Peace Corps Volunteer Jeanna Goddard says the “Survivor” crew filming on the island of Efate is definitely a presence on Vanuatu. “Most of us in the Peace Corps office make fun of the show. Mainly, ‘yeah, they can survive 30 days. We survive 2 years,’ ” she said.
Woman survives life on island through work with Peace Corps
Caption: The newest edition of CBS reality hit 'Survivor' got off to a mighty start against NBC comedy 'Joey,' beating the 'Friends' spinoff and 'Will and Grace' premiere in their first matchup, according to early TV ratings on September 17, 2004. John Kenney, Rory Freeman, Brook Geraghty, Chris Daugherty, Lea 'Sarge' Masters, Brady Finta, John Palyok, Chad Crittenden and Travis 'Bubba' Sampson are the nine members of the Lopevi Tribe during the first tribal council on a recent episode. (Monty Brinton/CBS via Reuters)
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While television viewers know of the Vanuatu Islands through the popular reality television show "Survivor," Quad-City native Jeanna Goddard has been living on the islands for two years through her work for the Peace Corps.
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Goddard graduated from North Scott High School in December 1999 and went on to study at Scott Community College before she transferred to the University of Miami to study in the marine and atmospheric sciences program before considering the Peace Corps.
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"Jeanna graduated from the University of Miami in 2002 in marine and atmospheric sciences and mentioned it her last semester there," said her mother, Sue Goddard-Gerrald of Princeton, Iowa. "She didn’t get her final assignment until the spring of 2003."
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She said she was not surprised about her daughter’s decision to enlist in the Peace Corps because she always expected her to do something like that.
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Goddard has been on the Vanuatu Islands for almost two years and has only infrequent contact with her family because of her remote location.
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"We have talked on the phone three times and it can go three or four months before I get an e-mail," Goddard-Gerrald said. "She sends me a typed letter, and I copy it and send it out to family and friends."
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The living conditions are very primitive for the Peace Corps workers in the nation made up of 83 islands in the South Pacific located north of New Zealand.
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In an e-mail, Goddard describes her dwelling.
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"My house is made of woven bamboo with a cement floor and my roof is made of thatch. It has two rooms but is still only about 20 feet long and 10 feet wide. There are only two windows, so it is rather dark," she said.
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Goddard cooks in her bamboo house.
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"Cooking is pretty simple. I got a three-burner stove and bottled gas before I went out to site last year. Mostly I just cook rice, tinned tuna and onions."
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For Goddard, traveling from island to island is by ship or plane.
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"I can either take a freight ship or a plane. The planes are anywhere from two to five times more expensive than ships, so if I’m on my own dime, I usually take a ship. My last trip took me 10 hours to get from Vila (Efate) to Lamen Bay (Epi).
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Goddard is working with the local residents on preserving the reef and bringing back a native snail, called trochus.
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"Trochus is a type of snail that lives on dead coral reefs. It gets up to 15 centimeters in diameter and the snail itself can be eaten. But the shell is sold to Chinese button makers. I build fences made of chicken wire and rebar underwater to house the mature trochus. Since the trochus are able to crawl out, someone (usually me) has to dive once a week to collect them and put them back inside. The thinking goes that since they are spawners, the more mature trochus you have close-up to each other, the better chances of eggs and sperm meeting and, therefore, offspring there will be."
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She said the "Survivor" crew is definitely a presence on the island of Efate, where she attended a conference, and several other islands where people have been moved off and vegetation removed. Even though the people were given money in compensation, she said the islanders don’t tend to save money so it doesn’t benefit them greatly.
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The Peace Corps members bump into crew members occasionally.
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"Most of us in the Peace Corps office make fun of the show. Mainly, ‘yeah, they can survive 30 days. We survive 2 years,’ " she said.
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Her grandmother, Mary Lou Hinricksen of rural DeWitt, Iowa, said there aren’t words to explain how proud she is of her granddaughter.
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"She has always been one to do her own thing," she said.
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The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2245 or newsroom@qctimes.com.
