as i bagarap

Mitufella jus bin gat wan gudfella wiken. Yumi gat fulup ren long Vanuatu kasem closup tu wik be wiken ia yumi gat fulap san. Long Satadei john mo mi wetem tufella frenis, Sam wan man VSO, wetem Patrick wan Ni-van, bin makem wan bigfella trip ron islan lon baskel. Mifella bin go long eton, wan nambawan sanbij long is saed long efate. Olgeta i pikem ol bikes long 8 long moning. Go long 3 hours long eton mo 3 hours bakagen, me ting se taem yu go long eton mo kambak long vila yu gat closup long 100km. Be yumi gat wan smol problem nomo - rod emi no gud tumas, no gat tumas tarmac be yu gat plenty hol mo ston. Olsaem yu gat wan nara problem forum long rod ia yu nat gat sam sed, forom se yu nu gat tumas tri closup long rod, so emi hot tumas.Nos blong me emi red mo as blong mifela emi bagarap big wan nao.

Mo afta long sundai mitufella wetem ol man VSO bin go long sanbij closup long Vila blong wan piknik. Foto emi wan smolfella pikini blong frenis blong yumi, Frank. Olgeta bin kakai, mo swim long solwota, mo plei plei volibol...wan gudfella dai.

another island dress to add to the collection

I gave my workshop again last week. This time it was in Vila so was a lot less exhausting and as I was staying at home didnt necessitate the enjoyment of village hospitality (i.e. eating lap-lap for lunch and dinner). The women who attended the course seemed genuinely enthused about the need to get more women standing for election and actually elected, hopefully the workshop will have some impact on that happening if not in this year's elections then at least getting organised for those that follow.

Ni-Vans take the ceremonial aspects of workshops pretty seriously, in fact I think the certificate and closing refreshments are in many ways more important than any of the content of the course. So a three day workshop ended up with an almost two hour closing ceremony which included speeches from me (smol nomo), my boss (and co-facilitator), a representative of the participants, the President and Vice-president of the board, two songs dedicated to me and my boss and a presentation of gifts. My boss was given a large woven mat which I had had my eye on when it was brought in to the back of the room. My gift was a giant island dress which I of course had to put on to appreciate fully. Everyone was very pleased as apparently it fits perfectly i.e. there is room for me to grow into, get pregnant a few times plus some space to smuggle a couple of small friends around in.

I'd thought (for about a second) about including a session in the workshop to discuss 'the island dress as an effective form of female oppression and subjugation' (Mother Hubbard dresses were first introduced by missionaries to cover up the modesty of women who had otherwise been happy with a few well placed leaves and grass skirts, now the island dresses as they are called are a pretty useful way of enforcing the gender stereotypes of women as well as anonymizing women, younger women who happily wear close fitting western clothing appear to don the island dress as an unwritten rule of marriage, although i should admit that they are quite cool on a hot day and give you no excuse to turn down the odd doughnut or seconds of lap-lap).