Matanvat Village

Hello Everyone! Its been a really busy month! Last week I went on my "one week wokabaot" to my permenant site, to check out the village and school. I will be going to the island of Malekula, to Matanvat village on the north-west coast. It is 2 hours-by truck- away from Lakatoro, the third biggest city in Vanuatu. But don't think that it is actually a big city. It's not. Really Lakatoro is a dirt road, lined with cococut plantations, that runs along the beach, and there are 2 grocery stores, a hardware store, a post office, a bank, and some assorted offices. Basically, it contains everything I need and more. (Aka cold beer, cheese, mail, and access to money).

My village is really great- although my house isn't finished yet, the site where my house should be in 3 weeks is about 200 meters from the ocean- I can see the bright blue water through the coconut trees from my house. I will be living in my own house next to my family, who basically make up the rest of the village. There are about 50 people and I think I am related to everyone in some form or another, so I can just call all the men Uncle and all the women Auntie, which is great because I don't remember any of the names I learned.

Basically for the week I visited my school (about 100 m from my house), walked to the 2 neighboring villages, a few km down the road, went to the garden with my host mama and sister (which involved lots of bush-whacking), and read 500 pages of Fountainhead. I am the first volunteer that the community has had, so everyone was a little nervous at first but I think they will warm up to me. I am excited to go back in 3 weeks!! On 29 November, our training group has our "swearing-in ceremony" and I will be an official Peace Corps Volunteer.

I have a new address:

Laura Klatka/Peace Corps
Matanvat School
PMB 39
Lakatoro, Malekula
Republic of Vanuatu
South Pacific

Thanks for all the letters I've gotten so far!

Feel free to send me some Christmas packages :)
Here is a list of things that I could always use more of:

• Clif bars (chocolate chip!)
• ziplock bags
• tupperware
• photos (of anything!)
• magazines/books/reading materials
• cool pencils to give to the kids in my class
• stickers (for my classes)
  
• anything else entertaining (to help me get through the first few months of boredom and homesickness)

I miss everyone (still) and hope all is well back home!

Traning Village

This Saturday marks the anniversary of our first month in Vanuatu! We've been at the "training village" of Mangaliliu for 2.5 weeks now, and I'm adjusting really well to village life. In addition to cute kids, friendly people, and all the coconuts you can eat/drink, we have a coral reef in our backyard. From my house, it is about a 5 minute walk to the coral beach. Then its about 100 feet out into the water before it drops into a beautiful reef full of bright fish, sea turtles, and sharks. I have yet to see a shark myself, but a lot of the other PCTs have, and the locals here say the water is "plente fulap shark" (plenty full of sharks).

A typical day in the village involves waking up several times in the wee hours of the morning to the rooster crows, then finally giving in and just getting out of bed around 6am. Then I'll make coffee (the coffee here is the best coffee I've ever had- volcanic soil!) and hang out with the kids or sit by the fire with my mama and chat. After I eat breakfast, we have Peace Corps training sessions from about 8-4. This usually entails language training (Bislama) as well as talks about education, environment, culture, health, or random. The random category includes a session on how to make Papaya jam and how to correctly chase, kill, skin, and cook a chicken. After classes, we'll go snorkeling in the reef or just hang out with our host siblings. I have 4 siblings here but in addition to that, I have another 20-something cousins, so there is always something to do. Later, we'll all kakae (eat) dinner, then storian (talk/story) in Bislama with our families until bed. There is no electricity here except for the occasional generator (our house has one!) so it gets really dark. Usually I'll be in bed by 8:30 or 9, then read, sleep, wake up, and repeat! So far, nothing has been too rough, its a lot like camping and I am enjoying every second (except for the morning I woke up with a centipede in my bed).

I will try to post photos soon, but the internet here is sloooooow. Until then, check out our groups flickr site: http://flickr.com/groups/vanuatu20b/pool

Ale-- Bye!

*update* check out http://villanova.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2068355&l=99aa5&id=6100829 for Mangaliliu pictures!

Life in Vila...

So we've been in Vila for just over a week now but it feels like it has been months! Already so much has happened.

I tried Kava, the ceremonial drink of Vanuatu, twice. The group has mixed feelings- some love it and some can't stand it. The effects are very relaxing: first your mouth goes numb and, eventually, the rest of your body if you drink enough. I'm not sure if it is worth the taste- I can only describe it as a combination of dirt and poisonous leaves. The drink itself is derived from a pepper root and it is served in "shells". Here in Vila, Kava is not served in coconut shells, but in small bowls of about 10 ounces each (still called a "shell" though).

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This weekend we have been really lucky to be here in Vila, because the biggest music festival of the year happened from Thurs-Sat. The first night was the traditional string bands of Vanuatu and the second two nights were Reggae. We couldn't stay through the entire concert any night because we learned the entire town goes crazy and all sorts of hayhem ensues with all the Kava and alcohol consumed.

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On the first night of the festival, I committed the biggest cultural faux-pas of the group: I threw away a cob of corn in what I thought was a small trashcan outside one of the food vendor huts. I heard a loud splash, looked down, and realized that it was a trashcan container full of murky-brown liquid that could only be one thing- Kava! The two guys sitting next to it just laughed because they were not the owners of the Nakamal (Kava bar) but I just grabbed the voluneers I was with and proceeded to walk very fast across the field (we stick out a little here because everyone is Melanasian, so I wanted to get out of sight quickly). Everything turned out ok in the end, but by the end of the night everyone in our training group had heard the story and thought it was hilarious.

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Yesterday we had our "water safety class" which involved our group going out on the Vila harbor (pictured above) and snorkeling in the reefs for the afternoon. I'm not sure what this had to do with water safety, except that we learned what types of coral not to touch. Every day we all have to remind ourselves that we are, in fact, in the Peace Corps, because this has felt like a vacation all week (except for the 8 hours a day of classes!) Apparently, training in the village is when it really sets in.

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We leave today for Mangaliliu, where we will have 10 weeks of intensive language/culture/health classes, but we will be coming into Vila once a week for teacher training. I miss everyone and hope everything is going well back home! Write me lots of letters please :)

Port Vila!

We finally made it to Port Vila- the capital of Vanuatu. Right after we stepped off the plane, we were greeted by the Peace Corps country director, local staff, and some of the current volunteers!

Everything here is beautiful and everyone has been treating us so well. We are staying in the capital here for one week, then we move to a small village about 20km away for the rest of our training (10 weeks).

I will have email access all week and once a week during training, so feel free to email me at: laura.klatka@gmail.com

Port Vila pictures:
http://villanova.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2066244&l=b1989&id=6100829

Staging in LA

Hi everyone!

So I am finally in LA with my fellow 22 PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) and everyone is really awesome! There are a few older volunteers (50+) but pretty much everyone else is in their 20s. Basically here we are just doing pre-training orientation, with talks on cultural adjustment, language, safety and health. Everything is an intro for the 10-weeks of real training we will start in a few days.

Yesterday 8 of us arrived early to LAX so we could see a little bit of LA before we left, so we ended up in Santa Monica and got to see a west coast sunset. We leave tomorrow for New Zealand around 9pm so we are all pretty excited! I posted a few pictures from our LA trip:http://villanova.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065680&l=d10b2&id=6100829

"See you in 2 years!"

After a long week of good-byes in MD, NJ, and Philly, I'm back in Ohio and packing for the next 2 years (I leave in 3 days!!!!!) So what do you pack for 27 months in the South Pacific???

Here's what I have so far:

• 4 t-shirts
• 5 tank tops
• 7 skirts
• 2 Bermuda shorts
• 2 pants
• 3 dress shirts
• 3 dresses
• socks/underwear
• bandannas (essential for that "peace corps" look)
• lots of flip-flops
• tennis shoes
• fleece/sweatshirt
• rain jacket
• wide-brimmed hat
• ~9 books
• journal
• address book
• envelopes and paper
• solar charger
• ipod
• speakers
• rechargeable batteries
• digital camera
• 3 memory cards
• world and u.s. maps
• mini world globe (!!!!)
• sketch pad
• toiletries
• photo album of family and friends
• led headlamp
• utility knife
• spatula
• playing cards
• 2 quick-dry towels
• travel scrabble
• gifts for my host families

I have yet to pack it all into my giant backpack, so wish me luck!

On September 18, me and Elin (fellow volunteer and Ohioan) fly to LAX for a 2-day staging event with 21 other Vanuatu volunteers. Then on September 20, we all fly to Aukland, NZ and finally to Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu. After a few days there, we all get to live with a different host family for 2 months. After 10 weeks of training, we get our official 2-year assignment, so I will update my address again! Until then, my address is posted to the right of the posts. I hope I get lots of mail!

Fun Facts

After doing some further research on Vanuatu, I have discovered some even more interesting facts! I will continue my list from the previous post:

4. The ancient practice of land-diving (bungee jumping) originated on Pentecost Island. The goal was to land close enough to the ground to just graze it with hair or shoulder. For those who survived, this proved their manhood and ensured a good yam harvest for the following season.

5. The waters around Vanuatu are shark-infested. If you know me, you can be assured that I will stay 20 feet from any beach at all times.

6. The last reported act of cannibalism was in 1969, on the island of Malekula. I really have to stress the word reported here, for obvious reasons. I will probably stay away from this island if I can.

7. Vanuatu is situated directly on the Pacific "ring of fire". Two of the world's most active volcanoes can be found in the islands of Vanuatu (Yasur and Abrym) and they are open to the public. Cooooool!

The Adventure Begins...

Welcome to my peace corps adventure journal!

I have recently received (and accepted) my Peace Corps placement in Vanuatu and I am scheduled to leave on September 21, 2007. My estimated return date is December 2009. In Vanuatu, I will be teaching "secondary mathematics" in one of six Vanuatu provinces.

In case anyone is curious, Vanuatu is a nation composed of roughly 83 islands and located about 1090 miles east of Australia in the Pacific Ocean. The national languages are English, French, and Bislama. Vanuatu natives are called ni-Vanuatu.

In my research, I have learned several other interesting facts about Vanuatu:

1. Ni-Vanuatu killed and ate the first missionaries to land on their island. I am not sure what the current status of cannibalism is in Vanuatu, but I plan on doing some further investigation.

2. Vanuatu is home to the world's only legal narcotic, a substance called Kava.

3. According to the Happy Planet Index ("an index of human well-being and environmental impact") Vanuatu was rated the happiest nation on the planet.

For more information about Vanuatu, here are some websites to visit:

http://www.peacecorps.vu/: official Peace Corps Vanuatu site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanuatu: brief facts about Vanuatu
http://www.vanuatutourism.com/: Vanuatu tourism website