So it's official, tomorrow I am heading back to site or actually off to site for the first time as an official Peace Corps volunteer. Lelepa is a small island of about 150 acres. There is one community on the island and in total it takes about 3.5 hours to circumnavigate it. In World War II American troops were stationed here. There is still a lot of evidence of their prescence around the island. We have a plane crash - brought down by friendly fire, some anchors used for securing a large underwater net to block submarines from entering the harbor, lots of old coke bottles from the 40's (a huge tourist item), and concrete blocks for holding the guns. Another little interesting tidbit about Lelepa is that it is where Survivor Vanuatu was filmed. The actual camps for Survivor were on Efate, the main island, but they used our sand beach as the locations for all of the challenges that they did. It is definately going to be an interesting place to live for the next two years with lots of beautiful places to explore and reefs to snorkel.

The whole work assignment is still a little piecemeal and pretty much they just want to get me out of the city. I am happy to oblige. I spent the first week here buying all of the stuff that I will need to fill a house. The second week I spent getting SCUBA certified (which is one of the most fun, amazing things I have been able to do), and now I am ready to head back out to islands and wash the city air off of me. I am homeless, but I get to move back in with my host family and help construct my own house, which should be really interesting -- this is where Habitat will come in handy. As far as work I have a bunch of little projects that will be going on between my island of Lelepa, a community on the mainland called Mangililu, and another island between the two called Eratoka or Hat Island.
-My main responsibility will be helping the island start monitoring the reef and developing a coastal management plan.
-I will also be helping create a general water use mangement plan - one of the challenges of Lelepa is that there is no fresh water source on the island. All of water is either rain water or we paddle over the mainland and fill up bottles at a water source over there.
- I may also be involved in a large fisheries project that may hopefully be starting up soon, but I am not too sure yet what this involves.
-I will also be helping with a project that another volunteer has already started and is working on. The area that I live in is in the process of being nominated to become a UNESCO World Heritage Area due to its historical significance. Eratoka or Hat Island is home to the only mass burial grave is the South Pacific. It is the grave of a famous chief Roy Mata who is known for bringing peace to Vanuatu and creating a totem system. (In this totem system I am a yam)
- Finally I will be doing projects with the Mamas and the kids of Lelepa too.
So apparently I will be busy, but all of this may or may not happen and that is where the Peace Corps flexibility will come in. I am ready to get started though and see what comes of it.
To steal from ACT, my little mantra for the next two years will be "It's all a part of the challenge."