7.27.2014

Week 18 - Independence Celebration week in Santo

[week 18] July 28 - Aug 3
-----------------------------------
(28) Monday - Ultimate frisbee for sure but not sure what else. 
                        Maybe I can actually order lumber to make a bed.
(29) Tuesday - work on website?
(30) Wednesday - DEMO SIS software. Independence Celebration. StarBar Came to town.
(31) Thursday - I officially get older... yeah happy birthday
(01) Friday - Laura and Allison leave.
(02) Saturday - Baby-doc movie time 
(03) Sunday - not sure.

==============

Monday - 
Met with Isabelle and got estimates for parts and such to make things. Busy day. Spoke with my parents via Skype.
==============

Tuesday-

   Very productive day, I went to get estimates for Katie Peckler for her water treatment system at her school, went and got estimates for building a murphy bed / screen door for my house. Went to the hospital to pickup my lost credit card that disappeared last friday they made a radio commercial to find it... still laughing about that. Then I went to Malo and Ratua island as viewed a site for a internet cafe I am going to help build here are some photos. Oh Isabelle wined and dined me too... the food was fabulous, chicken, pasta, fabulous cake, some kind of white russian drink... I was overwhelmed... Barely made it home on the 45 minute boat ride in the pitch black ocean.























Malo Island... and a work site for a computer lab
















Ratua Island / resort... best best hotel in all of Vanuatu... Beautiful beyond words.























We landed on this grass field in that little plane to be greeted by two WWII jeeps that look in perfect shape like the war in the pacific is still raging.























Resort with imported indonesian wood that was going to be scrap wood has a second life in Ratua even if it is being eaten up by carpenter ants... So pretty freaking cool art work too.






















------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Malo School room that we will attempt to turn into a computer library.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------















Isabelle and the principle at this school in Malo. We are looking at the potential site for the computer lab.























Possible Peace corps House if they finish building it
















An ancient Power generator... this tank should be replaced.









































Not sure what I captured except it looks like a face in the smoke.


















They made me this amazing drink




















Water Dancing, the sound of it is pretty cool, they are just using the water as an instrument.

------------------------

Wednesday-

Independence day. We went to the park walked around. I was not feeling it so I left.
I had a demo early in the day for a SIS (Student information system from Alma) They are going to help my school set this up. The system is amazingly cool and IT IS FREE... Amazing.
------------------------

Thursday 31st-

Work up at 5:31 am to listen to a really heavy rain storm. Sounds so fierce when rain is hitting a tin roof. So for my birthday I went to Hotel Nemo and had a pizza, got a haircut at headhunter barber shop, hang out with Mr. Mike and went to andbloculter nokemal not sure how to spell it, watched the sunset... met up with other peace corps at waterfront then went home and slept. 

------------------------


Friday - Aug 01

Today hope... get lumber for making stuff and paint for the lab floor so I can do some shit at my school... and trying to find a way to buy a grill so i can cook some decent food. But no place in town has a credit card reader so they will look into getting one.

Trying to get my principle to ok the license agreement for using ALMA SIS (student information system) then I can set it up and use it to record grades and other things the school want to do.


Finally got a ton of white pine... so I can make my crazy murphy bed.


Should have probably hungout with starbar and the others but I just had no motivation to spend the paltry pay on 5 dollar junk beers.

------------------------
Saturday - 
Sunday

-------------------------


7.21.2014

Week 17 - Childrens day and Rodeo

[week 17] July 21 - July 27
-----------------------------------
(21) Monday - Ultimate Frisbee night... and All Santo People are back in town. Should be fun.
(22) Tuesday - Plan to try and get estimate for lumber to make a bed for my house. 3 months no bed.
(23) Wednesday - Presented idea for school website... using wix. They love it. Went to missionaries house and stuffed my face with AWESOME mexican like food. 
(24) Thursday - Holiday no school. Organize house/plan next round of building projects.
(25) Friday - Research SIS (Student Information System) For school record keeping. Teach counterpart server / software. Guess Laura and Allison are visiting Santo-Land. The baby docs and I saw fireworks in the park...
(26) Saturday - No plans yet... but betting the beach and such. Wrong. Went to the hospital for bislama class and lost my wallet with my credit cards... they made a commercial on the radio but no luck. Laura showed up... we got paid... had drinks at club aqua, then rich's then I went home. They were nuts and went out for more... 
(27) Sunday - Rodeo day... some friends of mine rode the bulls... one broke his foot. Which is why I passed on riding because I would have probably gotten injured.

======================

Monday couple thoughts- Week is starting off slow... we biked so much over the weekend that I am shocked I am not in worse feeling shape today. Must be that I am accidentally getting healthier. Ate some fabulous pancakes this morning. I should open a pancake shop... but I might be my only regular customer. 

Not sure what else to say... Kind of bored today.

======================
Thursday 4:30 am
1-There is a student holiday, and a parade is being held... will go for sure.
2-The new round of British "Baby-docs" are in town (jo, sarah, nashim, tom, ... 6 more names blurry) showed up this week at our frisbee game... love them.
3-Starting thinking about recording what I consider interesting bits of news about my location in this site... like how the former administration did, mostly in stealing funds from the college which is why its lucky he is gone and the new leadership is using the money to build back up the school. I am lucky.
And how every year the ocean is encroaching 5-10 feet inland... maybe in decade or two my house will be beach from property. 

Parade:
















There was a rodeo in town on Friday: 






















=======================

Bull riding
=======================













7.14.2014

Week 16 - blue hole and beach days

Week Sixteen July [14-20]

(
14) Monday - Fixed Rex computer second time with new network card. Check on part found some got quote.

(15) Tuesday - Hope and pray big sista comes into town with my parts promised me for the 10th time. Took some photos of the going away celebration for the New Caledonian kids at the school

(16) Wednesday - Ask for paint to paint the lab floor. Try and get parts at store for computer.

(17) Thursday - Fixed a PC with mostly salvaged parts from other computers and a new power supply from town... thankful that my school paid 150 for a power supply. Watched enter the dragon with my Nivan friends in the workshop Erin and Edward.

(18) Friday - Fixed grading computer putting it on the network/
(19) Saturday - Million dollar point...biked out to the beach and enjoyed the semi choppy waters.
(20) Sunday- Blue hole day... and movie night... watched Lego movie with kate, brian, katie, john, mike stafford, tim ward and me...

======


fun week

7.06.2014

Week 15 - building up my house

[week 15] July 7- July 13

PLAN A:

(07) Monday - Get gas for stove, talk with principle about computers,
                        money for next round of projects. Cut the board and start building door and install it.
                        a) Paint supplies
                        b) Wood for filter boxes
                        c) Wood for tables and benches
                        d) software need for school
                        e) Hardware for server span drive
                        f) Ask about bed / gas tank
(08) Tuesday - Start making server containment box.
(09) Wednesday - Get paint for floor and start painting
(10) Thursday - Finish door bathroom
(11) Friday - no plan
(12) Saturday - no plan
(13) Sunday- no plan
=============================
What I actually did:
=============================
(07) Monday - refilled gas tank and increased from smallest to a size or two larger.
(08) Tuesday - started making frame of door
(09) Wednesday - checked mail, install door.
(10) Thursday - Fixed Rex Computer search for memory
(11) Friday - Parts did not show up at e-tech
(12) Saturday - HUnter's B-Day performance at Rich's school...
(13) Sunday- Hunters B-Day continued we went to Port Orly for him all day with a bunch of ozies.

===========


It was a productive week. Getting parts and fixing a machine was a good deal, and fixing up the house again. We were supposed to watch movies and such but Hunter's B-day took up all the time. 

Weeks 12, 13, 14 - Fixing bathroom

Weeks just pile up so fast... have to write em down or I forget what i did.

[week 14] June 30- July 6
(30) Monday - did nothing
(01) Tuesday - did nothing
(02) Wednesday - tried to fix a PC/ got memory
(03) Thursday - got lumber for closet/bathroom door
(04) Friday - Y-Wamers left for home... cute one might write me. Doubt it. Spoke to parents for a bit
(05) Saturday - Ran out of gas in stove. Had that great free beer night at Aqua.. 
(06) Sunday - watched a movie spiderman 2... IM'ed with Mary Krotz. aka Buttons to annoy her.
 ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ----------
[week 13] June 23-29 Second week of training no counterpart. Best moments were the french music festival... hanging with Lynn A and Lynn O and others in Vila G25 rocks.
 ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ----------
[week 12] June 16-22 training in Vila with counterpart...
 ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ----------
[week 11] June 9-15 slow week as I prepare to leave to training.

Was a long and confusing week... returning to kicking ass mode after two weeks of blowing all my money in Vila. Thankful that I no longer have to be there for a long long time... 9 Months.


Trying my best now to get back on track. Building the lab up again in prep for maybe winning the click grant... 20 computers. We need to paint the floor with real f*ing paint, build tables, rewire the room, fix the lights, the ceiling fans, build containment filter system for the PC's and I need to install a bathroom door, get my gas tank filled and buy a new one... lots of things.