sori, more to come

16 October 2014

I realize that I’ve been a little lazy with blog posts the last couple months but things have gotten busy since I’ve finally gotten settled at site. Sorry! I did write an article for the Martha’s Vineyard Times that I will also post here for those who might not have seen it. It came about suddenly when I was in Vila a few weeks ago and got an email from someone at the MV Times asking questions about what I’ve been up to in Vanuatu. Like I’ve said here before, it’s totally impossible to communicate what life is actually like here so I was a little skeptical about just answering the questions. I wouldn’t want something I say to come off wrong but of course i do want to share what I’ve been up to. Instead of answering the questions I decided to write an essay about a run I went on one Sunday that integrated different things that I think are awesome about Vanuatu culture. So that’s what I did, without really knowing what would come of it. A few days later I was on a truck on my way back to Matanvat when I got two text messages from people who work in the Peace Corps office in Vila congratulating me on my essay. I was confused because I wasn’t sure how my essay for the MV Times possibly found its way to someone in Vanuatu but alas, I’ll never question the magic of the internet again.

I had forgotten about a release I signed before coming to Vanuatu that linked the Peace Corps press office with my local newspapers in the event of something just like this. When the article went out in the MV Times it also found its way to headquarters and was subsequently sent out. CRAZY! I’ll post a link to the article here but I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the positive feedback on the article and thank you to the MV Times for publishing my essay and naming me as the sole author, it felt very cool. I can’t wait to see the article in print (once it make the treacherous journey across the world) and show it to my community. They will go absolutely crazy seeing pictures of them in a newspaper from the US.

 http://www.mvtimes.com/2014/09/17/south-seas-dispatch/