Saturday, September 04, 2010
Ambrym
Ambrym is the island which evokes magic, Rom dances and volcanoes. It is also the centre of fine wood work and home to the 12 foot tam tams. (drums)
We arrived for the three day festival only to find it too had been delayed a day—we are getting used to that, fortunately there is always another village to become familiar with so it is never a hardship.
Chief Massing met us showing us where we could deposit our garbage and discussed the festivities planned for the next three days. We had also expressed interest in climbing the volcano the day after the festival and he will set it up for us. This will involve leaving at 6am and hiking the 4-5 hours up the volcano spend an hour or so there and hike back arriving at 5pm. It apparently has a red bubbly liquid boiling inside and is quite a sight. It is an arduous difficult trek but apparently worth the effort.
The festival is at a nearby village but his village wants to put on an Island Night for us to raise money for the kindergarten they want to start.
Kindergartens appears to be a recent phenomenon and are run by one of the more literate mothers of the village introducing the children to pencils, crayons and drawing before they enter school. No children have access to anything like this at home and many children are vastly unprepared when they enter school. There is no funding and local villages do what they can.
As the sun set the sky glowed red from the smoking volcano and at night the sky behind the near hills where the volcano was also glowed red--- no wonder the local people had associated it with magic—the magic is now apparently good magic but it was certainly not always the way. We had heard tales of people having their tongues cut out and reattached and they truly believe this happens.
This festival is one of the favorites for yachties and 23 yachts had arrived. As well as Sea Rover who we had been sailing and several of the boats which had been in Southwest Bay for that festival and Zeke with Karen and Al who had been with us in Tanna arrived.
The festival was at a village 45 minutes walk along a good dirt track so most of us welcomed the walk. For those who did not want to walk they organised a truck with a shuttle system to pile everyone on the back.
They decided to start the festival at 10am island time so we all went in around 8 30am to look at the display of carvings which our village had set up. They are beautifully finished and are very reasonably priced. The big decision is what to buy????? Those of you who know me well can imagine the quandary, Ken who knows me well just backed off and let me change my mind every minute!!! The tam tams would look wonderful in Salt Spring—could be our door knocker set in a garden off the back deck—I did acknowledge that a 12 foot one would be excessive so perhaps a 6 foot one. The problem being there was also a wonderful carving which was only about 3 foot high which could go in the garden also. I have already admitted that our small cottage is already going to be crowded with what we already have so would like something for out doors. It is not the cost that is the issue it is how we will get it back---Darlene who will join us in a few weeks may yet have to share a bed!!! –and a plane seat when she leaves!! We will look into shipping to Canada from Vila.
Anyway after drooling it was time to walk to the village where the festival would start at 11am—not so bad.
It started with a welcome ceremony/dance by the men who were wearing the nambas which other than the penis itself lets it “all hang out”!!!—a little disconcerting later to be speaking to them individually but after a while it all seemed quite normal. The men due to the physical nature of their lives, walking up and down hills and making copra—the mainstay other than carving of this area too—have great physiques.
The women then came out clad only in grass skirts and some kind of lei of leaves around there necks. Unfortunately their lives have been full of breeding children, no bras and much sitting making and eating the starchy lap lap have not been as kind to their bodies.
The mens dancing involves much chanting and stamping of feet, all of the dances were accompanied by drumming the tam tam. The women join them after a while but after the jubilant manner of the women of Tanna, these women appear very unenthusiastic. They do some hypnotic chanting of their own but with very little movement. The sand drawings were demonstrated once again.
Ladies of the village had set up stalls selling the ubiquitous lap lap, sandwiches, banana fritters and drinking coconuts doing a thriving trade. Local men also had yet more carvings for sale there. I had made a sandwich and wrapped it in saran wrap for our lunch, when I went to put the plastic in the basket they had woven for garbage other than one coke can ( a yachtie’s) everything else was able to go back to the land. Coconuts used for drinking and banana leaves for wrapping.
In the evening we had Sea Rover, Zeke and Atlantia (Scottish) over for a pot luck followed by Mexican Train which they had never played and we had not played for a long time so had an enjoyable evening.
The next day the highlight of the festival was the dance where the important men who had attained a particular grade were able to dance around stamping and chanting and take pot shots with coconuts at another chief who had climbed a structure. This appears to date back to where they would throw spears and the chief on the structure would prove how strong he was. They ducked a lot so am not sure how strong they really are any more!!!
This was followed by a magic show where they told us they would pick up a boy on a leaves. They piled several large leaves on each other and then had a boy around 6 years old lie face down, he grabbed his ankles from behind making a rigid frame. The two men then lifted him and walked him around the dancing area. We could see that although they were holding the leaves they also had the inside of the boy’s arm—I guess when you want to believe you will!!!
The last item of the day was the marching in of the masks for the Rom dance tomorrow, this has to happen the preceding day. These are wonderfully decorated masks and we are looking forward to the final day.
The night was Island Night at our village. It was showery during the evening which unfortunately deterred some of the yachties coming in but those of us who did were sent the 5 minutes down the trail to a large building where they had managed to hang a light and were running a generator. None of the villages have power and very few have a generator and if they do have it they only run it occasionally. They had set out food along the whole length of the floor, they had killed a pig for us and had made lap lap. We had all taken in some salads so it was a lovely feast. One of the yachties made a speech thanking them for their generosity and passed a bowl for our donations. It was meant to have been only $5 each for us and we all gave more. The following day some of the yachties who had not come in donated more money and they were delighted with the amount we raised for them.
We were now ready for the last day of the festival; meanwhile the negotiations for the volcano hike had been happening. It is actually a few days after the season for the volcano as it is now yam season where the locals are all meant to be busy planting. However they had said that the spirits could be appeased with money but came up with $280 between us to make the spirits happy!!! We wondered if they would throw the money into the volcano so the spirits would be really happy but we all had lost interest in this exorbitant appeasement. There had only been a small number of us who were going to do the hike anyway and as the festival had been intense and we were tired most people quickly lost interest making it even more expensive for the few who remained interested so the idea was forgotten.
The last day started with the 9 Rom dancers coming in with a lot of chanting, stamping and drumming and was an amazing sight. The Rom dancers wear the huge masks but also are covered totally by a cloak of dried pandanus leaves. It is mesmerizing and we have videos as well as stills which we will bore our families with later. This as all of their dances went on for some time giving us a long time to enjoy it. To qualify to do the Rom mask you need to make a mask and give a pig which get shared amongst all of the dancers—no women are allowed to eat ceremonial pigs.
The last dance was one that they use for the circumcision ceremony which someone had just written the lyrics. These appear to be quite racy as the crowd of locals was in hysterics over them. They then invited us to join the dancing which I along with a number of white women did and we sweated profusely as we jumped up and down in the hot sun.
All in all it was a fine end to a wonderful festival and we would recommend it to anyone contemplating coming.
We went back to our village where we finished with a Scottish night with haggis—my first taste—on Atlantia.
The next day we just relaxed with mixed feelings of regret and thankfulness that we were not climbing the volcano.
Chief Massing came on our boat expressing the thanks of the village for the kindy money—they have enough for the building now and want to continue having the yachts support it so would like us to come up with a name honouring us. We were touched and the voted the Kens suggestion of “White Sails Kindy”—the first thing they see when we arrive—the villagers likes the name so that is what it will be.
We will come back on our way south later as he is making a smaller tam tam which we may be persuaded to buy along with the 3 foot carving that Darlene can already sleep with!!!
We sadly said goodbye to Sea Rover who were heading north to the Banks as we had enjoyed their company, as we know with other boats we have become particularly friendly with we may yet meet again.
We arrived for the three day festival only to find it too had been delayed a day—we are getting used to that, fortunately there is always another village to become familiar with so it is never a hardship.
Chief Massing met us showing us where we could deposit our garbage and discussed the festivities planned for the next three days. We had also expressed interest in climbing the volcano the day after the festival and he will set it up for us. This will involve leaving at 6am and hiking the 4-5 hours up the volcano spend an hour or so there and hike back arriving at 5pm. It apparently has a red bubbly liquid boiling inside and is quite a sight. It is an arduous difficult trek but apparently worth the effort.
The festival is at a nearby village but his village wants to put on an Island Night for us to raise money for the kindergarten they want to start.
Kindergartens appears to be a recent phenomenon and are run by one of the more literate mothers of the village introducing the children to pencils, crayons and drawing before they enter school. No children have access to anything like this at home and many children are vastly unprepared when they enter school. There is no funding and local villages do what they can.
As the sun set the sky glowed red from the smoking volcano and at night the sky behind the near hills where the volcano was also glowed red--- no wonder the local people had associated it with magic—the magic is now apparently good magic but it was certainly not always the way. We had heard tales of people having their tongues cut out and reattached and they truly believe this happens.
This festival is one of the favorites for yachties and 23 yachts had arrived. As well as Sea Rover who we had been sailing and several of the boats which had been in Southwest Bay for that festival and Zeke with Karen and Al who had been with us in Tanna arrived.
The festival was at a village 45 minutes walk along a good dirt track so most of us welcomed the walk. For those who did not want to walk they organised a truck with a shuttle system to pile everyone on the back.
They decided to start the festival at 10am island time so we all went in around 8 30am to look at the display of carvings which our village had set up. They are beautifully finished and are very reasonably priced. The big decision is what to buy????? Those of you who know me well can imagine the quandary, Ken who knows me well just backed off and let me change my mind every minute!!! The tam tams would look wonderful in Salt Spring—could be our door knocker set in a garden off the back deck—I did acknowledge that a 12 foot one would be excessive so perhaps a 6 foot one. The problem being there was also a wonderful carving which was only about 3 foot high which could go in the garden also. I have already admitted that our small cottage is already going to be crowded with what we already have so would like something for out doors. It is not the cost that is the issue it is how we will get it back---Darlene who will join us in a few weeks may yet have to share a bed!!! –and a plane seat when she leaves!! We will look into shipping to Canada from Vila.
Anyway after drooling it was time to walk to the village where the festival would start at 11am—not so bad.
It started with a welcome ceremony/dance by the men who were wearing the nambas which other than the penis itself lets it “all hang out”!!!—a little disconcerting later to be speaking to them individually but after a while it all seemed quite normal. The men due to the physical nature of their lives, walking up and down hills and making copra—the mainstay other than carving of this area too—have great physiques.
The women then came out clad only in grass skirts and some kind of lei of leaves around there necks. Unfortunately their lives have been full of breeding children, no bras and much sitting making and eating the starchy lap lap have not been as kind to their bodies.
The mens dancing involves much chanting and stamping of feet, all of the dances were accompanied by drumming the tam tam. The women join them after a while but after the jubilant manner of the women of Tanna, these women appear very unenthusiastic. They do some hypnotic chanting of their own but with very little movement. The sand drawings were demonstrated once again.
Ladies of the village had set up stalls selling the ubiquitous lap lap, sandwiches, banana fritters and drinking coconuts doing a thriving trade. Local men also had yet more carvings for sale there. I had made a sandwich and wrapped it in saran wrap for our lunch, when I went to put the plastic in the basket they had woven for garbage other than one coke can ( a yachtie’s) everything else was able to go back to the land. Coconuts used for drinking and banana leaves for wrapping.
In the evening we had Sea Rover, Zeke and Atlantia (Scottish) over for a pot luck followed by Mexican Train which they had never played and we had not played for a long time so had an enjoyable evening.
The next day the highlight of the festival was the dance where the important men who had attained a particular grade were able to dance around stamping and chanting and take pot shots with coconuts at another chief who had climbed a structure. This appears to date back to where they would throw spears and the chief on the structure would prove how strong he was. They ducked a lot so am not sure how strong they really are any more!!!
This was followed by a magic show where they told us they would pick up a boy on a leaves. They piled several large leaves on each other and then had a boy around 6 years old lie face down, he grabbed his ankles from behind making a rigid frame. The two men then lifted him and walked him around the dancing area. We could see that although they were holding the leaves they also had the inside of the boy’s arm—I guess when you want to believe you will!!!
The last item of the day was the marching in of the masks for the Rom dance tomorrow, this has to happen the preceding day. These are wonderfully decorated masks and we are looking forward to the final day.
The night was Island Night at our village. It was showery during the evening which unfortunately deterred some of the yachties coming in but those of us who did were sent the 5 minutes down the trail to a large building where they had managed to hang a light and were running a generator. None of the villages have power and very few have a generator and if they do have it they only run it occasionally. They had set out food along the whole length of the floor, they had killed a pig for us and had made lap lap. We had all taken in some salads so it was a lovely feast. One of the yachties made a speech thanking them for their generosity and passed a bowl for our donations. It was meant to have been only $5 each for us and we all gave more. The following day some of the yachties who had not come in donated more money and they were delighted with the amount we raised for them.
We were now ready for the last day of the festival; meanwhile the negotiations for the volcano hike had been happening. It is actually a few days after the season for the volcano as it is now yam season where the locals are all meant to be busy planting. However they had said that the spirits could be appeased with money but came up with $280 between us to make the spirits happy!!! We wondered if they would throw the money into the volcano so the spirits would be really happy but we all had lost interest in this exorbitant appeasement. There had only been a small number of us who were going to do the hike anyway and as the festival had been intense and we were tired most people quickly lost interest making it even more expensive for the few who remained interested so the idea was forgotten.
The last day started with the 9 Rom dancers coming in with a lot of chanting, stamping and drumming and was an amazing sight. The Rom dancers wear the huge masks but also are covered totally by a cloak of dried pandanus leaves. It is mesmerizing and we have videos as well as stills which we will bore our families with later. This as all of their dances went on for some time giving us a long time to enjoy it. To qualify to do the Rom mask you need to make a mask and give a pig which get shared amongst all of the dancers—no women are allowed to eat ceremonial pigs.
The last dance was one that they use for the circumcision ceremony which someone had just written the lyrics. These appear to be quite racy as the crowd of locals was in hysterics over them. They then invited us to join the dancing which I along with a number of white women did and we sweated profusely as we jumped up and down in the hot sun.
All in all it was a fine end to a wonderful festival and we would recommend it to anyone contemplating coming.
We went back to our village where we finished with a Scottish night with haggis—my first taste—on Atlantia.
The next day we just relaxed with mixed feelings of regret and thankfulness that we were not climbing the volcano.
Chief Massing came on our boat expressing the thanks of the village for the kindy money—they have enough for the building now and want to continue having the yachts support it so would like us to come up with a name honouring us. We were touched and the voted the Kens suggestion of “White Sails Kindy”—the first thing they see when we arrive—the villagers likes the name so that is what it will be.
We will come back on our way south later as he is making a smaller tam tam which we may be persuaded to buy along with the 3 foot carving that Darlene can already sleep with!!!
We sadly said goodbye to Sea Rover who were heading north to the Banks as we had enjoyed their company, as we know with other boats we have become particularly friendly with we may yet meet again.
Maskelyn Islands to Port Sandwich and Banam Bay, Malekula
We left with Mike and Devala sailing back to the Maskelyn Islands at the South of Malekula. We had been told it is a great snorkelling area but while we were there the weather was always blustery, after having been spoilt in Fiji we only go in perfect conditions.
At 6 30AM the next morning we were awoken by a knocking on the hull. Some men in a dugout wanted to sell us an enormous lobster which we bought for $15. They told us there would be a festival in the next village so along with Mike and Devala we changed anchorages.
After arriving we were told that it would cost $50 each for the day, this is a huge amount here so when we said we would not go they then offered us a smaller version that the two men at our boat would put on for $15. We were feeling a little taken advantage of and so declined but they did say they would show us the village which we agreed to. When we got ashore another “chief”—you are never sure who is or not sometimes—invited us to an island feast of chicken, lobster and a string band in the evening for $10 each. We felt this may be legitimate so agreed to come back at 5pm and continued our tour of the village.
They are preparing for a huge conference of Presbyterian Churches of Melanesia and women are weaving sleeping mats for all who will come for the 5 day festival where they have to apparently feed and sleep all of the delegates. The women always work together in groups and here they were all sitting on the ground as they weave and discuss world affairs???—maybe local gossip??
Our guide, Tom was quick to advise us that he was taking us around the village but would hope we would pay him something as he needs to send his kids to high school. It is difficult for us, we know they do have to pay to have their children go to high school and I am sure there is great pressure to somehow come up with the money but we have never had anybody ask for money from us at all—especially to tour a village—we were starting to have a bad feeling about this village which seems to have much more infighting than we have come across before. Between us we gave him some money and went back to our boats.
We came back in to the “Island Feast” which turned out to be rice, chicken, no lobster—perhaps they had sold us them this morning—and no island band. By this time we were feeling less than charitable!!!
The following morning Tom came out and firstly offered to take us snorkelling, (presumably for money) after being questioned this apparently would be right beside our boat---I think not!!! He also asked if we could print up his advertisement to send to Port Vila so he could advertise himself as a tour guide---rather than promote him to any other unknowing tourists I told him our printer did not work.
We then decided that the vibes from this village were so negative that it was time to move on to a new area. Mike and Devala bravely decided to stay one more day to try and find the real chief and advise him that his village would not win with these tactics.
We would go up the coast to Port Sandwich—after yet another British Earl—and they would come a day later.
Port Sandwich
After our negative experience we sailed the few hours to Port Sandwich anchoring beside a coconut plantation but decided not to go ashore, feeling that we needed a break from locals for a while. A French and French Canadian boat came in and went ashore so after a while we softened and decided we would at least go in as there is a road on this part of the island which we could walk along—we have not had a road since Efate.
When we got ashore a man from the plantation came to meet us telling us that if we came back at 3pm tomorrow his father who loved yachties would be there and they would have vegetables for us.
It turns out the 77 year old Ezekiel loves cruisers and has been welcoming them for 20 years. He is lovely--shouts a bit as he can't hear well any more but reminded us a little of Ken's dad.
John, the son lives nearby with his wife and family and works the plantation with Dad. They grow, dry and ship copra from there which is made into coconut oil and exported--China???.
When we got there at 3pm with the French and French Canadians along with Mike and Devala who had now arrived we were invited into a building where in the middle of the floor was a huge pile of fruit divided into piles for each boat. We each had a huge bunch of bananas, some of the enormous pamplemouse, drinking coconuts, cucumbers, green onions and eggs. We had all taken in soap, rice children’s clothing and tea but felt very humbled and a little overwhelmed.
Dad, who is very religious, took us to his little chapel where he prayed for us--in bislama--pigeon English which was very cute—we could translate the bit about not too much wind, big seas and Jesus Christ picaninny of the big man. He showed us the ships bell which he rings--only his family is ever at his chapel--it was a bit tarnished so we offered to come in the next day and try and polish it for him and bring him some reading glasses so he could read his bible.
The next morning we go in and he said he had been waiting for us (probably since 7am!!!). We gave him the glasses which did help him see but I am sure he will never use--never mind and we improved the bell as well. He then wandered out and grabbed a big stick and started chasing the chickens--I asked him what he was doing to the chickens and his reply was "chicken dead"--he was going to get one for us!!! I immediately said in my best bislamic that "we no needum chicken"--his answer was "I know you no needum chicken but I want to killem chicken for you". Luckily--we thought --the chickens were too fast for him but he was very frustrated--I am sure he remembers when he could killem chicken easily.
It was Ken’s 60th birthday and upon getting back to the boat Mike and Devala had tied a large bunch of balloons in our cockpit with a bottle of prosseco---we will share it with them along with birthday dinner that night.
We spent the next few hours on a dingy ride up the mangrove river with them visiting a small settlement we had seen when Ken and I had kayaked past the day before. We had seen some villagers that day and they had said for us to come back tomorrow. They almost never have yachties visiting so when we showed up were very shy and did not know what to do with us now that there were 4 of us. We asked if they had some cabbage--which is like spinach and they came out with a huge pile wrapped in a banana leaf tied with a root--normal packaging here!!!---We gave them soap, sugar and tea and hopefully they were happy with that--they gave us yet more pamplemousse as well.
We now went back to the boat only to find Ezekiel with his two grandchildren sitting in his rowboat tied to our boat---oh oh---- we immediately said--"chicken dead" and Davarla said I am not going to look at you when we get there as we will all have fits of laughter!!!
Of course Dad had waited till John arrived and made him killem chicken. Luckily it was plucked but came complete with claws and head and guts!!
We invited Dad and the two small grandkids they take care of—families seem to be spread all over-- on the boat for cookies and tea--he grabbed as many as his hand could take from the package—we do not put them nicely on a plate, just a bowl of them and they are gone in a minute. We do need to get some sweet drink though as we notice they do not like our lemonade—fruit punch will go down better—they are starved for sugar with no access to the corner store and candies and will put several large spoons in their tea.
The next day when went in to walk to the nearby village Ezekiel had been waiting for us before he started work. Once he met with us we had to promise we would come by on the way back. Mike mentioned something about a chicken and he quickly asked if they would like a chicken. We assured him we were going to share our chicken with him as we could not handle the thought of him spending his day with a big stick as chickens scattered widely. Besides the chicken although hormone free are a bit stringy and scrawny.
As we walked to the village 30minutes away with Ken’s balloons tied to his pack we gave them to the children we passed. The French school--they have French or English here--had an early day on Fridays and the home economic class cooks and sell lunch for $2 to fund raise which we enjoyed well as the chance to stretch our legs. On our return some of the children we had given balloons to were waiting for us with grapefruit.
John’s family lives in the village so we dropped in to meet his wife and 2 week old baby boy and took photos of them which we will print and give them so they will have a record of their new baby.
The following morning we went in sadly to say goodbye--Dad said our boat was big enough and maybe he would come with us--I said his family would miss him so he said it would be big enough for all of them!!!--He assured us that we would always be welcome and he would have his house open for us---
What a lovely experience after our last stopover and it has truly made us appreciate the wonderful nature of the Ni Vanu people.
To Banam Bay
The short passage to the next anchorage was only a couple of hours before we anchored at the pretty Banam Bay.
Along with Mike and Devala we went ashore to make enquiries about Jenny, Ezekial’s daughter who lived here with her husband Tom. They look after John’s two daughters while the girls attend school, it is too far to walk from his village. This is a normal occurrence in these islands where everyone walks everywhere with no roads and no vehicles. Jenny and Tom’s small son was staying with Ezekiel when we were there.
We were taken to Jenny and Tom’s house at a nearby village but they were away at their garden. Rolena who lives nearby invited us to come back to her house for lunch the next day and she would take us to Jenny’s then.
Meanwhile the local village was preparing a feast for festivities that night for a pre wedding party for a local girl.
When the girl marries the boy has to come up with at least one pig and the equivalent of $800. The girl then will move to the boy’s village to live and raise their families. This dowry system is very rigid and means many couples live together and have children while they are saving up the marriage price. The relationship with the in laws and families all appeared to be very loving and we found it odd that the father even if it appeared not to matter financially to him held out for his money before his daughter could marry.
This young couple would get married at the new husband’s village where they will live but her father would have a big party for her first—I assume they will eat the pig and he had hired a string band. All of the women were preparing lap lap, grating the manioc (tapioca) root, mixing with coconut milk adding some of the pig and wrapping in banana leaves to cook in a ground oven. The men were chopping kava root, we were invited back for the festivities but it will go long into the night so we declined the invitation.
The next day we loaded up with gifts—we are learning never to go ashore without gifts, even mentioning the word banana will get you an enormous bunch!!!—and set off for Rolena’s house. She along with her husband had spent the morning preparing lap lap for us, this time with pumpkin mashed on top which made it somewhat moister and more palatable. We were seated at the table set with a cloth and flowers while the family sat on a mat on the floor—no amount of protesting will change this. Once we had eaten here she said she would take us to Jenny’s who had also spent the morning making lap lap for us!!!
Jenny is also a lovely young woman and we enjoyed taking greetings along with a picture Mike had printed of her young son with Ezekiel. Another lunch of lap lap was consumed and we will not need dinner tonight!!!
Rolena insisted that we walk a bit further to he parent’s village, her mother has had many western people stay at her house and would love to meet us. We set off along with Rolena’s husband and two children, they are not married even though their oldest daughter is 6 but she says maybe in September if they have saved enough money to pay off her father. Her mother and father were delighted to see us and insisted on giving us at least tea when we insisted that two lunches had filled us.
We left her house loaded with vegetables and stopped off to say goodbye to Jenny who as her family tradition would dictate had collected us another pile of fruit, vegs and eggs. Rolena also had more for us and we left loaded down to go back to our boats.
These wonderful families have made our visit to Vanuatu very personal, once you meet a family they rapidly welcome you into their homes.
We need to cross to Ambrym next to be there in time for their Rom festival.
At 6 30AM the next morning we were awoken by a knocking on the hull. Some men in a dugout wanted to sell us an enormous lobster which we bought for $15. They told us there would be a festival in the next village so along with Mike and Devala we changed anchorages.
After arriving we were told that it would cost $50 each for the day, this is a huge amount here so when we said we would not go they then offered us a smaller version that the two men at our boat would put on for $15. We were feeling a little taken advantage of and so declined but they did say they would show us the village which we agreed to. When we got ashore another “chief”—you are never sure who is or not sometimes—invited us to an island feast of chicken, lobster and a string band in the evening for $10 each. We felt this may be legitimate so agreed to come back at 5pm and continued our tour of the village.
They are preparing for a huge conference of Presbyterian Churches of Melanesia and women are weaving sleeping mats for all who will come for the 5 day festival where they have to apparently feed and sleep all of the delegates. The women always work together in groups and here they were all sitting on the ground as they weave and discuss world affairs???—maybe local gossip??
Our guide, Tom was quick to advise us that he was taking us around the village but would hope we would pay him something as he needs to send his kids to high school. It is difficult for us, we know they do have to pay to have their children go to high school and I am sure there is great pressure to somehow come up with the money but we have never had anybody ask for money from us at all—especially to tour a village—we were starting to have a bad feeling about this village which seems to have much more infighting than we have come across before. Between us we gave him some money and went back to our boats.
We came back in to the “Island Feast” which turned out to be rice, chicken, no lobster—perhaps they had sold us them this morning—and no island band. By this time we were feeling less than charitable!!!
The following morning Tom came out and firstly offered to take us snorkelling, (presumably for money) after being questioned this apparently would be right beside our boat---I think not!!! He also asked if we could print up his advertisement to send to Port Vila so he could advertise himself as a tour guide---rather than promote him to any other unknowing tourists I told him our printer did not work.
We then decided that the vibes from this village were so negative that it was time to move on to a new area. Mike and Devala bravely decided to stay one more day to try and find the real chief and advise him that his village would not win with these tactics.
We would go up the coast to Port Sandwich—after yet another British Earl—and they would come a day later.
Port Sandwich
After our negative experience we sailed the few hours to Port Sandwich anchoring beside a coconut plantation but decided not to go ashore, feeling that we needed a break from locals for a while. A French and French Canadian boat came in and went ashore so after a while we softened and decided we would at least go in as there is a road on this part of the island which we could walk along—we have not had a road since Efate.
When we got ashore a man from the plantation came to meet us telling us that if we came back at 3pm tomorrow his father who loved yachties would be there and they would have vegetables for us.
It turns out the 77 year old Ezekiel loves cruisers and has been welcoming them for 20 years. He is lovely--shouts a bit as he can't hear well any more but reminded us a little of Ken's dad.
John, the son lives nearby with his wife and family and works the plantation with Dad. They grow, dry and ship copra from there which is made into coconut oil and exported--China???.
When we got there at 3pm with the French and French Canadians along with Mike and Devala who had now arrived we were invited into a building where in the middle of the floor was a huge pile of fruit divided into piles for each boat. We each had a huge bunch of bananas, some of the enormous pamplemouse, drinking coconuts, cucumbers, green onions and eggs. We had all taken in soap, rice children’s clothing and tea but felt very humbled and a little overwhelmed.
Dad, who is very religious, took us to his little chapel where he prayed for us--in bislama--pigeon English which was very cute—we could translate the bit about not too much wind, big seas and Jesus Christ picaninny of the big man. He showed us the ships bell which he rings--only his family is ever at his chapel--it was a bit tarnished so we offered to come in the next day and try and polish it for him and bring him some reading glasses so he could read his bible.
The next morning we go in and he said he had been waiting for us (probably since 7am!!!). We gave him the glasses which did help him see but I am sure he will never use--never mind and we improved the bell as well. He then wandered out and grabbed a big stick and started chasing the chickens--I asked him what he was doing to the chickens and his reply was "chicken dead"--he was going to get one for us!!! I immediately said in my best bislamic that "we no needum chicken"--his answer was "I know you no needum chicken but I want to killem chicken for you". Luckily--we thought --the chickens were too fast for him but he was very frustrated--I am sure he remembers when he could killem chicken easily.
It was Ken’s 60th birthday and upon getting back to the boat Mike and Devala had tied a large bunch of balloons in our cockpit with a bottle of prosseco---we will share it with them along with birthday dinner that night.
We spent the next few hours on a dingy ride up the mangrove river with them visiting a small settlement we had seen when Ken and I had kayaked past the day before. We had seen some villagers that day and they had said for us to come back tomorrow. They almost never have yachties visiting so when we showed up were very shy and did not know what to do with us now that there were 4 of us. We asked if they had some cabbage--which is like spinach and they came out with a huge pile wrapped in a banana leaf tied with a root--normal packaging here!!!---We gave them soap, sugar and tea and hopefully they were happy with that--they gave us yet more pamplemousse as well.
We now went back to the boat only to find Ezekiel with his two grandchildren sitting in his rowboat tied to our boat---oh oh---- we immediately said--"chicken dead" and Davarla said I am not going to look at you when we get there as we will all have fits of laughter!!!
Of course Dad had waited till John arrived and made him killem chicken. Luckily it was plucked but came complete with claws and head and guts!!
We invited Dad and the two small grandkids they take care of—families seem to be spread all over-- on the boat for cookies and tea--he grabbed as many as his hand could take from the package—we do not put them nicely on a plate, just a bowl of them and they are gone in a minute. We do need to get some sweet drink though as we notice they do not like our lemonade—fruit punch will go down better—they are starved for sugar with no access to the corner store and candies and will put several large spoons in their tea.
The next day when went in to walk to the nearby village Ezekiel had been waiting for us before he started work. Once he met with us we had to promise we would come by on the way back. Mike mentioned something about a chicken and he quickly asked if they would like a chicken. We assured him we were going to share our chicken with him as we could not handle the thought of him spending his day with a big stick as chickens scattered widely. Besides the chicken although hormone free are a bit stringy and scrawny.
As we walked to the village 30minutes away with Ken’s balloons tied to his pack we gave them to the children we passed. The French school--they have French or English here--had an early day on Fridays and the home economic class cooks and sell lunch for $2 to fund raise which we enjoyed well as the chance to stretch our legs. On our return some of the children we had given balloons to were waiting for us with grapefruit.
John’s family lives in the village so we dropped in to meet his wife and 2 week old baby boy and took photos of them which we will print and give them so they will have a record of their new baby.
The following morning we went in sadly to say goodbye--Dad said our boat was big enough and maybe he would come with us--I said his family would miss him so he said it would be big enough for all of them!!!--He assured us that we would always be welcome and he would have his house open for us---
What a lovely experience after our last stopover and it has truly made us appreciate the wonderful nature of the Ni Vanu people.
To Banam Bay
The short passage to the next anchorage was only a couple of hours before we anchored at the pretty Banam Bay.
Along with Mike and Devala we went ashore to make enquiries about Jenny, Ezekial’s daughter who lived here with her husband Tom. They look after John’s two daughters while the girls attend school, it is too far to walk from his village. This is a normal occurrence in these islands where everyone walks everywhere with no roads and no vehicles. Jenny and Tom’s small son was staying with Ezekiel when we were there.
We were taken to Jenny and Tom’s house at a nearby village but they were away at their garden. Rolena who lives nearby invited us to come back to her house for lunch the next day and she would take us to Jenny’s then.
Meanwhile the local village was preparing a feast for festivities that night for a pre wedding party for a local girl.
When the girl marries the boy has to come up with at least one pig and the equivalent of $800. The girl then will move to the boy’s village to live and raise their families. This dowry system is very rigid and means many couples live together and have children while they are saving up the marriage price. The relationship with the in laws and families all appeared to be very loving and we found it odd that the father even if it appeared not to matter financially to him held out for his money before his daughter could marry.
This young couple would get married at the new husband’s village where they will live but her father would have a big party for her first—I assume they will eat the pig and he had hired a string band. All of the women were preparing lap lap, grating the manioc (tapioca) root, mixing with coconut milk adding some of the pig and wrapping in banana leaves to cook in a ground oven. The men were chopping kava root, we were invited back for the festivities but it will go long into the night so we declined the invitation.
The next day we loaded up with gifts—we are learning never to go ashore without gifts, even mentioning the word banana will get you an enormous bunch!!!—and set off for Rolena’s house. She along with her husband had spent the morning preparing lap lap for us, this time with pumpkin mashed on top which made it somewhat moister and more palatable. We were seated at the table set with a cloth and flowers while the family sat on a mat on the floor—no amount of protesting will change this. Once we had eaten here she said she would take us to Jenny’s who had also spent the morning making lap lap for us!!!
Jenny is also a lovely young woman and we enjoyed taking greetings along with a picture Mike had printed of her young son with Ezekiel. Another lunch of lap lap was consumed and we will not need dinner tonight!!!
Rolena insisted that we walk a bit further to he parent’s village, her mother has had many western people stay at her house and would love to meet us. We set off along with Rolena’s husband and two children, they are not married even though their oldest daughter is 6 but she says maybe in September if they have saved enough money to pay off her father. Her mother and father were delighted to see us and insisted on giving us at least tea when we insisted that two lunches had filled us.
We left her house loaded with vegetables and stopped off to say goodbye to Jenny who as her family tradition would dictate had collected us another pile of fruit, vegs and eggs. Rolena also had more for us and we left loaded down to go back to our boats.
These wonderful families have made our visit to Vanuatu very personal, once you meet a family they rapidly welcome you into their homes.
We need to cross to Ambrym next to be there in time for their Rom festival.
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