A little update

Ok, so I realize I haven't been doing the best job lately at keeping up on my blog. I blame this on two things. First, would be the absolutely terrible computers and internet that I am able to access a few times a month. Yeah, I know it's an excuse, but it's still valid. Secondly, I've become too used to life here, and many of the daily sights I see have become routine and no longer as interesting to me. It would be like you writing about how you woke up in the morning and brushed your teeth and drove to work. No one really wants to hear about it. But then I realize that my life isn't quite what many people would consider "normal", so maybe I should do a better job at keeping people up to date.
As some of you know, I went back to Port Vila a few weeks ago. I went to the airport in Tanna and went through the normal check in routine, which is quite simple. First I stand on a scale. They measure everyone's weight before flying, because the plane is quite small, and a little extra weight isn't the best thing to have when flying over open ocean water in a plane the size of a car. Next I pass through security. This entails a man putting a sticker that says security on everything that I am carrying on the plane. He doesn't even look inside my bag. They're very trusting people. I once carried my bush knife (a 2 foot machete) with me to go on the plane. I was stopped in security so they could put a security sticker on it, and then I proceeded on. No joke. I noticed a few tourists at the airport. They opted not to take the flight after they saw the size of the plane. I boarded the plane, which seriously felt like the size of a car. The pilot routinely turned around and talked to us. The ride was sort of like a roller coaster, dropping and climbing at what felt like only a few hundred meters over the blue water. Man Tanna (what we call natives of Tanna) clearly aren't used to flying. The man sitting next to me looked very nervous and felt compelled to read his bible incase something went wrong. The other people were very anxious too. The flight was only one hour, yet they must have asked what time it was 5 times, just wishing the hour was up. And Man Tanna never ask what time it is. Before that flight, I didn't even know they had a concept of time. But we eventually made it safely to Port Vila.
Walking into the airport there, I was immediately taken back by the sights of TV's, computers, and pay phones. Woah. I found a bus and took it town, where I proceeded directly to the grocery store. Woah again. So many choices, what do I want to eat first? I bought a combination of junk food and headed to a near by hotel where I had a room reserved. As I walked along the road to the hotel, I couldn't help but feel giddy. I saw other white people, lots of trucks and cars, paved roads, and stores that are actually stores, not just a tin hut with terrible tin fish and rice inside. I got to my room and was once again taken back. At this point I couldn't stop laughing, it was just too much. I had a clean room, a real bed, a fan, electricty, and a HOT SHOWER!
Throughout the next week, I had meetings everyday with an environmental orginazation that I am coordinating my work with. Everyday, from 7:30-4:30, I sat inside a building and discussed work plans and budgeting. Now sitting in a meeting is not an easy thing for me to do. But after taking me from the bush, where there is no such thing as time, chairs, buildings, and power point presentations, the meetings were pure torture. I fidgeted in my seat like a 3 year old for 5 straight days. I will never work an office job in my life, and you can quote me on that.
Besides the meeting, I enjoyed meeting up with some other volunteers in Vila. We went sailing at sundown one afternoon and went out for Thai and Sushi other nights. I also ate a pizza nearly every day, and bought ice cream and chocalate at every store, even if I had just bought some at the previous store.
The city life gets old though, and I was ready to return to Tanna. I took a slightly larger plane on the way back, which held about 10-15 people and one very loud crying baby. I returned to my house that afternoon. It was good to be back, see my family, and see that my dog was still alive and kicking. Being back in the bush was quite a change. Going from Vila to the village life is always an adjustment, but this just isn't any village in the bush. This is most likely the smallest village in Tanna, maybe even in Vanuatu now that I think about it. My papa, my mama, brother, two sisters, nephew, and niece. A total of 7 people, living in a quiet clearing in the jungle. Can't get much more peaceful than that.
As glad as I was to be back, I realized that I still had to adjust to bush life again, even after only being in Vila for less than two weeks. Back to eating the same bland, sometime inedible food everyday (but which is also free). Back to bathing in the ice cold, fish filled stream. And back to hiking 30 minutes to carry drinking water back home; drinking water which ended up quickly infecting me with giardia for the second time. For those of you who haven't had giardia, be glad. I tell my family that I'm sick. They tell me it's because I've walked around too much. No that's not it I tell them. It's because you exercised all day they say. What?! That makes no sense. But how do you explain to them that you've got a protozoan parasite inside of you when they have no concept of any organism smaller than what they can see with their own eyes. After a few days of medicine I was feeling better and able to be out and about more.
I went and visited a near by village (hour and a half walk one way) because they have an area of jungle that they are interested in making a conservation area. I arrived and the first thing I hear is that "oh, you've become fatfat now". That is atleast the fifth time I have heard that in a matter of a few days. The thing is, I haven't even gained weight, if anything, I've lost it. I now know that they think that everytime someone goes into Vila they get fat from eating all different kinds of food, as opposed to the same root crops we eat every single day. I've also heard them call people who are in incredible shape fatfat too, so I'm still not sure whether to take it as a compliment or not. Anyways, I brought with me a GPS unit to map out the conservation area. I head into the bush with about five other guys, who will lead me along the boundaries of the area, which they have memorized just by looking at trees and other natural boundary markers. The walk is INTENSE. We start out in a dry stream bed, which heads straight up the hill. I'm holding onto anything I can, rocks, roots, small plants, and vines, to pull myself up. I reach one section of rock which is vertical. Even Man Tanna is having problems getting up the hill. One man even fell and had a nice sharp stick leave a lasting impression into his shin. We finally make it to the top though, rising 450 meters with out a whole lot of horizontal gain. After a breif walk along the top, we have to head back down the other side. Going down is just as hard, if not harder. Gravity wants to pull me down faster than I would rather go. At one point, I have no choice but to "ski" down, except instead of skis I have bare feet. We get down into the valley again, so far down, that the GPS cannot find satellite reception. I find a tree to climb for better reception, but after only a few feet up I find out the hard way it is a "stinging" tree. My group points out a strong vine, which twists like a snake from the top of the canopy down to the ground. They tell me it is strong and can hold me. I believe them, why shouldn't I? They know the bush better than anyone. I start pulling myself up the vine. At about 30 feet up I hear a crack, which signals to me to hold on tight. I take a fun, quick ride back down to the forest floor. Lucky for me it wasn't the vine that broke, but the branch holding it. It was sort of like a bungee cord, letting me fall to what felt like just a few inches off the ground, where I was able to land on my feet. Everyone had a great laugh about that. They have a different sense of humor, sort of like the three stuges, where getting hurt is funny. But I was hurt in the end, so I just laughed along. By this point though, I told them it wasn't important for me to climb anything else to get satellite reception, we can just continue on. We all finished the hike in one piece though.
That is the only work for the project that I've really done since coming back into Tanna. Now is the time for holidays, so everyone takes a break from working, even though no one works in the first place, but that's besides the point. I've been killing my free time with lots of drawing, exercising, reading, and staring at walls. After a week straight of boredom though, I decided to take a break and come into Lenakel, the "city" I am in now. I started walking at 4:30 this morning to the nearest road to catch a truck into town. I found a truck after an hour, and just squeezed into the back of it. Well, I actually was on the outside of the truck. One man was holding onto my hand so I wouldn't fall off, and the man holding onto me was holding onto another man so he wouldn't fall of too. ha. It was like clowns riding a little circus car. It wasn't quite a car, but I would consider it a rather small truck. I was so impressed that I took the time to count the 24 of us who fit onto it. So for the rest of today I'm just relaxing, meeting up with a few volunteers, and then it's back to the bush.
Sorry for such a long post, but it's been a while. I'll try to get more pictures up soon for those of you who like picture books over real ones like me.