Vanuatu

I've been unable to write a blog entry, but please see a copy of the eamil I wrote to my parents. Has a rough update of my first few days here in Vanuatu.

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Assalam aleukum everbody!

firstly, extremely sorry for not being able to write any earlier! They had lots n lots planned for us since the time we arrived and am barely starting to unwind + catch-up with tasks right now.

So, a quick recap of what I've been upto for the past few days:

- Thursday night: got in @ 10:30 pm, and not only were the CUSO people there to welcome us but also my boss had come with her mom and stuff to introduce her self. That was VERYYY nice of them, since most people go to bed by 9 pm every night here (work starts @ 7:30 am, so people usually prefer to go to bed very early)

- Friday, we had to be @ the CUSO office by 10 am. From there, the local (ni-Vanuatu citizen) staff person @ CUSO took us to town, so that we could open our bank accounts and register with the Australian embassy. That took about 4 or 5 hours (we took the public transport, walked around town and had to wait in long lines @ the bank as it was pay-day). We were back @ the CUSO office by 3 pm where we had a quick session on cultural sensitivity till 4:30 pm. And @ 4:30 pm, all the other CUSO cooperants came over to meet us. There are about 8 other people from Canada (this is not including the 3 staff people who work f/t @ the oiffice). so alhamdulillah, we are in good comapny and there is tonnes n tonnes of support systems + resources available in case we are ever in need of anything

- Saturday, we had a walking tour of the town (downtown core, sort of) with a local Vanuatu person, who is also our langauge trainer. Than, we had a driving tour with another local person and my boss, who drove around the island to show us some of the closeby villages and touristy/enjoyment spots that can be reached by bus. Both of these were an amazing experience, as the tour guides gave us SOOOOO much info about the culture, place, history and so on. We came back to our guesthouse around 5 pm, at which point we met a couple from Fiji (girl is Fijian-Fijian and boy is Indian-Fijian). That was great 'cuz she invited us to have tea. After tea, we played cards (or semi-cards, sort of like ONO) and had banana-boats (choclate stuffed inside sliced bananas, all melted over bbq / charcoal fire).

- Sunday, our landlord took us for a picnic around 10 am. The landlord is the Minister of Finance for Vanuatu, and so, as expected has a lot of resources on hand and is very generous with everything as well. We went to a resort owned by the Minister's friend (some random French expat) and spent the entire day there.. they barbequed for us and people went in for a swim (I was wearing quick-dry track pants and so went into the ocean until the water was at mid-thigh and then played with the sand). After, they took us for a drive around the entire island. Turns out that the island is NOT as small as I thought.. it took us a good 3 hours to drive around the complete island, and we were able to see some REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY amazing stuff (inshallah will give more details in another email!). We came back around 6 pm, had tea with the Fijian girl, and then went to bed.. (I've started going to bed @ 9 - 10 pm, as that is what everybody ends up doing!).

- Monday (i.e. today morning) we had our first language training class, from 8 am - 11:30 am. It was an intense 3.5 hours but I have really learnt a LOT of Bislama. If we keep up the pace than I might be able to hold somewhat decent converstaionts with the locals in about 2 wks or so! After finishing up, we went to town again (costs 100 Vatu or $1 Can to go ANYWHERE in the city) and had lunch. The Minister's daughter accompanied us and showed us around town. CUSO gives all of its cooperants $250 (CAN) as settling-in allowance, to buy stuff to settle in. People usually buy all the stuff I bought with me (toileteries, bedding, some clothing, etc.) Nevertheless, there was stuff that we still needed to get (for instance, the $20 plug convertor I bought from Zellers was giving out sizzling sounds so had to buy a new one here for $7; the $40 digital compass+alarm clock phuphoo bought decides to be randomly moody so had to dish out another $12 on a new alarm clock). We also didn't have any groceries at home as the fridge wasn't working so getting food stuff took time as well. We were done by around 4:15 pm at which point Janet, the Minister's daughter, called a driver so we wouldn't have to lug our stuff back home by bus. Again, we got a tour of the city (it's amazing how different people will point out different places and thigns about the very same town!). We were home by 5 pm, at which point I washed my clothes (by hand! but pleasantly, a very fun experience :) ), had noodles with the Fijian girl and grilled cheese with Dana. And now, just finished my Bislama homework and was about to go to bed before which I wanted to write you guys an email and let you know that I am doing VERY fine alhamdulillah!!!

I can't begin to express how beautiful it is here, neither can I explain how nice and helpful the people are. you always hear that/ read that in travelouges and seems like a very cliche like thing to say, but really, the experience has been dreamy so far. This email has been pretty superficial / boring as I simply re-told the day's events, but Inshallah, in a week or two, will write something a bit more related to and expressive of the country I am in, of the people, of the current conditions and battles faced by the locals, and so on.

CUSO is giving me $1134 / mnth for living expenses. This monthly amount is seperate from our free boarding + utilities @ the Minister's guesthouse! There is really amazing, freshly-cooked meal sold in the market on a daily basis for only $2.50 for this REALLY big serving of rice with vegetables (or chicken / beef for non-vegeterians). The house is CRAZY safe; they have a night-guard on duty and four-dogs; ANDD I lock all three doors in my apartment. This, and the fact that people are VERRYYY nice here, only furthers makes me feel even safer than I sometimes feel in Canada. (yes mama, I will still take precautions though :P!). Travelling with Dana has been REALLY great; she's a VERY nice person and luckily we get along exceptionally well (she's sweet; anybody could get along with her!). As I mentioned earlier, the buses take you anywhere (i.e. drop you off infront of your house etc.) for only $1/one way. So getting around is no trouble @ all. It's pretty hot here (not as close to Pakistan, but a little bit more compared to Canada) and I've figured out the key to fighting this battle: SKIRTS :P! Really, I should've bought more skirts and only one pair of pants (instead of 7!!!) as there is no way a person can wear pants in this weather (besides, it is not culturally acceptable for women to wear trousers, esp. in the government work place). I just have to make sure that I go buy some cheap skirts in the next few days, because I don't know how long I can wear the same 4. The Kurtas get smelly after only half a day so I end up washing them as soon as I come home (more like, soaking them for the night and rinsing them / hanging them to dry before I leave in the morning). The only glitch in this entire expeirence so far has been this: my CD drive for the laptop is not working :( So, even though I have about 20 CDs with stuff on them, I can't use them at all as the CD drive can not open /detect them. I'm stupid; I should've checked before coming *DOH* Also, the sound driver isn't installed so I can't play any songs on the laptop; again something that I should have checked before coming but was stupid enough not to. This seems like a VERY easy problem to solve as I can install a driver from the net, only problem though is that the internet is very unreliable here a and it charges about $1 for every MB downloaded off the net.

I went around town to check if I could buy an external CD drive for my laptop but neither of the 2 computer shops in town carry that stuff (they've ordered it and should get some in stock sometime before Christmas I think). I'm pretty sure I can survive until then as I have tonnes of stuff to read thanks to the CUSO lending library, my study stuff for the 2 courses I'm sitll taking, the Seerah book + Quran and Dana, who bought about 10 - 15 books with her (and was STILL waayyy under the weight limit!!!). If all fails, there is the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and the Vanuatu Public Library in town; also there's Alliance Francais where I can take french classes if time permits. All that, and the fact that I REALLY want to get to know the locals here.. so all in all, the lack of a CD drive isn't really a roadblock in the way; more like a way to make sure that I don't remain in my own little world the entire time! :P

I'm sure I'm forgetting to tell you tonnes and tonnes. I've been writing a journal, albeit in point form and Inshallah, at one point, will type all that in paragraph format and email to you. But for now, I should get going as it is 10 pm already and I need to be up by 7 am).

As promised, I will inshallah try to make sure that I email you updates every week or 2 (seems like Saturdays might be easiest day to go to town to use the Internet Cafe). Please do not worry about me; this placement has truly been a blessing so far and inshallah things are going to go on like this. Please take care of yourself and make dua that I am able to make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Miss you like crazy and wish you were here! :(

Take care, W'salam, Fati *hugs and kisses* :)

posted by faa-T @ 7:02 PM