Training in Takara

My room.

The coconut trees at the edge of the yard at the Faratia household.

My daily commute to town takes me through the dry, flat grassland of the "American Airport." I live part way up the hill on the left.

Good Morning,

It is 9:30 in the morning and I am sitting in a French cafe by the bay watching the yacths sail through the bay by Port Villa. There's an Australian crusie ship here today so Villa town has s few red-lanyered tourists milling about. I have a short amount of internet time so excuse me if this is messy. Also, I'm probably going to stick to facts for now (where I am, what I do...). The gushing about how nice everything is will come later.

After a week at the IDS camp in Pango near Port Villa, the 41 Peace Corps Trainees of Group 23 were wisked away to five seperate villages in North Efate. I am staying in Takara B while the rest are in Takara A, Epau, Paunangisu, and Ekipe. There are five of us in Takara B which is the smallest of the villages. It is probably also the most remote. Last year, Efate island completed the Ring Road which runs all the way around the island. If Port Villa, the capital and urban center of the island is the start and end of the ring, Takara B is the middle. There is a sign in town indicating the middle of the ring and telling passers by that the project was funded by the US Millenium Challenge Account. For what it's worth, the locals here are well aware of which projects where funded by what countries.

I live in a farmhouse uphill from Takara B in what even the villagers call "the bush". I was confused at first as they would often ask if I was going back "antap". "Antap" (on top) is the Bislama word for not only the top of something like a hill or table, but also more generally refers to uphill, inland, and sometimes up.

My host parents are Thomas and Fatima Faratia. Papa Thomas is 65 while Fatima is somewhat younger. Sometimes Anthony (13) is around, but usually he stays with his sister on the nearby island of Emau, where he goes to school. The people of Takara A and B orginally come from Emau, a smaller island visible from the northern tip of Efate. Takara A is a well established community while Takara B probably has only 80 people and still has a transient look to it. With the exception of my Papa's house, the rest of the homes in Takara look like they where recently built with whatever metal sheeting and wood was available and aren't meant to last.

This is partly because Takara B is actually a rather new settlement. So new that is is not even getting a proper name until this Saturday when it will be rechristened as Natakoma Komuniti. There's going to be a celebration coinciding with the opening of the new road-side market this weekend.

Each morning I wake up under my mosquito netting sometime between 4:30 and 5:30. That's when the sun comes up and the birds go crazy anyway, so there is not much chance of sleeping late. My host parents are often up a little earlier. In the morning gray, I wander over the "smol haos" for my morning "swim" or bracing bucket bath. Gently chilled, I breakfast with the parents and whatever children are visiting for heading "daon" to "taon" for class at 7:30 or 8:00. At the bottom of the hill, past Uncle Simon's homestead is the "Amerikan Aepot", a flat expanse of grass land that Americans denuded of tress and buldozed during the second World War to build an airstrip. Simon's house is built on a flat slab on concrete left by the Americans.

After the "airport" which the volunteers have named "the Serengeti" is the town proper, starting with the village nakamal and a church where we have class. Bislama is going fairly well, which is mostly due to how easy the language is for English speakers. We take occasional trips to the other villages for technical training with our program groups. I'm with business.

My pictures loaded so I'm going to post this while I can. More to come soon.