I will survive..a Tsunami

 Hello good people, sorry updating has been so long but I really have no internet and when I get internet it is extremely slow...in fact right now it is so slow that I am tearing my hair out in frustration, next time you see me and I have bald patches blame it on the internet in Vanuatu. America has really spoiled me with its broadband..

Saki em I bin kakae Joshua..nem blong mi Kalmanu means Sharks have eaten Joshua, my name now is Kalmanu. My first weekend in my training village, my host family gave me a Kastom(custom) name of Kalmanu and part of the name giving was that sharks have eaten the name Joshua, so my name now is Kalmanu, so I go by Kalmanu now.

Training will be over in a couple of weeks and then I will be able to update more frequently.

So what is a tsunami? A force of nature that you can do nothing to defend against. All you can do is go as far from the shore as humanly possible, climb a hill and prepare for your doom.

Vanuatu had a tsunami watch one week and a tsunami hit some other countries like Samoa and devastated them. So when next we had a tsunami watch everybody was scared. I was not worried at first, but when I saw villagers packing their stuff and going for the hills I was understandably worried. It was that kind of fear where if you give in to it a little bit, you will start freaking out.

Peace corps said we should go to our families and do what they do. They were not worried because it was a Tsunami watch and a tsunami has never hit where we were staying. So I went back to my family and they said we were going up the hill but first I was going to hit lunch. I was like if you want to go now, let us go, I dont need to eat..Who knows? If I stay and eat and the tsunami comes, what wil they write on my tombstone? Here lies Joshua..he stayed to eat lunch..Shoot, I was ready to go. I had my machete, my passport, batteries and everything ready.

We went up a very steep hill that was made even more painful to walk up because it was raining. However, we had a good time. People put up a tent, and we had food and music and a fellow peace corps volunteer put on an impromptu dance performance. It was a good time, once the panic and fear of imminent death was over.

After we came down, I heard that a tsunami did come, but it was only two inches...ridiculous..All that fear and excitement and all we got was two inches? 

So what have I learnt about Tsunami's?  Run away as far as you can or climb the tallest tree you can find and hold on fast..then prepare to meet your doom (This was actually said in an information packet given to us at a peace corps briefing). Also, don't freak out.

As before, I have to go, limited internet time..I want to reply to people's posts but I can't and I really dont what to have to wait thirty minutes again to load to blogger..so until later..tata lukim yufala

next post...What is Pentecost? and What am I going to do to Roosters?