Purity prepares meals as part of their Vatthe Conservation enterprise. You order the meal the day before. Purity apologized that there might not be meat with the meal; it depended upon whether she could catch a chicken or not. Maybe there would be an egg if she couldn't catch the chicken. Dinner did come with chicken and Barry said it was obviously a free range chicken with good strong muscles. We had soup made with green papaya and coconut milk, kumala (sweet potato like the Maori kumara), rice, island cabbage and for dessert bananas and pamplemousse (think giant grapefruit) with coconut cream. All local and all good. Purity told us she ran for public office but didn't make it. She said 17 women in Vanuatu ran for office last year and they all lost. Chief Solomon said that being chief is a family thing you are born into so his son will be chief. He is the kastom (custom) chief. Then there are two other chiefs under him who are elected by families/villages. The chief's job is to solve problems and disputes.
Next day we left for my favorite spot in Vanuatu so far - ABY anchorage in Big Bay. ABY stands for All By Yourself. There are no people there and, therefore, no hunting or fishing which meant the jungle/forest had many new birds for us and the reefs/coral were full of fish. Because this part of Santo Island is raised ancient coral, the runoff from the rain is filtered by the coral and coral sand so that the water is crystal clear. We hung out with the flying foxes (fruit bats) watching their daily routine. Just Barry and I in this little corner of paradise walking on pristine beaches and out in the dinghy exploring all the nooks and crannies in the coral cliffs and circumnavigating a little island with jungle and a tree which the fruit bats favored.
Time to leave Barry said so off we went to Gaua, another island farther north in the Banks Group, a whole other world where people see only 1 or 2 yachts a year on average. We went to Lanova Bay which had 2 small villages. There we learned that a village is really just a big extended family. We could tell we were on the West Coast (left coast) of Gaua because a woman! came out to greet us in her dugout outrigger - how progressive! She showed us where to anchor and invited us ashore. In exchange for her services she wanted a bailer (scoop) for her dugout which we gave her. She was accompanied by a teenage girl who did the paddling. A few minutes after she was paddled away another outrigger dugout appeared with a man. He showed us a better place to anchor. He brought produce from his garden to us and in exchange had lots of requests for supplies which he was pretty sure we would have.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment