Half of Sunday

We are exhausted! It is Sunday and we were met at the boat at the break of dawn by offers to guide us ashore, take us to church, arrange for water music and ask for supplies. The church is Anglican. It was small and packed with people - all coughing and sneezing. There were about 30 adults and 30 children; again, most of the village must have been packed in there. After, we toured the village. In 2007 they were forced to evacuate their village because of ash from the nearby volcano. (Actually, everywhere in Vanuatu has a nearby active volcano. ) They couldn't return for 2 years. Now they are trying to rebuild their lives and their village as it was before the eruption and ash fall. Again, we find the village neat and tidy and clean. As we walked around we received a thousand requests for things from our boat. These people are not greedy, rather they are genuinely short of goods and the supply boat doesn't come to that island. They need strings for the guitar they play at church, glass jars to make kerosene lamps, clothes, shoes, soap, batteries of course, rope for the cow and fish hooks. The children are the ones who tug at your heart - they want exercise books (school work books) and pens. We only had one such book to give one child. We told her to share. She was wildly popular with her book. Almost every child we met shyly and politely asked for exercise books and pens. We gave them books, colored pencils and pens that we had but it was not nearly enough to satisfy the need. Everyone, adult and child, needed clothes and shoes desperately. And, I mean, to replace clothes literally falling off. The shoes of those who have them are mismatched flip flops, with one pair of Crocs seen on an elder. (Of course, his pair of Crocs were both for the left foot and of two different sizes and colors.)

The ladies of the 2 villages get together where a small river comes to the beach, they strip a bit, get into the pooled water and play music by slapping, swishing and pounding the water. Amazing. It was a fun village affair with the children participating in the music making and most of the inhabitants as the audience. The ladies laughed as they made music and were obviously enjoying themselves.

Back to the boat for us some peace and quiet we thought, but all afternoon we were visited. We gave them roasted salted nuts from Costco (thanks Noelle) which they enjoyed. We showed them how all the systems on the boat work and spent hours showing the various groups of visitors the family album that Vince made for us and the photos the Morins made. They studied every picture and asked many questions. There are a few pictures at Disneyland but not a soul had heard of it. No one had seen a sheep. They wanted to know if the neighbors (Mike and Rhonda) charged money to go in their swimming pool - trying to get the protocol since they have many "swimming pools" as a potential source of income. All our visitors were lovely people, quiet and very polite . . . and coughing.

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