Relfection 2 - Post-Four Months @ Site
Bae Mi Mekem Yu Save Wanem Bae Mi Mekem
After four months at site I have experienced a great deal that I did not expect. Many things have changed and I can already see myself changing in ways that at first seemed subtle, but became dramatic changes after time. The life of people in Vanuatu drastically changes from place to place. This trait develops from the unique Republic of Vanuatu that consists of 80 plus different islands with approximately 75 inhabited islands. Of course, this makes life for every volunteer different too; the comment ‘it depends on your site’, that us volunteers hated during pre-service training, was truly the best way to answer questions about our future sites. As you will come to learn in the following reflection on my first four months and my future work at my site, Vanuatu truly changes the definition of isolation. Additionally, this produces difficulties uncommon in other parts of the world. This reflection will go through the daily activities in Naviso, the assessment work completed in the first four months, and, finally, explain the work plan for Naviso for the next six months and some prospective ideas for the next year two years.
Dei Lo Laef Blo Mi: Fasin Blo Mi Lo Vanuatu
Travel to Maewo and Arrival in Naviso
The trip to Maewo involved a plane flight from Port Vila to Espirtu Santo and a transit to a much smaller plane on the final flight to Maewo. This resulted in leaving half of our luggage at the Airport in Santo. This became more of a burden as we learned more about our site; we learned that we were significantly unprepared for our site. After abandoning “enough” luggage (they did not weigh the luggage again; they simply eyed the luggage and estimated) Jennifer Blount—the other volunteer in Naviso, a teacher trainer and part of the SHREP Project—and I were able to take off to Maewo.
Peace Corps has tried frequently in the past to integrate two volunteers into one site; this has gone off poorly in most cases. Frequently, the volunteers do not get along and the site ends up losing two volunteers. Peace Corps sees and acknowledges the benefits of having two volunteers in one site. The ability to bounce ideas off another person and increase the productivity and efficacy of development work at sites are just a few of the benefits. Currently, I see no divide between myself and Jennifer; I am eager to begin working with her. I definitely believe that Jennifer is an invaluable resource to me and will greatly improve my development work in Naviso.
Once Jennifer and I arrived at the Maewo airport—which consists of a grass field and the rough equivalent of an office—we were greeted by Remon, a man from the middle bush village of East Maewo: Ngota. Remon had chartered a truck driver, Jill, to take us on top to Quatevol, the middle bush village of West Maewo. After reaching Quatevol, approximately an hour later, we stayed the night before leaving for Naviso the next day.
The Walk to Naviso
That night in Quatevol, Jennifer and I learned that Harold, our proposed host papa, had died—in May. The Peace Corps was unaware of this and, consequently, we were unaware too. With this added surprise, we started our trek to Naviso the following morning. Unfortunately, rain showers all night had caused the ground to become wet. At the time, we did not understand the repercussions of this, but we soon discovered what that meant.
The walk to Naviso from Quatevol is approximately 2 hours – 2 ½ hours covering rolling hills through the middle bush mountains of Maewo. The most difficult part is not really the length or the intensity of the hills, but the mud and wet clay parts. The wet clay parts create a slipperiness that almost always leads to falling. Jennifer and I learned, the hard way, that getting in and out of Naviso can be quite difficult—falling multiple times on the way to Naviso.
Surprise Visit to Naviso
Once in Naviso, we learned that our arrival was unexpected and this resulted in no housing ready for us. At the time, this was quite frustrating, but in hindsight we learned that Naviso is quite often neglected by the Government of Vanuatu and this creates a feeling of distrust in the community. This distrust coupled with our actual arrival amounted to an insatiable desire, within the entire population of Naviso and Maewo, to make us as happy and comfortable as possible. After the time I have spent in Maewo, I feel that all the volunteers on Maewo (four—including Nic Thiltges at Telise Village, West Maewo, Lindsey Templin at Baitora Village, South Maewo, and Jennifer and I) are treated amazingly well—I have used the term Maewo Royalty often enough.
After a few weeks, the people of Naviso finished Jennifer’s house and she was able to move out of her Bubu Woman’s (Grandma’s) house into her new house. Fortunately for me, because of the lack of a Nurse at the Dispensary (Mamalu Vanua Dispensary), I was able to stay in the “white man” house or the Nurse’s/Dispensary Staff’s Quarters. While this might have been fortunate for me not to share a house with someone for an extended period of time, I was left without a Counterpart and Naviso was without access to immediate medical care (meaning they must walk to the other side, at their pace, 2 – 3 hours: 3 – 4 hours for me). When I recently left Naviso to come back to Port Vila for Pre-Service Training II, my house was still not finished and a Nurse had yet to come to Naviso.
Becoming Part of the Community: Integration
As my objective for the first three months was to integrate and build trust as I become a part of the community, I was able to relax and just fall into the swing of the things. Unfortunately, I did not understand many of the complexities of village life. Specifically, I did not understand that I did not have to drink kava everyday just because my Papa came and invited me to the Nakamal every day; this resulted in 40 days of drinking kava in a row until Christmas. I have come to understand the lifestyle in the community and I feel that my integration went better than I ever could have hoped. I feel a bond of friendship with a majority of the village and a strong emotion of love and family. On the flipside, I feel that I could strengthen my relationship with the females of the village and I will be making that a goal of mine throughout the next two years as I address the issues of gender and development.
Helt Lo Naviso, Is Maewo mo Infomesen Lo Saed Blo Surve Blo Komuniti Helt
The Survey
After I felt comfortably integrated, I began work on the Community Health Survey which gave me the chance to talk with almost every registered household—a married couple in which the husband has already paid for the wife—in Naviso as well as establishing my presence in the village. In the end I completed 76 surveys out of 81 households in Naviso and then was requested to survey Ngota, the middle bush village of East Maewo, which is technically part of my community because the men of Ngota share the Dispensary and School in Naviso. After spending two nights in Ngota I completed 22 of the available 23 households (Ngota has 43 households, but 20 households had temporarily left to Lalaone—a Northern village—where the people cut Copra (or Coconut Oil): one of the few sources of income in Maewo).
After the Survey: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Obstacles
Now, what did I learn? I learned that the survey provided by the Peace Corps needs improvement. The survey was created and finalized by a former PCV and has not been worked on since. The survey has not been developed further because the PCVs, who complete the survey, go back to site, where they do not have computer access and cannot work on the survey. When they return to Port Vila, they typically have their minds set on other activities, programs, and workshops and have no interest in developing the survey. Secondly, I learned that surveys can take a long time and I had scheduled way too many surveys every day: I attempted eight surveys a day and this would generally take six hours. Fortunately, I had the complete support of my community leaders and this resulted in easy access to every household. Thirdly, the language barrier presented a problem. In Naviso, two local languages exist and much of the population has limited to poor Bislama. This meant that I had to simplify many of the questions to a simpler form of Bislama or the questions would be translated into local language. This resulted in misunderstandings and different meanings. Additionally, I do not know what the local language translation actually conveyed.
Now that I have identified the challenges involved with administering the survey, I can explain the strengths of the survey and what I gained from my work. Administering the survey gave me the chance to visit and talk with almost every household in the village. Additionally, I was able to establish my presence in the village. I believe this made them more comfortable with me working in the village. Additionally, this comfort could ease future project implementation.
Regarding information, I learned that the population of Naviso lacks a basic understanding of many health issues. Most importantly, I discovered that the population wants to address water and sanitation. The survey provided a great service for me and helped me devise my projects for the next six months to two years.
Projek Blo Mi Blo Nekis Sikis Manis ko Kasem Tu Yia
Currently, all Community Health Volunteers have come back to Port Vila for In-Service Training/Pre-Service Training II. The past week we have talked with various organizations, donor programs, and stakeholders in Vanuatu. Additionally, we have discussed various public health topics and approaches to addressing these issues. With this additional field knowledge coupled with my graduate studies I have been able to develop a plethora of ideas for programs, workshops, and projects in Naviso.
SARAR Methodology: Participating in Discovering Knowledge
Many of my projects revolve around a methodology called SARAR (Self-esteem, Associative Strength, Resourcefulness, Action planning, and Responsibility). SARAR is a participatory methodology that focuses on allowing the participants to discover the knowledge and make the health decisions based on the knowledge themselves. This empowers the group by letting them discover that they have the knowledge and the ability to address their health problems and solve them. Additionally, the SARAR methodology involves a gender component that addresses the gender roles in the community and forces the groups involved to confront these issues and address them too.
PHAST, PACA, SWOT, and Possibilities for Change
SARAR came to my attention when I heard about a new program spreading through development organizations and Vanuatu like wildfire: PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation). PHAST is a workshop based on the SARAR methodology and focuses on combating diseases associated with fecal-oral transmission. The PHAST involves discussions, community mapping, analyzing the issues, planning activities to address the problems, and presenting the information to the rest of the community. Additionally, PHAST also involves a monitoring and evaluation component. In the end, the community makes the decisions that work best for them and the development worker takes the part of a facilitator throughout the process. The sense of empowerment that the group gleans from the process can make them feel able and responsible for their own future and health.
The PHAST can adapt to other environmental and behavioral health issues too. I believe that I can use the SARAR methodology to create workshops for worm infections and malaria. In addition, I would like to use the methodology to address gender inequality/inequity and sexual and reproductive health issues. Beyond the SARAR method I can also use the PACA (Participatory Analysis for Community Action) and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis tools which also engage the community to make health decisions for themselves. I believe that participatory methods coupled with addressing gender in my development projects can lead to the most significant and sustainable impact.
Finis Nao Lo Saed Blo Reflektion ia, be Tu Yia i Stap Yet
The Future: Manipulating Methodologies for Development
I have a long journey in front of me and many surprises along the way. While I was writing this reflection, I was called by Wan Smol Bag (a non-governmental organization based in Vanuatu that addresses HIV/AIDS and STIs) and told that my NAC (National AIDS Committee) Grant was approved for 63,500 Vatu. I just finished revising my work plan and have begun on the path to creating a SARAR-based HIV/AIDS program to be used alongside the PEPFAR-funded program created by last year’s PCV group. Additionally, we have just been told that some volunteers will be brought in to work on the most recent PEPFAR project in June. I believe many more experiences like this await me along the way and I have never been as excited as this to start fulfilling my duties as a PCV in Vanuatu.
As a PCV, you are told that you must relax because many times you must face failure; not everything will work out and development work can be hit or miss. While I believe this will be my most difficult obstacle, I also believe that I am more prepared than ever to begin the grassroots development Peace Corps entrusted me to complete. Additionally, the graduate studies that I completed before entering Peace Corps service have proven an invaluable resource.
Master’s International—A Conclusion: Advantages to Advanced Education
Just recently, I learned that because of my advanced degree I was originally chosen to work in the PENAMA Provincial Health Office and would have overseen all of the Community Health Volunteers in PENAMA Province (including Pentecost, Ambae, and Maewo). At the final minute the Peace Corps staff changed the positions and placed me in Naviso. I cannot say what would have happened suppose I was never switched, but what I do know is Naviso is the right place for me and I am ready to start my development work in Vanuatu.
