Ples i hot

It's been quite an eventful few weeks. I'm writing this post while sitting in the PENAMA Provincial Office in Saratamata, on Ambae; my community for the next two years.

I think the biggest thing I'm learning is how to live with ambiguity, specifically with my job. I've tried many a time to write this post about what my job is and will be for these two years, but the truth is I can't really pin it down. I'm some combination of help desk worker, teacher, assessor, technician, web developer, and electrician. Or at least that's the hope. My impression is that OGCIO (Office of the Government Chief Information Officer), the office I work for that's based in Vila, doesn't necessarily know what exactly the provinces need. They don't have any staff posted out here, so the hope is that my fellow ICT Peace Corps Volunteers and I will be those points of contact.

I fluctuate a lot between being terrified by that ambiguity, and being excited about it. On the one hand, it means I will probably be able to make this job whatever I want it to be, and I'm excited about the potential projects I'll be able to do. On the other, it's hard to go into a community for two years not knowing exactly what I'll be doing, or if I even have the know how to do it.
Moving away from the ambiguous and towards the more concrete, though, I really am enjoying myself here. Bislama is a really easy language to learn, evidenced by the fact that after about 3 weeks of studying it, I rarely revert back to english when talking to people. I'd compare my language level to about where I was after a full year of college Spanish, although I've said "Ples i hot" (This place is hot) so many times, I think it's already started to lose meaning as a sentence. The food is pretty good, although quite starchy, and I'm really enjoying getting to know people here. Overall, Vanuatu has been treating me well, and I promise my next post will be more well thought out and cohesive. (I'm borrowing a co-workers computer, and only have a few minutes to write this).
I also promise to think of you, Carleton friends, next time I go swimming in the warm Pacific Ocean off of my tropical island.

The first few days

I've officially been in Vanuatu for a few days, and all I'm going to say right now is that I live in a beautiful place. I'm sure plenty more pictures will be forthcoming soon, but here's a little taste.

The beach by our training location at sunset

A water bottle full of kava

The preparation for drinking kava for the first time

The grounds where we're staying for training

Our training housing

G27 arriving at the airport

This is a pretty cool place!

And so it begins...

The fact that I've been sitting in front of this blank screen for at least an hour goes to show the difficulty I've been having articulating how I feel about leaving. There's simultaneously so much to talk about, and no words to say it. With that in mind, I'm going to try to stay with facts, because otherwise this post will end up being some kind of weird inner monologue that makes very little sense (hopefully it doesn't end up that way anyways).

I'll be spending the next two years in Vanuatu, here:

It's a small nation in the south pacific consisting of 83 islands, (about 65 of which are inhabited) and a population of 266, 937. I've been assigned to work with the Penama Provincial Education Office, and that's as far as the official word goes as to where I'll be and what I'll be doing. Unofficially, looks like I'll be on Ambae island, helping set up computer labs in schools. I can't wait to get going and really figure out what I'll be doing, and how to go about doing it!

Since finding out in April that I would officially be leaving for Peace Corps, I feel like I've just been killing time. Fortunately, I was able to kill time in the best ways possible! 

Finishing out one last summer with SSP:

Being able to reconnect with old friends, and meet some awesome new ones in Eugene this fall:

Spending time with family (taken with my dad's new selfie stick, of course):

And enjoying a wonderful few days here in LA:

Thank you to everyone who made the last four months great!

Today I meet my fellow Peace Corps Vanuatu G27 volunteers, and tomorrow we leave the US for the first of 27 months. It's hard to wrap my head around two years of being gone. I'm excited, but oh so nervous.

See you all on the other side!