TSUBATA: Vanuatu offers many challenges

By Kate Tsubata | Sunday, October 12, 2008

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Home-schoolers are becoming a global phenomenon in more ways than one. Dr. Dan Leavitt and his wife, Sheira, Canadian home-schoolers, have transplanted their seven children, ranging in age from 16 to 5 years old, to the tiny island nation of Vanuatu. A Y-shaped archipelago of volcanic islands 1,300 miles east of Australia, it is home to about 200,000 people who eke out a precarious existence of subsistence farming, fishing and a small cash economy.

Dr. Leavitt is providing medical services to the people of the island of Tanna, which otherwise has no doctor. The family's new home is a far cry from Saltspring Island in British Columbia, where they normally live.

There are plenty of challenges — including the surroundings. As 15-year-old Shaina was climbing down a canyon of black sandstone, the seemingly solid ledge beneath her feet suddenly gave way, and she fell 20 feet into a pit of quicksand. Miraculously, her brother Reuben caught her, saving her life.

The islands are filled with active volcanoes, and earthquakes and tsunamis are common.

"We're getting good at dodging lava bombs," reports daughter Rachael, 16, "and it's difficult to navigate around the volcano in the dark; sometimes we've ended up right at the crater's edge!"

Rachael enumerates some everyday worries: "falling out of banyan trees, being eaten by sharks, bouncing out of the truck, getting dragged out by waves, dealing with earthquakes, and being buried when the volcano, Yasur, blows its top!"

Home-schooling, however, is going well, she says.

"First, we have religious studies, which can last anywhere from two hours to five minutes. Then, three days a week, we learn Bislama, the native tongue. We go and teach at the primary school, and since the kids only speak Bislama, we learn most of it there.

"Then, we have our science class, also known as 'Dokta studies.' Heather [a family friend along for the trip] and Reuben go on rounds with Dan, learning how to diagnose strange diseases. Shaina and I learn from the nurses, helping deliver and resuscitate babies, which can happen at random times, but seem to favor midnight as the best birthing time."

Rachael says the nurses trek down to get the two teenage "doulas" - birthing assistants - so their "science class" can be at any time of day or night.

"PE includes swimming, snorkeling, climbing trees or waterfalls, scaling cliffs (when they aren't crumbling) and of course, exploring - the family favorite," Rachael says. "Home economics is where we work on our cooking skills — everyone usually enjoys dinner so much more when it is Reuben and Shaina who have home ec that day.

"We are constantly getting writing assignments with the flood of fan mail we get here, but English literature class has limited supplies, so we either have to all read aloud from the same book or cut it down the spine so we can all read it in different places."

Though electricity is unreliable, the family enjoys piping hot baths in natural hot springs, the equal of any fancy hot tub. Night life may consist of performing traditional dances with local people in the glow of two lanterns — and some bugs that look like cockroaches with glowing eyes. Grass skirts, hemp bracelets, shell necklaces, and home-made earrings are their fashion, but forget about shoes.

And as for cosmetics: "Our hair is usually salt-water-back-of-the-truck-windblown-sandy look, while avocado or grapefruit peels are great for a face wash," Rachael says.

Family-based education is as unlimited in geographic boundaries as in academic studies. From the experiences of families like the Leavitts, we see it is clear that home-schooling doesn't necessarily mean schooling in a house, but rather, educating as a family - wherever the family happens to be.

• Kate Tsubata, a home-schooling mother of three, is a freelance writer who lives in Maryland.

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