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!