After ten months of living by myself it was funny to have another human occupying my quarters but with someone like Pete who cooks, cleans and always reminds me to brush my teeth who could complain? He cooked over fire, did lots of stori-ing with my family in broken Bislama/English and got well acquainted with my pit toilet. The creepy crawly creatures of Matanvat were also happy to welcome Pete and me back to site....the first night back I was sleeping and all of a sudden woke up with the most intense pain I have ever felt in my head. It felt like someone was stabbing me repeatedly on the left side of my forehead. For anyone who has never shared a living space with me, I have a tendency to talk in my sleep and sometimes this talking can be quite ridiculous so I don't blame Pete when he was skeptical at first regarding my reaction. I stood up still half asleep and told him my head hurt, he told me to drink some water..thanks honey. "No" I said, it was far past the point of drinking water, "this was a milpod." A MILPOD...dun dun dun...what is a milpod you ask? HERE IS A MILPOD (or something similar enough):
Milpod's bite with two little fangs at the front of their bodies and the sensations that go through your body are extremely painful and can be long lasting. Being woken up at 12:30am to this pain is less than enjoyable. After my mind space became totally clear I was able to realize what had happened but still had no idea what to do about the pain so I called our trusty Peace Corps Doctor, Koch, for advice. Luckily Koch wasn't bothered at all by my 12:30am crying wake up call and simply told me to take some tylenol and try to sleep. I did and eventually fell back asleep. While the swelling went down and a majority of the pain subsided I could still feel the lingering pain of the bite for more than a week. I'll definitely be reconsidering any future sleeps without mosquito netting...
The next day, Friday, we took the big leap into island life by going on a big wokabaot across the village to buy a chicken. We walked to the house of one of my brothers who had promised me earlier in the week that he would be home on Friday to sell us a big chicken for a laplap sorsor. As we walked towards his house I remained optimistic that this transaction wouldn't be happening on island time but of course, this optimism was totally wasted. We walked up to an empty property with no brother in site. I started singing out for him but no answer. A few minutes later a woman walked up and invited us to her house for some papaya while we waited. We gladly accepted and ended up storying for over an hour...my brother still no where to be seen. After a little while longer I had to tell this mama that we had to go so we could start cooking and she kindly offered to sell us one of her chicken's instead. Great, we thought, all we need is a chicken anyway. With chicken in hand we headed back to my house, picking up another chicken and many, many mangoes along the way. |
I'm not exactly sure which day this was from but Pete thinks this is hilarious so I feel as though I must share it with the world. When I sleep, I can sleep pretty hard. I also fall asleep wherever I am if I'm tired enough. Well, one night I fell asleep in my hammock while we were watching a movie. Pete, who is always on top of dental hygiene, was kind enough to go get my toothbrush ready for me so I could get brushing in the hammock and muster enough conciousness to get up and finish the job. Well, I guess I was pretty tired and instead of being invigorated by the mintiness of the toothpaste I was promptly whisked back into dreamland and Pete captured the evidence. And that's that.
Once we got back to my house it was time to ready the chicken for cookin so Pete bravely stepped up to the plate to handle the execution. Hopefully this video works well enough and you can see him do the deed. With my brother Ratu on the left and sister Maylina on the right all Pete had to do was use enough force to slice the chicken's neck with a bush knife. Watch his success...You may also notice my stupid dog in the bottom of the screen trying to drink up all the blood flowing from the chicken's neck..
On Saturday morning we woke up, enjoyed some coffee and just relaxed until it was time for church. Church was painless, only about an hour service, and we were back to the house for lunch and more spel. We hadn't stopped moving much since Pete arrived so Saturday was the perfect lazy day to let Pete's internal clock really adjust to island time. Closing Sabbath came and went and we were napping. Once the singing was over we got up, made some tacos for dinner and called it a day.
On Sundays I usually wake up and do laundry and this is exactly what Pete and I did. Just a small load to make sure we left for our next destination smelling as fresh as possible. After the wash was finished and hanging we went over to the Presbyterian part of the village to go to church with the community over there. My village is strongly divided by religion so if I don't make the effort to go to other services I am just all SDA everyday and its just too much. I love Sundays because the songs are church are fun, someone is usually playing the guitar, my presbyterian family is the best and the laplap is always delicious and full of shellfish. This was a good Sunday to go too because it was the church's "Thanksgiving" service. Everyone brings items (such as: chickens, yams, coconuts, mats, etc) or money and at the end of the service everyone else can buy the items and have their money go to the church.
After church we went over to Anti Ella's for lunch and a small spel before Pete and I headed back to my house for some custom celebration. The first thing we were celebrating was the circumcision of three 12 year old boys. In Northwest Malekula a circumcision actually happens over the course of two weeks. No, this is not some ancient torture tradition that drags the ever painful/awkward process over two weeks, but one that ties the ceremony in with ideas about coming of age and manhood. In the beginning, the three boys went down to live in a small house together near the ocean. My brothers built this house specifically for the circumcision because the boys need to be together, out of the main area of the village (far enough so that the women who are not allowed to go near the house aren't over inconvenienced), and within close enough proximity that men and youngfala boys from the village can stop by to storian with the boys throughout the two weeks. Everyone in the village helps out by buying food or cooking for the whole two weeks. The first few days are spent stori-ing, playing games and relaxing like a kid. After the actual circumcision ceremony (no women allowed) the boys have another week or so to live in the house together and let their wounds heal before going back out into the community. While I can't begin to imagine being a pre-teen boy and knowing that this was something I'd have to go through and remember for ever, it is actually a very special, meaningful way to welcome these boys into manhood because the community is so supportive the whole time.
Pete and I came back right in time to celebrate the end of the two weeks so after a big post-church meal at Anti Ella's we were forced to eat even more. There were at least four big sorsors set out at my brothers house with specific sorsors for different parts of the family. After stuffing our faces some more and a little storian Pete and I went on a walk around the school and eventually back to my house...where we got approximately 3 minutes of relaxing before my sister was yelling at me to change and get ready to go to a bride price ceremony. Oh alright, no problem! I grabbed my island dress and ran out the door into a very full truck. As soon and Pete and I jumped on the truck we realized we weren't the last passengers to arrive...we picked up half of a cow carcass that was also coming along. With fresh meat in tow we were on our way to Legan for a bride price ceremony to buy my tawi Trisha so she can come live in our village with my brother Riki. The ride took about 45 minutes and would have been much more enjoyable had it not started down-pouring right after we left. We arrived in Legan absolutely soaking wet.
While bride price can be a blog post on its own, I'm not here to talk custom politics so I'll just say that in order for my brother and tawi to be custom married there is an exchange of some cash along with cow (or pig if you're not SDA) and lots and lots of yams and woven mats. Money went to the family of the bride and then my sister Maylina and I got to go over and bring my tawi from her family over to ours. Pete also helped the men by carrying some yams and the cow carcass.
Luckily the ceremony was short and we were on our way back to Matanvat and dry clothes soon enough. Here's Pete hanging with my brother Ratu on the back of the truck on the ride home. I don't know Ratu very well because he lives in Port Vila and just came home to visit my mami because she's sick, however, I've realized he's a really good dude. He's probably about 20 or 21, works hard in vila and when he comes back to Malekula he's right at home again, not like some who can become too fancy for island life. He was really cool about taking Pete under his wing (especially during the bride price ceremony since men and women don't stand near each other and play different roles in the ceremony) and teaching him how to be a bush man.
After we got back and got changed it was time to keep partying. We had to wait for my tawi's family to arrive from her village with all her belongings to move her into her new village but once they arrived there was lots of loud singing and dancing. Just like my sister Maylina and I had to walk her into our family, this time we also had to dance her into our family. Her brothers and sisters danced her over to us and we had to dance her over to my brother, mami and dadi. Then people just showered them with gifts and baby powder and we were off eating again! This is what life is like during times of celebration in Vanuatu...lots of eating and lots of baby powder.
After a busy weekend of churching, eating and dancing, Pete and I were excited to get to work painting the world map on Monday morning. The world map is on the outside wall of the class 1/2 and library double building so it's literally right in the middle of the school grounds. With this of course I want to do my best to make sure it looks good. However, I know that sometimes my need to control things and make everything perfect can get in the way of good team chemistry, so I was nervous for Pete to join in my project. Luckily Pete's the best and just knows I'm crazy and knows how to deal with it and we ended up working as the perfect team. It took a little bit to get into the groove of painting but once I was able to cope with the idea that there was no possible way to make it perfect, things we're much, much easier. Pete took over the Americas and painted everything except Alaska and all those pesky islands in the Caribbean. First I painted the map of Vanuatu and then moved on over to Africa. Although we weren't able to finish the whole thing we did get a lot of work done so once I get back to site my job will be much more do-able.
On Sundays I usually wake up and do laundry and this is exactly what Pete and I did. Just a small load to make sure we left for our next destination smelling as fresh as possible. After the wash was finished and hanging we went over to the Presbyterian part of the village to go to church with the community over there. My village is strongly divided by religion so if I don't make the effort to go to other services I am just all SDA everyday and its just too much. I love Sundays because the songs are church are fun, someone is usually playing the guitar, my presbyterian family is the best and the laplap is always delicious and full of shellfish. This was a good Sunday to go too because it was the church's "Thanksgiving" service. Everyone brings items (such as: chickens, yams, coconuts, mats, etc) or money and at the end of the service everyone else can buy the items and have their money go to the church.
After church we went over to Anti Ella's for lunch and a small spel before Pete and I headed back to my house for some custom celebration. The first thing we were celebrating was the circumcision of three 12 year old boys. In Northwest Malekula a circumcision actually happens over the course of two weeks. No, this is not some ancient torture tradition that drags the ever painful/awkward process over two weeks, but one that ties the ceremony in with ideas about coming of age and manhood. In the beginning, the three boys went down to live in a small house together near the ocean. My brothers built this house specifically for the circumcision because the boys need to be together, out of the main area of the village (far enough so that the women who are not allowed to go near the house aren't over inconvenienced), and within close enough proximity that men and youngfala boys from the village can stop by to storian with the boys throughout the two weeks. Everyone in the village helps out by buying food or cooking for the whole two weeks. The first few days are spent stori-ing, playing games and relaxing like a kid. After the actual circumcision ceremony (no women allowed) the boys have another week or so to live in the house together and let their wounds heal before going back out into the community. While I can't begin to imagine being a pre-teen boy and knowing that this was something I'd have to go through and remember for ever, it is actually a very special, meaningful way to welcome these boys into manhood because the community is so supportive the whole time.
Pete and I came back right in time to celebrate the end of the two weeks so after a big post-church meal at Anti Ella's we were forced to eat even more. There were at least four big sorsors set out at my brothers house with specific sorsors for different parts of the family. After stuffing our faces some more and a little storian Pete and I went on a walk around the school and eventually back to my house...where we got approximately 3 minutes of relaxing before my sister was yelling at me to change and get ready to go to a bride price ceremony. Oh alright, no problem! I grabbed my island dress and ran out the door into a very full truck. As soon and Pete and I jumped on the truck we realized we weren't the last passengers to arrive...we picked up half of a cow carcass that was also coming along. With fresh meat in tow we were on our way to Legan for a bride price ceremony to buy my tawi Trisha so she can come live in our village with my brother Riki. The ride took about 45 minutes and would have been much more enjoyable had it not started down-pouring right after we left. We arrived in Legan absolutely soaking wet.While bride price can be a blog post on its own, I'm not here to talk custom politics so I'll just say that in order for my brother and tawi to be custom married there is an exchange of some cash along with cow (or pig if you're not SDA) and lots and lots of yams and woven mats. Money went to the family of the bride and then my sister Maylina and I got to go over and bring my tawi from her family over to ours. Pete also helped the men by carrying some yams and the cow carcass.
Luckily the ceremony was short and we were on our way back to Matanvat and dry clothes soon enough. Here's Pete hanging with my brother Ratu on the back of the truck on the ride home. I don't know Ratu very well because he lives in Port Vila and just came home to visit my mami because she's sick, however, I've realized he's a really good dude. He's probably about 20 or 21, works hard in vila and when he comes back to Malekula he's right at home again, not like some who can become too fancy for island life. He was really cool about taking Pete under his wing (especially during the bride price ceremony since men and women don't stand near each other and play different roles in the ceremony) and teaching him how to be a bush man.
After we got back and got changed it was time to keep partying. We had to wait for my tawi's family to arrive from her village with all her belongings to move her into her new village but once they arrived there was lots of loud singing and dancing. Just like my sister Maylina and I had to walk her into our family, this time we also had to dance her into our family. Her brothers and sisters danced her over to us and we had to dance her over to my brother, mami and dadi. Then people just showered them with gifts and baby powder and we were off eating again! This is what life is like during times of celebration in Vanuatu...lots of eating and lots of baby powder.
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| Korina, Tawi Ani and Pete waiting for Tawi Trisha's family |
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| My sister Maylina and me dancing while we waited for Tawi Trisha's family to arrive |
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| man and wife! tawi trisha and brother riki |
After a busy weekend of churching, eating and dancing, Pete and I were excited to get to work painting the world map on Monday morning. The world map is on the outside wall of the class 1/2 and library double building so it's literally right in the middle of the school grounds. With this of course I want to do my best to make sure it looks good. However, I know that sometimes my need to control things and make everything perfect can get in the way of good team chemistry, so I was nervous for Pete to join in my project. Luckily Pete's the best and just knows I'm crazy and knows how to deal with it and we ended up working as the perfect team. It took a little bit to get into the groove of painting but once I was able to cope with the idea that there was no possible way to make it perfect, things we're much, much easier. Pete took over the Americas and painted everything except Alaska and all those pesky islands in the Caribbean. First I painted the map of Vanuatu and then moved on over to Africa. Although we weren't able to finish the whole thing we did get a lot of work done so once I get back to site my job will be much more do-able.
Once we called it quits on the painting we went back to my house and I proved to Pete how delicious my homemade pizza is and justified why I eat so much pizza at site. Later we had a little thank you ceremony with my Mami and Dadi and gave them small Christmas presents. The next morning we were up at 4:30 to pack in my house and wait for a truck to pass to bring us to the next stop on our adventure--Atchin.
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