NEW HOUSE - CHAPTER 2!

So, I’ve been enjoying my new “digs” almost a month now, and things have been great. The house I live in is one of 4 houses on the property, which is owned by a prominent NiVanuatu man, and all homes are rented from him. My house is definitely the smallest and most modest one here, but it is great and is in a lovely setting. One of the perks of living in this spot is that the property owner employs a gardener to maintain the entire parcel. The gardens are lovely – and right now the poinsettias are in bloom, since it is technically “winter” here. There are also numerous fruit trees just outside my door that provide me with some delicious treats, including papayas, pamplemousse (a very sweet grapefruit), mangoes, and of all things - star fruit! The papayas, pamplemousse and star fruit are all in season now, so it has been lovely being able to step outside, shake a branch and enjoy some luscious organic fruit. Because there’s usually a nice breeze coming in off the lagoon, the mosquitoes are considerably less pesky, although I still need to be careful in the early morning as well as at dusk. Those critters come out with fangs bared at those times – I think they may actually be vampire mosquitoes!

One downside to my new place is that I have no cell phone service inside my house. I am able to send and receive messages – but cannot place any calls. So I have to go outside my house and find a spot with a signal to place or receive any calls. My house is situated about midway down a very steep hill, so any signal at the top doesn’t make it inside my house.  But compared to many of my Peace Corps friends based in remote villages who have no cell phone coverage, this is really a no-never-mind. 

Well, things have been going great since moving in…with the exception of one very scary morning. It was a lovely, balmy, sunny morning when I strolled out of my house as usual at about 7:15 am to walk to work. I took my usual route walking up the nearest cross-street to get to the main road leading into downtown Port Vila. I saw 4 dogs running around in the street but wasn’t alarmed at all because I had seen these same dogs nearly every morning. Usually they would just give me a glance and keep on going – and in most cases they were just lazily stretched out on the road and would watch me walk by through half-closed eyes. As a result, I was totally unprepared when they suddenly turned into a snarling, teeth-baring pack of dogs surrounding me and lunging at my legs. I didn’t have any rocks or weapons, so I stood as tall as I could, stamped my foot and loudly shouted to get away and go home. Much to my relief, they bounded off and ran into a nearby yard. I turned and started walking again, but within seconds I heard a guttural growl and snarl. With that, one of the dogs had my left heel and ankle in its mouth and wasn’t letting go. Yes folks, it got me good! As you might imagine, I was quite startled and let out a loud scream to chase it away. It turned and ran to join the remaining 3 behind me. I surely wasn’t going to turn and walk back towards them to my house, so I just kept on walking towards town. Upon hearing my screams, a NiVanuatu woman rushed outside and pulled me into her yard. Her husband chased the dogs back into the yard and brought the owners over to look at my bleeding foot. The woman profusely apologized in Bislam – “Ohhh Missus, mi sori tumas…sori tumas lo dog blong me hemi kakae fut blong yu”! (Oh Missus, I’m so sorry that my dog bit your foot.)

Fortunately, the Peace Corps medical office is just a block away from my office, so I kept on walking and within a half hour or so I was at the office and in a doctor’s care. I had a pretty good puncture wound on the inside of my foot just above the arch – with several lacerations (4 or so) on the left side of my heel and ankle. My first fear was rabies – but the doctor quickly assured me that this was not a concern – there is no rabies in the Pacific island region. So, I was shaken a bit to say the least – but the bites have healed well with no infection. Lesson learned – never, ever get too blasé about these dogs. I’ve known that ever since visiting the south Pacific region, but thought these dogs were “alright”. With very few exceptions, all the dogs here look like dingo dogs – and in most cases are not cared for, not regularly fed – and sadly, very mistreated. So, they don’t have a very high trust level for humans – but I have an even lower trust level for them at this point!

Suffice it to say that I have since changed my walking route just a bit and pepper spray is on its way to me. In the meantime, I carry a couple of rocks in my tote bag as well as a can of Morteim – the Raid of Vanuatu. Although it’s not as shocking probably as the pepper spray, at least if I spray this in a dog’s eyes or at its face it will probably slow it down just a bit. I’ve also lodged a formal “vicious dog” complaint with the city, but have little or no confidence that anything will ever be done. So, I’m a bit more battle-worn, but also a bit savvier with the critters of Port Vila!

MOVIN' ON UP!

I have some exciting news – I’ve moved! About six weeks ago, my counterpart (boss at work) mentioned that a nice furnished house would be coming available to rent and that she would like to move me from my current spot to the new place. This house was being rented by another volunteer, and he was vacating, so she thought it would be worth checking out. You see, the Peace Corps provides volunteers with a monthly stipend to cover food and incidentals, but the organization that a volunteer works for provides housing and utilities. We drove out to see the other house, and it was just great, so a moving day was picked.

Before I could move in, Peace Corps staffers came out to survey the new place and approve it. This was followed up by Peace Corps sending another staff person to glue in the jalousie window slats so that nobody could pull them out and climb into the house, and for extra measure, they installed a dead bolt and refastened the security screens. So it was all systems go! My counterpart came out to my little apartment and loaded up all my gear – my luggage packed with what I brought, along with a few large plastic bags containing my cookware, groceries, and a few other things that I’ve acquired since being here.

My new house is just great. First and foremost, it is located in a much safer area of Port Vila and is just a short walk away from two grocery stores and a hardware store. It’s also still about a 25 or 30 minute walk to work, so I get my exercise every day. Given that it is in a safer spot, I can walk home most evenings as well, so my exercise routine has doubled – which I’m hope will pay off with a sculpted body that will look great in a bikini by the time I leave here. (Yeah – right…giggle!)

There are several very exciting things about my new home. First of all, it is located right on a lagoon and one whole side of the house has windows, so I usually get a lovely cross-breeze…not to mention the lovely view of the lagoon. At last, I finally feel like I’m living on an island. But the other unbelievable thing is the fact that I have a small 4-burner gas stove – WITH AN OVEN!! There is no temperature gauge on the oven, but so far no smoke or flames have come out and everything I’ve baked has turned out, so my guessing game with the temperature is working pretty well.

This place is probably three times larger than my other apartment – and the icing on the cake is that I have a second bedroom. So, there’s room for other volunteers to come and stay with me when they’re in Port Vila from the outer islands. In fact, already Carla’s B&B has done a brisk business. I think I’ve had houseguests all but about 5 nights since moving in.

But, I’ve saved the best for last…so far I have not encountered any leeches or GIANT SPIDERS! I do have those little red worms still and probably kill about 20 or so of those each day, but they are harmless and not scary at all. I also have two good friends who keep the big cockroach population in control – Larry the Lizard and Iggy his little brother. Larry is green and probably measures about 8” from tail to nose, but Iggy is considerably smaller. Yes, I’ve seen several steak-sized cockroaches, but nothing like I had before. And usually, I just find their legs – so I guess Larry and Iggy are “white meat men” and don’t like the drumsticks! Yes folks…life is good in Port Vila. I feel extremely pampered – but try to share it with all my buds when they’re in town!

IT'S OFFICIAL...I'M A WHIMP!!

One would think that at this point in life I would have become a bit more blasé and less squeamish about creepy, crawly things. Actually, I never realized I was such a whimp until spending some time here. Having traveled throughout the south Pacific many, many times throughout the past 20+ years, I felt pretty confident about handling myself during my 27-month stay in Vanuatu. After all, how different could this island be from all the other islands that Frank and I loved so much?

First of all, I feel compelled to tell you that according to officials here, there are no poisonous spiders or snakes in Vanuatu. I have to admit that I was glad to hear that. Through my earlier travels, I had seen lots of lizards and geckos, swarms of mosquitoes and sand fleas, sharks/sharks and more sharks, and here and there a few large cockroaches and other insects or spiders. However, I was TOTALLY unprepared for the things that seem to surround…or even taunt me on a daily basis! OK, maybe taunt is a bit strong, but I gotta tell you that sometimes I feel like that is exactly what is happening, so let me explain:

Although I do not know the official name for it, I have been invaded by extremely huge brown spiders. These things have bodies about the size of a spool of thread and a leg span larger than my hand span. I am absolutely not exaggerating! I was introduced to these critters on my first night in Vanuatu when we arrived at our staging facility. I went into the showers and there was one of these things on the wall. I stifled a scream and ran out of the showers. However, there was nobody around to chase it away or kill it, and it was too high up on the wall for me to reach. So after getting my breath back, I crept back into the shower room and showered as quickly as humanly possible and ran back outside. (The spider was still on the wall where I first saw it.) Well, that was just the beginning. Within the last two weeks, these things have taken over my apartment. One evening I was sitting in a chair reading when out of the corner of my eye I spotted something large and brown racing across the floor. OMG – this was definitely the largest spider I’ve ever seen in my entire life. It was actually larger than a tarantula. I grabbed a can of bug spray and took aim with deadly force. After 3 large clouds of insecticide, it fell still. I then got close enough to drop my flip-flop on it. After a few minutes, I grabbed a Kleenex and reached down to pick it up so that I could flush it away when it suddenly flipped itself over. At this point, the screams and tears took over. I sprayed it some more and slapped my flip-flop on it even harder. This time it was actually dead. It was so large that I scraped it up with a spatula. Since that time, I’ve seen countless others – including one perched right on my pillow just as I was about to turn in for the night. I spent that night sleeping in a chair. Then yesterday evening, I reached to put my key in the lock when one of them ran across the door and doorknob. Honestly, every bit of strength left my legs and my knees began to buckle. I’m not sure what I’m going to do.

The other thing I’m dealing with are leeches – yes leeches! The only time I’ve ever seen a leech was in the movie “The African Queen”. As it turns out, there are terrestrial leeches, and they too have decided to invade my apartment. These things aren’t scary, but they are disgusting, and I flush on average 5-10 every evening.

I’ve also been battling very large red worms that move across the floor and up the walls. In addition, there are also miniscule black things that look and feel like grains of pepper that come out of nowhere and crawl down your back or down your bra. It makes for a pretty lively dance.

Add to that some other kind of flying insect that aims directly for your face or eyes. I don’t think it bites, but sometimes I kill about 50 of them in an evening.

One thing I forgot to consider about all my visits throughout the Pacific was that the resorts we stayed at regularly sprayed to control creepy crawlers. Needless to say, that is not the case here. I keep reminding myself that I’m basically living in a jungle that has been converted into a neighborhood of sorts – and that Vanuatu has no ongoing insect control anywhere in the country. Everything here is grown without pesticides or herbicides, which is a wonderful thing, but that also means that pretty much everything flying or crawling thrives and grows very big!!

In all honesty, this aspect of my stay here is one of the most challenging things for me. Which is pretty darned silly when you think of it – so that just goes to show that I really am just a whimp and I will have to get a whole lot braver and more stoic to ensure that I don’t have a breakdown caused by these spiders!!

Peace Corps' PEACE Project Shelved

In an earlier Blog, I wrote about the 3 Peace Corps projects currently in place here in Vanuatu: Health, Education, and Business…also known as the PEACE (Provincial Economic and Community Empowerment) Project. This is the project to which I’ve been assigned. We PEACE volunteers work in any number of areas ranging from working with existing organizations to increase capacity; or conducting workshops on basic business concepts; to working with the National Bank of Vanuatu to promote their micro finance program – and everything else in between that might apply to “business”.

The Peace Corps has assessed the needs of the country and after careful deliberation has decided to discontinue its PEACE Project and instead focus its future efforts on basic literacy within their Education program, and continue its focus on community health efforts. Although some Peace Corps Volunteers reacted with alarm and dismay at this announcement, I and several other Volunteers in Group 23 (my group of volunteers) actually wholeheartedly support this approach. What you say…you want to see the program you’re participating in come to an end? In short, yes…I think it is the right approach on so many different levels.

I have only been in Vanuatu for six short months and during that time have visited just two of its 83 islands – so I am far from being an expert on the intricacies of either its short-term or long-term needs to work towards economic independence. However, I can say that simply from my short time “in country”, I have grave misgivings about pushing too hard towards business development, generation of cash flow, and modernization of Vanuatu’s culture and lifestyle.

The Ni-Vanuatu people have a wonderfully intact village lifestyle that seems to operate pretty well with local chiefs and economies. Oh no, almost none of the villages outside of Port Vila on Efate and Luganville on Santo have modern day conveniences like 24-hour electricity, indoor plumbing or even gas stoves…and at first glance when we go into a village we are somewhat shocked at the primitive lifestyle. But on the other hand, they have absolutely everything they need and seem to be quite relaxed, contented, and happy with the way things are. They don’t have to worry about having money to pay the utility bill, buying a flat screen TV, getting their kids IPods, or what kind of hardwoods they’re going to put in their homes. They have land free and clear, homes with no mortgages, and all the fresh, organic food they need to feed their families from their gardens. They don’t have to worry about their children being abducted…they don’t have to worry about how much petrol is going to cost to fill their gas tanks…they don’t have to keep up with Facebook or Twitter…and they really don’t give a damn or even know about American Idol or Dancing With the Stars!!

So, even though by our standards, they have a much lower standard of living…I’m here to tell you that in many ways they have an enviable lifestyle, culture, and sense of being that most of us would give anything to have. So yes…I’m supportive of pulling out Business volunteers…and instead focusing on providing basic literacy assistance and basic health education and support to ensure that they have future generations who can read, write, and know the basics of safeguarding their health…and their culture.

We current Business volunteers will be supported in our efforts and if our project merits additional effort, we can apply for an extension of our two-year service to complete our work here. I’m proud to continue what I’m working on, but also support the decision that future efforts here in this beautiful country will focus on basic needs to ensure that the people have what they need to prosper within their culture and have the literacy skills they need to record their history and pass it down to future generations.

Earthquakes...Tsunamis...What Else??

Since arriving here in September 2010, we’ve experienced countless earthquakes – some just a short “jiggle”…some short but yet intense….some like a roller coaster…and some that were downright scary. Friday evening, March 11, we had a tsunami warning as a result of the Japan earthquake and tsunami. Peace Corps staff members were alerting everybody to get to higher ground. Many volunteers were in Port Vila for training and were staying at a hotel very close to the sea front. As a result, they were evacuated to higher ground. In fact, two of my friends came and spent the night with me. The tsunami warning was in effect from Friday evening at about 9 pm until about 4:30 Saturday morning.

Since then we’ve experienced two earthquakes in one day…the second of which prompted this text message from a fellow volunteer on a neighboring island: “Holy Shit!!. Although we’ve had some measuring in excess of 7.0 on the Richter scale, both of the most recent ones were in the 6.5 or 6.3 range…kind of blasé in the grand scheme of things. But on the heels of the horrific earthquake and tsunami in Japan, it was a bit unnerving to say the least. Although no Volunteers have television service here, some of us do have periodic access to the internet and are able to see the devastation. I think we’ve begun to realize just how serious this could become and thank our lucky stars that so far we haven’t seen anything to equate to the tragic results of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Most of you who know me also realize that I am a proponent of nuclear energy. I’ve been keeping a close watch on that situation as well and have been watching in disbelief with the issues that they are grappling with at the nuclear facilities there. Despite the fact that they had safety redundancies in place, Mother Nature seemed to have crafted the “perfect storm” which even negated some of those safety nets that should have been adequate. I am hoping and praying that the worldwide experts who are converging on Japan can work together to get things under control and minimize any effects to the environment and human health. Unfortunately, I believe this could seriously jeopardize the future of nuclear power throughout the world…particularly the United States. All of this just when the “N” (nuclear) word was actually said out loud by our President.

So, the rest of the story is still unwritten. I can only say with the deepest respect and sorrow that I hope God is with the people of Japan…I hope that the effects from the nuclear situation is minimal…and I pray that their families and nation will recover from this unthinkable event. It will likely have ramifications for generations to come…in so many ways.

KEEP THOSE CARDS AND LETTERS COMING!

There’s just a few little everyday things that remind me that I’m in a “third world” country…like no fresh milk…little or no police protection…the government being overturned about as frequently as the weather changes…and things we take for granted like mail delivery. Oh yes, I know, the USPS is anything but efficient – but it does provide home delivery 6 days a week – and, you can drop letters into those wonderful blue mailboxes stationed on corners throughout America.



In Vanuatu there is NO mail delivery and NO mailboxes in which to deposit your letters. If you want to mail something, you must take it to the post office here in town – no branches, just one main post office situated in downtown Port Vila. That’s not so bad for people in Port Vila, but if you are anywhere else on the island of Efate, it means that you have to send your mail with somebody who is coming into town and hope that they don’t forget to take it to the post office for you. In my case, I do get “home delivery” so to speak because I pick up my mail in the Volunteer’s Resource Room located at the Peace Corps office in Port Vila – just one block away from my office. But that’s only because a Peace Corps staff member goes to the Post Office and collects everything from the PMB 9097 mail pouch. Sounds easy, huh? In reality, it can be an arduous process. Regular mail is pretty easy – the staffer goes to the Post Office and brings the letters and cards back and distributes them. But if the Volunteer is located on an island other than Efate, the mail must either be sent by ship or plane to that island – and that can take weeks, months, or it may never reach its destination. Even in my case, I recently received a first class envelope that was postmarked November 12 – so it was 3.5 months in transit!! On the other hand, I’ve received some letters or cards within 14 days. So, there’s no way to figure out the transit time.


Packages are something else entirely. Upon receipt of a package at the Post Office, the postal clerk hand writes a notice of package delivery with the addressee’s name on it and places it in the Peace Corps mail bag. The staffer picks up mail twice weekly – Tuesday and Thursday – and upon receipt of notification of a package, the staffer then makes another trip to Customs. Sometimes the package has been cleared, and sometimes it hasn’t. So, they must often make a second trip. If the package has been opened and import duty is applied, the staffer pays the import fees and then deducts that amount from the Volunteer’s living allowance the following month. At long last the package is brought to the Peace Corps office and either placed in a mail cubicle if the volunteer is local or set aside for eventual shipment to an outer island. And whooeee, you’d better be ready to ransom your first child when paying the postage on a package. Typically a priority mail package will set you back at least $50-60, and in my case the most recent package cost almost $200 to get to me. However, it contains some things that I cannot get here, so I decided it was worth it. However….I’m still waiting and hoping that it arrives. Sometimes it never actually reaches the intended person…go figure!!


But after all that, I don’t want you to be discouraged – if you haven’t written lately, I’m anxiously checking my mail cube every day just in case one slim envelope from you has found its way across the Pacific to me. So, keep those cards and letters coming – it’s amazing how exciting it is to open a letter and read about what’s happening in your world. I got a letter recently from my sister, Ruby, describing how she was baking some snickerdoodles and I felt like I was in her kitchen talking to her.

So, in closing, my email is: csandatravels@gmail.com and my "snail mail" address is: 

Carla Sanda, PCV

Peace Corps

PMB 9097

Port Vila

Republic of Vanuatu

And - I promise to write back!

Mother Nature...Island Style

It’s been awhile since I’ve been on-line to update my blog. Things have been going along pretty well here – although since we’ve “talked” last, Mother Nature has been rearing her wild head quite a bit. There have been several major earthquakes…as well as a few little “teaser wannabes”. One of the earthquakes measured about 7.3 on the Richter scale and was quite sustained – since it came on the heels of one measuring nearly 7.0, I immediately timed it at 45 seconds or so. Now 45 seconds may seem pretty danged fast – but when the earth is literally rocking and rolling under your feet and things are going crash-bang in your house, it can feel like a pretty long time! At any rate, there was no serious damage from any of the quakes – and I’m getting quite accustomed to the periodic tremors that seem to roll through my part of the world.



We’ve also had 3 cyclones – the first one was Cyclone Vania and she was a real ripper. My apartment is up in the hills thankfully well above the ocean floor, so I didn’t have to worry about flooding from the torrential rains. But the gale-force winds were really something. A tree fell onto my patio roof and the yard around the house looked like a madman had raced through with a machete in each hand. Several banana trees were toppled, hundreds of unripe pamplemousse (grapefruit) were flung around the yard, and papayas were ripped from their trees as well. There were also several large pieces of sheet metal ripped from the roofs of nearby houses…or shacks. We are now in the midst of Cyclone Atu. But I think the worst of it is past Port Vila and the island of Efate. So far it has been nothing like Vania – but it is due to make landfall later today on the tiny island of Fatuna and perhaps even parts of Tanna. So, Atu hasn’t wheezed his last breath quite yet. One good thing is that for the first time in months there was a lovely cool wind through the night – so it was heavenly to not be sweating and looking for a dry spot in my bed!


Such is life in the rip-roaring, unpredictable south Pacific – and I haven’t even been here for six months yet!! Stay tuned!

Along the Lazy Tagabe

I’ve spent the last two weeks back in the classroom for follow-on training with my fellow business volunteers. The absolute best part of it all was reconnecting with everybody in Group 23 who had left in November for assignments throughout the archipelago – and the next best part was the opportunity to meet the business volunteers form Group 22 who came in for the final two days of training. It’s amazing how quickly one can bond with others when everybody is far away from home in some unfamiliar place, learning a new language, and trying to adjust to unexpected cultural idiosyncrasies. But the exciting thing is we’ve all made it nearly to the 6-month mark. We did lose 3 business volunteers within the first two months who returned to the states due to medical issues – but we’re still a tight little group of 8 who were excited to spend some time together. Each of us was asked to prepare a presentation of our project, the agency we’ve been working with, and the locale in which we’re serving. Clearly those of us based in Port Vila are very fortunate with creature comforts like electricity, indoor plumbing, and refrigeration – but after listening to our friends based in the islands, it’s also clear that we’re missing out on a unique village experience quite unlike anything else in the world.



Much of the two weeks was spent in the classroom, but one day we all headed out on a community cleanup project at the Tagabe River – the source of drinking water for Port Vila. Basically we donned shoes for the water – typically flip-flops or Chacos – and then waded into the river with trash bag and sticks in hand to pull all kinds of rubbish from the river. As we walked downstream filling up the bags, we encountered many local families along the river along with lots of kids or “pickininnies” out for a day of fun jumping into the river to cool off. It sure reminded me that we are in a place where time seems to stand still, where kids can run out of the house to explore and play and not return until dark, and where families have the freedom to just go to the river for a day of lazy enjoyment.


It’s days like this that make me question just how much development and “progress” should really be put into place in Vanuatu…progress can sometimes be anything but!