Photo Journal – Loltong, Pentecost to Dickson Bay, Ambae
Local Traditions
We normally start our days with a breakfast of bananas, some grapefruit, and black coffee (there is no fridge or freezer onboard Waimanu so milk is not a daily item for us). The bananas we normally have raw but we sometimes fry them in cinnamon to change things up a bit.
The hospital people put on a thank you dinner, with French red wine! We were also given beautifully handcrafted carry baskets. These are beautiful, handmade, plant woven basket like bags that are oh so incredibly useful!
So now we have more than one, which reminds me of our time back at Loltong, Pentecost where we received our first one. We unintentionally found ourselves in the middle of Day 50 while there. When someone dies there is a set time for mourning that lasts 100 days. A feast is had on Day 50 and again on Day 100. During this period, the widow spends a lot of time in the nakamal while others visit.
A nakamal is a traditional meeting place that in northern and central Vanuatu usually takes it’s form as a hut assembled using nearby materials and built by the entire local community (in southern Vanuatu it is more often a large, sheltered outdoor space such as under a banyan tree).
When we arrived, they were most insistent that we join in with their feasting. As we were the furtherest traveled we were given food first. We were also given a bag of food in one of these traditional basket type bags.
It was fascinating and touching to be able to participate.
Hidden Yachtie Havens
Once you get into the Islands, you discover lots of little spots that only locals and yachties get to. These are gorgeous wee gems with a laid back culture that offer laughs and new friends, a slice of home (sometimes) and a good bit of humour.
We found this latest one at Asanvari, a small bay at the bottom of the island of Maewo. There is a nice little waterfall in one corner with a part time bar that is open when there are no village occasions happening and enough yachts in the bay (just your normal opening hours). A lovely fresh water wash shower was had after enjoying a stunning wind-less day.
Jenny still had the dregs of a headache (it can take awhile to adjust to a different set of climate and weather patterns and the heat is getting to her a little bit, although she’s nearly acclimatised). Because of this we didn’t attend the birthday party of a local ashore that our neighbouring Norwegians had invited us. However, we could hear the happenings from home and wondered what the other visiting yachites would be thinking of the hymn singing that was happening (quite a normal part of a birthday party up here) along with four versus of the Happy Birthday song that were each sung in a slightly different tune.
Life in General
This is what quite a “normal” day looks like now:
Morning:
While anchored in another stunning spot (Loltong Bay, 15°32’42.84S, 168°08’56.64E) Phil did a bit of general engine maintenance while Jenny puttered around the boat. We worked in companionable quiet while listening to the birdsong from ashore and the laughter coming from our chattering neighbours. We also watched a ship unload supplies.
Afternoon:
A spot of swimming and watching the local kids having a ride in a longboat dugout with the local fishermen and then we’re off ashore.
In short, life is good and you have to make the most of the adventure it is (or can be).
Yummy Rain
We sailed from Home Bay up to Waterfall Village on our next leg and boy did it rain!
It is currently what is known as the “Dry Season” at this time of year although perhaps a more apt name would be the more-common-to-have-few-cyclones season. (Dry Season is NZ winter, traversing April through to October while Wet Season, or Hurricane Season, or Cyclone Season usually happens from November to March, usually being the operative word) It was nice to have a bit of a cool down, though, as even when you are jumping in for a swim the water tends to be a lukewarm temperature. Not only refreshing, it also topped up our water tank with Phil emptying two full 10 litre water buckets just from what we collected using our sun awning. There is nothing quite like fresh rain water.
We also headed ashore to have a bit of an explore, walking up to the Ranwadi school. Ranwadi takes students right the way through, from 5 years old to 18 years old. For the local villages, it can be a bit of a walk (depending on how far away the students live) but it also has dorms for both boys and girls, catering to those who are just a bit too far away. When Anita came up here in 2007/2008 it was their summer holidays so she and her friends lived on site while working on upkeep and maintenance jobs. It is a special place.
A Year 13 student (17 or 18 years old and in his last year of school before he becomes University/tertiary/collage age) did a good job showing us around as the staff were in a meeting.
The next day we visited the Waterfall Village where we tracked down a local girl Anita used to spend a lot of time with while here and wrote letters to for a number of years. She now has her own girl pikinini (child) who is a year old.
Jenny had a serious headache by this afternoon so we watched the UK version of the movie Death at a Funeral to have a good laugh.
