As if we didn’t have enough to worry about with things like sit-sit wota (diarrhea), malaria, fungal infections, head lice, scabies, or intestinal worms, we also had lots and lots of classroom instruction and exercises dealing with all the aspects of safety and security in Vanuatu.
When thinking of safety and security during my Peace Corps deployment, I focused primarily on potential bad things like assault, theft or rape. And yes, those are all concerns. In fact, there were hours spent in various role plays having to do with recognizing and avoiding potential situations that could lead to crimes against a Peace Corps volunteer – particularly a female volunteer. We learned all the statistics along with the tactics to use to avoid putting ourselves in harm’s way, and what to do if something actually should occur.
Well…one night during my last week in the village of Ekipe, I was sound asleep in my bungalow. There was a window on the same wall as the head of my bed and just to the right. I always kept the “trap-door” window propped open because the window was screened. At any rate, I was pretty sound asleep when I was awakened at about 11:15 by a sound at my window. In a haze of sleep I thought I heard somebody mumbling my name – and before I was fully awake I muttered something like “Yeah…who is it?” I heard my name again and within a split second I was wide awake and looked up at the window to see a face staring in at me and then a bright flashlight was shown in my eyes. I leapt out of bed and shouted “Hey…get away” – and then at the top of my lungs I screamed “GET THE HELL AWAY!!!” I immediately sent a text message to the cultural trainer in our village asking him to text me if he was awake. Within seconds I got a return message asking “what’s wrong”. I texted back that a man was just looking in my window. Again within seconds, he texted me back explaining that I had just experienced an element of Peace Corps training aimed at examining how I would react if I was “creeped”. I didn’t know whether to be relieved…or “pissed off”. Within minutes my Mama and Papa were at the door of my bungalow asking if I was alright and then explaining that the Peace Corps had given them a heads up that this was going to happen.
For those of you who have never heard of “creeping”, it is apparently a fairly common thing to happen here in Vanuatu – and it can happen to either a man or a woman. Sometimes, it only means that a person is interested in getting to know you – or it could also mean that they want to come in for a toss in the “hay”. It is always a reportable incident both to your village and to the Peace Corps. I’m happy to report that I’ve never been “creeped” – but after that incident, I’m pretty sure I can handle it!! Besides, all the windows in my apartment have bars on the outside, so no creepers are comin’ in after me!
Depending upon where you are based in Vanuatu, there may be any number of safety concerns. Vanuatu lies squarely on top of the Pacific Ring of Fire, and is on the edge of the Pacific tectonic plate – which is being forced up and over the Indo-Australian plate. This action causes frequent earthquakes – not to mention volcanic eruptions! There have been 4 earthquakes just since I arrived in September – none stronger than 6.2 on the Richter scale, but some in the past have actually caused tsunamis. Peace Corps training focused on earthquakes and how to react – and the importance of knowing the high ground or consolidation point designated for each of our villages in the event of a major earthquake that could trigger a tsunami. Vanuatu also has 9 active volcanoes – 7 on land and 2 under the ocean. We spent a good deal of time understanding what to watch for as well as how to react in the event of an earthquake, volcano eruption, tsunami, or cyclone.
Since Vanuatu is an island nation, we were also issued a life preserver that we are required to take with us anytime we are traveling inter-island by boat. One of our hands-on training sessions focused on water safety. The actual training was supposed to teach us how to effectively don our life preservers, jump into the water and maneuver to safety – or provide aid to others in the water. However, on the particular day and time that our training was taking place, the tide was pretty far out. So, instead of doing the typical training, our trainer modified it to be a water relay race of sorts as a competition between Team A and Team B. The idea was to race through the water to the trainer – grab a life preserver – put it over the head of your teammate who had run ahead of you – and then hold on to the life preserver and the teammate to get them safely back to shore. Well, as I was waiting my turn to race through the water, I looked at the water and thought “This really isn’t safe. By the time it’s my turn, the water is going to be so churned up that I won’t be able to see where the coral is – and somebody could get hurt.” Well, guess what?? Along with 6 or 8 other people, I ended up face first in the water with coral cuts on both knees, down my shins – and even on my big toe!! Suffice it to say, this was not my idea of water “safety” training. To add insult to injury, we then had to walk about a mile back to the village where we finally were able to scrub the coral out of our legs and apply some first aid. At any rate, we all survived with no major infections – I have a few more battle scars on my knees, but who’s counting??
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