Dirty Laundry and other jibberish.

Question and Answer Session

Hallelujah! Nik and I finally have our solar setup complete after about 6 months of being at site.

What does this mean, Jennifer?

Well, Jennifer, it means I have a giant solar panel on the top of my kustom kitchen house, attached to a regulator and a car battery. Peace Corps provided this to us so that we can charge our satellite phone regularly and have a form of communication in case of emergency.

 

What else can you do with it?

Having a solar power also means we can charge other electronics, using an inverter my dad bought and mailed me from the good ole U.S. of A. With the inverter I can charge my laptop and iPod regularly and watch videos (although my external hard drive mysteriously stopped working and only blinks lights at the moment). And, almost most importantly I can type BLOGS. J

 

What music have you been listening to on your iPod?

Having music suddenly accessible to me all the time is weird, as I have grown accustomed to sitting in the not-so-silent island silence all the time (the waterfall behind my house provides constant white noise, on top of roosters and birds). I find myself avoiding a lot of favorite music that conjures up too many homesickly feelings and listening to a whole lot of Kanye West, Townes Van Zandt, DOUG RADER (thank you for the CD, yer a talented fish) and currently Gypsy Kings. Oh, and Vanuatu String Band of course.

 

Do you miss the internet or having phone service?

I have been at site going on 7 months and I must say that other than not being able to call my family and other volunteers occasionally, I do not mind not having constant phone service. The hour and a half walk up the bigfalla hill gives me a reason to partake in vigorous once-monthly exercise, but I kind of like being completely isolated from the outside world though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get lonely (see next question). I’m Miss. Zen in my self-enlightened bubble. I also can’t say that I miss the distractions of things like, oh, Facebook. In fact, I am thrilled that for once I have more of a desire to sit with my nose buried in a book rather than perusing other people’s lives online. Sure, I admit it, I feel that Facebook is a form of punishment for ‘failed’ relationships, and a part of me simply wants to avoid a seeing a certain bearded boy’s going-ons, as he could very well be engaged and have babies on the way at this point. It’s really surreal dropping in to the world of my friends and seeing them all with new jobs, fiancés, and babies. Or finding out about deaths or friends who are now in jail or something similar. It’s amazing how much can change after just a few months of being away. What? Bin Laden is dead? Teachers are being cut left and right in Texas? It’s a lot to process coming from a place where the “Big news” is this month’s arrival of a cargo ship, or the fact that pastor’s store has chocolate milk boxes (which Nik and I promptly buy him out of).

 

 

 

How are you doing, Jennifer?

Well Jennifer, I had a tough month or so when I was dealing with some boy issues half a world away. Finding out you are no longer the fruit in someone’s jam or the taro in their LapLap just sucks. But I am remaining self-confident and motivated despite at times being lonely in ways unimaginable. Lack of phone, computer, English-speaking friends and confidants, and now a boyfriend will do that to ya. I feel a bit embarrassed airing my semi-molded laundry for you, but I cannot honestly chronicle my Peace Corps experience without including this major kick to the gut. And I know that by the time this gets posted this will be semi-old news, but that is the way of island life.

So yeah, despite having to watch life move on and on and on without me Stateside (and finding out about it all extremely late), I’m totally happy here and loving Maewo! After all, this whole “saving the world” thing is something I’ve been waiting YEARS to come do. And now I’m doing it. Not only that,

I am in a beautiful location full of beautiful people and have enormous amounts of time not only to complete my job but to devote to reading and to making myself a better person. I am dealing with lack of electricity, lack of running water (and often lack of working water system), and living in one of the most remote and “bush” sites in Vanuatu. Every day and every month that goes by I learn a little more about myself as well as what I am capable of dealing with. Having so much time alone with my thoughts can be both a blessing and a curse at times, but I’m realizing that I am now able to turn sometimes negative, self-destructive thoughts in to productive, happy ones. My patience and tolerance alone have grown like lil’ weeds since being at site.

 

What are some of the daily challenges you face?

1. Matches get damp and refuse to light. I go through an obscene amount of matches
2. The school water tube sometimes doesn’t run. So I have to walk to the house medicine or to Mama Mays house
3. Pigs are not all fastened with a rope like they should be and they come into my yard and dig up the grass and make a mess
4. Ant colonies with eggs moving in under my wood piles and mats. If I drop ANY food in my kitchen house there will be a colony of ants within 5 minutes- crawling up my legs and making for an impromptu kitchen dance party
5. A hole in my roof that drips down on to my mats in my sleeping house when it rains
6. Having to walk 1.5 hour (one way) to talk on the phone
7. Mail takes over 2 months on average to get to Vanuatu. It then takes an additional 1-2 months to make it to my site. I have to wait on my papa or sister or a generous villager to carry it for me.
8. This morning (May 16) I sat on fresh chicken shit when I sat down to drink my coffee
9. I am damp and sweating ALL of the time.  My shirts that I wear the most have specks of mold and I’m not sure how to get rid of it.  I’ve developed a habit of wiping my chin/face on the shoulder of my sleeve when it has sweat (or food) on it.

10. This month we’ve had rain every single day. I don’t mind the rain and the grayness so much. What I mind is that the paths get trashed and you are forced to walk through mud and small rivers to get anywhere. And the mosquitoes are horrendous. I keep mosquito coils lit constantly and try to roll on mosquito repellant all the time. But my legs sometimes develop allergic reactions to the roll-on and I have itchy red streaks running up my legs and arms. Awesome.

11. My yard is completely “bush” and overgrown right now. I get out and hack at it once or twice a week with my bush knife, which also serves as fantastic anger management, but that’s not nearly enough to keep up with the grass growth.