First Days in Vanuatu

I'm in Port Vila right now and have a few minutes to let you know what I've been doing over the past few days. In short, I'm doing very well. It's been rather difficult to load the images above, in part because of the slow internet connection. They may be a bit jumbled and out of order, but I don't have the time to slowly fix them. I'm also writing rather fast as I don't have much time to get everything out, so excuse me for rambling.

Friday, September 10, 2010

I spent Thursday evening and most of Friday with Peace Corps, Vanuatu training class 23. 41 of us met in Los Angeles for a day of orientation and getting to know each other. These are some of the best people I've ever met and I look forward to spending the next three months with them during training. It's not surprised that would-be Peace Corps volunteers are a very outgoing and engaging lot. The people I've met have been very open and shared some great stories. I can imagine quickly becoming friends with them.

We left America from LAX on Friday evening, bound for New Zealand, eager and ready.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Our flight across the Pacific took about eleven hours and it was night the entire time. Since we flew over the international dateline, we more of less skipped September 11, 2010. By the time we arrived in Aukland for our transfer, the group had spent a lot of time with each other, sometimes in rather close situations. Spirits were high and we all kept smiling despite a few logistical bumps.

We were greeted in Vanuatu by an enthusiastic line of current volunteers and Peace Corps Staff. I was given my first coconut to drink and a lot of hugs and handshakes. Some of the volunteers greeting us had even come from the other islands.

We loaded onto some mini-buses and were off on a quick tour of Port Vila. I'll say more about the town later, but I'll say now that it is a strange combination of expatriate wealth and the local, developing world.

We are staying at a an old mission campsite in the nearby village of Pongo. The 17 single men are grouped together in what we've come to call “the barn”, a tin roofed long house with wooden bunks. We were issued our Peace Corps bed mats, scratchy sheet and blanket, pillow, plastic bucket, and solar powered lamp, among other things. Since we were all pretty useless due to jet lag, we were given some free time to go run into the ocean at the beach across the road.

Here's a few firsts for me. It was not only my first time in the Pacific Ocean, but first time South of the Equator. I stepped among my first coral and saw my first vivid blue starfish. I picked and we ate a ripe papaya (“popo”). The site is surrounded by tropical vegetation including trees I've never seen except in pictures. That evening, I slept under my first mosquito netting.

Monday, September 13, 2010

After a deep, jet lag induced sleep, we awoke at 5:00am local time to the sound of someone from the settlement next to ours banging on a suspended, empty propane tank. I think they use it instead of a bell. The birds started singing a few minutes after and then the sun was up. Life starts early in Pongo village. We are lucky that the mission site has decent facilities including electricity in the evening until 9:30pm and cold, cold, cold showers in a concrete bathroom building. There are a few other tin long houses where we met the staff and began a series of lessons and lectures. All of the buildings are more or less open to the outside temperature and breezes. Fortunately, the temperature has ranged from a frigid 73 degrees and to a near apocalyptic 80 or so.

Bislama training began and we learned the basics of introducing ourselves and asking for people's names. We've been told, that unlike at other Peace Corps sites, we will learn the local language to an intermediate level rather than beginner level. That's because of the close connection between Bislama and English.

We aren't cooking for ourselves yet and are being fed by a group of local “mamas” as the women are known. For anyone wondering about the food, we are well taken care of, starting the day with good French bread with spreads as well as instant coffee, cocoa, and tea. Lunch included all food groups, but dairy and usually the ubiquitous rice and sweet potatoes. We've even had some delicious meat curries. Of course, there is also the fruit: fresh papaya, coconut, two kinds of grapefruit, finger bananas, and what I think is an actual Michel Gros. I look forward to cooking here.

In the evening, we were taken to the house of Eddie, the Peace Corps Country Director for Vanuatu. There, we were introduced to kava and had our first shell of it. It affected everyone differently, but basically us big guys didn't notice much of anything. Others said they felt mellow. We will probably encounter kava quite a bit in our assigned villages and knowing how to deal with it appropriately will help us go a long way toward integrating ourselves there. Also, it's supposed to be fun. If you're curious, it looks like muddy water or Slim Fast and tastes like grass clippings.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

We were given a lesson in Malaria this morning where we were taught how to avoid it, what our anti-malarial medicine regime is, how to spot symptoms, and how to test ourselves for it. To test ourselves, we were asked to stab a finger with a medical lancet and drop the blood onto an instant test kit and glass slides to send in. I found that either I have very thick skin, or I just don't bleed easily. This was followed by more Bislama training, where we went through some basic dialog.

It rained lightly off and on today, but no one seems to mind. In between classes, three of us asked some staff member to take get a little join us outside to find good coconuts. I can now identify a ripe coconut, knock it down, and hack it open with a machete before drinking the fluids. We were told that green coconut in particular is a great thing to take for dehydration, diarrhea, and pretty much everything where you would need liquids. My next goal is to climb one of the higher coconut trees to get one of the good looking ones just out of reach by the beach. So, how was your Tuesday?

I am currently sitting in the Peace Corps office waiting to meet with the health staff and get additional shots. Then, I'll meet with Eddie, the country director, and discuss what I would like to get out of my time of service.

More will come, when I'm able.

- - Daniel - -

I am committed

September 10, 2010

I am now a Peace Corps trainee. If all goes well, in about three months, I will be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

We are checking out of our rooms at the Radisson in Los Angeles after a morning of activities and will be leaving the country at 9:45 tonight. There's a 13 hour plane ride to Auckland followed by a short flight to Vanuatu.

We spent the morning reviewing what will be expected of us and what it means to be a volunteer. I am fully committed to this.

See you when I see you.

- - Daniel

A night in Los Angeles

September 9, 2010

Los Angeles is just like the stereotypes said it would be, full of palm trees, burger joints, and pavement. I'm writing this at 8:30pm Eastern Time which is well past my bedtime in Eastern Standard and I've had only a few hours sleep in the past day so while this entry may not be entirely lucid, know that for once, it was not intentional.

Flying from the East coast of the United States to the West in one day, during daylight gave me a chance to watch the whole country roll by before leaving it for two years. It was like living out a Bruce Springsteen song, seeing the green covered mountains of Virginia give way to hills then the ordered checkerboard of the mid-West followed by a steady browning of the terrain until the crop squares became circles and then dessert, plateau, mountains, and finally the urban sprawl of the Los Angeles valley.

I've packed up my life and am taking care of a few nagging details, surfing off of the LAX Radisson''s ubiquitous connectivity while I still can. To the extent that people are patterns, as Robert M. Pirsig might say, moving a person from one end of the world and one mode of living to another is like moving the center of a cobweb without breaking it. Many of the strands connecting the person to the world like bank accounts, credit cards, and cell phone plans can be stretched or cut and replaced. Physically moving a person is the easy part, while re-establishing new connections to allow you to go on living somewhere else is difficult and exhausting.

It turns out that my Dad and brother moved on the same day as me. Tommy has his own apartment in Minot now. Dad, as some you may now, hurt his leg about a week ago. He's home now in a cast and doing fine even if he's not terrifically mobile.

I've been in Los Angeles since 2:00pm Western Time. In that time, I've gotten to know several of my fellow Vanuatu volunteers. We range in age from the mid twenties to early sixties and come from all over America, each with a different background. There doesn't seem to be a "Peace Corps type person" except that they are all educated and American. Many of us have been having the same conversations over and again and the common themes are "I'm really excited", "I'm just now beginning to believe this is real", and "does anybody have any idea what we're doing?". For the many of you who kept asking what my last meal stateside would be, I still don't know, but some of these conversations took place at the local In And Out Burger over cheeseburgers and milkshakes. We're getting anything iced while we can. Also, the Chicago style hot dogs in during my stopover at O'Hare where spot on. Maybe tomorrow should feature a Denver omelet, New York cheesecake, Buffalo wings, and Memphis barbecue. Are you still humming the Springsteen song?

Registration took place today and tomorrow will be filled with orientation activities, ice breaker exercises, and the like. We fly from LAX at 9:30pm for Aukland, then to Port Vila, where we will hit the ground running with more training and a few days of activities before moving into the training villages.

Excuse me for not sharing more, but it's time for bed.

- - Daniel

Training Information, Mail Address

September 7, 2010

I have some more information to share about my first three months of training in Vanuatu. First, after a day of orientation in Los Angeles, my group of volunteers will fly from LAX on the morning of September 10 and arrive in Aukland at 5:25am on September 12 after flying over the international date line. Two hours later, we board an Air Vanuatu plane for a three hour flight to Port Vila, arriving at 9:25am local time. A letter from the Peace Corps gave me some some sense of what will happen next:

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"After we have loaded all your bags, you will be driven to your orientation accommodation approximately one half hour from the airport. We will drive through Port Vila for a short tour and then on to your first home away from home. Once we arrive, there will be a short briefing and lunch will be served. After lunch we will have a short “toktok” and a bit of “walk-around” money will be given. Once you have a bit of money in your pocket a representative of the Digicel Mobile Phone Company will be there to sell you Nokia phones at a special discounted rate. You don‟t have to buy one, but you will have the option. A brief talk on phone usage during PST will be given as well. After the phone talk we will hand out your basic Peace issue gear like mosquito net, foam pad, and bush lighting apparatus. The next morning your first real pre-service training session starts at 8:00 am. Your orientation accommodation is “no frills” and the food will be island style, so keep the expectations in check and be prepared to try some new foods. There will be plenty of local vegetables and tropical fruits available and you can‟t go wrong with that cuisine. You will be sharing a room with another trainee or a same sex dorm."

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Our orientation center will be at Pango, about 20 minutes away from Port Vila. There will no e-mail access at the orientation site or at the training village so I will be unable to provide updates except during some very brief stints in Port Vila. Snail Mail arrives at the training site once per week. My new mailing address is:

Daniel Gerszewski, PCV

Peace Corps

Private Mail Bag 9097

Port Vila, Vanuatu

Ph.# (678) 26-160

On September 17, I will move to one of five training sites on the coast of the island of Efate with about 6-10 trainees at each village. We will live with host families for the next six weeks. Again, the letter from the Peace Corps explains it better:

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"There will be formal language sessions, but a significant amount of your training will be with your village host family and as you “live” in the village. We will be promoting self-directed learning (SDL) in your PST, confident in you as adults, and given the opportunity, you will figure things out. You will be gathering with your small cluster group for language training each day and on occasion some small group activity work. There will be two training staff living in each of the villages. Again, we believe that the best learning comes from being allowed to figure things out in a safe and supportive environment. After a few weeks in the village, you will have a chance to visit a Volunteer at his or her site. This will give you an opportunity to see how a particular Volunteer has adjusted to life in a rural Vanuatu community.

Your training group is officially known as Group 23. You will be officially referred to as Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs), pending successful completion of your pre-service training. Your official swearing-in ceremony marks the status change from PCT to PCV. When you finish your service here in Vanuatu you will become an RPCV, retaining that title virtually forever."

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The training program schedule for the next two years looks like this:

Pre-Service Training (PST)

September 12 through November 4

Arrival Orientation (September 12-17)

Community-based Training plus Host Volunteer Visit (September 18-November 4)

Official Swearing-in Ceremony (November 4)

PST Phase II

January –March 2011

You will join the members of your class that are in the same project for two weeks of technical training.

Early Mid-Service In-Service Training (EMSIST)

July-August 2011

Like the Phase II training you will gather with your project comrades for technical training.

Year 2 Self-Directed In-Service Training (SeDIST)

January-March 2012

An opportunity to design and implement project and assignment specific in-service training.

Close of Service Conference (COS)

August/September 2012

A chance to assess your service and begin preparations for departure (unless you decide to extend and even then, this is your COS Conference.

- - Daniel

Yard Sale

Good Afternoon,

Here's more shameless commerce in preparation for leaving. I will be hosting a yard sale tomorrow morning from 9:00am to 1:00pm where I will be selling lots of kitchen supplies as well as clothes, books, paintings and decorations, and even some furniture among other things. While you might not be able to come to a sale like this with so little notice, please let me know if there is anything you need before making your next trip to Ikea or K-Mart. The kitchen items in particular might be of interest to some of you. I'm also selling a wooden dresser and a box spring and mattress.

Daniel