Monday, April 24, 2017

PAD Part 55 (Final Photo a Day Post!)

This is going to be my last update for my Photo a Day Project. Since I started it when I got to Ambae, it feels right to finish it now that I've moved out of the island and to the capital. I will keep updating this blog occasionally, but without the regularity of the past two years.
This project has been a pain in the butt at times, and I've missed and made up for more days than I'd like to admit, but I'm so glad to have these photos to look back on. I will update once more (probably tomorrow?) with a compilation video of the photos from the past year.
Living in Vanuatu has been a trip, and while I'm sad to have left my friends and family on Ambae, I'm looking forward to getting down to business with my new job in the Capital.
Here's to one more year!

Monday, March 27, 2017

PAD Part 53

Bianca showing off one of the songs she learned in kindy. She's grown so much! I'm going to miss this kid a lot...

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

PAD Part 51

The plaque they put up for the opening ceremony of the power system

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

The Place of Los and Vus and Nas

In the two years I've been on Ambae, I've traveled to a lot of different villages; for weddings, funerals, work trips, or just for fun.
I've compiled on this map a very rough estimate of all the places I've been to. The red line is where I've traveled on the main road (there's really only one road), the blue line, the parts of the main road I have not yet been down, and the green, the trek to Manaro.



You'd think that after living here for a while and going to so many places, I'd know the names of a lot of the villages, right? Well I do..kind of. Even with places I know well, I keep mixing up the names, mostly because so many of them are so similar!

Let's look at some examples of the los:
- Lolomaganda
- Lolowai
- Lolopuepue
- Lovunvili
- Lolovoli
- Lolovele
- Lolovenue
- Lolovange

And the vus:
- Vuimburuku
- Vuinago
- Vuingalato

And the nas:
- Navonda
- Nangire
- Nanigama

Confusing, right?

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

PAD Part 49

Caveat about this week's Photo a Day Project. I was sick for quite a few days, and decided that rather than taking more pictures of the inside of my house, I'd use some old pictures that I like that didn't get used in previous photo a days for various reasons.

Watching a movie with the fam

Bianca and friends

Supporting Nova halfway around the world!

My dad and some recruits working on building his bed

Sieving kava

Before it's sieved

The swing tree

Cutting the grass by my office

Thomas holding fish out the window to prevent fish juice from getting on the upholstery

Thanking important people at a wedding with mats and laplap

Avery and Kathleen outside of Avery's house

Kava being served from a truck at a soccer game

Road market. There's generally no one actually working these kind of stalls; people just trust that you'll leave the money for whatever you take

Enjoying a soccer game

An inland resevoir

Monday, January 16, 2017

PAD Part 48

How many people does it take to remove a splinter? This many, apparently!

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Aoba vs. Ambae

Hey all!
Apologies this post is coming late this week. I'm in the capital for our Close of Service (or Continuation of Service, in my case!) Conference this week, and have been a little busy. This time around I'm just going to leave you with a little anecdote.
If any of you have seen maps of Vanuatu, my island is marked by two different names; sometimes one, sometimes the other. These names are Aoba and Ambae. The story is that when white people came to Ambae, there was no common language. They tried to ask what the name of the island was, but when they pointed around, to try to show "here", they pointed at a bird. The local they were talking to, then told them "That's a bird", or "aoba". The explorers of course thought he was answering their question, and that's how the confusion arose!
So, Ambae is the real name of my island, but if you see Aoba on any map, just look it as a testament to the difficulties of meeting new people!

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

PAD Part 47

Warning: this post contains pictures of some dead animals (AKA dinner)

Nelson rocking out to some Eminem