June 25, 2008

So…yeah…solar power is awesome except for now that it’s winter it’s not as plentiful as it once was, so I’m actually going to try to make this sort of quick before my inverter makes that ghastly beep again and Bridget takes off to Vila tomorrow with my USB stick and my login info. Some highlights of the past five weeks on the island:

• Welcome, Travis! Our newest Health volunteer on Tongoa, Noelle’s replacement, swings by for his five-day Wokabaot site visit. Noelle, Bridget, and I try to make him feel welcome and excited. As he will be the ‘central’ volunteer (an hour’s hike north of me and forty minutes south of Bridget), we inform him of his sacred duties: funneling mail, passing messages, joining B & I in endless hours of girl talk, sharing all chocolate that arrives via plane or ship, etc. The panel meets after his departure and it is unanimously agreed that this boy can hack it. We’ll see you next month, T!
• Sori long Lumbu/Congratulations, Noelle! The amazing volunteer that showed us the ropes, helped us get our bearings and gave us endless support, guidance, and sushi triumphantly completes her two years of service and gets the f*** off the island, leaving yours truly the most senior volunteer. I guess I’m responsible for holding down the fort now. Damn. What was that thing about being positive I was going to start?
• Nufala Helt Komiti! Yes, only eight short months after I first asked for one, the village elects a new Health Committee to work with me. More than half of the five members.came to the first meeting (that’s, um, three people). And a whole two of them showed up at the second! By Vanuatu standards, this shows unparalleled interest and commitment (I’m not being sarcastic). I really am excited about this. Only two weeks after our first meeting, we complete the task of picking leaves out of the gutterings that lead into our two sources of water for the Aid Post. Although how this job ended up getting pawned off on a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old with no one from the committee, I’ll never know - but never say Ni-Vans can’t delegate! Go Health Committee!
• Yumi Washem Hans! I experience a charming, fun, deeply satisfying and inspiring morning at the nursery school introducing songs, stories, and games about why and how we wash our hands. I also have the benefit of following up with the parents later to evaluate the efficacy of my program. Says one cheerful 16-year-old mother, “Kalo and Jennifer loved your program! They came home and sang that song you taught them, whatever it was, who remembers now, I mean, they’ve obviously forgotten it…anyway, when I sent them to wash their hands those crazy kids started looking for the soap - and I was like, ‘Bastards! Don’t waste the damn soap on your body or I’ll whip you good!’ Soap is for laundry, obviously…oh, kids today…”
• Smol Hip-Hop Danis Bridget & Amanda attend Shefa Day, an all-island celebration of…well, no one was really sure but it’s a public holiday that lasted a whole week. Thirty seconds before it begins, they dare each other into entering the Dance Competition against some very earnest pre-teens that have clearly practiced for the big event. All of Tongoa rejoiced as not one, but two of their otherwise generally respectable White Missuses gleefully improvised to the tune of “Girl Fight”. Favourite moves include “The Fish”, starring Bridget as The Fisherman and Amanda as The Fish, and Bridget’s solo performance as “The Worm”. Says the dynamic duo, “We have totally amassed enough social quotient credits for at least the next month. We can pretty much stay in our houses and do nothing until fall.” It is now accepted practice for man-Tongoa of all ages to hide in the bush and scream, “HIP HOP!” delightedly as Amanda or Bridget walk by. There are rumours of several toddlers imitating their wild gyrations, but on this issue the pair declines to comment. Word on the coconut is the Doublemint Twins are already in intensive rehearsal for Independence Day festivities, as well as the much-anticipated and more exclusive “Welcome, Travis!” soiree in July.
• Botel-gas i go long sip! After four very smoky (but enlightening) months, my empty propane tank for my stove finally made it on a Vila-bound ship this morning. It took the first three and a half months to get it from my village to the next one where the wharf is (special thanks to the Deputy High Commissioner of New Zealand who came to check up on our defunct Icebox Project and let me chuck the 11-kilo tank on his truck - man, Whitemen give you so much free stuff, it’s awesome), and another two weeks for a functional ship to arrive. Of course, every phone on the island went down today so I can’t let the gas company people know to pick it up on the other side, but I am encouraged by the developments. At this rate, I should have a functional stove again by 2009. Imagine, making breakfast in under two hours!
• Ova the Fanis Moderately deflated by general feelings of uselessness and despair, as well as the whole lot of nothing going on in my working life, I’ve decided to unofficially hop the fence of project sectors (from Health to Education) and join Bridget in her workshop series for primary school teachers…to help her out, get to know other villages and just, like, to do something with my life. This has also given me a lot of ideas for blending our projects and expanding my Health program outside of my small area. Competition and jealousy is the driving force behind work of any kind here, and it’s a shame it’s taken me a year to figure out how to harness that. Every day I spend working in another village converts another five previously disinterested parties into fervent labourers suddenly desperate for my time and attention. Long live the Petty Rivalry!

So that’s what I’ve been up to…I will definitely be in town again (Vila, that is…) the first week of September, though it’s possible an insatiable hankering for broccoli could put me on a plane before. All is well here…God bless the cold season.

I might meet my sister in Fiji sometime in the next few months, and possibly a parent or two in either Malaysia/Thailand/Australia/here or not at all in October, and I’m planning to hit New Zealand again in January or February. So yeah, I’m going to try to stay put on the island while the tide is low for the next couple months…which means snail mail as usual or e-mails forwarded via Peace Corps.

Once again (credits flashing on the bottom of the screen), you can write to:

Amanda Prasow, Peace Corps
Bonga Bonga Village
Tongoa Island
VANUATU
Southwest Pacific

or volunteer@vu.peacecorps.gov with my name in the subject line.

And, last but not least, the winners for most awesome item received in a recent package go to…

-my sister Andrea for Annie’s Organic Shells & Aged Cheddar Cheese Sauce and
-Juli’s mom for Yerba Mate Chocolate Teabags

You rock my world!
Amanda
(via e-scribe Bridget)