I arrived in Port Vila, Vanuatu, on Sunday, October 7 at about 11 a.m. local time. I had a long and mostly boring trip from Los Angeles (where I had my staging) through Auckland and onto Port Vila, except for one minor disaster. The Air New Zealand staff in LA made me check my rolling suitcase, which happened to carry not only all of my electronics (eep!) but also my island change of clothes. (!!!) Background info: Although the rules about dress in Port Vila are different than they are in the rest of Vanuatu, it's not common for women to wear shorts or trousers, unless they're gardening or swimming--some sort of physical work. Even then, most women wear men's board shorts rather than anything more close-fitting, and in many villages, in public places women will tie a lava lava (like a sarong) around their waist on top of their shorts, anyway. At the time, I happened to be wearing ancient yoga pants, a tank top, and this old sweatshirt from Kappa booth my freshman year, and I had this horrible image of showing up on the first day of my stay as like the antithesis of a team player. You know: Hello! I have arrived! And I am not going to listen to any of your puny taboos about dress! Luckily, Katelynn (another trainee) had the dress she'd worn on the night before staging tucked into her carryon, so she was kind enough to let me borrow it. Crisis avoided. Whew.
When we flew in over Vanuatu, the landscape looked incredibly gorgeous from out the window. The joke is that Vanuatu isn't Peace Corps, it's Beach Corps, and the beaches did legitimately look incredible. It was shocking to finally sweep down over this totally verdant countryside: palm trees everywhere, and so, so, so green.
The airport in Port Vila is tiny. I'm not exactly certain how many runways there are, but there is exactly one baggage carousel in the entire country, if that says anything. At all the other airports throughout the country (and air is a major form of travel throughout the islands), you have to wait on the tarmac and pick up your baggage yourself. As Peace Corps volunteers, we got to go through the residents' line, so immigration was quick, and since I don't think anyone declared anything during customs, we got waved right through. I personally lied like a rug; I brought about 25 lbs of spices and food with me, and I'd heard stories that customs sometimes takes things, even though it's mostly meant to be an anti-drug and anti-foreign plants deal. So yep. Shhh.
When we got outside, we were greeted by a line of staff and current volunteers. It was pretty much a blur, to be honest--they gave us a lava lava, which is like a sarong, a sulu sulu, which is like a lei, except made out of leaves and therefore itchy as hell, and a green coconut to drink from. We shook everyone's hands, took a few pictures looking incredibly gross and greasy, and one of the volunteers from G23 who was on her last week obligingly whacked open a few coconuts with the blunt side of her bush knife. Afterwards, we all headed into taxis with one or two volunteers (Betsy and Elyse from G24 were our guides) and a staff member (I forget ...) for a quick drive through Vila.
Vila is pretty small and the amenities vary widely. I heard that at the food stands behind the Mama's Market, you can get 2 or 3 meals' worth of island kakae--sweet potato, rice, and meat with sauce--for like 350 vatu, or like $4. But if you go to a resort or a nice restaurant, you might as well just open your wallet and let them just take everything out, since they're going to, anyway. Vila is not actually a cheap place to live or stay by any means -- it's an island economy, meaning that they have to carry everything in. Prices for food are about the same as they are in America or more expensive. Chocolate, for example, is really sas we -- really expensive. A big bar of Cadbury can cost you about 680 vatu, or like 7.50, 8$. But like a beer at a bar can be like 4.50 vatu, or like 5$, and a can of Coke is like 80 vatu at the store, like 85 cents. On the other hand, clothes here can sometimes be really cheap--you can get an island dress for like 800 vatu, or only a little more than the price of a big chocolate bar, and I just bought a skirt today for 500 vt. (Today being date of typing, rather than date of the story.) Anyway, slight digression aside, Vila is an interesting place. It's more western than the rest of Vanuatu--sometimes you'll see Ni-Van women dressing in short skirts or shorter shorts--but it's definitely a split kind of a place, with very different amenities for Ni-Vans, expatriates, and tourists, all of whom have different price points they're willing to uphold. Also interestingly, it has a very different racial makeup than the rest of Vanuatu--there are a large number of Chinese immigrants in Vila, many of whom are small business people, running stores generally known as 'Chinese.' If you go to a Chinese shop, they sell all sorts of dry goods--clothes, pencils, ipods, soap, light bulbs, plastic containers, bush knives, cups--basically anything, but the quality can vary widely.
Some of the Chinese goods are really great--I bought these great Chinese pens at the stationary store--but sometimes they can be pretty shabby.
No comments:
Post a Comment