A Carrot!

My, oh my, did I have an hilarious reaction to the sight of a carrot the other day! I had been in class all day and when I got home from school I went in and said hi to my host mom.  She was in the kitchen and upon entering the room what appeared in sight other than a large pile of orange, crunchy, juicy carrots. I immediately asked my mom, "where did those come from?"  She responds nonchalantly, "the store of course." I guess my papa went to the main island for something that day and went to the store.  My mom looked at me just eyeing the carrot the way some women eye purses, or men eye hunting gear. Mom said, "you can have one." Trying not to be a greedy American, I look for a knife to cut it in half. I spot one and cut it in half and slowly down the other half.  Then told my mom with the delight of a child getting some long awaited treat, "thank you!" I proceeded to lean against the wall and savor the flavor of that amazing thing. I tried so hard not to swallow it whole. I enjoyed every single bite. Once there were 2 bites left I looked up and my mom very comically said, "it's okay if you want the other half." I made a half-hearted attempt to decline as she handed it to me. I migrated to the living room full of wonderful emotions of joy. I not only got carrot today I got a WHOLE carrot. My day was made!!! Oh how my life has changed to the point where seeing a carrot can almost bring me to tears! I can only imagine what will happen the day I find an apple or a grape! lol

Until next time

Jump In The Jungle

What Goes Up Must Come Down!

Well the time has come to face the walk out of site. It's not my favorite thing BUT today was sunny, VERY sunny. Which means some of the soft mud on the path had dried. (The road is a truck road and the truck creates groves & very much gets stuck and spins out: creating very deep rivets in the road which can be knee deep. No lie one literally went up to my knee!) So at first it was gonna be my host mama walking me down. Then it turned into my host parents. Well school got cancelled (Not an uncommon thing here at all, I'll write more about that another time) so five minutes in my brother and sister join the walk. All of us walked down 2.5 hours in the burning sun, literally burning. I coated in sun block and my face still looks lobster-ish. It is a tough hike and I did it with my AMAZINGLY cool ospray weighting in at 9 kilo  19.8lbs! I'm not gonna lie, there were moments I felt weak compared to my host family walking the road barefoot.  I did walk barefoot for parts of the soft mud but man the rocks HURT so I kept taking my shoes on and off. We got to the mango tree and the view was amazing. I'll try and add the photo I took. It made the rest of the walk to meet Laura nicer. 

Laura is a VITEL volunteer who lives 3+ hours away. However, she is someone who I will be seeing every time I need to go into town over the next year because the truck runs at 5 AM into the city and I don't see me doing the hike down at 2 AM in the dark. After meeting Laura at Espicos Bay it's another 1.5ish walk to her house but the stars aligned and as we were taking a small spell, a truck came by. Laura talked him into giving us a ride to her house. We were both grateful for that.

Once we got back to her place we changed and went for a swim in the saltwater near her house, mainly because it was hot and I was covered in mud!

Later that day we went to her school and painted a few more countries in her world map! It was pretty cool. Then we got run off by the rain, which felt amazing.  We spent the rest of the night talking and making an amazing dinner of curry beef and quinoa, with a piece of dark chocolate for a treat.

Tomorrow I'll be up around 4 AM to repack my bags and head into town to meet other volunteers before we fly back to training.

Until next time

Jump in the Jungle

Almonds!

I got an Almond,  I got an Almond, I got an Almond hey hey hey hey.

Yeppers people!  The almighty Almond entered my life and man, oh man, was I happy. I can't wait to eat them all! They have only lasted this long due to the fact that I left them in the medical office, but believe you me, they are deliciously amazing!

I always knew I was nutty but man I never knew I was this nutty! lol

Until next time

JumpInTheJungle

Best Meal So Far!

So my youngest host brother went to the river while Mama was in the garden and brought back Naura (SHRIMP). Papa went to the small garden and brought back GREEN BEANS.  We also had laplap (I'll explain laplap another time but for this time think a mix between porridge & rice) cooked in coconut milk.  Man was it beyond good!! I have lucked out being near shrimp: great lean protein! It won't be a daily thing but it's my hope it'll be a weekly/monthly one!

Until next time

Jump in the Jungle

Surrounded But Alone

If you've ever been in a place that you don't know the language or culture, you'll know this feeling.  Imagine being constantly surrounded by people but being unable to truly communicate with them. That is what is happening to us here. We are walking by tons of people every day but man are we so different.  Things like island time, that drives some of us crazy, is natural to the locals and they just don't why it makes us a bit cross (angry).

Our world is so diverse and different. Even among each other (peace corps trainees) we are so different.  I'm one of the few in our group who is religious.  Also I come from a lower class family who have busted their ass to make middle class standing and I'm surrounded by a few who come from very very well-off families and it shows. Also, our group has a LOT who are fresh out of college and I've been working in industry for 5 years.  We also have 4 married couples. Our group is so diverse in itself.  So even though  it's rare that I'm not surrounded by someone I have found myself on a few occasions feeling completely alone. But I felt moments of that back in the states; we all have.  

My question for you all is how have you dealt with those moments in your life?

Until next time

Jump In The Jungle

A $3 Apple

Doctor's orders are that I stick to BRAT( bananas, rice, apples, toast) diet until my stomach calms down. So I went to the amazing ABM #2 (A fancy French grocery store), and bought 2 bananas,  and 2 apples,  plus some rice crackers for 1,000 vt (= $10).  Most of that was the apples! But it was sooooo worth it! If I had the money I would have bought 20! lol. It tasted amazing.  I can forsee many trips there in my future. But hopefully not because I'm on the BRAT diet lol.

Until next time

JumpInTheJungle

My First Medical Evacuation

So a medical evacuation takes place when you need to be moved for a treatment.  Intense med evacs include a visa & trip to another country. More common ones are to Villa where the Peace Corps medical staff is located.  So I'm writing this post in ....... Vila :-) I was medically evacuated for Giardia. To save you the details, feel free to Google it (Wikipedia explained it best). My situation was to the point that they had to give me several shots in my arm to slow the cramping from overactive intestines. This was followed by a complete spell of dizziness where I literally couldn't read letters on my phone to text. I looked rough, BUT I am very proud to say Peace Corps Vanuatu has an AMAZING medical staff, as well as office staff, who went above and beyond to get me drugs at sight.  And when the drugs weren't enough they came and got me. They worked amazingly well as a team and between them all I am well on my way to recovery. Here's to HOPEFULLY being smart enough to not drink the water without a filter or boiling it first.

All in all things couldn't have worked out any better if they had to. I'm so blessed because while in Vila I was able to talk/chat/Skype some of you.  This did me a world of good! And I'm not gonna lie, I cried at how much love I have felt from you all! Thank you so very, very much!

Until next time

JumpInTheJungle