Life in the Village - Part 2

Gretchen, Tania, and Laura doing laundry

In the last post I left off with a promise to continue telling you about life in the village.

Every day was filled with chores. Not as many chores as there would have been if we had been growing and preparing all of our own food, as the villagers do, but still there were chores, such as laundry... by hand, of course. It was actually kind of fun to learn how to do laundry this way. As a bonus, it is really good exercise!

Filtering water.

As a precaution against illness, we filtered all our drinking water. The water situation in this village is actually really good, and eventually our bodies would most likely to be able to handle drinking the water unfiltered (it is rainwater collected into cisterns), but for now we filtered everything. The whole trip was a big enough shock to our sytems as it was.

Anyhow, enough daily drinking water for ten people meant a lot of filtering. However, this never ceased to be a source of entertainment for whoever happened to be around at the time. Quizzical looks were answered with a lengthy explanation of what we were doing, why, and how. =)

Josh's first attempt at making 'simboro'

As I mentioned before, we did not prepare our own food. The community has divided the people in the area into five groups. I am not sure if it is purely family groups or what, but it seems to be for the purpose of organizing responsibilities. At least that is what the divisions were used for this time. Each group was assigned certain days to provide food for our team. We were there for 10 days, so that means each group cooked for us twice. Sometimes we got to help, and that was really fun.

We got to learn how to make banana laplap, which we learned is a trademark food for Ambrym. Laplap comes in many different 'flavors'...  taro, yam, manioc, etc. I have learned that banana laplap is my favorite. In the photo to the right Lena is teaching Josh to make something like a cross between laplap and a spring roll, simboro.

To make simboro, first we scraped out the inside of green cooking bananas (like plantain, no they are not sweet). Then a little bit of the resulting mush is wrapped in a leaf of island cabbage. The little roll is then put into a pot like you see in the picture and then covered in freshly squeezed coconut milk. Then it is cooked until the rolls are firm. All in all the flavor is really not bad, certainly an island kakae (island food) favorite for some in our group.

A typical evening meal.

A typical meal for us...
(LEFT: beginning in the lower left and going clockwise)
banana laplap with pumpkin and coconut cream on top (YUM!), rice, ramen noodles with island cabbage (in the covered pot), chunks of boiled yam, and island cabbage in coconut milk (also a major favorite)

To be honest, I was a bit worried about the food. I have had a few, lets just say 'queezy', experiences since we have been here. But the food, WOW, it was really good. The only problem was the amount of it.

Culturally, to be polite, we really should finish all the food they bring at each meal. After all, there is no way to keep leftovers, and they work so hard for everything they have. The thing is... they would bring so much! We tried, and we tried, we stuffed, and swallowed, and stuffed some more... at each meal. We never had any hope of actually finishing what they brought at any one meal, but we tried to at least put enough of a dent in it that they would know that we liked it and would not be hurt or offended. After each meal, we shared what we had left with the various families that were nearby. That seemed to be okay, and sometimes very appreciated.

Grace, Gretchen, and Laura on clean-up duty.

When meals were over, it was time to do dishes. We were very grateful, a few days into our stay, to find dish-soap available at one of the village 'house-stores'. Many families in the village sell little things like mosquito coils, toilet paper, and laundry soap from their homes. This was a nice blessing for us to have these things available.

On this day (BELOW), Esther, after she spent a very long day away at her garden, let us help her get some ror (wild cabbage) ready for supper. This is some really tasty stuff. It is gathered along the banks of the rivers.

Here are a few more pictures...

Esther squeezing coconut milk over the wild cabbage.

My attempt at cutting firewood with a bush knife.

Shelly lets me help her pluck a chicken.

One chore I can't leave out... first aid. Joshua was a frequent recipient, but we also got to share our first aid with many of our new friends (sorry, no photos of that).

There is one brick oven like this in the village, owned by John (not pictured). He baked bread every day, and shared some with us for our breakfast every morning that we were there. Sometimes there was peanut butter or Vegemite on it. Ok, all you Aussies out there... 'plug your ears'... by the end of our stay, I was actually craving the Vegemite! For all you Americans out there wondering what Vegemite is... don't worry, you are not missing out ;) - (just kidding, to all my friends 'down under'). Vegemite is an Australian household staple that is super salty and packed with vitamins, it is just a little hard to get used to.

So, that gives you a bit of an overview of what chores and meals were like for us. This last photo is our whole group, minus Laura (behind the camera) and plus Lena and Ellen who joined us for super since it was our last day in the village.

I think next time I will share with you some pictures of cool cultural stuff. Until then...

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Life in the Village - Part 1

Our stay in the village was filled with time spent with new friends. Really, our purpose this time around was just to get to know people and get a feel for village life. Our new friends were delighted to share their lives with us during those short ten days. Here are a few pictures that might help you get a feel for these beautiful people and what life in the village is like...

The first week that we were in the village school was out because the teachers were away for some teacher training. That meant there were always kids hanging around our place.

This little piglet was a frequent visitor as well. He is somewhat of an orphan. He was found and caught out in the bush (the jungle). Now the person who caught him keeps him tethered near their house and he is really rather tame. He is on his way to growing up to be one of the various pigs in the village who are always lingering on the outskirts ready to snatch up any discarded scraps and half coconut shells. 

We knew we would have lots of time on our hands, and everybody loves games, so between everyone on the team we brought with us Uno, SkipBo, and Memory. The games made for a fun way to stay busy for the kids and adults alike. They also made for some fun language learning games to help us learn some numbers, and quite a few card game related phrases.

The people of the village work hard, and I mean hard. During the day, most of them are busy in their garden's growing their family's food. We didn't get to make a trip to the garden this time around. I think they were concerned that either it would just be too hard for us to make the hike (about an hour and a half straight up), or that we would just get in the way. When they go they are there all day.  If they aren't at their gardens they seem to be busy at the copra plantation harvesting coconut to export as a way to earn money. There are also a couple of guys that run the local co-op store. Otherwise, it seems like the only adults seen in the village during the day are either sick or are looking after babies. Below is a picture of Iris with her little one slung on her back.

This little guy (above right) is Joel - pronounced Jo-el. If you have seen any pictures of kids in Vanuatu, you know that kids and bush-knives go together. You see it all the time, but it is still hard to get used to the idea.

You know how we learn about how the native Americans use every part of the buffalo? Well, here in Vanuatu they make use of every part of the coconut tree, or so it seems.

Right near our living area was this coconut tree that was leaning quite a bit, and maybe was rotting a bit toward the stump...? I am not sure. But for whatever reason chief Olekon thought it would be best if they just cut it down. So the Chief went at it with an axe...

These guys' job was to make sure it fell in the right direction. 

They are using a huge, long bamboo pole to push it over....

Down came the tree.

And then the fun began.

 

It became a bench...

The fronds were hacked off and became material for a fort. 

If you look close you can see Josh inside of it...

It became material for headdresses (nothing traditional, Josh just made this up)...

...material for weaving...

Here, Selly is showing me how to weave a ball. Nothing functional about it, just for fun. She has her little one, Robin, slung on her back.

Josh got a lesson in weaving the fronds to use as walls to make a better fort...

You can see how the new walls really spiffed the place up. 

Josh felt that this was the best fort he has ever made!

The fallen coconut tree became the popular hang out spot...

Did you know there is more to eat from a coconut tree than just the coconuts!? Josh's friends showed him how to get to the heart of the tree for a succulent snack. It tastes kind of like the end of a shoot of grass, sweet and subtle. 

We made so many new friends! One of them used fronds from the coconut tree to make each of us girls a fan. I got pictures of everything else so I don't know why I didn't get pictures of the fans, but I didn't. So those I will leave to your imagination. 

The kids here don't have much in the way of what the typical Western kid would think of as toys. But, as you can see, that does not stop them from having fun. Besides the coconut tree there are all sorts of things to have fun with. For example...

 ...tie a string to a butterfly and take it for a 'walk'!

Have you ever seen such a thing!? So cool!

There's volleyball...

 

And, what young boy in his right mind wouldn't have fun running down a chicken for supper! They didn't use the bow that you see here, although Josh would have been happy to. The chicken is chased and then stunned by hitting it with a throwing stick so that it can be caught. 

The kids seemed to have a lot of fun showing off the traditional sand drawings. The fine black, volcanic sand makes the perfect canvas. 

The village kids would draw in the sand and then Josh would copy them into his journal which was as entertaining for them as it was for him...

  

The girls tried to braid Gracie's hair, but it was just too thick. 'A' for effort... on Grace's part too. She was trying really hard to not let them see that it really hurt. She is such a sport!

Life in the village is not all fun and games of course. There is a lot of work to do. But I am going to leave that for next time.

- - -

People have asked how our kids liked the village. They really seemed to love it. They are tough. There are always kids to play with and things to do. That can be a good thing, and a bad thing. There are always kids to play with and things to do. We didn't get much in the way of private time during our stay. That aspect was hardest on Grace when she was sick for three days. She had a fever and felt really yuck. All she wanted to do was sleep, but that was a little difficult with little eyes constantly peering through the windows. It was difficult for her to relax without privacy. It was so sweet, though, to see how concerned they were for her. When she and I stayed behind, while the rest of the group went to a neighboring village to eat, I am pretty sure every family in the village brought us food and made sure we were taken care of!

That could be considered an underlying theme for this trip. We were taken care of. There were certainly concerns and apprehension before we left, but there really was no need for any of that. Our great God took care of us. He went before us. He planted in the hearts of the people the desire to look after us. I really felt cared for the whole time we were there. I thank the Lord for that.

Anyway, until next time...

More on the Amrym trip from our Teammates...

One great thing about having a team is that all of you get to hear about the work from multiple perspectives. Here are some links to what our teammates have posted about our recent trip...

Here Gretchen does a great job of telling about the first half of our trip:
http://richardsroad.blogspot.com/2010/07/our-north-ambrym-trip-volume-1.html

And here is her Volume 2:
http://richardsroad.blogspot.com/2010/07/our-north-ambrym-trip-volume-2.html

From Laura, on learning how to live in a village:
http://psalm96three.blogspot.com/2010/06/learning-how-to-live-in-village.html

and on island food:
http://psalm96three.blogspot.com/2010/06/island-kakae-food.html

And this isn't all. So if you want, you can spend some time checking out the other stuff they have on their blogs. Hopefully you will enjoy the various perspectives.

. . .

The Grand Tour

One of the things I (Tania) was most curious about before we got to the village was just what it would look like. Where would we be sleeping? ...showering? and, eh-hem ... you know ... ?Also, what would the village look like? So, to give you an idea of our setting, let me take you on a bit off a tour.

This is the house we stayed in. It is actually the parsonage, but there is no pastor at the moment so it was available for us during our stay.

In this picture (above) you are looking at a sort of courtyard. When people come to storian (visit), this is where we hang out. It is sort of like the 'living room'. The bench to the left is our 'couch'.
You can also see the rain catchment tank there on the right. Toward the bottom of the tank is a spigot for getting water. This is what we used for washing dishes, clothes, showering, and filtering for drinking water.

Here is another picture of the front of 'our house' but just pulled back a bit.

To the left you can see another spigot which is the other main source of water (besides the rain tank). It is gravity fed from a water hole way up in the hills somewhere. There are several water access points around the area that draw from this water hole. Use of this water is regulated so that the pond doesn't run dry. We are told the hole dries up around Christmas time (the hot season).

You can also see our dish rack there on the right in the foreground. Us girls were having to squat on the ground with our dish washing basins to wash the dishes which was really hard on our backs. Then Chief Olekon built this rack for us like all the other women in the village have. We were very grateful. It made doing the dishes so much easier.


This (above) is the backside of the house. There on the left, sort of behind the trees, you can see the corrugated tin side of our swim house a.k.a. 'the shower'. Those spiky looking plants in the foreground are pineapple plants. No fruit right now though, not the season for it.

Below is a better picture of the swim house. The sides of the swim house come up far enough to cover everything from the neck down, pretty much. Still you have to stay aware in order to maintain modesty.


Here (below) is the inside of the swim house. The bucket in the lower left was used to haul water to fill the basin you see on the shelf. To shower we used a small plastic container (maybe it was an old peanut butter jar?) to dip water from the basin to get wet and to rinse and such. You get the idea. Most of the time to cold swim was refreshing... most of the time. Believe me, we were ready for warm showers when we got back. The weather was pretty warm, but it is still the 'cool' season.


Ok, now lets go for a little walk...


Above is a picture of the church building. Beyond it you see a bit of a grassy field and then in the distance behind the trees you see a yellow house. That house is right next door to the one we were in. Behind us (from where I am standing to take this picture) is where the toilet is...

And here is our toilet. It was relatively nice for a bush toilet. It had a concrete floor rather than the alternative of wood or bamboo which would have been really dirty and super scary to try to get business done. Here is the inside...


Ok, back to see the inside of the house.

We take off our shoes as we come inside...


First thing as you come in the door is our eating area. Here is Laura with the Richards kids and Grace enjoying some lunch...


Then on to our sleeping quarters...

This is my bed. We were so excited to arrive and find that our hosts had provided a foam pad with sheets, blanket, and pillow for each of us! It was clean and comfortable. Here is Jim's bed...


And Grace & Josh's room complete with mosquito net...
(We were all taking Malaria preventatives, plus burning mosquito coils, plus continuous application of mosquito spray.) Lord willing we will not come down with malaria (it has an incubation period of several weeks). There was at least one nearby case while we were there.


Back outside to see more of 'the neighborhood'...

above: us girls outside in our 'living room'

There are lots of dogs around. They are used to hunt wild pigs (more on that later).

This one isn't wild. He is a friendly little piglet that was around a lot while we were there. He reminded us of 'Wilbur' from Charlotte's Web.


Underneath the mango tree (above) is a popular place to meet, visit, sit with kids, do various little work tasks, etc. The same goes for just about any mango tree. There is just something about them. They are a nice, very cool (literally), place to hang out.

Below is one of the local roosters claiming his territory from the rooftop of the cookhouse that goes with the house we were staying in. Traditionally, while us westerners have all our living quarters under one roof, here they spread it out. The cook house (or bush kitchen), eating house, bath house, and toilet, are all separate from the sleeping house.


Here is the dish rack outside the bush kitchen of one the neighboring houses.


And another neighboring house...
(you can see the smoke from the cooking fire making its way through the natangura roof of the kitchen house.)


And finally, if you take a walk down to the beach here is an example of what you would see...

That is all for now. I hope that gives you an idea of where we spent our time on N. Ambrym . More to come later...


. . .