My new life

Sorry that I haven't been able to keep in contact with many of you very well. The bush is not making that a very easy task, but I am getting in the habit of letter writing. I sent letters to everyone who has given me their address (some may be on the way still), but if I don't have yours, and you would like to hear from me, let me know. Eventually it will get to me when I get back to a computer that has a working internet. I am unable to upload photos onto my site here, but I will work on that, because I know pictures are always better than words, but I'll do my best to tell you a little bit of what has been going on.
Most days are spent around my house and village. I have been working on making things like chairs and shelves for my house, and doing other normal chores like yardwork and washing clothes. Yardwork tools consist of only a machete, which is your best friend in the bush, and it should go everywhere with you. Washing my clothes entails scrambling down a sketchy trail to a stream and scrubbing my clothes on a rock. The other day I found a smooth and clean rock for doing laundry and though to myself, wow, this sure does make my life easy. Then I realized how much work it is compared to throwing everything into some magical maching in your house and pushing a button, but I think my way is more rewarding. Bathing is also done in the stream, which makes it really easy to wash your clothes and yourself at the same time. I've found that I only need one or two shirts and one pair of shorts. The idea of actually having different outfits is pretty crazy to my friends on Tanna. Besides doing chores, I also spend time storian with my family, climbing around the bush, or playing with animals. The village is like a farm pretty much. Dogs, cats, pigs, goats, and chickens are everywhere.
People in the area are getting more used to seeing me, although I still have close to celebrity status. Atleast kids no longer run and cry when they see me. Some are still a little afraid of my camera, although I don't know why. Most are fascinated when I take a picture at night using a flash. It normally causes people to either roll on the ground in laughter or break into applause. I still feel awkward at big gatherings. It's hard not to notice hundreds of people staring at you or kids poking you to see what white skin feels like.
The other day an older woman died in a neighboring village. As custom dictates, my family and I walked to the village to gather with others. It was an interesting cultural experience. I went to the nakamal (meeting area) with my papa and brother. Only men are allowed there, women go to the houses to cook. There were multiple fires burning, one for each of the neighboring villages, and men from the villages were gathered around their respective fire. One man would stand up to talk, offering an explanation of why the woman died. Then another man would talk, often repeating the same thing again. Most believe that she ran out of blood, but although I disagree, I stayed quiet. Men repeated themselves for the next 7 or 8 hours. Seeing as it wasn't the funnest thing, I left to find some food. I was presented part of a pig heart that was roasted in a bamboo shoot. Out of curtesy an curiousity I ate most of it. The rest I threw on the ground as fellow pigs at their old friend. Sort of morbid.
Most of the food is pretty good though, although it is taking some getting used to. I eat lots of yams pretty much, mixed in with all kinds of different fruits and vegetables. Sometimes for dinner I will have some kind of meat. Sometimes it's nice when it's dark while I'm eating dinner because I can't see how gross the food looks, but other times, I would really like to see what I was eating before I stick an unexpected organ into my mouth. The other day I came home after walking around in the bush and saw my brother had caught and killed a cat. I didn't think much of it and then me and my brothers left to climb a near by hill. We came back ready to eat dinner. I was handed my plate and ready to take my first bite when they told me that I would be enjoying yam with cat. I really wish they hadn't told me, I was hungry. I shoved some down, trying to atleast find meat to eat. The cat was just cut up and put into a pot, organs, bones, and all. I ate what I could, then threw the rest down by my side, where my cat finished the leftovers. Morbid once again. The next day I felt slightly sick. My sister says I was sick because I walked around too much, but I'm blaming it on the dead cat I ate that sat outside in the sun for hours.
Well, I don't have time for all of my stories, but what I like about Tanna is you never know when to expect them. Typically the days where nothing is happening is the most interesting, you just never know what you're going to get. Sometimes a small boy shoots a bird with his sling shot and then proceeds to use its body as a soccer ball, or perhaps the woman next to you is picking bugs out of her kids hair and sticking them in her mouth. Numerous earthquakes shake up the down time too, or a rumbling volcanoe from across the island fills the quiet spots.
Ok, well I need to go hitch a truck back to my village now, it's getting late and I don't feel like making the 8 hour walk. I'll try to get back on here and give you an update and photos as soon as possible.

Beerwah, Australia. Not too many people have heard of the town, but it was a place I just had to visit. Beerwah is the home of Steve Erwin, the Crocodile Hunter, and of the zoo that he has drawn so many people to. As many of you know, he was my role model, and I believe that everyone could learn a few things from him. His passion was inspiring, and his enthusiasm couldn't be matched. Now I know not all of you are inspired to go and catch things that would like nothing more than to kill you, as boring as that sounds, but the way he lived his life can be applied to anything that you do. Too bad there wasn't more people around like him. Anyways, they day was bittersweet. Seeing the deadliest snakes in the world along with huge saltwater crocodiles was a humbling experience. It was also amazing to see the result from what one person can do. The amount of people who care about wildlife because of him is astounding, and that is something I need to remember when I am out in the Vanuatu bush. One person can make a difference. So I'm headed back to Vanuatu tomorrow, back to the real world, which is completely opposite of the real world in your head. I've been medically cleared by the Peace Corps, they've found nothing wrong with me, but thank you everyone for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. I'll do my best to keep posts and pictures coming in Tanna, but that will not be a very easy thing to do. It's a shame though, because I think things will start to get very interesting there.

Aussie

I'm just hanging out in Australia for the time being right now. As some of you know, I have been medivacced out of Vanuatu. I had a little medical incident and they have no such thing as good hospitals there. No worries though, it's nothing serious, and I should be returning to bush life shortly. In the mean time, I'm just trying to enjoy my modern lifestlye here in Brisbane. When I first got here it was a little overwhelming though. Seeing so many white people was a little scary, not to mention all the cars flying around and big buildings. But now I am really enjoying things like talking English to everyone (even though some Aussies don't sound like they are talking back in English), eating McDonald's and pizza, using an internet that works well, sleeping in a nice bed, drinking milk, eating chocolate icecream, and being CLEAN! Hot showers just can't be beat. I've also gotten to wear blue jeans and a sweater. Being in cooler weather feels great. I know I shouldn't get used to all of these nice luxuries though. I've only been without them for 3 months or so, and I've got 24 months left without them.

My new home

Last week, my time at Emua was winding down, and I still hadn't found a snake. The villagers told me that they really didn't have too many of them. Well, I can't say that I hadn't found a snake. I've swam with and held atleast 4 or 5 sea snakes, which are striped black and white, and a bite will kill you before you can get help. But once again Mom, don't worry, they're nice. Anyways, I told the villagers I wanted to find a snake in the bush because I knew South Pacific boas lived in the area. I took off after dark one night into the bush, and a short time later, came back with a snake in one hand, a frog in the other, and leaves in my hair from climbing the trees to get them. It was a proud moment, and I'm sure those who know me can easily picture myself in that situation. So I came back to the village to see that everyone was terrified of the snake. These people grow up with lizards, rats, and everthing else living in their houses, yet somehow they still are afraid of snakes. It must be a universal thing. Needless to say though, they couldn't believe that some white boy walked into the bush at night, didn't get lost, and actually was holding a snake. It made for a good environmental education lesson though. A few kids mustered the courage to touch it, although my papa made sure to keep his distance. Made my day.
But now, my time at Emua is finished. Last thursday (21st), I swore in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. The ceremony was really nice, I even showered and washed my hair for it, making it the first time in 6 weeks that my hair had felt the wonderfulness of soap. Plenty toktoks were given, and it was followed by a kava ceremony, and a string band. The music went until 6 in the morning, until it was time for us to gather our bags together and return to Vila. I was sad to leave, it was pretty close to paradise there (besides the rats, boils, flies in your wounds, and the hair that is still on the pig you're eating, but that's to be expected anywhere in Vanuatu). Now I'm spending a week in Vila, and if all goes as planned, I will be getting down to Tanna just before the 4th of July. Things rarely go as planned though. Suppose I make it down there by the 4th though, I will be going to the volcanoe there on the the island at night, giving me the best fireworks I could ask for. If not, I think I will have to find some extremely cheap and poorly made imitation sparklers made in China.
Ok, I will do my best to contact as many people I can this week while I'm in the city. Thanks for the emails and letters, and to those of you who are slacking, pick it up, I might go crazy in Tanna without them.

Back to training

The past few weeks have been pretty uneventful. After going to visit my home in Tanna I came back to 3 more weeks of class everyday. I spent all of last week learning Reef Check, a world wide coral reef monitoring program. Even though I'm not going to be living on the coast I might be helping other people out with Reef Check. We spent everyday out on the reef. I can't complain, it makes a pretty nice classroom. We learned all about reef health, fish and other animals of the reef. I was able to see schools of eagle rays, sea turtles, and I'm finally getting to see some sharks (don't worry mom the nice kind). The other night we went out on the reef at night to catch sea turtles as part of a sea turtle monitoring program. We got two green sea turtles and two hawksbill turtles, which we tagged and released. I also got to see my first shark at night, which was really cool, and I also saw a lot of flourescent jelly fish and other little glowing animals. I'm not going to lie though, it was a little eerie swimming over open ocean when all you could see is the narrow band of light ahead of you from the underwater light. So yeah, that's all I've been doing for the last week in class. Now I'm starting to work on things like setting up a bank account, and figuring out how to get my stuff sent out to the Tanna bush. Not an easy task. Besides that I do have an interesting story to share that proves how strange Vanuatu is. Last week, 49 prisoners escaped from the Vila prison. First of all, 49 prisoners escaping at once is somewhat odd. Then they all went out, drank kava, and promptly returned to the prison afterwards to turn themselves back in. Men here really like their kava. In Tanna the "prison" has a program where the good prisoners take the bad ones out for kava each night as long as they promise to come back. You can't make this kind of stuff up.