(22) Monday
Made it to Vila. Ate some great food and drank a few beers at the brewery with the g26ers and 27ers.
Whew long day.
(23) Tuesday
All Peace Corps in Vanuatu met with the Peace Corps Director
Carrie Hessler-Radelet
In July 2013, President Barack Obama nominatedCarrie Hessler-Radelet as the 19th director of the Peace Corps. Since 2010, Hessler-Radelet had served as Peace Corps Deputy Director and Acting Director. From 1981-83, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Western Samoa with her husband, Steve.
- and here are some photos:
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(24) Wednesday
Finished with the presentation for MST today and now doing some paperwork to take a trip to tana and take some photos of the volcano.
Maybe going to meet up with Isabelle and plan the last bit of work at Malo.
(25) Thursday
Time is winding down for Vila days... tahnkful it is almost over. I meet with Isabelle today... try to schedule a plane for Tanna and take some photos of the volcano. Then head back to santoland.
Training in like few minutes i guess but it's mostly just sitting around.
Can't wait to finish the project on Malo and be done with the work.
(26) Friday
Scheduling a flight to Tanna to take some photos of the volcano and then back to santo and finishing the malo project.
So far this was a decent week... managed to fix a computer / printer setup at a small school yesterday
and now i am about to head out and find some breakfast.
Ran to the hotel grabbed stuff and then took off to the airport and made it to my flight forgot my food at the office... and I was off to tanna. No plan just get there. See what happens.
Long story... but man I have lots.
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So I took Michael Hawkins advice and went to
Lénakel then to
Imayo Village. First off. I don't know anyone there... Dave Brandwood is in santo or somewhere.. so I went and said Peace Corps over and over and door magically opened. Those towns love Peace Corps.
Here is a photo to start off the story though... picture is taken Saturday 11am::
These kids were my guides... started with one from the village by the time we got the volcano there were 10 more. Pretty funny these are the core troop. The kid in the red his name is Mila... roughly a 12 year old boy... my niece in the states is named Mila.
When I first saw him he had this tattoo on his face of a line and a tusk then the next day it was gone. I forgot how kids like to use markers to make temporary tattoo's here. As we walked to the volcano "Mt.
Yasur" the kids harvested a bunch of coconuts. These trees were very tall and these kids are fearless check this out:
As we got closer to Yasur they told me we would take a more direct route up straight towards the place where it launches bombs in the air. The ground was soft at the base but as we started our climb up the ground is like a thin ice, hard on the surface but extremely brittle you kick your foot into the side of the mount and under the thin layer it is soft and you can make a foothold. The higher we went the more rocky the surface got. It was sort of scary because when you grab a bolder it break free in your hand and starts rolling down the mount. The kids like to play a game of roll the rocks at their friends below and laugh and laugh.
This is a photo taken right before we start our hike up
With me in it:
The first person I met where these ozzies on the plane ride over. They were going to go to Lenakel and they offered me a ride, PERFECT. Step one completed. Got there free too which is not always the case it can cost you 10 bucks or more.
These guys:
The older guy is some missionary dude and he was semi shocked that I had no arrangements when I got to Tanna, he was like you got a tent or a place to stay, nope, and nope... just trying to get towards Imayo and once I do that I will go from there. He's like "I like your style." I was thinking I have a style? OK.
Then after I got to this school I met Junior Nikiatu this dude:
Very cool guy... He helped arrange getting me a truck at the end of the day and it can be very pricey to get to the other side of Tanna at the end of the day... He showed me the grave of his great grandfather and the first big church build in town that collapsed back in feb, had been standing i guess since 1800's. I made a video of his story but its one gig so too big to load here... might post it on utube and make a link to it.
This is the truck driver Sanga he drove me to imayo:
I did not even have to pay but I gave the guy 1000 vatu / ten bucks. He was great. Good at navigating those really tough roads on tanna.
They look like this:
Well after like two hours of driving and I drank a few tuskers we get to Imayo. I want to say I-Mayo like the mayo clinic but its pronounced e-may-o. Anyway... we get there and I meet Jake Taylor's old host family Rasai Jeffet, their kid Mila and his old dog Bruce Lee.
Here is the host family I stayed with and some photos of the house I lived in for a few days.
I should have taken a photo of the dog. Glad that his dog is alive two year later. He is missing one eye because he was bugging someone too much and I guess that person bashed his head with a stick or hit him so hard that one eye went goofy. Pretty nice dog still. He was happy to have a dude pet his head he sat parked next to me most of the time there.
There was lots of cyclone damage all around the village... Jake's old house was knocked down from Hurricane Pam:
Here is the house I stayed in... I think it is Rasia's main house:
So then I really wanted to get to the volcano as fast as possible... night time is the best to see the fire... I was not sure it would happen but two hours later a truck pulled up and we headed to the volcano and some nighttime photos... this is the entry way. wish I had a better photo grr...
and then there was fire:
So many of them are blurry but a few turned out gold.
There were others on top too got one silhouette shot:
(27) Saturday
Amazing day... started with basically eating my ritural nothing and maybe a small bag od peanuts... then I was off with Mila... this 12 year old Nivan kid to walk up the volcano.
Going up:
The river gorge area thingy:
Making the treck up:
Looking into the pit of fire:
Way way up on top:
This is a photo from day two: going down...
(28) Sunday
So never made my flight back on sunday... things got weird... but that is ok...
Hung out at Tanna Lodge and met some kids at the beach took lots of photos:
