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| Aneityum Island |
May 19, Another sloop this morning with more children speaking 2 or 3 languages. Yes, these yachtie children pick up the language of the other children they meet on their travels. That makes 5 children 4-10 years old. Beautiful morning with clear skies and cool breezes. 86 degrees in boat but very pleasant with fans. Sunday morning. Clanging metal announces church. All is quiet on shore and we are happy with our yellow Q flag up. That quarantine flag must remain up the shrouds and we can't get off Sunrise until we check in.
May 21, 2013 What fun!. Everything is all quiet when the children are inside their boats doing their home schooling; then there is a big irruption of laughter and squealing and dad's speeding in the dinghies pulling children on various toys behind. That must be recess or lunch break or school's out for the day. We are waiting for the yachtie kids to join the village kids on the beach. That would be overflowing fun!
The Locals.
The ni Vans are quiet, soft spoken and shy. They look African but with blonde, red, brown in addition to black hair. They have learned to ask for Vatu, their money, for their generous offerings of music, meals, guides, ceremonies and dances. This suits all. They use the money to pay for and upgrade their schools and it is easy for the yachties to know what to give. There is also trading with batteries being the hot item as there is no electricity where we are. We traded batteries for 2 pamplemousse and a giant papaya plus a nice visit with 1 then 2 guys in a dugout. Then there is the car. Yes, someone drove an SUV up and down the beach on Sat and Sun using it as a giant mobile boom box. I think it is the only vehicle on the island but we suspect it won't last long in the salt water.
Evening of May 21. Another ni Van in a dugout came to Sunrise to invite us to a kava ceremony, local skills demonstration, dinner and kastom (traditional) dancing. He went to all 8 yachts and, of course, we all came to the big party! The yachties got to meet each other and learn lots from the locals. When together the yachties all commiserated with each other about how awful their trip from NZ to Vanuatu was. We might have had more gales than any other boat but that meant we were also faster than the others. Of the 8 boats in this harbor, 2 others are Wauquiezes like ours- that tells you something about the long distance cruising abilities of our Wauquiez boats. The ni Van demonstrated and explained their kastom clothing, how to make fire by rubbing a stick on a branch, how to drink kava and the local foods they prepared for us. For dinner we had chicken in leaves (we just ate the leaves - yummy, baked taro, prepared taro, cassava, cassava with coconut sauce, fish, oranges, pamplemousse and coconut. Suited us perfectly. They have no electricity, thus no refrigeration and only very seldom have meat. All they have comes from their gardens and the sea and maybe a careless chicken. If there is not enough from the garden, they go to bed hungry. The lack of meat is much different from any other place we have visited. At the end the ni Van had the yachties doing kastom dancing and we were very good as you might expect from such an adventurous bunch. Barry was very good!
May 22 Immigration came aboard this afternoon, we filled out more papers, and they collected more vatu. They told us this particular island, Aneityum, in Vanuatu has been declared malaria free. Every person who comes here from a malaria area is given a blood test and if positive they are denied entrance. Soon Tanna will be declared malaria free also. Aneityum (here) and Tanna are the 2 southernmost islands and the first we visit.
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| The Location of Vanuatu |
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