Alex and I are proud to announce we survived peace corps pre-service training. Survive being the key word...it was a lot of work, they had us doing presentations in a foreign language to people in the village on week 3. I certainly had some unrealistic expectations of what training would look like, it was a lot messier than I had envisioned. Alex spent a few days convinced she was going to get fired because her test scores weren't high enough (and their were plenty of test to worry about). In the end, everyone who wanted was sworn in as a peace corps volunteer this past thursday. Three people from our training class have returned to america already, all for personal reasons.
We ate a lot of rice and white bread and canned fish, but also some fantastic tropical fruits, fresh fish (including a curried shark one night that was just incredible) and plenty of root vegetables.
The tsunami warning was something else, the whole village - and neighboring villages - all headed into the bush and on top of a hill as a precaution. Some folks brought supplies to survive (suppose the tsunami did come), which really made us think.
Bislama blong Alex mo mi i stret. Tija blong mifala emi talem mifala "Bislama blong yu emi namba wan". Mifala ting se emi no gud tumas, be i stret. It's a hard language to express yourself, as it is meant to be simple, there are no words for wonderful or pretty or incredible or awful or terrible or advanced or such, there's only good and no good. Alex and I were both graded as advanced speakers, but were not as optimistic about our language skills.
We been assigned to the island of Pentecost and will be heading there in a few days. We will be in a village of 600, on the northern part of the west coast of the island. Alex will be working with the health dispensary in the village and I will be doing whatever the village wants me to do. Sadly we will not have internet access - if somebody would be willing to receive letters from us and post them on this blog, we would be so grateful...
We've got to go now, but we plan on posting more before we leave for Pentecost.
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3 comments:
I'm so excited for your new adventure. Can't wait to see pictures of Lucas wearing the local fashions!;) I will try to finish up my box soon. Lots of love! ~Alina
Will we get an address for you? Bamma and I are still hoping the cost of flights to Vanuatu go down so we can come visit in March-ish. Would it be possible? Is there no internet on Pentecost Island at all? I have so many questions for you guys! Congrats on becoming a PCV!!!!
mi laekem foto blo yutufala tumas! mi hop se Pentecost i bin gud tumas. Bae mi jus storian wetem yutufala lo wik ia!!
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