Christmas Eve, Me and Aina paid a local student to go into the forest and bring us a pine tree. She had garlene and a few christmas ordiments she's collected over the years and I found a store in town selling christmas lights for about $3. Filled a bucket with sand and bricks for the tree stand, and this is what we ended up with. We put on some Christmas music and had pork chops for Christmas Eve dinner.
(christmas tree picture)
Christmas consisted of cooking all day and eating. No gifts, but we did get a random visit from a traveling pastor.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Another Fireworkless new years
Growing up in Hawaii, fireworks, aerials, sparklers, were always an important part of New Years. With most youth choosing to spend the holiday with their family, eating, playing mahjong, and lighting up thousands of dollars worth of fireworks over wearing sparkly dresses and big hats and going to party of club and making out with an attractive stranger at midnight.
While I miss the illegal fireworks and sashimi that comes with every Hawaiian new years, I've been lucky enough to spend the last two New Years Eve with some amazing friends, dancing and drinking the into the new years.
(Pictures to be added later)
Growing up in Hawaii, fireworks, aerials, sparklers, were always an important part of New Years. With most youth choosing to spend the holiday with their family, eating, playing mahjong, and lighting up thousands of dollars worth of fireworks over wearing sparkly dresses and big hats and going to party of club and making out with an attractive stranger at midnight.
While I miss the illegal fireworks and sashimi that comes with every Hawaiian new years, I've been lucky enough to spend the last two New Years Eve with some amazing friends, dancing and drinking the into the new years.
(Pictures to be added later)
Ohana, Havina
(needs editing, but if I don't start posting blogs now, I never will)
Took a quick trip to Nosy Be (Big Island) post New Years. It's actually a tiny island, with a big understanding of family. People really look out for each other. The local population is completely dependent of tourism and any type of theft is punishable by murder (ok, maybe not really, but maybe).
We were walking back from the bars one evening, and we saw two men chasing down another men. Being women, we all backed up and did not try to interfere with the chase (we were scared?) the chasers were yelling "Thief! Thief!" and within seconds dozen of other men joined their chase with machetes and big sticks. Moments later we see the accused thief tied up and being carried somewhere to await his judgment. After things calmed down we walked down towards where the man was captured and asked what happened. One man proudly said that he was the one to wrestle the thief to the ground.
Last July I was awoken at 3 am by church bells and the slight crackle of wood. It took about 5 minutes to hear the fire, but I rushed out. My neighbors kitchen was in flames. Dozen of men stood around, several with buckets to carry water from the rice fields to the house. I went back to my house and grabbed every bucket I own and brought them to help, only instead of fetching the water myself, I gave it to the young men around me to help the cause. When one kid got tired another would grab the bucket and take his place, this continued for 2 hours until the flame was completely put out.
My last night in Nosy Be I remember groggily being awoken by screams for help. Several voices yelling out for help, meaning that people had already come to help, and they were just calling for a mob. But I didn't help. I didn't leave my bed. I just kept sleeping.
In general I feel safe all the time. But sometimes things do happen, your purse gets snatched, someone tries to break into your house. When we yell for help, we expect it. When we hear help, we should.
Took a quick trip to Nosy Be (Big Island) post New Years. It's actually a tiny island, with a big understanding of family. People really look out for each other. The local population is completely dependent of tourism and any type of theft is punishable by murder (ok, maybe not really, but maybe).
We were walking back from the bars one evening, and we saw two men chasing down another men. Being women, we all backed up and did not try to interfere with the chase (we were scared?) the chasers were yelling "Thief! Thief!" and within seconds dozen of other men joined their chase with machetes and big sticks. Moments later we see the accused thief tied up and being carried somewhere to await his judgment. After things calmed down we walked down towards where the man was captured and asked what happened. One man proudly said that he was the one to wrestle the thief to the ground.
Last July I was awoken at 3 am by church bells and the slight crackle of wood. It took about 5 minutes to hear the fire, but I rushed out. My neighbors kitchen was in flames. Dozen of men stood around, several with buckets to carry water from the rice fields to the house. I went back to my house and grabbed every bucket I own and brought them to help, only instead of fetching the water myself, I gave it to the young men around me to help the cause. When one kid got tired another would grab the bucket and take his place, this continued for 2 hours until the flame was completely put out.
My last night in Nosy Be I remember groggily being awoken by screams for help. Several voices yelling out for help, meaning that people had already come to help, and they were just calling for a mob. But I didn't help. I didn't leave my bed. I just kept sleeping.
In general I feel safe all the time. But sometimes things do happen, your purse gets snatched, someone tries to break into your house. When we yell for help, we expect it. When we hear help, we should.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Packing!
Almost done packing! Took over the living room and with my moms help watched my mom pack all my things! I tried to help but she didn't want me to.
Here's what it looks like so far! My mom definitely did a better job than I would have. And I still have room and plenty of weight to add more things that didn't make the first cut. Maybe a real pillow? Ahh! I completely forgot to pack any books. Good thing I have at least 10 pounds under.
After packing I went to the beach with a friend. We took my parents puppy!
Things left to do:
-Print Pictures
-Buy/Pack books
-Fill out registration forms
-Figure out Power of Attorney
-Put more music on my Ipod
-Enjoy paved roads to the beach
-Hang out with everyone
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Flight info and animal friends
Is it weird that I'm more anxious to stay on the East Coast for two days than I am to be moving to Madagascar for two years?
Anyways, if anyone was interested here is my flight itinerary:
2/25 7:24pm - Departs Honolulu for Chicago/Ohare and arrives - 2/26 7:22am
2/26 9:00 am - Departs Chicago for DC/Natl and arrives - 2/26 11:47am
Mull around for that day. Staging is on Feb 27.
2/28 5:40pm - Depart DC Dulles for Johannesburg arrives - 2/29 5:40pm
Spend the night in South Africa
3/1 10:00am - Depart Johannesburg for Madagascar! arrives - 3/1 2:10pm
So what do people in Hawaii do when someone decides to move to Madagascar?
We dress up like animals and dance!
Timeline!
This is my peace corps application timeline. During my application process I remember spending hours looking for other peoples timeline, hoping they'd give me some kind of hint as to when I could expect to leave. Hopefully this will calm some of you down as you wait for your invitation. I am doing this months after receiving invitation, so my dates may be a little off, but if you have any questions, please let me know!
Jan. 2011 - Finally create an application account. Look over the application, do everything except the essays in a day. Ask three people for recommendations.
April 1, 2011 - Finally upload my essays. Get my final recommendation from my employer. Completed the survey on my health. Put September 2011 as my earliest start date.
April 12, 2011 - Make an appointment for my interview
April 18, 2011 - Meet with the recruiter for interviewer. Some talk about the budget cuts, and that they were going to start doing Fall 2011 placement really soon so to do my fingerprints and transcripts as quickly as possible
May 4, 2011 - Recieved nomination for French speaking african country as a forestry specialist with no estimated departure date. Freak out a bit as to why I have no departure date
May 2011 - Get a call from the regional placement officer asking if I can ride a bike.
August 2011 - Finally finish my dental and medical papers. Dental took the longest because I needed my wisdoms out, and summer is the busiest time for oral surgery.
September 2011 - Medically cleared
October 2011- Final interview. Send another resume and official transcripts.
November 2011 - Get my invitation in the mail! Accept! It if for Madagascar with staging on Feb 27 2012
January 2012 - Finally turn in my updated resume and aspiration statement which were due in November. Apparently it was ok that it was late.
More soon!!!! But for now, here is what I'm expecting Madagascar to look like (they have penguins and giraffes right?).
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