October 8th, an earthquake hit just off the coast of Santo, two islands west of us (just “behind” Ambae).

It was a school day Thursday and I was busily going about setting up observation times and following up with the teachers that they were planning for next week. Normal stuff. Back at our office, which we share with the secondary teachers and secretary, I see our trusty rusty postman, shirtless as usual, with a radio hung around his neck. (This is a normal way to transport a radio in this country, by the way. Especially handy when you’re on your way back from the garden and hands full of taro, cabbage, and a bush knife.) He was spreading the news about the earthquake that had hit Santo and the tsunami warning that was now in effect.

My scientific knowledge on tsunamis and their workings is nil, but I remember hearing during our Peace Corps training that tsunamis don’t really have warnings. They are a rather immediate aftermath of an earthquake when its’ epicenter in the ocean. They can travel at ferocious speeds, 14 kilometers per second according to Radio Vanuatu. So, once one decides to come, there’s no fluttering around, it’s time to get as high as possible. With that in the back of my mind, I was shocked that, on the way up the hill, the locals were stopping to carry, well, just about everything. Custom mats, clothes, sauce pans, bags of rice, pillows, you name it. I will credit them for moving rather quickly in gathering these items, given their usual relaxed pace of life, but I was flabbergasted at the precious seconds we were wasting while they rooted their houses for anything valuable. I kept thinking of my Grandpa saying if it’s something man made, it can be replaced.

One of my mamis, who is about five months pregnant, decided she’d better get a head start heading up the hill, and I tagged along behind her. Even though it was still in the morning hours, we were both sweating. I felt much better once we got to the first knoll, about 100 meters above sea level. From there, we proceeded to my host family’s “haos copra” where they dry out coconut to sell. And there we camped for the next five hours.

Waiting out the tsunami warning was sort of like waiting out a tornado warning. With all of my papa’s siblings and their kids there, there were about 25 of us gathered around the house copra. We all just hunkered down to wait, our conversations interrupted with “SSsssss!” (Melanesians are still working on the “sh” concept) when a news bulletin came on the radio. Luckily, the copra house is right by the gardens, so we roasted yam and bananas to eat. I spent the afternoon lying on my back, singing church songs with the kids. Justin sauntered off with the guys, who had successfully managed to bring every tool needed to grind kava to the tsunami retreat.

The rest of our tsunami experience was rather uneventful. We slept in our own beds that night and went on about life as usual the next day. Some people opted to sleep in the bush for the night, since not everyone has a radio they had no way to know that the tsunami warning had been lifted. This was also a rather convenient way to get out of going to school the next day. (Doesn’t that remind you all of snow days?) As far as I know, any damage done in Vanuatu was minor.

The week before, Samoa (another Pacific island) was also victim to a serious earthquake. Their earthquake did result in a tsunami and a significant number of deaths and injuries. Our family back home was frantic to hear from us, but we barely knew what had happened. In fact, we happened to be hosting two visitors at the time, Peace Corps staff members, and the only way we found out was because one of them got a phone call relaying the news. The most recent news we got about the progress of events was through phone calls from home. (Which we appreciated; even though during one, I groggily insisted that the weather was most probably normal, although I couldn’t see anything because, at 3:30 in the morning, it is pitch black outside. You know who you are.) Little else was mentioned about the events in Samoa until days later.

Now, I realize some of you may be scratching your heads and wondering why we didn’t know about this earthquake sooner. After hosting my family here for a few days, I came to find out that even they didn’t understand just how isolated, geographically as well as from the outside information, our site can be until they visited. So, I’ll try to clarify a bit more here.

Think about where and how you get your news. Television, telephone, internet, newspapers, radio; all of which probably can communicate to you in a fairly timely manner. Now let’s look at these sources and how they function on Maewo.

Television: As Bislama would put it, “no gat.” There is no constant source of electricity here. Some people have TV screens that they use to watch an occasional movie. Such times are sporadic, often dependent on whether or not there is money to buy gasoline to fuel the generator. But, television in the form of up-to-date newscasts does not exist on Maewo.

Telephones: There are two “landline” telephones in our area, one at the school and one is a public phone for the village. The phones require phone cards to call out. In the ten months we have been at site, the landline at the school has been in operation about 2 of those months, and in the village about 5. So landlines are touch and go. And there are signs posted beside them instructing that they not be operated during times of “tanda mo laetnig” (thunder and lightning). We also have a cell phone, which is a tad more reliable. A short walk to the beach gives us full network coverage; that is, if someone hasn’t tampered with the tower. About once a month we experience a few hours or a few days without cell phone coverage as well. As far as getting instant news via phone goes, we have to be in a place where our phone can get coverage to pick up incoming calls, or report missed calls, voicemails and text messages to relay news from the outside world. Still a bit sketchy.

Internet: Also a “no gat.” And we sorely miss the chance to google our whimsical wonderings. (my latest - where did the phrase “Dressed to the nines” originate?) We have heard rumors that the school is eligible to get free internet through their landline during the school day, however, that landline doesn’t work and to access the internet you need computers and to run the computers, you need electricity. It’s amazing the infrastructure details we take for granted in the States. Another rumor is that you can purchase a thumb drive from the leading mobile phone company and receive wireless internet wherever you have network reception. A potential for Maewo in the near future, when the price goes way down and network becomes more reliable. (We heard the mobile phone company tried to put a tower on Maewo, but failed to pay the people working on it in a timely manner. So the workers quit working and, conveniently, all of the phone company’s equipment, including a four wheeler and truck, sort of just disappeared.)

Newspaper: Yes, Vanuatu has two newspapers for the country. One, The Daily Post is a free 4-6 page flyer that covers current events, mostly in Vila and other more developed areas of Vanuatu. It comes in the mail bag and distributed from the post office (aka the postman’s house). The other, The Independent, which sells for 200 vatu, comes out every week. As Peace Corps Volunteers, we get a copy of The Independent with our Peace Corps mail. When the plane comes. Since it costs money, there is no one else on the island that I know of who subscribes. Which is a bummer because the quality and scope of this newspaper is much better than the daily one. So, newspapers are usually a good source of in-country news, if you don’t mind getting it two to eight weeks late. Incoming mail in general we usually get within about a month or two of it being posted in the States, depending mostly on the plane being able to land. Once it gets to the island, it usually finds its’ way into our hands. There are times, though, when the postman doesn’t get paid, and therefore cannot pay for the truck to transport the mail from the airport. One such time, sure that the mail was almost all for us, I paid the transport and lugged the mail bag from the truck driver’s house, where it was being held hostage for 200 vatu, to the postman so I could sign the necessary papers and have my much-looked-forward-to care packages from home. He felt bad that I had paid the transport. I asked him to give me a pamplemoose from the tree in his yard and we’d call it good.

Radio: Radio Vanuatu is probably the most effective and reliable way to receive up-to-date news on Maewo, though it does require having a radio and functioning batteries. Maybe one or two people in every village have a functioning radio, and they are listened to at random times. So, in the event of time being a crucial element in the reception of news (as it would be in the event of a tsunami warning), the radio is a hit or miss option. People are not cruising around in vehicles listening to radios here, so just hearing random tidbits of news in the car is not the norm. We have a solar powered HF radio at our house to use to communicate with Peace Corps, though we are still working out the kinks in getting it to work consistently, as well as both ways.

Without these speedy and convenient news sources, how do we find out what is going on, you ask? We don’t; at least not in a timely manner. We get random tidbits of news, usually in the form of questions from the host country nationals, which we try to sift through for relevant facts. Probably a misinterpreted newspaper article or radio broadcast that had been passed around verbally until it is so distorted, the true point of the news is nearly impossible to decipher. This is referred to as “coconut wireless” in the Pacific.

For about a week, there was a lot of talk about Barack Obama declaring World War III; and lots of people turning to us for the straight answer. Someone’s keen ears probably heard the phrase on the radio and starting paying close attention to the last half of a broadcast. This is of particular interest to locals here because Maewo did have a few U.S. soldiers stationed here during World War II. We tried to dispel the rumors from going further, assuring them that our president is an idealistically peaceful man and that we think someone would have let us know if our country was at war. But then again, how would they have done that?

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Photos

Tsunami Retreat
Resting at the first knoll. (Notice I'm quite a ways away, staying as far from the ocean as possible)

Phone
A photo from the archives to illustrate our illustrious public phone booth.

Air strip
The grass landing trip of the Maewo airport, which is often too overgrown with bush vines for the plane to land.

Mail Woman
Delivering my own mail.