the chronic (what) cles of lindsay-uh

Friday, July 8, 2011

Stadium project funded. THANK YOU!

I just wanted to take a minute and say thanks to everyone who donated to the stadium project. I will be heading back to the island shortly with all of the materials for the project. I'll be sure to post photos once it's complete. Until then, here are a few pictures of us cutting the grass for the field at the stadium site.

and here are a few shots of the people that will benefit from the stadium:

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

sports

This year, we've had a lot of movement in the sports initiative. We've slowly been upgrading our facilities and we've been more regularly playing volleyball, soccer, and even a little island basketball. In April we started a Healthy Kids' Club, which has been probably my favorite project to date. Here are a few pictures of life in sports on West Ambrym.

below: hanging the hoop for island bball

below: Kids' club!

RTC classroom opening

Since May of 2010, we've been working on completing the RTC's permanent classroom. We experienced a few delays along the way, namely water shortages and the two deaths that I just wrote about. But the community bounced back and I'm proud to say that on April 21, 2011, we finally celebrated the official opening of Hor Hor RTC's classroom. It was a long road but is a great improvement to the school's infrastructure. Below are some photos, start to finish...

photos - olfala chief and uncle terry

Below: Olfala Chief sporting his deflated soccer ball hat

Below: the funeral of Olfala Chief

Below: the burial of Olfala Chief

Below: Olfala Chief's grave

Below: with Uncle Terry at the volcano

Below: Uncle Terry is Tuff Tumas

Below: Uncle Terry 3 days before his death

Below: Uncle Terry's funeral procession

Below: Uncle Terry's funeral procession (cont'd)

Below: burying Uncle Terry

Below: Uncle Terry's two little ones at his grave

tough times...

It seems like I've been breezing through this 2+ years in a dream land where not much changes from day to day, there is little stress and no one close to you dies. My little dream land became very real on March 7th, 2011 when the olfala chief in my village died. A death itself completely changes the dynamic of the village for the week of mourning. The population multiplies as the village becomes inundated with grieving family and friends. Small, intimate meals become mass produced feasts and privacy is nowhere to be found. I once again find myself explaining myself to complete strangers: who I am, where I come from, what I'm doing, and how many siblings I have.

Not only did this completely change the dynamic of my day to day life but I found myself missing my friend. This was a man who was my first hello and my last good night every day. We shared stories and plates of food. He wasn't strong enough to leave the house so I was his eyes and ears and following every event outside the village we'd review the pictures on my camera. Through him, I learned of life in Vanuatu "before, before, before..." and even some village gossip that no one else was brave enough to share. In his last years, I was his care taker. I nursed his wounds, I cut his hair, I occasionally washed his clothes and I even once cleaned his ears. He was a staple in my life and I felt safe in his presence. Though I was sadly anticipating his death, I didn't realize how much I would miss him.

I struggled to find a private place to mourn my friend as the fishbowl effect multiplied. When I wasn't sobbing, I was moping and I began to hear people whispering about how upset I was. People who knew me then whispered back to the visitors and explained how close I was to the olfala chief. As they promised it would, each day got a little more bearable. The population in the village thinned out, my eyes stopped "leaking" and I started feeling as though I could move on through the days.

On March 12th, 2011, in the wake of recovering from the chief's death, my uncle in the village passed. He had been sick but on that day I did not expect him to pass a he was only 44 years old, a father of two small children. He had woken up in pain and a small group of us sat with him in the bush kitchen that morning as he lay by the fire. His wife and sister massaged his stomach and we all quietly shared storied from the previous night's fundraiser and talked about our plans for the upcoming week. Uncle Terry listened, occasionally grunted in pain and shifted in an effort to get comfortable. Without any last words, he took his last breath and we watched as his body went slack. Panic ensued as his wife tried to shake him back to life and everyone else began praying and sobbing. I stared blankly in shock as an all too familiar routine began...making calls to family, preparing the body, constructing the house of mourning, cooking for the masses. Once I was able to blink away some of the shock, my immediate impulse was to get on a plane and go far far away. Instead, I sobbed and simultaneously tried to help and stay out of the way.

I couldn't believe that it was happening to this community AGAIN. I was close with my Uncle. We had taught at the school together and he had taken part in a tour guide training that I had facilitated. We sat together on both the tourism and RTC committees. We had been to the volcano together 7 times and he had guided me around the island on a 7 day camping trip. He loved learning about life outside of Vanuatu and was always game for trying something new. It's hard to explain, but we just shared a bond.

If it's possible, I handled this death better. I knew what to expect in the coming days and I was able to brace myself for the coming of the masses and an emotionally exhausting week of mourning. I think I even embraced this death better...and began to see both deaths as a blessing, an end to suffering. I was appreciative of the intimate look at the Ni-Vanuatu custom and eventually even grew thankful for the opportunity to grieve.

Rest in Peace, Chief Ranleng Wilson and Uncle Terry Bong Rowor. Thank you both for touching my life. I'm thankful for you both and I'm grateful for the opportunity to have mourned your death.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

need your help!!

i have blogged briefly about my work in vanuatu with youth soccer. i have found it extremely rewarding and more importantly, i've found it extremely effective in terms of connecting and positively influencing the youth of ambrym.

all the positivity aside, our soccer program faces many challenges. we lack many things (coaching, refs, equipment), but one of our biggest challenges is that we don't have a playing field. our practice space is small...barely enough for 7v7 matches so we are constantly commuting to play. in july, we walked 2 hours each way for a tournament. it was a week long tournament and most of the girls made the walk back home every day because they had housework that they couldn't ignore.

we had the idea to build our own field so that next july we could host the tournament. the field would also give us a better practice space. we've included bleachers, wells, and storage space in the plan so that this field can live on and continue to host events for the community in the future.
through peace corps, we applied for a partnership grant and i'm proud to announce that it has been approved! this is how it works: the community contributes local materials (labor, sand, coral, water, timber) and i locate the donors for the rest of the materials (cement, copper roofing, iron, etc). the community will end up contributing 44% of the total project cost and the rest will be funded by my family and friends. many people have been asking how they can contribute to my work in vanuatu and this is how.

if you are interested in donating, please visit:

www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=461-041

instructions to donate are on the page.

thank you in advance for your support. not only on this project but throughout the past two years. i appreciate all of the packages, letters, and kind thoughts. it's been great to be home for the past month but i truly am looking forward to getting back to vanuatu and completing what i started. i look forward to connecting with you all at this time again next year. i hope i have many more successes to share!