Vanuatu

Observations (2)

Some things that I might have typed up during the very beginning of my placement... apologies if this information has already been posted somewhere on this blog before...

• houses are called "sleeping houses" as people spend most of their time outside, and only use the houses for the purpose of sleeping. For that very reason, there is not much furniture inside these houses.
• everybody here is from an island; family dictates how you act to each other
• how corrupt politicians stay in power <-- through helping relatives when in need, and then asking them for the favor back
• impossible to avoid eye contact
• hard water!! <-- everything becomes STIFF
• se - beliefs etc.
• you address somebody's wife as: woman blo NAME (woman OF name) .. side note: man blo NAME exists as well
• very small town: everbody knows who's going out with whom
• people WANT to go to school, there is just no money! This, as opposed to the sometimes this feeling of “we HAVE to go to school” that we come across, especially while attending (free) public high school
• police is not trusted legal force, because the call of relations + communal living is too overpowering. judges are not trusted either. instead, chiefs are chosen source of arbitration
• custom is based on compromise -- create a win-win sitaution rather than the western-traditional win-lose arrangement
• kava was not mass-consumed before independence. it was the locals who decided to make it commercial, and to quite a large extent, it helps to cut down crime in the city. women might disagree since men don't do anything after kava
• as expected, women had to take up both the traditionally-female and currently-female roles, but nothing changes about men's performance: so women keep getting worked harded and harder, and men, softer and softer
• melansia: only three countries where the natives still control the indigenious land. That also explains the "zero poverty, homelessness, hunger" idea
• 1000 languages within this area <-- most linguistically diverse in the world
• land ownership is still communal, but the leases are 75 years and have a "roll-over" policy. so if you fail to realize that you need to petition for yhour land, you lose it for another 75 years = 2 or 3 generations. This also means that the locals no longer have any relationship with the land
• there are STILL places being colonized: new caledonia by france; west papua by indonesia
• vanuatu is non-aligned; struggle to mantain this position is really hard. Mel-Trust is an organization that works towards this
• Vanuatu is one of the only 3 (or 4) countries in the UN that still supports the de-colonization and independence struggles of west papua
• melanesia, polensia and micronesia (the latter two) are major attraction spots for US naval bases. So there is a current movement towards de-militrization. With the new terrorism scare, a lot of old, isolated bases are starting to open up again
• you don't disagree with somebody, without being offensive. Therefore, people will "disagree" but never vote against somebody's proposed ammendment during parliament sittings
• big division of sexes - men interact with men and women, with women. But how do you keep this balance when men are constantly asking you about your hijab.. also, how do you deal with the whole "don't walk alone with men" if you see somebody on the street (chances of which are VERY high!)
• sand drawings are pictures of stories.. so stories about heroism, love, unity, marriage, and life in general. Holding hands has a BIG significance in melanesian-fable. I would love to go to a story-telling festival of sorts!
• avg earning: $50/wk.. so $200 - $250 / mnth!!!
• people are very happy with their state: they don't want to be like the "white man", and they realize the true importance of what they've got.
• food is completely organic and the amount of energy put into creating food from purely natural form makes sure that girls who are barely 6 have more arm muscles than I do (and I've been trying to work out for god knows how long!)
• people at one point used to drive on both sides of the street, when the entire french vs. british thing hadn't been ironed out. This dispute was literally settled by saying: “ok, we will follow whatever the next truck does!” The next vehicle to enter was driven by a British national, so now everybody drives on the right.
• architecture = tin houses. extremely modest, btu that doesnt matter since they sepnd most of the day outside anyways.
• people dont own too many clothes; very common to see people waering clothes with holes in them. really nice to be aroudn this lack of superficiality.
• it's amazing: you see the same people around
• business owners made people work on Christmas, and the sucky part is that there are no labour laws to protect these workers. so, they have to work on a public holiday on normal (non-enhanced pay) and if they don't show up, than they get sacked!
• arite with the fact that no matter how long somebody has been living here, he is still referred to as "chinense" or "white" rather than ni-van or local
• copies of biblical stories were present in myths of islands before the missionaries came.
• PeaceCorps get paid almost NOTHING while here but then get 6000 once they return + first dibs on any government job

posted by faa-T @ 3:06 AM