25 Things

25 things I dislike after a year+ in Vanuatu:
1. Every child in my village coming to my door to beg for lollies. One at a time.
2. Rats.
3. Sores.
4. People jacking my broken umbrellas. Yes, they're broken, but there's no umbrella store on Tongariki! I still need that...
5. Walking through the rain with a towel over my head because someone took my umbrella.
6. Soft mud.
7. Breadfruit.
8. Being called fat fat on the daily.
9. Being told that someone will find a local boy for me to marry, but that I should be quick about it.
10. Nangae.
11. When my uncle want to drink kava, but doesn't start preparing it until 8:30 at night.
12. The phrase "Awo, missus!" And other forms of getting sung out to.
13. Cruise Ship Day.
14. Getting PC permission to travel by water. My island has no airport, so I always need permission to travel...
15. MV Brooklyn will never come to Tongariki when I want it to.
16. Bia? Lo aelan blo mi, i no gat. Hemi minim se mi no save dring wan bia sapos mi wantem, eva.
17. Drying clothes during the rainy season.
18. Sore season.
19. Scary spiders in my swim house.
20. The kids in Kindy, Class 1, and Class 2 who hit, cry, and tattletale all the time sometimes in language.
21. Starting fires with wet wood.
22. All of my electronics except for my iphone and mobile phone have broken.
23. This one song that gets played on repeat. The singer, who carved up some people in a Chinese store, and who's still in jail, is singing about how he's called a criminal because justice is unfair and he couldn't find a job. Bluh.
24. Waking up sweaty because it's that hot.
25. Roosters.

25 things I like after a year+ in Vanuatu:
1. Manioc laplap with thick coconut cream. There. I said it.
2. Enough time to read everything, including all of those classic books I was supposed to read but ... didn't? Divine Comedy, East of Eden, All Quiet on the Western Front, Gulag Archipelago, you name it.
3. Living out my romantic isolated South Pacific island fantasies daily.
4. Hammocks.
5. Getting little kids to learn letter sounds. They get so psyched when it finally starts to click.
6. I have never felt this stress free in my life. College was a pressure cooker. Peace Corps is at a slow, sweet pace.
7. My host family. My host family in training was pretty messed up--getting drunk and slapping the wife around kind--and I was really worried that my real host family would also be a big mess. They are beautiful, though. I didn't think I would feel this emotionally attached to them, but Mami Esther and Dadi Paul are the sweetest, kindest, etc.
8. I feel kinda pretty in an Island dress, not going to lie.
9. MANGO SEASON.
10. Climbing coconut trees. Admittedly I've only done it twice, but ...
11. Using the cargo ship as a diving board.
12. G25.
13. Long lazy afternoons.
14. Aelan kakae flavored gelato in town! New thing!
15. Kava. There. I also said it too.
16. The fact that I am tangentially fake related to half of the country. From Man Shepherds i gat plante famili long Vila.
17. Having children check your head for louse is like getting a head massage, with bonus compliments about how "hea blo yu i olsem blo wan dolly."
18. Playing stupid games with the kids like "dive after the white rock".
19. BANANA CAKE.
20. Talking about aelan blong mi.
21. I will never ever feel like I missed out on a bush experience in the Peace Corps. I get my perfect 1960s PC fantasy lived out daily.
22. My flock of little house girls, who always come over every time I'm trying to clean anything up or cook anything in my kitchen.
23. I didn't think I would develop the relationships that I have with my village -- and my counterpart is boss. Elsie is the single most competent person in the world. She is so cool. The longer I know her, the more I like her. She is wonderful. She understands westerners and is so good at everything. I can't even describe it--incoherence.
24. Church sing sings.
25. Yufla...