Hello World

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Hello World.

After six months at site, I've been called back to the capital. Airplanes only come to the Laman Bay Airport on Epi twice a week so while I had to get here yesterday afternoon, I have a couple days to rest before our little conference begins. That means there is time to see the other volunteers trickle into the motel. It turns out that most if not all of them have been back to Port Vila since my last trip in February. Some make the trip regularly. So, I get the privilege of being a rather exotic item, the possibly crazy volunteer who disappeared into the bush.

The kava bars, restaurants, and especially the grocery stores all seem tempting, but I fell “funny” in Port Vila. After just a day in “town”, I already feel used to taking showers and having electric lights, but I'm frustrated at having to pay so much money for everything. Indeed, paying money at all is a little different. More than the money though is the anonymity. Since arriving at site last November, I've been a very different, colorful fish in a very small pond. It's gotten so that I now have to travel a few villages away to meet a stranger and even then they aren't a stranger for long. With only a few thousand people on the island, word gets out about the visiting white man fairly quickly and there's little fear in asking me just who the heck I am and what I'm doing.

There will be time enough to get reacquainted with being treated like a stranger, a customer, or someone just not worth talking to. There was time this morning to have a cup of tea, some bread with marmalade, and get good and clean. It's time to let my family and friends in America know just what I've been up to.

Firstly, I'm well. Little sicknesses come and go and there are work and personal frustrations, but I'm finding that the things that really bug me in Vanuatu are generally to be found in North Dakota or Wahington, DC as well. Generally, physically, emotionally, and mentally, I'm fine. With that out of the way, though, I'm not sure what else to say. Over the next few days in the capital, I'll try to write a little every day. About what, I'm not sure yet. If there's anything you'd like to know, please ask.

Before getting into all that, though, I would like to thank those of you who have written to me over the past year. I've enjoyed writing back to you almost as much as reading your letters. Through my friends and family I've been kept abreast of happenings in the world and I've received pictures and stories to share in the village that make me seem a little more human and less like some alien fallen from the sky. And I've been able to know a little bit about what you are all up to, whether it's what you feel about a book store closing, who's writing a new baseball web-log, who got or is getting married, or what you had for lunch. It's more interesting that you may suspect and it is greatly appreciated.

As far as I know I've written back to everyone who has sent a letter. Sorry to the rest of you, but I don't have your address. You'll have to satisfy you interest for all news Daniel through this log for the next few days.


-- Daniel --