23 April 2014
I have much to report since my last post…everything is actually seriously entertaining. First I want to talk about names—specifically the care and time that we as Americans generally put into choosing the names for children. Whenever anyone asks me the origin of my name I’m always excited and proud to tell them about how my dad decided to name his first daughter Laura after he visited the Whaling Museum in 4th grade (right?) and learned about his family’s history with the whaling industry on the Vineyard. Seeing that Laura Jernegan was the daughter of a famous whaling captain he decided that he wanted to name his first daughter after her. See, pretty cool story right? Even cooler is how much that name meant to him and why he chose it.
Now…let’s talk about Vanuatu. For the most part I have met plenty of young boys and girls with beautiful names that have probably been passed down through many generations. I have also met many with names that combine the names of various relatives (or even past Peace Corps Volunteers)…like “Sanica”—a combination of Sandrina, Eunice and Cassandra. Whether this is a conventional name doesn’t matter, its just cool that Sanica’s parents thought about her name and named her after three other cool girls.
I figured this was the norm until last week I met a pair of young twin boys. Their mother introduced them to me saying, “this is Jeremy and this is Sheremy.” Dead. Serious. Now, I’m not trying to be rude. I’m really not. I just couldn’t believe it and truly had a difficult time holding back a giggle. SHEREMY?? First of all, they’re twins! Couldn’t you give them a little bit more to distinguish themselves with? And, when you’re talking quickly or need to shout to one or the other, wouldn’t it make it a little easier if their names were even a little more different? I guess I get naming your kids names that start with the same letter, but to have them rhyme like that is truly evil.
To top off my experience with Jeremy and Sheremy, who can’t be more than 8, they are absolutely terrified of me. I’ve met plenty of Ni-Vanuatu toddlers who are afraid of me because of my white skin but I was truly amazed to find out that I was apparently the first white person these boys had ever seen. They were genuinely afraid of me and their parents thought it was hilarious. We were eating dinner and their parents kept telling me to sneak up on them and touch them when they weren’t looking. Granted, when I did this their expression was half terror and half smile, but still—there was terror there. By the end of their stay with my family I could get them to reluctantly shake my hand but that was about it. Until next time, Jeremy and Sheremy.
Next, I want to take the time to tell my parents that my hammock and the mosquito net attachment have become the best Christmas presents I have ever gotten. Until this past weekend I had only used the hammock down by the beach to relax after working in the garden and read. I was pretty nervous to hang it up in my house seeing as my house is made of bamboo with a thatch roof I was worried that I would send the whole structure crumbling down on top of me. I decided to ask my sister in law what she thought and, after laughing a little, she told me I was being silly. My house has been standing for close to ten years and was build to withstand cyclones and the possible tsunami. Gopher it she said.
So, giddy as ever I set up my hammock in my bedroom last Saturday and took a phenomenal nap in it. My nap was so great that I decided to try sleeping the night in it. I slept in my hammock Saturday and Sunday night and by Monday it was decided, by me, that it would become my new bed. I quickly took down my Peace Corps issued mosquito net and pulled the Peace Corps issued (3 inch thick) mattress off my bed frame. I left the bed frame to act as some sort of a barrier between my hammock and the cement floor of my house and hung my hammock up, mosquito net and all. Now, you ask, what was I to do with this mattress? Set up a reading/napping nook of course! I folded my mattress into an ‘L’ shape and shimmied it into the corner of my room between a wall and my bed frame, covered it with my sheet and put my lumpy pillow on top. Now, I have an incredibly comfortable corner to read and relax in as well as an extremely comfortable place to sleep. I’m still a little worried that I’m going to break the house but by breezy sleep is worth the risk.
When we were in Epau for training there were ducks everywhere. I noticed them specifically because they were the first, and only ducks, I’ve seen in Vanuatu and they looked really funky. There are chickens everywhere but not ducks. One of my integration tools has been getting my family to laugh at me so I decided to ask my host Papa about them one day. I asked him, “Papa, do you think it’s possible for a duck to make a baby with a chicken?” Naturally, he laughed at me. I also laughed because yes, it was a ridiculous question, but I proceeded to explain my reason for asking. These ducks were all funky colored and had pink lumpy skin around their beaks (scientific term unknown) that reminded me of the face of a chicken. I went on for weeks thinking about these ducks until FINALLY, a couple weeks ago, Alison told me that while we were in Epau her, Kelsey and Jen saw a duck and a chicken attempting to make babies! Totally crazy, weird and strange but pretty hilarious all the same.
On a similar note, the other day I was sitting outside my family’s kitchen, daydreaming a bit, when I looked down and saw one of our dogs, who had recently given birth, laying down with a cat next to him. But this cat was not just laying down next to him for comfort or warmth or anything, this cat—named Market because he was found at a market—was drinking milk from the formerly pregnant dog’s teat. All I could do was stare and giggle. I had never seen anything like it before. The two were just acting so normal. I guess when you’re an animal who has to find your own food and you’re feeling malnourished, you reach for the closest thing you can find. Yikes. Who is to know what sort of cross species interaction I will see next—stay tuned!
My Easter was pretty great. We got Friday and Monday off from school and I spent both days doing laundry, practicing yoga and reading and on Monday I went for a swim in the solwota. We are approaching the two week break from school during which I hope to visit some other volunteers on Malekula and hopefully eat some meat. My diet here consists of vegetables and occasional fish. I could eat more fish, if I wanted to open a can but I told my family that I’m allergic to tin fish. I tried it, I really did. But as someone who has never liked tuna it’s really hard to get over the cat-food like smell/taste/texture of any meat in a tin. On of my friends lives across from a poultry farm where he can buy fresh eggs and chicken wings so I’m hoping he will accept me as a guest at his house sometime soon…
I’ve been a little homesick lately but mostly because I’m thinking about how much I love spring in DC and the beginning of summer on the Vineyard, when things are open but its still quiet. HUGE congrats to all my homies graduating this year, love you all! Enough for now, more updates to come during break!
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