Vanuatu

Log - January

- thursday, jan 4th -- FINALLY BACK IN VILA!! Back to running water, running electricty, non-island-style toilets and fans! Never have I craved brownies so much, never have I ever wanted to drink coffee so badly! :P I don't think the village experience could've gone ANY better, but that one week was more than enough to serve as a rude reminder that I'm too used to the common luxuries of city life. And as much as we want to romanticize the notion of simple life, I can see why so many of the youth bow down the pressure and convenience of moving to urban settings.

- friday, jan 5th --

- saturday, jan 6th -- The other night we were having a movie night at another volunteer's house, where, sitting around on the dinner table, we were doing a head-count of where everybody is from. So, a French volunteer is pointing at everybody and saying what country eveyrbody is from and points to me and says, "where are you from"
me: Canada
French volunteer: oh? *suspiciously trying to figure out if I'm trying to get away with a white-lie or cracking a joke*
me: silent, getting really annoyed, but also enjoying how awkward it is for all the other volunteers.. after a 2 second lapse, I raise my eyebrows as to further drill in the fact that I was neither lying nor trying to be funny
French volunteer: *pauses* for another 1 second... oh okay. well, you're from Australia (pointing at the next person on the table!)

Again, I'd be a bit more patient if it were somebody who lives in country with a small immigrant population, but for God's sake, Muslims make up the second-biggest religion group in France!! Why in the world than does it come as a shocker that I could be from some non-Arab or non-Muslim country!

- sunday, jan 7th --

- monday, jan 8th -- work is finally happening; i've got people coming into classes and the accoutnatn got laid off or his contract finished, so I can finally start putting internet access on all of the 7 computers in the building! :) worked on resume with dana yesterday (cut it down an entire page from 6 to 5 pages :P!) and was supposed to finish editing the thing so that we could work on it together on tuesday, but instead, ended up reading Chocolat. This brings my book score to a whopping total of 9!!! This almost makes it equal to 1 book for each week. Now for the book worms reading this, it might not be much keeping in mind that I'm not in school and only working 9 - 5ish everyday. But, I'd like to remind you at this point that this is coming from a person who can quite unashamedly claim to not have read ANY complete books for the past 2 years (MINIMUM!). What's even more astonishing is that this record also includes course books that I was supposed to have read cover-to-cover biut never did, with much gratitude to pinkmonkey.com and other such "help" sites :P

- tuesday, jan 9th -- sick, again! i seriously need to build up my immune system because it is definately no-fun getting sick at least twice (if not more) during every season. important to note that the frequency of me catching a cold or flu is the same back in Canada, so definately not the place or geography that is causing it. Anyway, reached work @ 8:30 (work starts @ 7:30!) and was out of there by 10:30 because flu was too strong and I couldn't stand up any longer. (talk about being dedicated to work, lol!) lay around from 11 am until 5 pm and then met dana for dinner. went to a french place for dinner and they overcharged us by 200 vatu but neitehr of said anything (wimps? no! just simply scared to make fools of ourselves by trying to explain the entire miscalculation in french :P). i think I'm finally starting to get into tea, since, for the first time in my life, I actually enjoyed drinking tea. In all fairness, this was a puny, no-strength, fruit-flavored herbal tea but I can still claim that at one point in my life, I actually enjoyed drinking the atrocity that is called tea :P!

- thursday, jan 11th -- met dana for dinner so that she could help me with resume. the cyber cafe kitchen closes @ 6 pm but hteir open until 7:30 pm; we sat around for a bit but they didn't come to tell us taht we were just wasting our time. Than, walked down to one of the chinese stores for "kakae" and ate some chicken-y stuff in super-warm waether. took a bus back to the house and worked on my resume till 10 pm. could tell that being tired/sleepy was making dana less patient: wonder how many less fights/problems/etc we would have if everybody slept 9 hours a night back in North America.

- friday, jan 12th -- went to CUSO office after work to discuss position details with particia, the original WDO. did that till 5:15ish and then wanted ot use the computer to check my email etc. *record "you aren't going to meet people" coversation with Willy* Also, 99% of the other volunteers are white, and if that isn't enough to make one feel like an outsider, it's the fact that I am *not* well-versed at all about Australian pop/mainstream culture! Anyway, walked back home to "no freinds" and slept because I just wanted to do my own thang.

- saturday, jan 13th -- went to swim in solwata with eratap family. hard to catch a bus, and when moses dropped us off home, he dropped us off @ erakor village instead of eratap village. anyway, got there @ 10:30 when we were supposed to get there @ 9:30. stayed till about 2:30ish (long walk to the beach, a good 30 - 40 minutes I think) and then the village bus dropped us back home. dana was supposed to come over but she didn't; stayed @ home from 4 - night time and cooked myself a macroni + carrot + canned meat dinner. moses called around 6ish and wanted to come over with dinner: how do you tell somebody to not pursue/woo you? argh! spent entire evening thinking about it, and hate that when something is worrisome enough to preoccupy me and stop me from enjoying myself!

- sunday, jan 14th -- woke up super early again and started working on resume, work eamils and applications. rafia and khadijah from mele village were supposed to come over but they called around 10 to let me knwo that they weren't coming. so, instead, i called nigerian lady and told her I'd be coming around 4ish. Was thinking of going to bon marche around 1ish when the neighbours (or the landlord's borhters) called me out to eat with them. "bodwon" is made up of island cabbage, fish, coconut milk and two other kinds of leaves cooked in the stone-fire-thing. REALLY filling (couldn't breathe after!) and I ate a fish eye-ball for the first time. nigerian lady is going to get a little bit getting used to: has been living in this country for 10 years and *still* does not know bislama. *record kava("esp. ladies") + meat conversation*. just a bit frustrated as I haven't ahd to deal with this kind of htought-process for a VERY long time. She dropped me off home around 6ish and Dana called around maghrib time (6:30ish) about a movie playing at the nambawan cafe. WEnt to watch the first half of 2nd of pirates of carribean but, by 9pm, was too tired and ended up leaving before the movie ended.

- monday, jan 15th -- this week has been a blur!

- tuesday, jan 16th -- ??

- saturday, jan 20th -- I think I'm going crazy! I made sure to bring plenty-stuff wtih me to do, enough books to read, and an overwhelming list of personal-"fix me"-projects (e.g. learn how to play the harmonica, learn how to cook, learn how to sketch, learn how to sew, and the list goes on...) but every weekend I can't wait to get out of this country. And then the work week begins, and I'm forced to completley change my mind once again. It's not that there isn't much to do; there's tonnes of other volunteers in town (Australian primarliy, but PeaceCorps, VSOs, and so on). There's also the super-gorgeous beaches that are truly nothing short of a miracle. But it's especially hard to make sense of my purpose here when I know I'm away from family, and when I know this is no-where close to the conflict/human-rights/poverty related stuff I ideally would like to be doing. Oh, don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining. Things have been nothing short of perfect here: more than enough to eat, a VERY good space to sleep/live in, patient locals who are willing to chat it up with you, plenty other expats incase of times when you get homesick, all that good stuff. But the very fact that there are not too many grave human rights violations taking place and that this volunteer placement is more of a vacation than a test nullifies the sense of being here; I'm sure there are a gazillion other places in this world where the Canadian government would be better suited to spend their money.

Anyway, finally, around 4 pm, there was somethign to do: WATCH A MOVIE! Ah, how original. But desperate times ask for desperate measures, and weekends DEFINATELY fit that category. So, I spent the rest of the evening re-watching movies that I've already watched and didn't enjoy too much in the first place anyways: My Best Friend's Wedding and Mona Lisa Smile. It was specifically thrown as a girl-only-night so it was pretty fun in that sense, just getting to know the girls (not that the boy-volunteer cause much of an issue when they're around.)

- sunday, jan 21st -- sketched for the first time. Hard to realize that all this free time and lack of social activity are a blessing. Rather than wasting it away doing meaningless stuff, I should really be using this time to finish the gazillion self-improvement projects I have always wanted to udnertake (e.g. learn how to play an instrument, learn how to draw/sketch/pain/anything else artistic, learn how to cook, learn about Christianity and Judaism, finish the tafseer/seerah, read viciously). Also, was invited to go to Brakas; it's hilarious because one of the only few times I have felt unwelcome here is when I had to go resorts or other expat-dominated areas.

- monday, jan 22nd -- Seems like everybody has gone on vacation after the very-strenous corporate-plan-launch weekend. Shouldn't be complaining as I allows me to do planning for the next three months and to see if I can fit in field visits during my next few months here. I'm still waiting to hear back from Catherine, the CUSO country director, on whether or not my contract here can get extended for a month or two.

- wednesday, jan 24th -- finally spoke with Patty and have the feeling that my contract will get extended by a month or two more; not to great because it means that I'll have to miss the summer-term of school (I can just imagine how my mom would react to that news!)

- friday, jan 26th -- friday beer @ CUSO office; hard to figure out things, such as the fact taht we are supposed to bring our own drinks for the friday beer (who would've known!). Then, went out ot dinner @ chinese restuarant and had a really great frish fish with sweet corn sauce dish with rice. The portions were huge!

- saturday, jan 27th -- Went to Secret Gardens. SO MUCH FUN! :) Learning how to sketch finally, really great! Also, I think I'm finally beginning to realize the humangos taste (and nutrition) difference between pre-packaged vs. fresh food. Woke up to see two cockroaches crawling up my legs, which is alright, just freaky. Everytime I start to think I'm "okay" with insects, I get freaky over some new crawler/creeper. But lesson of the day: Cockroaches can, and DO, bite!

- sunday, jan 28th -- Going to Hide-Away Island with bunch of aussie volunteers. things are finally starting to fare better;

- monday, jan 29th -- bllurrr!

- tuesday, jan 30th -- went for dinner @ danas place and played da vinci code with her roomies. So, doing engineering for two years and then flunking out in the end wasn't completely wasteful.

- wednesday, jan 31st -- movie: Lock Stock and Barrle. Thanks to my bro, I've watched it 4+ times already. Got my contract extension to stay here until end of June, but if I want, I could possibly extend it two more months after that as well.

posted by faa-T @ 5:24 PM