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!