Wednesday, August 16

iPOD BLUES

I've noticed a strange thing about my iPod. No matter how many times I reach for my headphones (the ear buds) I would say that 99 out of a 100 times the right speaker is in my left hand and the left in my right. This is uncanny but happens all the time. I can't think of a single time I've picked up my ear buds to find the correct speaker in the correct hand. Does this happen to anyone else??

The Solio solar charger - it works, but not quite as good as I thought it would. It takes several days of full sunshine to get it charged up to it's maximum -which should equal the battery in the iPod, yet when I play the iPod the charge goes out real fast. I've been charging the iPod here at the computer center by plugging it into the USB ports but that's a slow charge as well. I use the Solio as my back-up when the USB power dies off. Basically I don't listen to music as much as I would like, and I never look at my photos, cause the battery is always dead. The frustrating thing is that i have access to power outlets that I can use for free, but I left my adaptor at home which has since been lost in the mail. UGHHHHH.

I've also noticed that when i rate songs they don't get added into my smart playlist (which are all based on start-rating) until I update the iPod with iTunes. This sucks since I can't ever do an update. This should be a simple fix for iPod and a worthy one.

NOTES FROM WALKABOUT

Some random notes from other PCV's experiences on walkabout during training:

Jess Porter - Seeing a beaten woman being carried off the boat she was about to get on. She was carried in a "stretcher" made of woven pandanas leaves. It was later learned that she died from her wounds and was the wife of the province President (sort of like a governor) who was last heard to be in hiding. This is also home to a newly released rapist. Malo island, just south of Santo.

Ryan McGee - Who was asked my PC to take up a long stalled water project for two nearby villages on east Epi Island. Upon arrival he learns the two villages hate each other, don't speak to each other, and each lay claim to a local man that "controls" the powers of the Lopevi volcano with black magic so the other village better watch out. On his first night he is led to a swim-house (shower stall) and told to shower while the entire village watched and waited. Later he is lead to another village he will be serving and upon sight of the white man every single native ran and hid from view. He's on east Epi, opposite the Lopevi volcano.

Eddie Ruhland - Enters his village to be greeted by... no one. They don't know who he is and have never heard of Peace Corps. They have no house for him and he is invited to sleep in one of the huge 25-person houses this village uses. They keep men and women completely seperated at all times. There are no toilets of any variety - just shit anywhere in the bush. There are no plates or cutlery of any kind. But when they finally do get him a plate they wash it for him by taking a large mouthful of water and spraying onto the plate before proudly handing it to him.

Katie Tompson - Signed on as a marine conservation volunteer and trained to do "reef check" and was then sent to a coastal village that boasts the single largest shark breeding corridor. They also have numerous reports of people being pulled right out of their canoes while crossing this body of water. Needless to say she is now serving in Lelepa - our beloved training village.

Brett & Matt - ate ice cream in an Aussie resort and got drunk on Vodka while celebrating our good fortune. haahahaha.

GIANT HAIRY SPIDER

Dear Giant Hairy Spider,

I’m sorry I left you mortally wounded when it probably would have been more humane to have finished you off. I couldn’t let you win, but didn’t see the need to kill you. You were doing battle with an American Liberal.

And what a battle it was!

It’s true I started the fight, but you had to see it coming with at least one of your giant pearly black eyes. You had the opportunity to withdrawal. I will also admit it’s not entirely your fault that I was standing (teetering, actually) on the top of a wobbly coffee table reaching above my head while trying to re-fasten my hanging food basket when I noticed your eerie presence. You see, to an American your sheer enormity alone (easily 10x the allowable limit) represented a singular Weapon of Mass Destruction and gave me quite a fright. In bislama we say “fulap trousers” which is English for “Shit Myself With Fear”.

Which I did. And then fell backwards of the small table.

This was your second opportunity to cease and desist. You should have run away while I gathered my wits and contemplated my regime-change strategy. You may have been here first, but I’m here now and this hut ain’t big enough for the two of us. Certainly not. But don’t call me an imperialist – we Americans hate that. I’m here on a mission of Liberation and the spreading of freedom – as in MY freedom from YOU.

Now I must admit you put up a hell of a battle, what with your intimidating maneuverability and the alarming speed as which you conducted yourself. And later it was particularly clever when you crouched flat to the floor, almost blending in with the brown floor mats, while I looked frantically for a solid 10 minutes.

But I must remind once again that as an American once I start a fight, for better or worse I will be certain to keep the course, to fight on, and to see it through to whatever end may come of it. Plus, we have all the best technology with which to wage our battles. You have little more than fear – which is still pretty good since we are scared of just about everything. And so it was with the unnerving “thud” sound you made as your immense body hit the ground in a spectacular and effective display of your own “shock and awe” that only hardened my resolve to eliminate you. I mean, liberate you. Spiders of allowable limit, I should point out, do not make any sound at all when the fall to the ground.

It was always my intention to peacefully and harmlessly remove you from the premises utilizing my long-handled rake tool, and had you just played along nicely thing would have turned out better for you and your people.

Instead you made the tactical error of forcing my hand. When you erractically scurried across the floor, causing my troops a momentary retreat, you should never have taken refuge in that small hole in the concrete block. While you seemed out of danger, the truth is that I could never allow you to maintain your hiding place knowing full well that in the middle of the night you could re-emerge and walk all over my face while I was sleeping.

Now it was going to get ugly.

First I tried to flush you out with my chemical weapons. Now I’m fully aware of the Geneva Convention and all the particular weapons-banning treaties that I’ve signed over the years, but again – I’m an American. The rules don’t apply to me, just to you. Plus, this particular chemical despite scientific claims of “fast knock-down” could barely kill an ant – believe me, I’ve tried. My biggest hope was to simply flush you out so I could once again implement the rake device. I expected you to evacuate your hiding place and lay down your arms (all eight), but despite my copious fumigation your resolve was solid.

I would have saluted you and your honorable display of battlefield heroics, but I was busy firing up my next weapon – literally.

When I dropped the pile of flaming debris in the hole I thought for sure I had you. Either you would make a hasty exit (again, ready with my rake) or I had, sadly, finished you off. And after waiting for the tiny fire to go out, for the smoke to clear, I was almost satisfied with your certain demise. But my inner military-industrial complex had just discovered a new weapon at our disposal and decided now was as good a time as any to give it a trial run.

And so, for good measure, I stuck the long-necked lighter into the hole, slowly filled the area with butane gas, and then flicked the trigger resulting in a remarkable and startling pyrotechnic display that nearly resulted in a “friendly fire” incident. After waiting a few more minutes I was satisfied with your death and could return to my normal business. And remember, the business of America is business and if you look closely it’s at the root of every move we make. Plus, I had rats to deal with.

And so it went for the next half hour. Me just calmly going about my business.

Here is where I truly give you, Giant Hairy Spider, mad props. Without moving a single leg… by just being you and revealing your mere presence, you once again were able to give me such a fright I nearly pissed myself. I had all but forgotten about your sorry ass, and now here you were on full display just inches from my big toe.

You lived!! and boy did you ever look pissed.

Time for round 3. But first, I needed to re-con your condition. You shocked and awed once again, but you were visibly wounded. Three of your 5-inch long, ferocious, hairy legs were burnt skinny. But upon prodding they appeared to have limited operability. It appeared your general maneuverability and speed skills showed marked deteriation – maybe my chem. bomb had taken effect!

Despite your valiant efforts, when looking at you now, just a shell of your former self, I started feeling pity and a bit remorseful about the entire affair. Unfortunately with was, as with the death penalty, you can’t take it all back. Not even a little bit.

Were all diplomatic efforts fully explored?

Did I need to rush into this war?

Could this have been avoided?

In was there are no winners – everyone loses something.

And now I had clearly lost my humanity and I couldn’t even bring myself to kill you off. As I carefully, sympathetically, and cautiously (I ain’t no fool) extended my rake I silently thanked you for climbing aboard with minimal effort, resting patiently as I took you to what I hope to be a safe distance where you’ll likely endure a swarm of impatient and vulturous ants who will finish the job slowly I was too weak to do quickly.

Sorry.

Here’s to you, Mr. Giant Hairy Spider!

And as I lay my head on my pillow tonight I will pray to god you were one of a kind.

Tuesday, August 8

3 1/2 MINUTES or 5,000 YEARS

I heard it from a reliable source, who heard it from someone, who maybe overheard it said by someone who may have once read it in a book hopefully written by knowledgeable scientist-types who made the claim that Vanuatu is about 5,000 years behind what we would call the modern world. By “behind” we mean to say development of the mind and of the culture.

Five. Thousand. Years.

This sounds about right to me.

It’s also interesting to note that similar scientist-types have estimated Ni-Vans arrival on this little archipelago of islands to be about 4,000 years ago. So doing some quick math we can easily see, assuming all assumptions are reasonable, that these people have not experienced any freaking development since the day they set foot here.

Jeff Robinson, paraphrasing some others, once told me when I asked him his thoughts on Ni-Vans:

“Had you asked me after I had been here for one month I could have written you a book about Ni-Vans. Had you asked me after I had been here for one year I could have written maybe a page. And now you are asking me today and I couldn’t even write one sensible paragraph.”

The quote, as indicated, is not original but is certainly apt. I’ve been in this place for about 4 months and I’m beginning to really see his point of view. I would like to try and explain it to you – explain “Man-Tanna” as I’m coming to understand him – on this blog. Problem is that this whole 5,000 year thing works in BOTH directions. They are so far “behind” and “out-of-the-loop” that it makes it really difficult (and often impossible) for them to understand anything of the outside world and our way of thinking. At the same time, we being so “ahead” and “in-the-loop” makes it equally difficult (and often mind-bogglingly impossible) to understand where they are coming from and how they think and what motivates their actions, or inactions – as the case usually is.

And for the record I hate to use the terminology of “behind” and “ahead”. It’s all relative and only indicative of what WE know of OUR world and our level of development. But I suppose it’s reasonable enough for the point I need to make. They really are, in so many ways, about 5,000 years behind – and it shows up in strange, frustrating and sometimes funny ways. I hope to share some of those stories over the next two years.

None of this is to say that they don’t have things we would consider developed, such as electricity, which arrived in Tanna about 3 years ago and which is only available to select areas and even fewer users since it requires vatu (the currency) to pay for electricity and most of these people have been living off the land and continue to do so. Most only do vatu producing work on an “as needed” basis. As in, the store closest to me is open whenever the owner needs to make some vatu to pay for his kava. This may mean a couple hours Monday morning, but not again until Thursday afternoon or some sillyness like that. That sort of thing happens all over this island nation.

Another note about terminology:

Before coming here I did some checking up on the term “third world country” because I wanted to find out who was on that list. Turns out the origin of that word is from the Cold War and really has nothing directly to do with development. The powers that be in the United States started using the terminology “First World” to define any country that fell under our “sphere of influence” and “Second World” to define any country that fell under the “sphere of influence” of the U.S.S.R. In this way we divided up the planet. Anything not making either list was considered the “Third World” – basically the places neither of the super-powers gave a rats ass about. Most of the places Peace Corps sends volunteers, including Vanuatu, makes that rats ass list.

In any event, we like to call these third world places “Developing Nations” which has more than a hint of optimism in it.

But what we REALLY mean is “Nations We Are Trying To Develop”.

Sometimes we are dragging the people along – for better and sometimes for worse. Some times we are doing all the work. Often the work we do falls apart after we leave, if it’s not cared for by others like us. It’s enough to make you question the whole point of doing development work. Everything has to start with education and bringing people into the knowledge of the world. But this is tricky since education requires money and if you don’t have money well then you don’t get no education.

Of course, it’s the Peace Corps philosophy to work at the grass roots level and to try and only do things that can be sustained by the locals. We train as we go.

In my case my biggest hope is that the work I do, sustaining and expanding the local coffee industry, continues to provide a source of vatu that is then used to pay for the school fees for the next generation of Ni-Vans. If this keeps going in cycles then in a perfect world they will be able to provide their own technical assistance, provide their own teachers, provide their own health workers.

As it is now in Vanuatu damn near everything and anything of ANY substance has been donated, loaned, or granted by a foreign government or aide organization. And most of these “things” are operated or managed or given "over-sight" by outsiders even if they have a full staff of locals. That’s just the reality. In fact, fully half the operating budget of the federal government of Vanuatu is entirely foreign aide.

And now they are getting about $70 million more from the U.S. in the form of the Millenium Challenge. This is a cool program since it “challenges” the governments to earn the money by being clean, transparent, and I suppose democratic. I haven’t read all the fine print, just what I’ve heard from different people around the streets. Apparently they are going to pave the roads on several of the islands. This will be a very good thing since the dirt roads kill the life span of the few vehicles they do own.

Anyway…

Why are they 5,000 years behind us? This is a valid question and I’ve decided that it’s a multi-faceted monster that combines some of what I know of Jared Diamonds ideas, some of what I know of Thomas Friedman’s ideas, and then the almighty X-factor. A preliminary short list might look something like this:

Things they can’t control:

Isolation
Resources


Cultural things they can control:

Curiosity (lack thereof)
Ingenuity (lack thereof)
Leadership/Inspiration (lack thereof)
Sharing of Information (lack thereof)

And then, of course:

The X-Factor


This is a pretty big post and I’m running out of time so before I delve into these different things I’ll share one little story...

At the coffee factory, which was built before electricity and plumbed water, a modern bathroom was added on to the back of the building some years ago. You actually have to go outside and walk around to the back to enter the tiny plywood-walled bathroom. When I say modern I mean it has a wash basin with faucet and flushing toilet with running water that comes from a hose attached to a nearby water tank. The hose, apparently, jutted out from the base of the wall, but about 6 inches above ground level, before disappearing into the soil and re-emerging just 2 yards away at the base of the tank.

Before this bathroom they used a bush toilet – nothing but a hole in the ground surrounded by flimsy thatch walls (usually only on three sides). The hole would be covered by logs criss-crossed on top of each other such that you would place your legs on parallel logs above the hole and hope that the structure didn’t decide to collapse you into the hole while you were taking care of business. And there is certainly no paper. Leaves if you’re lucky. An altogether unpleasant experience.

So as it turns out this “modern” semi-pleasant bathroom has been in-operable since long before I came to Vanuatu. Just sitting there not being used collecting cobwebs and dust. It no longer had running water but no one could explain why. In fact, no one seemed to care.

One day Jeff went out determined to figure out the problem and discovered the original water line hidden behind some weeds. It had been sliced clean in half.

So.

What this means is that at one time, maybe many years ago, someone was using a bush knife to cut the weeds and accidentally sliced the water line to the bathroom. Instead of fixing the problem, which would have required very little work, they simply went back to using the nasty bush toilet.

This is a tiny story, and maybe not even a particularly good one, but it helps begin to illustrate Man-Tanna. They could have had a fully operable, clean and flushable toilet, but simply didn’t bother to patch or replace the water line once it had become broken.

Was it because they didn’t know how to fix the water line? Maybe, but not likely.

Could they not afford to fix it?
Possibly, but a little duct tape would’ve worked for the short term.

Could they not decide who was responsible for fixing it?
Getting hotter.

Did they not give a shit since they could simply go back to using the bush toilet they’ve used for generations and not be bothered with modern technology which fails them at times and requires maintenance and cleaning and sometimes money and certainly headaches and heartburn and so forth?
Hot, hot, hot.

Truth is I don’t know, and I don’t care because now we have a fully operable, flushing toilet once again.

It took us three and a half minutes.

RING OF FIRE


I know nothing about this. Didn't feel a thing. Tanna is about 300 miles south of Luganville - brett

Strong quake hits near Vanuatu


Monday, August 7, 2006; Posted: 8:11 p.m. EDT (00:11 GMT)




Vanuatu
U.S. Geological Survey
Earthquake
(CNN) -- A 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck in the South Pacific near the island nation of Vanuatu Tuesday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of a major, Pacific-wide tsunami associated with the quake, although it could generate local tsunamis along coasts located within about 100 kilometers (60 miles) of the epicenter.

The epicenter of the quake was 80 kilometers (50 miles) east-southeast of Luganville, or about 220 kilometers (135 miles) north-northwest of the country's capital, Port Vila.
The earthquake occurred at 9:18 a.m. local time (10:18 p.m. Monday GMT).
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center at Ewa Beach, Hawaii, said the earthquake was too deep to pose any local or Pacific-wide tsunami risk, The Associated Press reports.

"Although it was a sizable earthquake ... the epicenter was 150 kilometers (93 miles) deep, which is too deep to deform the sea floor," Fryer said. "We've actually checked the tidal gauge at Port Vila and there's no risk of a tsunami at all."

Job Esau, the director of Vanuatu's National Disaster Management Office, said Port Vila was unaffected by the quake but that he was still awaiting news from the country's outlying islands.
"We haven't got any information on the impact of the earthquake yet," he told The Associated Press by telephone from the capital. "We do expect some form of impact, whether it be a landslide or infrastructure damage so we're just waiting to hear."

Vanuatu, a nation of about 200,000 people, is about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Australia.

It is located in the Pacific's "Ring of Fire" region where earthquakes and volcanic activity are relatively prevalent.

Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

Thursday, August 3

A FEW IMPORTANT NOTES

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS:

Tanna is often referred to as "Black Man Town" by the locals. I'm not really sure why, except that in Vila there are many shops that are owned by Chinese men and various white men, whereas in Tanna all the shops are owned by black men. There are a few resorts that are owned by non-Ni-Vans, but even some of these have Ni-Van management and staff. And basically the entire population is black. The only time you see a non-black person it's a tourist or an aide worker. Or a damn proselytizing missionary (lots of these - why do they think god needs recruiters?!?!).

Here the common vernacular is to say "black man" or "white man" to differentiate between anything that is Ni-Van or not Ni-Van. It's as simple as that. And this includes not just people, but places, ideas, and so on. When we have conversations we talk about "white man thinking" or "that's white man talking" compared to "black man thinking" or "black man culture" and everyone knows this has nothing to do with racism but everything to do with development and training specific to Vanuatu. And nor does "White man" just refer to people with white skin - but any person that isn't a Ni-Van. So when you read this type of wording on my blog please keep this in mind. I've already become completely accustomed to it and I don't think twice about the implications it may have for our overly politically correct country. And I don't plan on going through each post to make sure everything is PC so long as I know that here in Vanuatu it's all good. Which brings me to another note:

SPELLING, GRAMMAR, AND SYNTAX:

Due to the speed of my internet connection I am loathe to open any window or click on any button that take up eons of time. My hair is grey enough. And since I pay by the hour and wish to do as much as possible in my time (I also walk 90 minutes each way to get here) I usually don't proofread or spell check anything. Just type and go... type and go. So please forgive me for any infractions of grammar, spelling or even just basic sentence structure - sometimes I'm multi-tasking (like when i get the special opportunity to chat live with another gmail user) and the thing I'm composing suffers for it. My bad.

MISSIONARY'S:

Yes, we are full of them. Or at least it sure seems that way in Tanna. There is at least one large group of mormons that I often see in Lenekal, but I think they live out in the middle bush. The one guy I've spoke with looks about 14 but is actually 20 - I can't believe they would send him out here. Apparently when you enroll (?) for your Mormon mission they don't tell you where you are going, be it in the US or not. He just got tossed on a plane and sent to Fiji where they passed him off to this place he had never heard of before. He was asking us questions about joining the Peace Corps in the future and Jeff had to explain how Peace Corps is specifically secular and that this should be a serious concern for him as his missionary endeavors would be a serious concern for PC recruiters. I would imagine that the type of person that would fly around the world to "preach his word", whatever it may be, would find it very difficult to then be in a situation where you would specifically NOT be allowed to preach at all even when in a strange land where maybe they practice black magic and you would need to incorporate an understanding of that belief system into your Peace Corps work (such as here in Vanuatu).

Then there is the group of Christian bible-thumpers I had the mis-pleasure of overhearing at a restaurant. The leader, whom I've actually met several times, was discussing strategies for dealing with the misunderstanding between the different types of Christianity and about how best to spread the word. I had indigestion all day.

I guess we can credit the missionaries for ending cannibalism, but there's a slew of things the missionaries have done to mess things up in this country such as getting them all wearing sensible clothing - where's the fun in that?? Damn those missionaries!

But again I say... Why do these people think GOD needs recruiters. Makes not one bit of sense to me. Right up there with giving money to a church. Religion shouldn't cost a dime - no amount of money is gonna get you a better cloud than mine.

Oh... And this brings me another note:

THE FUTURE OF THIS BLOG:

I guess there will be times, such as the above mini-rant, where I stray from the subject of my Peace Corps musings and branch out a bit into other subjects, be they political or personal or whatever the hell I feel like talking about. It's my blog, my prerogative. Plus, just writing about Man-Tanna is gonna get boring for me and anyone who knows me knows I can't keep my mouth shut anyway. So I guess that can be viewed as a warning, or an invitation. Transit34 was always going to be about transitions anyway.

And I might as well take this moment to just go ahead and make it clear to anyone reading this who doesn't know me personally:

I'm a 35 y/o liberal, bush-hating, tree-hugging, travel-bitten, alcohol-drinking, book-reading, sometime -casual-drug-using*, reality-TV-hating, reasonably-educated, very skeptical, and often overly-opinionated, multi-racial-loving, homo (this means I sometimes date black men - yes BLACK MEN!!)... Among other adjectives and slurs which escape me at the moment (go ahead and send your comments!!)

And as such I might use language not suitable for all audiences. Sometimes I might even use unnessary language like "fuck" or "dip-shit" (sorry grandma - yours are the only eyes I worry about, but I still ain't gonna sensor myself).

Or I might say something really outrageous like "we need a national health plan to insure all Americans". I might even say something about the mind-boggling stupidity of the people that voted for Bush the first time and now expect me to pat them on the back for not voting for him the second time (I keep meeting these people). Sorry. I'm not gonna do it. You get points for coming around, but it's still too little too late I'm afraid - you had all the information you needed the first time. My ears bleed every time I hear one of these people say something like "well... I didn't think he would be this bad, or do this thing or that thing...".

Anyway.. Enough of the disclaimer stuff. Now it's back to Vanuatu for at least a few more posts.

phew... You'd think I had one too many "Tuskers - Bea Blo Yumi" (the local beer slogan is "Tusker - Our Beer".

*yes, that's correct - I'm a mature adult who enjoys many of life's vices and don't act like you don't break the law here and there. Everything is relative. Everything.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEO

Happy Birthday to the many Leo's in my life.

It's really hard for me to even think about anything going on back in the United States - including dates and special occasions (totally forgot about SD Pride). I can't even keep the seasons straight - it's winter down here and who would have thought that the South Pacific even has a winter. So to hear that SD is experiencing a heatwave is strange. And I'm sure I'll be forgetting many, many other Birthdays and special dates for the next two years. Really this is not anything different than when I was back at home, but at least now I have an even better excuse.

And just to be on the safe side...

Special shout-out to next months VIRGO'S.

(RSC, if you happen to be reading this, I realize now that I was off by a month)

Tuesday, August 1

THE COFFEE PROJECT Pt.1 (My Job)


This will finally be the first post on the actual work I'll be doing in Vanuatu for the next two years. In addition to considering myself pretty lucky to have been sent to Vanuatu (pacific island with safe water and almost no dangerous flora/fauna), I'm also lucky to be taking over an existing project that seems to be working fairly successfully. Each time Peace Corps commits to a work site it's a 3-term contract. Meaning 3 two-year PCV's (or 6 years) will work the project at a minimum. For this reason many volunteers are taking over existing work in some form or another. In some cases, if there was no project successfully developed, it's just as if they were the first person there except that the locals are used to having a white person around. In other cases PCV's are the very first person to a village and must start from scratch - which can be a daunting task especially if you spend most of your time just getting people used to the idea of working with a white man. In my case, however, the coffee project is alive and well and my primary goal will be to ensure it's survival, continue to educate the locals on how to run the place on their own, and hopefully further develop the farmers production of coffee as well as try and develop the factory as more of a tourist friendly destination - including getting them to pay a small fee for a tour (which would go to the charity that is helping the farmers). But first...

A BRIEF HISTORY OF COFFEE IN VANUATU:

It is believed that at the turn of the century Vanuatu was producing about 200 tons of coffee per year - until the United States depression triggered a worldwide depression and wiped out the local coffee industry.

1960's - 1980's : Tanna was producing about 2 tons per year from operation run by "white" men.

1980's - The French and the British, which had just granted Vanuatu independence from their joint colonial rule, created the CDC (Commonwealth Development Co.) with the intention of turning Vanuatu ("using" is a better word) into a major coffee and cocoa producing nation. They planted thousands upon thousands of coffee plants, built 5 compounds of living quarters for white land managers, constructed huge processing facilities, storage facilities, and mechanical facilities all out in the middle bush of Tanna island. They had a 10-room office building, a 3 bay auto body shop to repair factory vehicles, generators, and enough production capacity to produce up to about 2000-3000 tons of coffee (by one estimate). Between 1983-85 they were hitting about 5 tons max! By 1986 it peacked at 62 tons and the next year a cyclone hit (Uma - a really bad one) and wiped out most of the crop. By 1989 they were still not producing more than 15 tons per year. The project was a failure of the highest degree. But why?

They had built a factory and support network that far exceeded the possible capacity to make it worth the trouble. The maintenance alone would be a killer. But the staff was massive and expensive as well. Plus, and maybe most importantly, they didn't understand the local culture and never considered whether or not the local famers really wanted to plant and maintain coffee, or if they needed to plant coffee (they sure didn't).

In 1991 the European Community (pre-cursor to the current European Union) built a much smalle, much more sensible factory in Lowkatai village (my home) - while the CDC was about ready to shut down the middle bush fiasco.

By 1995 the CDC basically collapsed and they called in an Australian coffee expert named Terry Adlington to evaluate the situation. By the end of 1997 Terry had been working on the project for almost 3 years and had not ever been paid. A court battle ensued and the CDC just washed it's hands of the mess by giving Terry the new(er) factory, leases on several coffee plantantions and leases on a small bungalow project (no longer existing) as settlement.

In 2000 the CDC became the TCDC (Tanna Coffee Development Company), a for-profit enterprise run by Terry. At this point they are producing about 8 tons on average. Far less than the local demand of Vanuatu. Terry is driving all around Tanna collecting the coffee himself and trying to get the farmers interested and basically working himself into the ground. Overhead is too high, he's too far removed from his primary customer (Efate) and he's just spinning his wheels. It's not a sustainable situation for him and changes are needed. In 2001 Terry moves to Efate and leaves the factory in the hands of the locals.

In 2002 POPACA arrives - the new French/EU team that plans on providing funding/management/ and infrastructure to the coffee and cocoa projects. Some might call it an attempt at redeeming the earlier failure of the CDC. This time they designed the new aide organization with the local department of agriculture and included Ni-Vans - it was more of a development situation, rather than a rape the locals situation like 20 years earlier - some might say.

Terry leases the factory to POPACA for 1 vatu per year. Production reaches 11 tons.

Up until this time each step of the processing of the coffee was conducted at the factory:

1. Buy cherry (the coffee "fruit" picked off the tree for 25 vatu
2. Pulp the cherry off the bean
3. Wash and ferment the bean
4. Dry the bean.
5. Hull the bean
6. Sort the bean by quality.
7. Bag it and ship it up to Efate for roasting and packaging by Terry.

Now it starts to get interesting. Maybe.

In 2003 POPACA begins building pulpers out in the fields, staffed by processing agents, who are provided housing at site. Farmers are paid by the agents at the pulping stations.

POPACA is also giving revolving lines of credit to the factory exclusively to buy coffee cherry, but the accountant doesn't understand what this means and for over two years never makes a single payment on the loans and has been using them to pay for salaries not just for coffee.

POPACA management never questions this, but keeps approving more loans even at times when they know it's not the coffee harvest season.

By 2004 the project is basically declared a disaster. Production is only 5 tons, there are major quality control problems, no managerial oversite, and tons of cash handling irregularities at the individual pulping stations. They decide that the local Ni-Van farmers are simply lazy and are not working the fields properly.

Now they decide to scale back the project and someone has the idea to request the assistance of a Peace Corps Volunteer to oversee the pulping stations and provide technical assistance.

In February the charitable organization C.O.V. (Coffee Organisation of Vanuatu) is formed with a 6 member board of all local Ni-Vans. They take over the lease and operation of the factory and continue to recieve the revolving credit from POPACA who is, at this point, just about ready to toss in the towel.

Enter Peace Corps Volunteer Jeff Robinson, my predecessor. He is placed out in the middle bush, lives with the locals, learns the local way of life, and as is our goal, develops an understanding of the motivations, trials and tribulations, of the Ni-Van culture. He is originally given the task of managing the pulping stations, but is also given instructions to conduct a land survey of coffee.

He spends the next 8 weeks going house to house, village to village, by foot - and collects enough data on coffee plants to makea huge impact on the Department of Agriculture and the COV. Up until this point they had no real data or understanding of where the coffee was, who owned it, or what condition it was in. Jeff was a hero.

But POPACA still thought the Ni-Van was a lazy person and wouldn't be producing much coffee. It's important to note that POPACA, while a wonderful organization, pays their staff a regular salary, provides whiteman houseing with cable TV, and provides a truck. Jeff, living out in the bush, toiling away for free, and using only his feet to get around, understood that the local Ni-Van wasn't lazy - they just didn't need to work all day in the garden, work all day cooking dinner and taking care of the children, work all day cutting firewood, and then work all day picking coffee cherries only to have to walk 2 kilometers up hill both ways (yes - both ways! own and up, down and up) carrying a couple kilograms of coffe on his back only to get paid 25 vatu per kilo. It simply wasn't worth it to them.

So Jeff was able to convince Steven, the new guy, of this observation and the big lights went off. POPACA started building 27 pulpers located strategically in places where Jeffs survery report had identified the most coffee. Then the dismantled the whole processing agent system and let the farmers have the pulpers for themselves. Now they would pulp thier own cherries, dry and ferment their own beans and bring these beans, ready for hulling down to the factory.

and now... the big plus of all - they would be paid 200 vatu per kilogram!! Suddenly it bacame worth it for the farmers to begin producing coffee. At the same time the factory, by giving up the pulpers and training the farers to do the first three steps, was able to drastically cut down on it's overhead. Now it only needed to hull and sort the bean. Then put it on a ship to Efate.

Unfortunately, the friuts of these efforts didn't immediately become apparent and POPACA decided to close it's contract and will be pulling out of Vanautu sometime in the next couple months. Based on Jeffs own survey they had budgeted to pull in over 15 tons and only got 6 tons so this was disappointing - but they weren't seeing the long-term big picture. But at least they've decided to continue offering a revolving line of credit to the COV at only 1% interest. If we used a local bank it would be nearly 25% interest!!.

In the mean time Jeff and Steven continued working with the local farmers - getting them educated and spreading the word on the new system. Getting people excited about planting and growing coffee again. It's easy to see how they would be sceptical - in the last 3 years they worked under 3 different systems (I've been trying to be brief so I've left out many other details)

After two years of effort Jeff, Steven, Kamut, and several others in the Dept. Of Agriculture pulled together a plan that seems finally be paying off. Sensing an opportunity to see the fruits of his labor Jeff decided to extend his PC contract by 6 months. Another lucky move for me since now I get his insights and assistance for the first 6 months of my service.

Today we are about halfway into the harvest season and have already collected over 9 tons of coffee. Things are looking up. Way up. The farmers are excited about getting good money for the coffee. Another co-op has sprung up that serves as a delivery service for the farmers - they drive around and collect from all the small frys and pay them a little less, then bring the coffee down to us in one huge truck load. This benefits us by letting us deal with one customer instead of dozens, encourages farmers to grow more coffee, and benefits the farmers by eliminating the need to pay for transport to the factory. It's really working out amazingly well. And aside from the oversite of the Peace Corps, it's very nearly a Ni-Van operation. The COV is doing well and the farmer are really happy.

And then the hulling machine broke.

It's been broke almost all season. So now the factory has 9 tons (and growning) of un-hulled coffee sitting around. We can't seem to get the machine fixed and we have to keep getting more loans to buy coffee but haven't been able to collect any payments from Terry since we haven't sent him any coffee!

Anyway... i'm sure that will get handled soon enough. I don't think it's a serious situation. We are just waiting for some settings from the manufacturer in England.

So...

My main job will be to make sure this whole thing doesn't fall apart. And without a Peace Corps (or similar) volunteer overseeing the operation it certiainly would fall apart. At this stage it operates like a large lemonade-stand, in terms of complexity, but it's amazing how quickly projects can go right to shit when left solely in the hands of the locals - even though that is exactly are ultimate goal. I know it sounds cynical, but it's just a fact of current Vanuatu life. Things are changing, but verrrrry slooowly.

My main counterpart - the guy who basically runs and best understands the factory - is illiterate. It's painful to watch him try and fill out reciepts and then count out cash to the farmers - and he's our number one guy! We are going to hire a new book-keeper, part-time - someone with a year 10 schooling, and I'll spend the next two years trying to teach literacy to Kamut.

I'll also be trying to turn the factory into more of a "Local success story" tourist destination. More on that later - but I'm hoping that maybe some contacts back in the USofA (CB&TL, and Starbucks) might be willing to assist in that area.

Additionally I'll be working on teaching hospitality to the locals who operate the nearby bungalow project where I've been living. This culture knows NOTHING about hospitality and therefore the only successful operations are run by Australians or other "white" men. But the bungalows are wonderful in the simplicity and custom nature of the grounds and structures - they just need to understand things like hot water showers, clean towels, and sanitary kitchens. And service. And cooking. and... and...

It sounds like Jeff did all the hard work on the coffee project, and he really did. But I've definitely got my plenty on my plate for the next two years.

If there are no photos on this posting, please check back again next week. I've got some good photos of the old CDC project and the current factory, but the connection has been terrible and I can't get photos loaded.