New Volunteers...This one is for you!

Alex and I received word from Peace Corps in early July of last year that we would be coming to Vanuatu. Shortly thereafter, one of our favorite pastimes became surfing the internet and reading about Vanuatu. One of the most valuable resources we found for forming our vision of the next two years was to read blogs of volunteers who were currently serving in Vanuatu. But instead of blindly reading through entry after entry to find applicable insights, it would have been nice if we could have found one entry that tried to summarize 9 months and 2 days of what it's like for Peace Corps Volunteers in Vanuatu.

So here's hoping some new volunteer somehow stumbles upon this entry and appreciates it.

Introduction

We like Vanuatu. We like our placement. We sometimes like to imagine ourselves in placements in other countries and how different our lives would be, we're convinced every placement has its good and bad. We have not spent a lot of time in rural villages all over the developing world but some of the things that seem exceptionally good about this placement include: tropical fruit, almost zero hunger and homelessness, clean water, no AIDS epidemic (that anyone is aware of as of yet), it's beautiful and there's a pretty good chance you'll be able to go to the beach everyday.

Some days we like to imagine volunteers in Latin America eating tamales everyday so we can be insanely jealous, but when we're honest with ourselves we admit that they are probably eating a lot of manioc (cassava) too. Village life is hard, harder than I expected, it's the social part that is hard, people here can be really bossy and it's hard to say no. Well, it's easy to say 'no', it's just that they ignore that you've said no. But again, like the manioc, I suspect volunteers all of the world are being told where to sit and how to do the most basic of human tasks.

To get to our site we take a small plane (expensive) and then a 20-minute walk to the ocean and then an hour boat ride (which isn't cheap either) and then another walk uphill to our house. The other option is a 28-hour cargo ship ride. There is one truck in our district, but it can't get to our village if the river is high or the roads are too wet. We are certainly no where near the most remotest of placements. Many of our friends are the only volunteer on their island. The northern-most province has two volunteers in the entire province.

Packing

Many volunteers have access to electricity. Those that don't are often at more remote sites and will be given a solar system by Peace Corps to charge either a HF radio or satellite phone. We would totally recommend bringing a computer, digital camera, MP3 player and re-chargeable batteries. Cell phones are pretty popular in Vanuatu, all volunteers are issued a phone and most volunteers have coverage or can find coverage near their site. Most villages seem to have a few people that charge phones for everyone in the village, ensuring there is probably almost always a way to get electronics charged.

You (most though not everyone) will be washing all your clothes by hand and wringing them out by hand. There is value in clothes that are easy to wring out and hide stains well. Alex suggest bringing skirts that you would go hiking in - below the knee but not to the ankle and stretchy. Alex and I and many other volunteers spent plenty of time searching out the perfect pair sandals for Vanuatu. We now all wear $3 sandals from the local shop. Buy some cheap sandals in America and get your feet used to wearing cheap sandals. Umbrellas are more common and more appropriate for the weather than rain coats. Books circulate among volunteers during service, please bring books to read and then add to the circulation. And tell you family to send the occasional best-seller. We had read about how much Ni-vans like looking at pictures, but it's incredible. I would bring pictures of friends and family but pictures of a particular facets of our culture too, I doubt there is a better way to start a conversation in this culture (i.e. pictures of NYC lights, amish at work, space station, strip mining, cowboy hats, Ronald McDonald, state fair, amber waves of grain, rednecks, interstate highway, sports arena, Las Vegas, etc.). I think one of the best gifts are Obama t-shirts, or if it's your style - a "Drill baby drill" t-shirt. Bring snorkeling gear from America. The Peace Corps-issued first-aid kit is more than sufficient, comes with bug dope and sunscreen. We chose not to, but wish we would have brought much of our camping gear. I often wear a long-sleeve shirt to stay warm, my wife doesn't and laughs at me, but I'm glad I have it. Cheap calculators are not expensive in country. Nice guitars are available in country.

Things we are most glad we brought - world maps, long-sleeve shirt, I-pod, Computer, Dr. Bronner's, books, spices (as we weren't able to get to a proper grocery store until after we'd been in country for like 6 weeks), pictures of our family, Alex is happy she brought shorts to wear underneath her skirts, sarongs, a bottle of Advil to use until we were issued our medical kit, Uno cards, high-end bed sheet, pens and paper, rechargeable batteries and charger, digital camera, Leatherman, good snorkeling gear with reef shoes

Things that we could have left behind - tennis shoes, ankle-length skirts, long-sleeve dress shirt and matching tie, $70 sandals

Things we wish we would have brought - our tent and camping gear including our backpacking cooking set, more pictures, yoga mats, encyclopedia on CD, Obama t-shirts for gifts

At the end of the day, most all things are available -in one form or another- in-country, and Peace Corps gives you enough money. So don't sweat it too much. Bring your electronics and some comfortable things to help you get settled in.


Pre-Service Training

Pre-service training is a train wreck. It always has been and always will be - everywhere in the world. People freak out and then other people freak out because their friends are freaking out. People freak out because they think PST should be better, and because they are stressed and because life is harder now because it's different. People look for who to blame and often they blame the PST facilitators. It's really sad and annoying and human all at the same time. My advice - know that it's going to be a train wreck and regularly remind yourself that you knew it was going to be a train wreck. Put your energy into your Bislama skills and making friends. It's the process that teaches and PST is an important but small part of the process.

Life on the Island

There's volunteers on many different islands, and we are told that the islands are all significantly different. Certainly individual experiences of volunteers are drastically different. Our friend just a few hours to the north of us has regular access to bread and frozen meat and alcohol, some island friends have access to ice cream. A few friends assigned to schools or in high-population areas have access to internet, while another friend has to walk hours to find cell phone coverage. We eat lots of taro and no peanuts, another friend eat lots of peanuts and no taro. Some of our friends live with rats in their house, we don't. You get the idea. There are plenty of similarities between sights too. We all get bossed around a lot and told what to do. We are asked to justify our actions when we do something other's do not agree we should be doing. Our desire and need for independence (as Americans) is often more significant than we were aware of. We are regularly expected to eat food we would rather not eat. Our ability to sit with awkwardness has increased significantly. I suspect we all have access to rice and canned meat and peanut butter. We walk a lot and sit with awkwardness daily and wish we knew the appropriate thing to say more often.

Living in a completely different world doesn't change a person's core. The overachievers in America are overachievers here and the underachievers are still doing whatever it is they do. Drunks are still drunks and the anxious find plenty to worry about.

We have plenty of good food to eat, we bathe daily, recharge our electronics daily, our bed sheets are clean, we are busy with projects, find time to read and we are healthy and happy. Very happy most of the time!