awo, ples i hot.

Topics of the moment:
- heat
- water shortage
- health workshop

It has been UNBEARABLY hot and humid for the past two weeks. Motalava JUST reappeared through the haze for the first time in six days. (And we know it’s haze, because we have no air pollution here). It’s just ridiculous. Last weekend I was at Lucy’s where there is a thermometer and it said 84, but we didn’t believe it. We were absolutely dripping. To help along your imagination with the humidity, picture yourself in a kitchen in New Orleans. Now boil some pasta. That’s what it feels like.

Because the air is so wet, you’d think it would rain, right? That’s where Mother Nature is toying with us. As of last Wednesday, it hadn’t rained in 11 days. Both Wednesday and Thursday it drizzled and I got really excited, but it wasn’t enough to actually do anything. Most personal water tanks are dry, and most government buildings that have tanks are starting to run low. Mine still has a tiny bit because we’re trying to save it for drinking water for the entire neighborhood. Two end-blong-field households that have a decent pipeline to the water supply still have water, although it’s pretty dirty. But my pipe is dry 9 days out of 10 anyway. Sola Proper is doing pretty well with piping, but Lucy says even hers, which always runs, is starting to just dribble.

I’m using the creek for laundry and hair-washing, which is usual except that it’s become a requirement instead of a choice. A couple of evenings I’ve bathed in the ocean because I’m too tired (lazy?) to walk all the way to the creek, and my house is only four houses in from the beach. I’m also carrying buckets of ocean water for washing dishes, cooking (eliminates the need for salt!) and flushing my toilet. (Can anybody tell me if this is bad for the pipes?) The sky clouds over around noon every day, but the rain just won’t come, and it clears up again by the time the sun goes down.

I do find it pretty ironic that five days into cyclone season we’re dryer than we were during “dry season.” I bet soon we’ll get a tropical depression that will just dump on us, flood everything, and muddy up the creek and the water supply. Mother Nature would get a good laugh from that. As everyone says here, “Wanem samting ia? [What's that thing?] Climate change!!”

This week I attended a reproductive health workshop run by Lucy and the Torba HIV Focal Person (her host-country counterpart). We had all the Year 7 and 8 science teachers from the province come in. It was sort of a Training of Trainers, because the teachers are expected to take all this information back and teach it in their classes. I went because Lucy is hoping to use me as her follow-up person next year for monitoring and evaluation – which will be AWESOME because it means I will get to visit a lot of different schools I haven’t been to yet!

But anyway I learned a TON. There was some stuff I already knew from Mom duh, and from school and stuff. But I tuned out 9th grade Health & Wellness like everyone else did so a lot of it seemed new and interesting. Like ovulation?? Totally didn’t know all that. And did you know that sperm can live for FIVE days??? Crazy.

There was also a lot of interesting conversation by the teachers on how to teach this topic in a country were talking about sex is still completely taboo. But, this is also a country that saw 250 teenage pregnancies in 2009 (in a population of only 243,000); a country with a 25% Chlamydia rate.

HIV/AIDS was also a big part of the workshop. There have only been 5 reported cases of HIV in Vanuatu’s history (3 of which are still alive), but in 2008 there were 55,000 cases in our neighbor Papua New Guinea. So they say epidemic is “on our doorstep.”

Kerry was here all week to use my computer, so it was fun having a visitor. Next week they’ll be opening the new library that she’s helped with at the French school on Motalava, and I’m headed over with the Francophone ZCA. I was just told I have to give small toktok on behalf of Provincial Education. AGH!! You know you’ve been here for a while when they start asking you to give speeches.

Then I’m going BACK to Motalava on Friday (Monday is just a day trip) to spend the weekend just for fun. Kerry only has 2 weeks left before she starts the month-long journey back home. (Including 2 weeks in Vila, a week in Fiji, and a week in LA). I get to go to her last kakae (goodbye feast) at her school!

So that’s what’s going on in my life. I totally forgot about Halloween (until Mom texted me), but it’s more difficult to ignore November. Please eat a lot of pumpkin pie for me. Uncle Scott, I’m lookin at you.