FAQ

Where/what is Vanuatu?
Vanuatu is a small archipelago in the South Pacific, in between Australia and Fiji.

It's comprised of 83 islands (about 65 of which are inhabited), and has a population of about 275,000. The official languages are English, French, and Bislama, a pidjin language.

People from Vanuatu are called Ni-Vanuatu, and are primarily of Melanesian descent.

Vanuatu is an old French and British colony that got its independence in 1980

What island are you on?

The island I live on is called Ambae, part of PENAMA (PENtecost, AMbae, MAewo islands) province.

The center of the island (the two lakes) is a volcano, called Manaro. It is active, but it's cone is under the lake on the left, a sulphuric lake.

           

What do you do?
I'm an IT volunteer, and work as Provincial ICT Support for PENAMA province. This means any time anything semi-electrical breaks, people bring it to me to try to fix. I've worked on anything and everything from laptops and desktops to phones, tablets and printers (with varying degrees of success). Since the IT program in Vanuatu ends with the 2 other IT volunteers in my group and me, and I don't know if the Vanuatu government will be able to replace me yet, I've started to focus more on sustainability and capacity building as well. I generally teach at least one or two classes a week, mostly on the basics, like Word, Excel, and typing.




What kind of money do they use?
Vanuatu currency is called the Vatu, and is roughly 1VT = 1 cent. If you want to be technical, the exchange rate is 100VT = $0.90, but rounding makes converting so much easier! They recently released new coins, and are in the process of phasing out the old ones.





What is an average day for you?
Since I work in the Provincial Center, my days are a lot more structured than most volunteers here. I'm generally at the office from 7:30 - 4:00 every weekday, ready to deal with any issues that arise within the various offices. About once a week, I try to make my rounds and go visit each office to check in and see how everything is working. A couple of times a week I also teach class. When I'm in the office, I do end up having a lot of free time (thus the large number of books I've read...), but am looking to find more productive ways to fill it as time goes on.
On weekends, I normally hang out with my family. Cooking, watching movies, wandering in the bush with my brothers, or just hanging out.



What's the weather like?
In a word: hot. Especially between November and March, it's really hot and humid. My island, being volcanic, gets atrociously warm sometimes, because not only are you getting hot sun from above, the volcanic rock below also radiates heat. But gosh darn it, it's pretty!



What about food?

Traditional food is a lot of root crops, fruits and vegetables. Food is very seasonal, so we'll have a plethora of tomatoes for 3 months, and then have a hard time finding them the rest of the year. The two most common dishes are laplap and simboro. Laplap is made from grated root crop baked under hot rocks; simboro is grated root crop wrapped in island cabbage (a kind of leaf, similar to spinach when cooked) and boiled in water and coconut milk.

What kind of amenities do you have?

Since I'm an IT volunteer and live in the provincial capital, I have pretty good access to amenities. I've got running water (but no hot water), electricity (when the generators are on), and internet (contingent on power, and only at work). I'm the only volunteer in my province that has access to all 3.