DISCLAIMER

This blog, "Vanuatu Adventures", is simply my personal reflection and in no way represents the opinions or beliefs of the Peace Corps or the US Government. Enjoy - and I hope to hear from you!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

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!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

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!