Holidays on the Outer Islands
November was an interesting time to leave for site, I was definitely a little nervous to spend the holidays away from home for the first time and completely out of my element on top of that. But I'm happy to report I had a fantastic Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years; I think I would even go as far to say they were some of the best I've ever had and completely unforgettable as well.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving isn't a practiced holiday in Vanuatu so all of us ladies on Ambae migrated to Nancy's village, Vandue, on North Ambae for some American kicks. I took a truck down the mountain (about a 45 minute ride) and met Megan and Melissa in Lolowai; from there we chartered a boat North as the roads from East to North are pretty impassable via truck. The boat ride there was only about an hour because there were only four of us including the 'captain' and the seas were pretty calm. Docking in Vandue turned out to be pretty tricky since there is no actual 'dock', the driver has to wait for just the right moment and follow a wave in to dock on the beach. However, if the driver misjudges the wave the boat can easily capsize. So we had to circle around the shore for about 20 minutes until we found a suitable wave. This was especially funny because Nancy and a pretty good portion of her village were all waiting on the beach to help us pull in the boat, laughing at us.
Upon finally beaching ourselves in Vandue and all giddy from being reunited for the first time since leaving for site, we promptly began a two hour hike up another mountain to Mac's village, Quatemele. We were received with much excitement as the village had never hosted that many white people before. A welcome ceremony and small meal was had, introductions and smol storian were made. I have to admit, I was a little nervous heading up there with my blatantly white skin. The first thing my host mama said to me when she heard of my Thanksgiving plans is as follows, "oh, bae yu ko long Not? oli bin kakae fulap waet man long ples!" (you're going North? They used to eat a lot of white people there). And while this turned out to be true, this story has a happy ending yet. The chief of Quatemele greeted us with his official custom killing stick (a spear carved out of wood) and proudly told us that while they used to use said stick to kill and eat white men that ventured to the area, he would now use it to protect us in the event that a neighboring area tried to kill and eat us. I was comforted.
Shortly thereafter we headed back down to Vandue with Mac in tow to get a good night's sleep in preparation for a busy day of cooking. I have to say I was pretty wiped by the time I got back to Nancy's house; down one mountain, across the water, up another mountain and back down again in 24 hours... I slept pretty well.
In true Thanksgiving fashion, we spent all day slaving away; in nontraditional Thanksgiving fashion we slaved away over an open fire rather than a stove. We only had a few pots and pans available to us so we had to be really resourceful and cook things in segments.
Peeling a kumala the size of my head turned out to be a pretty difficult feat. As you can see from my face here, it took some deep concentration. I had throw this photo in to brag about my accomplishment a little bit, plus I'm reppin' WWU.
Our Thanksgiving spread ended up being pretty impressive given our means and resources. We roasted a couple of chickens and made mashed kumala, pumpkin soup, bread and banana cake via dutch oven, fried kumala, beans with curry, and last but not least... Kraft macaroni and cheese. The mac & cheese was the biggest hit of the night, I couldn't imagine this being true of an tride and true American thanksgiving, but obviously our taste buds aren't that picky anymore.
Christmas (or as my dad would say- baby jesus day)
Christmas was spent adventuring across my neighboring island, Maewo. To begin, Lindsay and Nic (two volunteers based on Maewo) came across by boat and met myself, Megan and Jenni (a volunteer based in Port Vila who had just flown in). We set out for Linday's village Baitora, and as luck would have it got caught in a pretty wicked rain storm.
Jenni, Lindsay and I in front of Lindsay's comically small house. I should have taken solid shot of the door, because it's basically a hobbit house. I don't know how she does it, I hit my head on the frame every time I tried to come in or out and before I could even recover slipped on all the mud and cow droppings just outside her doorstep. The cows like to eat her house, you see. To bath you have to kneel on coral in a small, not entirely enclosed structure wrapped in tarps because the "roof" is too low. I'm convinced they were under the impression they were getting an eight-year-old rather than a full grown American. Kudos to you for handling this like a champ, Lindsay. For more information on tiny houses and outrageous mud please see:
After some mandatory kava and laplap we began our journey North toward's Nic's village, Talise. Transportation in and out of Baitora is completely reliant on water travel so we decided to go by way of canoe, in true Ni Van fashion.
We canoed into "hole blong moon"along the way, I wish I had some pictures of some of the stone carvings in here but if you watch the Penama video in my last entry it shows them briefly.
After staying in Nic's village for a few days we strapped on our hiking packs and ventured by foot to Nik and Jennifer's village, Naviso on East Maewo. Reaching Naviso was a trial in brute human strength and will power. It took us about six hours scrambling up and down mountains, wading through knee deep mud and creeping along tiny footpaths where one wrong step could end in a fall to your death. Alright, maybe not a fall to your death but you'd break a few bones for sure.
This is about halfway across the island on the top of Maewo, looking East towards Fiji.
We received a huge welcome in Naviso, which was pretty overwhelming immediately after hiking across the island. Most people in Naviso had never seen that many white people before, and similarly to Mac's village on North Ambae, that many white people had certainly never ventured there before. Needless to say, we got a lot of looks.
Christmas Eve and Christmas were spent recovering, drinking kava and swimming in the river. Jennifer (a teacher trainer in Naviso) made us all hand fans so we got to open presents on Christmas morning, in true American fashion.
All of us at the nakamal, I'm four shells of kava deep. Maewo's kava is really strong and hand ground with coral. We all had an interesting time walking back to Nik's house for the night, to say the least. But when in Rome...
Hanging out in the river, a pretty aesthetically pleasing place to hang out with the ocean and all, I'd say.
After Christmas celebrations commenced and we gathered our bearings once more, we hiked out of Naviso back to Talise, where we proceeded to take a boat farther North to Big Wota- the biggest waterfall in Vanuatu.
Entertaining ourselves along the way. Pretty normal for us.
Some friends we met along the way...
Of course we had to climb it. Pretty slippery work.
At the top finally, amazing view and totally worth the treacherous climb up.
New Years
After our Christmas adventures on Maewo we took a boat back to East Ambae a New Year's Eve party at Melissa's school, Vureas. We made American food, drank cheap wine, listened to bad 90's music and had a pretty fantastic time being silly Westerners.
Here we all are on Melissa's porch representing five different islands, a pretty impressive migration for an outer island gathering. I think this may hold the record for most white people on Ambae at one consecutive time, we broke all sorts of "most white man" records it seems like. From left to right: Lindsay- West Maewo, Jenni- Vila, Nik- East Maewo, Me, Nancy- North Ambae, Mac- North Ambae, Melissa- East Ambae, Jennifer- East Maewo, Nic- West Maewo, Gene- Santo, Jeff- Malakula.
We rolled through Lolowai in this truck blasting such fine tunes as "OMG" by Usher and "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz on an iHome. I don't think the villagers knew what hit them.
The highlight of NYE was without a doubt the coconut drop. This was my brilliant scheme- we tied a coconut to the ceiling and dropped it like it was hot after the countdown, while strobing our headlamps. I think we might have outdone Time's Square. I have a video but unfortunately the internet connection is too slow to upload it.
The end! Happy Holidays everyone, I've got a good feeling about 2011.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving isn't a practiced holiday in Vanuatu so all of us ladies on Ambae migrated to Nancy's village, Vandue, on North Ambae for some American kicks. I took a truck down the mountain (about a 45 minute ride) and met Megan and Melissa in Lolowai; from there we chartered a boat North as the roads from East to North are pretty impassable via truck. The boat ride there was only about an hour because there were only four of us including the 'captain' and the seas were pretty calm. Docking in Vandue turned out to be pretty tricky since there is no actual 'dock', the driver has to wait for just the right moment and follow a wave in to dock on the beach. However, if the driver misjudges the wave the boat can easily capsize. So we had to circle around the shore for about 20 minutes until we found a suitable wave. This was especially funny because Nancy and a pretty good portion of her village were all waiting on the beach to help us pull in the boat, laughing at us.
Upon finally beaching ourselves in Vandue and all giddy from being reunited for the first time since leaving for site, we promptly began a two hour hike up another mountain to Mac's village, Quatemele. We were received with much excitement as the village had never hosted that many white people before. A welcome ceremony and small meal was had, introductions and smol storian were made. I have to admit, I was a little nervous heading up there with my blatantly white skin. The first thing my host mama said to me when she heard of my Thanksgiving plans is as follows, "oh, bae yu ko long Not? oli bin kakae fulap waet man long ples!" (you're going North? They used to eat a lot of white people there). And while this turned out to be true, this story has a happy ending yet. The chief of Quatemele greeted us with his official custom killing stick (a spear carved out of wood) and proudly told us that while they used to use said stick to kill and eat white men that ventured to the area, he would now use it to protect us in the event that a neighboring area tried to kill and eat us. I was comforted.
Shortly thereafter we headed back down to Vandue with Mac in tow to get a good night's sleep in preparation for a busy day of cooking. I have to say I was pretty wiped by the time I got back to Nancy's house; down one mountain, across the water, up another mountain and back down again in 24 hours... I slept pretty well.
In true Thanksgiving fashion, we spent all day slaving away; in nontraditional Thanksgiving fashion we slaved away over an open fire rather than a stove. We only had a few pots and pans available to us so we had to be really resourceful and cook things in segments.
Peeling a kumala the size of my head turned out to be a pretty difficult feat. As you can see from my face here, it took some deep concentration. I had throw this photo in to brag about my accomplishment a little bit, plus I'm reppin' WWU.
Our Thanksgiving spread ended up being pretty impressive given our means and resources. We roasted a couple of chickens and made mashed kumala, pumpkin soup, bread and banana cake via dutch oven, fried kumala, beans with curry, and last but not least... Kraft macaroni and cheese. The mac & cheese was the biggest hit of the night, I couldn't imagine this being true of an tride and true American thanksgiving, but obviously our taste buds aren't that picky anymore.
Christmas (or as my dad would say- baby jesus day)
Christmas was spent adventuring across my neighboring island, Maewo. To begin, Lindsay and Nic (two volunteers based on Maewo) came across by boat and met myself, Megan and Jenni (a volunteer based in Port Vila who had just flown in). We set out for Linday's village Baitora, and as luck would have it got caught in a pretty wicked rain storm.
Jenni, Lindsay and I in front of Lindsay's comically small house. I should have taken solid shot of the door, because it's basically a hobbit house. I don't know how she does it, I hit my head on the frame every time I tried to come in or out and before I could even recover slipped on all the mud and cow droppings just outside her doorstep. The cows like to eat her house, you see. To bath you have to kneel on coral in a small, not entirely enclosed structure wrapped in tarps because the "roof" is too low. I'm convinced they were under the impression they were getting an eight-year-old rather than a full grown American. Kudos to you for handling this like a champ, Lindsay. For more information on tiny houses and outrageous mud please see:
After some mandatory kava and laplap we began our journey North toward's Nic's village, Talise. Transportation in and out of Baitora is completely reliant on water travel so we decided to go by way of canoe, in true Ni Van fashion.
We canoed into "hole blong moon"along the way, I wish I had some pictures of some of the stone carvings in here but if you watch the Penama video in my last entry it shows them briefly.
After staying in Nic's village for a few days we strapped on our hiking packs and ventured by foot to Nik and Jennifer's village, Naviso on East Maewo. Reaching Naviso was a trial in brute human strength and will power. It took us about six hours scrambling up and down mountains, wading through knee deep mud and creeping along tiny footpaths where one wrong step could end in a fall to your death. Alright, maybe not a fall to your death but you'd break a few bones for sure.
This is about halfway across the island on the top of Maewo, looking East towards Fiji.
We received a huge welcome in Naviso, which was pretty overwhelming immediately after hiking across the island. Most people in Naviso had never seen that many white people before, and similarly to Mac's village on North Ambae, that many white people had certainly never ventured there before. Needless to say, we got a lot of looks.
Christmas Eve and Christmas were spent recovering, drinking kava and swimming in the river. Jennifer (a teacher trainer in Naviso) made us all hand fans so we got to open presents on Christmas morning, in true American fashion.
All of us at the nakamal, I'm four shells of kava deep. Maewo's kava is really strong and hand ground with coral. We all had an interesting time walking back to Nik's house for the night, to say the least. But when in Rome...
Hanging out in the river, a pretty aesthetically pleasing place to hang out with the ocean and all, I'd say.
After Christmas celebrations commenced and we gathered our bearings once more, we hiked out of Naviso back to Talise, where we proceeded to take a boat farther North to Big Wota- the biggest waterfall in Vanuatu.
Entertaining ourselves along the way. Pretty normal for us.
Some friends we met along the way...
Of course we had to climb it. Pretty slippery work.
At the top finally, amazing view and totally worth the treacherous climb up.
New Years
After our Christmas adventures on Maewo we took a boat back to East Ambae a New Year's Eve party at Melissa's school, Vureas. We made American food, drank cheap wine, listened to bad 90's music and had a pretty fantastic time being silly Westerners.
Here we all are on Melissa's porch representing five different islands, a pretty impressive migration for an outer island gathering. I think this may hold the record for most white people on Ambae at one consecutive time, we broke all sorts of "most white man" records it seems like. From left to right: Lindsay- West Maewo, Jenni- Vila, Nik- East Maewo, Me, Nancy- North Ambae, Mac- North Ambae, Melissa- East Ambae, Jennifer- East Maewo, Nic- West Maewo, Gene- Santo, Jeff- Malakula.
We rolled through Lolowai in this truck blasting such fine tunes as "OMG" by Usher and "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz on an iHome. I don't think the villagers knew what hit them.
The highlight of NYE was without a doubt the coconut drop. This was my brilliant scheme- we tied a coconut to the ceiling and dropped it like it was hot after the countdown, while strobing our headlamps. I think we might have outdone Time's Square. I have a video but unfortunately the internet connection is too slow to upload it.
The end! Happy Holidays everyone, I've got a good feeling about 2011.
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