The World Changes Every Day

It would be fair for readers of this blog to wonder if I have a job here at all, or if my Peace Corps "service" just consists of being flown around to ever more beautiful islands, spending time on the beach and going on adventures.  Usually work for a Peace Corps Response volunteer starts right away, and in fact all of the other Response volunteers here in Vanuatu were packed off to offices around Port Vila right after their two-week training to start 9-5 desk jobs.  My case is a little unusual, but I am here to do a job, and here's some more info on what it is. I was invited to Vanuatu to work on a program called Youth at Work, a program organized by the South Pacific Community   (SPC).  The program's core goal is to help out of work youth find employment, usually through starting small businesses.  It's been active and successful in Vanuatu's neighboring country, the Solomon Islands, for some time now, and SPC is now trying to introduce it to Vanuatu. ...

 In the Peace Corps Vanuatu welcome book I was sent before coming, I was told that "In Vanuatu, you will probably do more walking, riding in the back of pickup trucks, flying in small planes, and bouncing around in small boats than you have ever done before."  On my recent trip to Malekula, Vanuatu's second largest island, I got my first real taste of Vanuatu travel.  I am someone who loves all of those modes of transport - pickup trucks, small planes, boats - so this is a great country for me. I was spending a week in Malekula with a Peace Corps Volunteer Leader - a 3rd year volunteer who helps with developing sites for new volunteers, among other things.  I spent the week living with her and visiting different villages around Malekula as part of her site development work.  The idea of me being along was basically for me to get a sense of village life, and I also got the chance to chat with a couple volunteers who will be doing the same project as me. To g...