PAD Part 50

Who wants some tuna??

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?

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

PAD Part 48

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

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!

PAD Part 47

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

Nelson rocking out to some Eminem

Vanuatu Christmas Caroling

Christmas in Vanuatu is pretty different from Christmas back home. No constantly blaring Christmas music, no Christmas trees or lights anywhere to be seen...but one of the few things that looks vaguely familiar is Christmas Caroling. Of course, Vanuatu has it's own twist on that as well. First off, there are none of the traditional American songs. Vanuatu is very religious, and so Christmas is all about Church and Jesus, rather than about presents and Santa, and the songs reflect that.

You'll also see in the videos that the people singing get covered in baby powder as butter and water mixed with flower gets spread on them. As I understand it, it's a way of thanking the people who are singing, but also having a bit of fun with it.

Enjoy a little taste of a Vanuatu Christmas!