Hey everybody!
For those who are not aware already, we have arrived safely back in the US. Okay, we arrived safely back almost 2 weeks ago, but I was distracted trying to go through my 600 unread emails. (I don't recommend not checking your email for 6 weeks, for those of you who were considering it…)
I have a few more updates I want to get up, but it could be a bit since my best friend is getting married in a week and a half (!!!!) so I will be a bit busy with some things there.
Thanks for following!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Happy Birthday wishes to all!
Just want to send a shout out to all my peeps whose birthdays I've missed while I've been across the globe:
My bff Alicia-face (omg, we're so OLD! But let's keep being besties forevah!)
My Bumpa.
My cousins Jimmy, Ev, Corey, and Blakey, and my Aunt Mary.
Happy half-birthdays to my cousins Nick and Dylan (sorry I missed your party, boys!).
(Did I miss anyone? If I did, sorry! And happy birthday to you too!)
:)
My bff Alicia-face (omg, we're so OLD! But let's keep being besties forevah!)
My Bumpa.
My cousins Jimmy, Ev, Corey, and Blakey, and my Aunt Mary.
Happy half-birthdays to my cousins Nick and Dylan (sorry I missed your party, boys!).
(Did I miss anyone? If I did, sorry! And happy birthday to you too!)
:)
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Mifela stap lo Port Vila nao.
Our group got back a couple of days ago from our last trip to the outer islands. We'll now be in the capital, Port Vila, until we return to the US in 8 days. (What! 8 days! Where has the time gone!)
Returning to Vila after field work in the outer islands is a little bit like coming home. We stay in the same hotels each time in Vila, and we're all relatively familiar with the town now, so Vila comes with a degree of comfort that we often don't get in the outer islands.
Here are some of the things we look forward to on our return to Vanuatu's capital city:
- showers
- warm showers
- beds
- not having to sleep under mosquito nets to keep the mosquitos, bugs, geckos, and rodents away from your sleeping body
- wearing shorts (it's a little risqué for women to show their thighs in Vanuatu, but Vila is highly modernized and full of tourists anyway, so it's not as big a deal)
- mirrors (have you ever not looked at yourself for 2 weeks?)
- running water
- FLUSHING TOILETS
- internet
- not going to bed at 7:30 PM because what else can you do? (sun sets around 5:30 PM here)
- not having the roosters on the other side of the wall wake you at 5 AM
- food that does not contain starch
Wish us luck!
* The term "city", in this case, should be interpreted rather loosely.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Yu haerem kava?
Today, we shall discuss a very important topic on many of the islands of the South Pacific, but particularly on those islands of the nation of Vanuatu. That topic is kava.
Kava is a drink derived from the root of the plant Piper methysticm. Kava is a sedative which basically makes you very mellow while still being quite aware of what's going on around you. It also makes your lips and tongue a little numb, as well as your fingers and toes, if you drink enough of it. The root of the kava plant is made into a drink by grinding the root and filtering water through those grounds, then drinking the filtered liquid. Traditionally, the grounds are created by chewing the roots then fitering water through a pile of what is basically cud. No one seems to mind sharing spit in this manner, however, which could be due to the fact that within about 15 minutes you could not care less.
Now, kava has some great effects, but don't let anyone fool you--it's disgusting. You cannot sip on the drink, you need to chug it. If it doesn't make it down all in one shot, you will start gagging. It kills your appetite and makes you really sleepy. It can make you feel really slow and give you a rubbish walk (which looks a little bit like a sailor on a ship the first day of sail...or maybe a sailor back on land at the end of a long voyage). It also makes you spit a lot. Often, it makes people puke.
Yet it is still consumed nearly nightly by many islanders. And much of our group.
There are some benefits to drinking kava so often. It soothes your aches and pains after a day of hiking. It helps you sleep when their are rats and spiders running across your bed on the floor. It also makes for some interesting stories, usually for the people who are not drinking the kava (or at least not as affected by it).
I personally find kava disgusting and the only effect I get from it is increased tiredness. Lame. (Although, when Chim and I helped make our own kakae [chewed] kava, I felt pretty slow the next morning.) Katie has pretty much the same experience. So we watch other people get silly off kava. We spent about 3 minutes poking Cheng's weak spot before he realized what we were doing. We tease Chim when he goes into a daze after his one shell. We are amazed when Harold stops talking. We watch all of them bump into walls as they get tugboated or taxied back (a tugboat or a taxi is just when someone walks you home because you aren't steady enough on your own). I'm still waiting to see Koji's kava walk--I hear it's great.
P.S.: The title of this post is a common Bislama phrase you will hear at the nakamal (kava drinking place). "Yu haerem kava?" means "Do you feel the kava?" Following this question is often the question "Howmas shell yu gat?", asking how many shells, or cups, or kava you've had that are making you feel the way you do.
Kava is a drink derived from the root of the plant Piper methysticm. Kava is a sedative which basically makes you very mellow while still being quite aware of what's going on around you. It also makes your lips and tongue a little numb, as well as your fingers and toes, if you drink enough of it. The root of the kava plant is made into a drink by grinding the root and filtering water through those grounds, then drinking the filtered liquid. Traditionally, the grounds are created by chewing the roots then fitering water through a pile of what is basically cud. No one seems to mind sharing spit in this manner, however, which could be due to the fact that within about 15 minutes you could not care less.
Now, kava has some great effects, but don't let anyone fool you--it's disgusting. You cannot sip on the drink, you need to chug it. If it doesn't make it down all in one shot, you will start gagging. It kills your appetite and makes you really sleepy. It can make you feel really slow and give you a rubbish walk (which looks a little bit like a sailor on a ship the first day of sail...or maybe a sailor back on land at the end of a long voyage). It also makes you spit a lot. Often, it makes people puke.
Yet it is still consumed nearly nightly by many islanders. And much of our group.
There are some benefits to drinking kava so often. It soothes your aches and pains after a day of hiking. It helps you sleep when their are rats and spiders running across your bed on the floor. It also makes for some interesting stories, usually for the people who are not drinking the kava (or at least not as affected by it).
I personally find kava disgusting and the only effect I get from it is increased tiredness. Lame. (Although, when Chim and I helped make our own kakae [chewed] kava, I felt pretty slow the next morning.) Katie has pretty much the same experience. So we watch other people get silly off kava. We spent about 3 minutes poking Cheng's weak spot before he realized what we were doing. We tease Chim when he goes into a daze after his one shell. We are amazed when Harold stops talking. We watch all of them bump into walls as they get tugboated or taxied back (a tugboat or a taxi is just when someone walks you home because you aren't steady enough on your own). I'm still waiting to see Koji's kava walk--I hear it's great.
P.S.: The title of this post is a common Bislama phrase you will hear at the nakamal (kava drinking place). "Yu haerem kava?" means "Do you feel the kava?" Following this question is often the question "Howmas shell yu gat?", asking how many shells, or cups, or kava you've had that are making you feel the way you do.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Still safe from the sharks and cannibals.
Hello all, and sorry for not having posted earlier! Let me give you a brief run down of what's been going on since I left the States:
Tuesday, June 21, we arrived in Vanuatu after a day-long stopover in Fiji. We then had one day to get acclimated to Vanuatu in it's capital city of Port Vila before we rushed off for the field--that is, the outer islands. We stopped in the northern island of Ambae for four nights, where it was extremely rainy, despite being the dry season. Ambae in all of our memories will be permanently associated with rain, mud, long and uncomfortable boat rides, and more rain.
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On June 26, we returned to Vila, all very excited for showers and internet. We got our showers, but we discovered that internet was down on the entire island (Efate). It was partly up the next day, but only at a few places, mostly where we had to pay, and I wasn't desperate enough for the web to pay. Ergo, you all had no update last stop in Vila--sorry about that!
After one short day in Vila, we returned again to the field, this time headed for a longer trip in the southern islands. We first stopped at Aneityum, an island on which Akira, our Japanese counterpart, eradicated malaria a number of years ago (evidently, some of the islanders are so grateful for what Akira did for Aneityum that they named their child after him!). The weather was good for most of this trip, but we were a little disappointed in the number of people who showed up for the survey, since we generally get the entire population and we were a bit short this time. (We should still have plenty of data to get good analysis, however.)
Our last full day on the island of Aneityum was July 4. After working every day through the rain of Ambae and generally nice weather of Aneityum, we decided we really needed a day off. Besides, it was a holiday. So all the Americans spend the lovely sunny day on the coast of Mystery Island, a small island off the coast of Aneityum which usually serves as a stop for cruise ships. On this day, however, it was just us and a few Ni-Vanuatu from Aneityum preparing for the arrival of a cruise ship the following day. If you have never spent a day on an island by yourself, it is an experience I would fully recommend.
We were back on Mystery Island the following day to catch our flight to Futuna, the next island on our itinerary. While waiting for the plane to arrive, we chilled with the tourists arriving on Mystery Island for the day, managing to snag 10 free beers from a very generous Australian who felt we deserved them because our cause for being in Vanuatu was worthy. (We couldn't actually buy the drinks ourselves because the cruise company was the one selling them, and they would only take credits from people on the cruise, no cash.) It was quite neat wandering around the island, chatting with our hosts from Aneityum selling their wares, and watching the tourists look overweight and pale. It was also a bit stunning to see so many white people in one place--we generally stick out quite a lot!
The trip to Futuna lasted five days and came with remarkably good weather (since we were in the southern islands, farther from the equator, it was also relatively cool, which made it nice to have the sun all day). Futuna has no roads and no cars, so we spent a fair amount of time hiking from village to village and shipping our heavy equipment via boat. Nonwithstanding a small boating accident and some slips on the hikes, it was a relatively straightforward survey--probably the most pleasant so far! (Excepting the rats in our guest house.) Interestingly, this was the first time we had done a survey for this project on Futuna; thus it was very good to have had such a nice experience on the island.
Yesterday evening (July 9), we returned to Vila. One of our group, Kelsey, left early this morning to catch her flight back. Akria and one of his students also return to Japan sometime today. The rest of us are enjoying a few days of rest before we either head out for some more surveying later in the week.
(Well, I guess that wasn't so brief an update after all...)
Catch y'all soon with some more updates!
P.S. Happy Fourth of July, everyone, and Bumpa, I hope you had a wonderful birthday!
Tuesday, June 21, we arrived in Vanuatu after a day-long stopover in Fiji. We then had one day to get acclimated to Vanuatu in it's capital city of Port Vila before we rushed off for the field--that is, the outer islands. We stopped in the northern island of Ambae for four nights, where it was extremely rainy, despite being the dry season. Ambae in all of our memories will be permanently associated with rain, mud, long and uncomfortable boat rides, and more rain.
On June 26, we returned to Vila, all very excited for showers and internet. We got our showers, but we discovered that internet was down on the entire island (Efate). It was partly up the next day, but only at a few places, mostly where we had to pay, and I wasn't desperate enough for the web to pay. Ergo, you all had no update last stop in Vila--sorry about that!
After one short day in Vila, we returned again to the field, this time headed for a longer trip in the southern islands. We first stopped at Aneityum, an island on which Akira, our Japanese counterpart, eradicated malaria a number of years ago (evidently, some of the islanders are so grateful for what Akira did for Aneityum that they named their child after him!). The weather was good for most of this trip, but we were a little disappointed in the number of people who showed up for the survey, since we generally get the entire population and we were a bit short this time. (We should still have plenty of data to get good analysis, however.)
Our last full day on the island of Aneityum was July 4. After working every day through the rain of Ambae and generally nice weather of Aneityum, we decided we really needed a day off. Besides, it was a holiday. So all the Americans spend the lovely sunny day on the coast of Mystery Island, a small island off the coast of Aneityum which usually serves as a stop for cruise ships. On this day, however, it was just us and a few Ni-Vanuatu from Aneityum preparing for the arrival of a cruise ship the following day. If you have never spent a day on an island by yourself, it is an experience I would fully recommend.
We were back on Mystery Island the following day to catch our flight to Futuna, the next island on our itinerary. While waiting for the plane to arrive, we chilled with the tourists arriving on Mystery Island for the day, managing to snag 10 free beers from a very generous Australian who felt we deserved them because our cause for being in Vanuatu was worthy. (We couldn't actually buy the drinks ourselves because the cruise company was the one selling them, and they would only take credits from people on the cruise, no cash.) It was quite neat wandering around the island, chatting with our hosts from Aneityum selling their wares, and watching the tourists look overweight and pale. It was also a bit stunning to see so many white people in one place--we generally stick out quite a lot!
The trip to Futuna lasted five days and came with remarkably good weather (since we were in the southern islands, farther from the equator, it was also relatively cool, which made it nice to have the sun all day). Futuna has no roads and no cars, so we spent a fair amount of time hiking from village to village and shipping our heavy equipment via boat. Nonwithstanding a small boating accident and some slips on the hikes, it was a relatively straightforward survey--probably the most pleasant so far! (Excepting the rats in our guest house.) Interestingly, this was the first time we had done a survey for this project on Futuna; thus it was very good to have had such a nice experience on the island.
Yesterday evening (July 9), we returned to Vila. One of our group, Kelsey, left early this morning to catch her flight back. Akria and one of his students also return to Japan sometime today. The rest of us are enjoying a few days of rest before we either head out for some more surveying later in the week.
(Well, I guess that wasn't so brief an update after all...)
Catch y'all soon with some more updates!
P.S. Happy Fourth of July, everyone, and Bumpa, I hope you had a wonderful birthday!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
"Don't get eaten by sharks or cannibals!"
These are the words of advice I received from my eight-year-old cousin, Kate, on describing to her my upcoming trip to Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific.
She’s not totally off her mark here: sharks are a real concern in the island’s waters, and the Ni-Vanuatu (Vanuatu natives) historically practiced cannibalism.
Kate, you can rest assured that I do not plan to become a snack to either man or beast.
Pretty sure I actually did manage to say it all in caps.
She’s not totally off her mark here: sharks are a real concern in the island’s waters, and the Ni-Vanuatu (Vanuatu natives) historically practiced cannibalism.
Kate, you can rest assured that I do not plan to become a snack to either man or beast.
So, yeah, Vanuatu seems kind of a random place to go—why a poor island nation in the middle of the South Pacific? (Check out Wikipedia for some background information on Vanuatu.)
It’s all in the name of research, my friends. And eventually finishing a PhD.
A couple of my professors have a long-term study running in Vanuatu to study the effects of modernization on health. (This is a pretty complex topic, but generally what we see when Western lifestyles and diets are introduced to developing areas is an increase in chronic diseases, like obesity and diabetes, and a decrease in infectious diseases, like malaria and cholera.) Late last summer, I heard that these professors were ready to head back to Vanuatu for another round of the study; I said “I WANT TO GO.”
It’s all in the name of research, my friends. And eventually finishing a PhD.
A couple of my professors have a long-term study running in Vanuatu to study the effects of modernization on health. (This is a pretty complex topic, but generally what we see when Western lifestyles and diets are introduced to developing areas is an increase in chronic diseases, like obesity and diabetes, and a decrease in infectious diseases, like malaria and cholera.) Late last summer, I heard that these professors were ready to head back to Vanuatu for another round of the study; I said “I WANT TO GO.”
Pretty sure I actually did manage to say it all in caps.
Now it’s finally summer and on Friday (that’s technically tomorrow, as it’s now Thursday—yikes) I leave the wonderful homeland of New England for the warmth, tectonic movements, and radioactivity of the Pacific.
And, of course, the sharks and cannibals.
I'll be doing my best to update this blog as often as possible so you all know what I'm up to (and that I'm still alive). No guarantees of regularity, however, since I don't currently know our schedule, and I don't know where we'll have internet access and where we won't.
I shall return to you all in August. I intend to have many pictures to share and a great tan.
Wish me luck! Bon voyage!
And, of course, the sharks and cannibals.
I'll be doing my best to update this blog as often as possible so you all know what I'm up to (and that I'm still alive). No guarantees of regularity, however, since I don't currently know our schedule, and I don't know where we'll have internet access and where we won't.
I shall return to you all in August. I intend to have many pictures to share and a great tan.
Wish me luck! Bon voyage!
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