Wokabaot (Walkabout)

So last week was walkabout week, a week where we all went and visited our sites that we will be stationed at. I went to my site in Tanna, close to a village called Green Hill. My village has a whole 10 people living in it, so I'm thinking I will need to branch out to meet some people from the neighboring villages. The closest village to me is only a half hour walk if you hike through the bush. The hiking is pretty sketchy, but the men hop through the jungle and mountains like you and me walk down the sidewalk. The first picture above is a view from the stream that I take my showers in. I must say that it's the best view you could have while showering. I have to hike down a steep trail, and at the bottom there is a completely vertical rock face that has holes chiseled into it for your feet so you can scale down it. I was only in Tanna for 3 days and I was already naked in the bush, some people saw that coming. My house is pretty large for village standards. It sits a couple of feet off the ground. I have a front room for cooking, and study room, and a bedroom. Everything is made from local materials. The walls are made from bamboo, my roof from thatched leafs, tables from more wood, and my "carpet" is made from woven pandanus leaf mats. Things aren't quite as primitive as I was expecting, people wear clothes and stuff, but some stuff is pretty out there. My papa walks around with a bow and arrow he made to shoot fruit bats. I hear they taste good, and soon enough I'm sure I'll try one. My papa is very nice to the cats and dogs, which is strange because most people are cruel to them. But then I figured out he's nice to them and feeds them just so he can easily catch them and eat them in the future. I'm not sure how I feel about eating dogs. I think if I do eat one, it will be because they won't tell me what I'm eating until after I finish. They did that the other day when I was eating shark, but I must say that was very good. The area I live in is right next to two big hills or mountains covered in jungle. I'm supposed to help set the area up as a conservation area. I will get to hike the bush and map the place using GPS, making me the first person to ever map the area which is pretty cool. There also hasn't been a whole lot of research done on the plants and animals of the area. I will be working with a department called the Environmental Unit, and they sort of want me to explore and see what I can find and observe in the forest. My job involves more than that too, like traveling to other places in Tanna to help other villages establish conservation areas. One of the villages is right next to the volcano, so I hopefully I will get plenty of free trips to it. Ok so that's my very very breif over view of my site in Tanna. Now I head back to the training village in North Efate for a little more than 3 weeks of training. After that is finished, I will be heading back to Tanna for my 2 years.