Guacamole and Laplap

Last week, school was canceled in honor of a public holiday called Chief's Day. The chief in our village was nowhere to be found, but we still celebrated. In honor of the celebration, my host family asked me to make guacamole. I don't know how they'd even heard of guacamole, but I was more than happy to make it. The avocados in Vanuatu are gigantic and quite delicious. As of now, there are in season here. My host family made laplap, the national dish of Vanuatu which is made from either manioc, sweet potato, taro, or banana cooked between banana leaves over an open fire. I was surprised when they asked me to make it spicy, so I added cumin, Mexican chili powder, and cayenne pepper which had been provided to me through care packages and purchased in Port Vila. The lack of spice in Vanuatu cuisine (often called “island kakae”) has caused the food here to become disappointing. Many great fruits and vegetables are available here, including a few that surprise me, such as eggplant, pumpkin, tomato, green peppers, and manioc. I remember having to explain to my host family what cinnamon was. My friends in the Peace Corps have suggested that I teach a cooking class in order to educate them about different spices. I wonder how fruitful that would be since very few spices are available for purchase on Malekula. However, I have talked to the Peace Corps about my aspiration to launch a mural project similar to the one in which I participated in Harlem. So far, they approve. I plan to go through a PCPP, a project in which I raise money through the Peace Corps website. These projects have a ninety-eight percent success rate!

The Millipede and the Flying Fox .

One night this week, as I was lying in bed I felt something wiggle underneath my shoulder and a subsequent pain that began spreading down my arm. It turned out to be a millipede. Millipedes cannot kill or paralyze anyone they bite (unless the victim has an allergic reaction), but the pain can last for twenty-fours hours or more if left untreated. I called the Peace Corps, who told me to speak to my host family. They treated me with poultice, a branch that was burned and the sap poured onto my bite. It worked beautifully, and the pain dissipated within an hour. The health team at the Peace Corps also told to treat the bite with hydrogen, peroxide, iodine, and antibiotic cream. I realized that the people here had inherited an entire knowledge of herbal medicines that had been bequeathed to them by their ancestors. However, I have also realized the dangers of some of the superstitions in my community. The same night, my host father inquired if I ate flying fox, which is a delicacy in Melanesian culture. I told him no, since I am mostly a vegetarian, aside from the occasional fish. I have also always had a fondness for bats and can't picture myself consuming one. I asked him if he ate them. He also told me no, since he believed them to be devils, and this was part of the Seventh-Day Adventist diet in the village. I had to laugh, but I could tell he was quite serious. Bats are the only indigenous mammals to Vanuatu, and play a crucial role in maintaining their ecosystems by pollinating the plant life, just as they do all over the world. In Vanuatu, people kill them with slingshots in order to consume them. But the next day, the boy in the above picture showed me that he had killed a flying fox. I asked him if he had any intention of eating it. He told me no, since he was also a Seventh-Day Adventist. I told him in the future not to kill animals he has no intention of eating. But it was the superstition that bats are devils that caused him to believe he was acting in self-defense when he killed it. Considering these creatures are endangered in many countries, I hope this is a superstition that can be dispelled.

Back To School

The school in my village opened this week. It was quite a chaotic opening. At the last minute, Brian, one of the teachers, informed me that he had become the new headmaster, since the previous one had transferred to another school. In Vanuatu, headmasters and teachers transfer schools every three-five years, and these transfers are frequently haphazard. While my Peace Corps assignment is to teach English, I was asked to teach mathematics at one point. I was comfortable doing so, but wondered what other tasks I might be requested to perform that are not part of my job description. I was impressed by many of the students' English ability and happy to see a poem by Langston Hughes, one of my favorite poets, hanging on the wall. I was also disappointed in the library. There were no books inside it, and there were cinderblocks everywhere. It looked like a bomb had exploded inside the library. I realized there was quite a bit of work to be done in the school. During a social studies lesson, I was also appalled to learn that the three guiding principles in the constitution of Vanuatu are traditional Melanesian values, faith in God, and Christian principles. Coming from a country which, at least in theory, separates church and state, I found this quite shocking. Since coming to Vanuatu, I have encountered Christians of all different denominations, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), Jehovah's Witnesses, Assembly of God, Presbyterianism, Roman Catholicism, and Seventh-Day Adventism. I have also encountered missionaries of all different denominations. Frequently, while walking around Lakatoro running errands, I see Mormon missionaries trying to strike up conversations with locals in order to convert them. Missionary work was spread to Vanuatu through missionary activities, and some of these missionaries were killed and cannibalized. Still, Christianity is a force that infuses all of daily life (including school, where prayer is still practiced and almost never challenged)—and also, in my opinion, limits perspectives. I have heard of Peace Corps Volunteers here in Vanuatu forced to change sites because they were atheists, agnostics, or practiced religions outside the sphere of Christianity and Judaism. I have also noticed that the students are quite diffident and getting them to speak before the class is like pulling teeth. Simultaneously, getting them to be quiet while I am speaking to them is equally difficult. This is a common problem in Vanuatu schools—one that I hope to rectify in my village by engaging the students in material that excites them.

Hold Up In Norsup

After flying into Norsup, the location of Malekula's airport, I learned that my island was being struck by heavy rains. This meant that no trucks were driving back to my village. I intended to go back to my village the next day, but ended up needing to stay there for three days. I had bought many items in Port Vila to set up my house, including a smokeless stove which was quite heavy, so I was left perplexed about how to get both myself and my belongings back to my site. Along with my friends and fellow Volunteers Tim and Natalie, we took refuge at the home of two Volunteers from New Zealand, serving in the New Zealand and British Commonwealth equivalent to the Peace Corps, Volunteer Services Abroad. They were an elderly couple who had come to Malekula to work on education issues. It proved to be quite fun and informative. They told me that a new policy is being enacted which forbids the kindergarten classes (called “kindies” here) to open until an investigation is facilitated to ensure that the correct standards are being conformed to. They were quite angry about this, knowing that many villages will simply not investigate these matters and the kindies there will remain closed. They are currently trying to persuade the Ministry of Education to allow the kindies to open. They also told me about the rising prevalence of diabetes in Vanuatu due to the copious amounts of sugar people mix into their drinks and white rice consumed with vegetables, fish, and meat. I was happy to report that my host family and village are an exception. I see very little sugar and white rice used and have lost quite a bit of weight since coming to my village. When I finally was able to get a truck from Lakatoro to drive me to Norsup to pick up my belongings and everyone else on the truck to help me carry all my heavy bags. The ride back was long, but exquisite and tranquil. Huge bats and birds swooped over me, even through it was broad daylight. Coconut trees encompassed my view everywhere. Locals on the truck rearranged their belongings so that I could be more comfortable. After such a stressful experience trying to get home, I had reached the light at the end of the tunnel—or dirt road.

An Ethiopian In Vanuatu

On my final day in Port Vila, I met a man named Shimalis who came to Vanuatu all the way from his home country, Ethiopia. While he spoke English quite fluently, I found myself needing to pay very close attention because of his thick accent. I was quite surprised to meet someone from East Africa in the South Pacific. It reminded me how much smaller and more interconnected the world has become. He was equally surprised by my knowledge of Ethiopian cuisine, art, architecture, history, and music. It just so happened I had made an eggplant and Shanghai noodles with berbere, an Ethiopian spice mixture. He was very impressed that I knew about this crucial ingredient in Ethiopian cooking. He mashed an avocado and cut a few slices of bread and we ate the avocado with the bread slices, in the traditional Ethiopian fashion. He invited me to come to Ethiopia someday. I told him I would love to visit and have always wanted to visit the ancient Aksum kingdom there. He said that there are currently jobs for foreigners in the main city, Addis Ababa (a city of five million people), that do not require fluency in any Ethiopian languages. The idea of living in any country in Africa sounded quite captivating to me, especially one with as rich a history as Shimalis' country. He told me that he had come to Vanuatu to work on inoculation issues. He said that while there has been some improvement with access to vaccination in Vanuatu, there are still many children who do not receive adequate vaccination. I also inquired about his home country, and he said most regions of Ethiopia have made vast amelioration in vaccinating children, more so than Vanuatu. However, there are still a few poorer regions there where most children are not vaccinated. I told him about the insanity of the anti-inoculation movement in the United States, and how obscene I consider it to oppose vaccination while so many in countries like Vanuatu and Ethiopia are dying of polio, hepatitis, Japanese encephalitis, meningitis, and other diseases that are preventable through vaccines. He was surprised to hear this, and agreed the movement was ridiculous. It was quite lovely to have a political conversation, as I have not found that Ni-Vanuatus have conversations about any major world issues, aside from the death of Osama Bin Laden, which seems to fascinate them. Because Vanuatu has been so isolated from the rest of the world, a political dialogue is a rare gift. I recall asking my previous host family who the prime minister of Vanuatu was, and they needed to ask other villagers to find out. This is not a matter of intelligence. It is a matter of relevance to the everyday lives of people. Politics have very little relevance to the lives of Ni-Vanuatus. They do not keep track of politics because they do not need to, and I have not been able to keep track of them living in my village where there is no access to Internet or television and the only radio stations play string band music and occasional news flashes warning of impending natural disasters. At times, I find it frustrating, wanted to know more about this year's election and other political issues. However, there are other times when I also fail to see the relevance when I live so close to the ocean and everything I need manifests.

We Survived

We have survived the cyclone, which turned out to not be nearly as hazardous as we thought it might be, especially for the island of Efate, where I am currently staying. However, the Southern island of Tanna was affected, so my friends who live there are concerned about their houses. Vanuatu has more natural disasters than any other country in the world. These include cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. However, it is also the world's happiest nation.

Three Earthquakes and a Cyclone

I am currently in the capital of Port Vila for a Peace Corps training.  Here, I have been able to obtain many tools I need to work on my house on Malekula which are not available there, including acrylic paints, a smokeless stove that works by building a fire inside of it, a stereo that operates from a cell phone battery, various spices, a tea kettle and pot for loose tea. Vanuatu was recently struck by three earthquakes, but sustained no damages. I was awoken by one at midnight one night that frightened me so much I ran outside in a towel. Vanuatu is also being hit by a cyclone tonight, so the Peace Corps has told us to take refuge in their office. We have moved our mattresses from the hotel into the office so we can sleep there, and will hopefully have access to Internet and electricity during the night. Hopefully, we will be permitted to return to our hotel tomorrow. Thankfully, it is not expected to be too dire.