A Day in the Vanuatu Life

May 27, 2013 Today was a day that our sailing is all about - visiting the locals and exploring the natural world. We dinghied ashore and were looking for birds when Pascal and Dennis showed up off the boats Manta and Post Scriptum - 2 catamarans which have been sailing together for a year. They said they were going to the volcano tonight and we were welcome to join the excursion. So they walked us to the village to find Stanley who arranges the trip to Mt.Yasur, the volcano. Stanley was elsewhere but we made arrangements with his sister, Naomi. As a matter of fact almost everyone was elsewhere because it was national election day and people had to travel to one place or another to vote. Naomi said she took care of her friends' children while the friends voted and vice versa. She took us to their White Sand Beach and sent the (what I thought were her) children off to play in the reef protected waters while explaining the whole child care system to us. Pretty much it boils down to all the children belong to everyone and whoever is handy cares for them. So the children she was caring for ran off down the beach to play with their friends and she just walked off because someone else was down there to care for them. These were tykes not yet in school - 2 to 4 year olds on the shore of largest ocean on earth. I was aghast but there seemed to be enough children so I guess the system works. She gave us a tour of the village and finished up with explaining that religion was very important to life there. These people on Tanna have the most bizarre religion I have ever heard of - the John Frum Cult. John Frum showed up in Vanuatu in 1939 and said he was John from America - hence the name John Frum. He was made an associate of the head god. Then in World War II, Americans were stationed in Vanuatu and so John Frum America and the generous and kind black American soldiers (who looked like the ni Van) and the Red Cross and wealth all got mixed up together with religion and they have rituals designed to get John Frum to have a second coming in Vanuatu. Confusing, I know, but that's their religion and we are welcome to come on Wednesday night here at the village in the Church of the Red Cross. Wednesday night certainly sounds better than Friday night when they stay up until Saturday morning singing and dancing. She said they also had Presbyterian and Seventh Day. The Seventh Days had a school, dispensary and church. The Sevenths sound good to us because of the health and education and the exemption from having to drink kava. She explained the water system. Here goes: they have water in the pipe but that water has problems so they use pumps throughout the village but they don't work. (?)

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