Vanuatu, formerly known as New Hebrides, comprises 83 tropical islands in the South Pacific Ocean between Australia and Fiji. Hardwick is based on Aneityum, a remote island at the chain's southern tip. More than 100 languages are spoken in Vanuatu, but the common tongue is Bislama, a patois combining elements of French and English. Hardwick lived with a host family for three months and picked up Bislama well enough to communicate at a basic level. "Understanding what people said to me came easily enough," he said by e-mail, "but mastering the proper structure and rhythm of the language took a lot longer." As an example, "My name is Matthew and I am very happy to be here today" translates as "Nem blong mi Matthew mo mi mi harem klat big wan blong stap long ples ia tede." Hardwick also has immersed himself in the local culture. He drank kava, a traditional pre-meal narcotic drink made from plant roots. And he accepted the ministrations of faith healers, drinking medicinal plants when he was ill. Hardwick said black magic remains pervasive in Vanuatu, and even many college-educated residents believe in the capacity of evil people to transform into cats, rats or birds.
Matthew Hardwick is serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Vanuatu, an archipelago nation in the South Pacific
Lakeland Man Bringing Light to South Pacific
By Gary White
THE LEDGER
Published: Monday, June 8, 2009 at 4:18 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, June 8, 2009 at 4:18 p.m.
Fifteen months ago, Matthew Hardwick was working as a marketing assistant for a construction company. Now he's living in a place where 5,000-square-foot homes are unimaginable and air conditioning, electrical wiring and indoor plumbing are unknown.
Hardwick, who lived in Lakeland until he left in 2008, is serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Vanuatu, an archipelago nation in the South Pacific. The pale American lives among dark-skinned Melanesians who practice traditional subsistence lifestyles in villages governed by tribal chiefs.
Hardwick, 26, works as a small-business adviser, assisting a community-owned timber business, and also oversees a solar power project. He is scheduled to spend another 13 months on Vanuatu, living without most of the conveniences his relatives in Polk County take for granted.
"He's never once complained about the food or no power, no water," said his mother, Nancy Hardwick of Lakeland.
Discontented in the confines of an office cubicle, Matthew Hardwick applied to the Peace Corps two years after graduating from Florida Southern College in 2005. The Peace Corps, a federal agency created in 1961, overseas a network of volunteers on two-year assignments to help impoverished people throughout the world.
Volunteers don't get to choose their locations, but he did ask to avoid the cold climate of Eastern Europe. His mother said she had never heard of Vanuatu (vahn-uh-WAH-too) before her son was assigned there.
"It took me a while before I could pronounce it correctly," Nancy Hardwick said. "To most people I say where he's at and they look at me like, 'Where?' Even at the post office, I (have to) explain to them it's a country."
Vanuatu, formerly known as New Hebrides, comprises 83 tropical islands in the South Pacific Ocean between Australia and Fiji. Hardwick is based on Aneityum, a remote island at the chain's southern tip.
More than 100 languages are spoken in Vanuatu, but the common tongue is Bislama, a patois combining elements of French and English. Hardwick lived with a host family for three months and picked up Bislama well enough to communicate at a basic level.
"Understanding what people said to me came easily enough," he said by e-mail, "but mastering the proper structure and rhythm of the language took a lot longer."
As an example, "My name is Matthew and I am very happy to be here today" translates as "Nem blong mi Matthew mo mi mi harem klat big wan blong stap long ples ia tede."
Hardwick also has immersed himself in the local culture. He drank kava, a traditional pre-meal narcotic drink made from plant roots. And he accepted the ministrations of faith healers, drinking medicinal plants when he was ill. Hardwick said black magic remains pervasive in Vanuatu, and even many college-educated residents believe in the capacity of evil people to transform into cats, rats or birds.
When a boy in Hardwick's host family sustained a badly broken arm playing soccer, he was taken to a medicine man who sliced the arm open in three places with shards of a broken beer bottle and inserted medicinal leaves before setting the bone. Hardwick said the boy has fully recovered, though he was left with unsightly scars.
The nation is vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis, and Hardwick's island contains only one public telephone, which frequently goes out of service. He has sporadic access to the Internet.
Nancy Hardwick regularly mails "care packages" to her son, and she said it takes more than a month for them to be delivered. She usually includes newspapers and magazines. She said the Vanuatuans enjoy seeing copies of National Geographic, even though most can't read the English text.
Matthew's main assignment involves assisting residents with a pine-harvesting operation, advising them on the essentials of management, bookkeeping and computer use. He also created a community soccer league, began a fowl-raising project to provide eggs and assisted a fellow volunteer in making a recording studio for the use of indigenous musicians. Hardwick himself recorded a few rap songs in Bislama describing life in Vanuatu.
Recently, Hardwick said he has been focused mainly on developing a solar power network on the island through a Peace Corps project called Let There Be Light. Aneityum has no electrical grid, and Hardwick said villagers use cooking fires, flashlights, kerosene lanterns and coconut oil for lighting at night. Businesses rely upon generators, which are expensive and cause pollution.
Hardwick said the solar power network will create a new realm of nighttime activities, allowing children to study, community meetings to be held and women villagers to work on crafts after darkness falls. He said the environmentally responsible project will spare villagers from having to purchase batteries, kerosene and fuel for generators. The project is funded through a grant that depends on donations from Americans.
Hardwick said he didn't know anything about solar power before arriving on Vanuatu. He was given a personal solar kit to operate a high-frequency radio, his only form of communication when phone lines are down.
Hardwick admits to getting homesick, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even so, his mother said he has talked about extending his Peace Corps service after his current ends next year.
"It wouldn't surprise me if he ended up in another strange place," Nancy Hardwick said.
[ Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or at 863-802-7518. ]
