Pentecost, Loltong Bay

Dawnbreaker
Lars Alfredson
Mon 23 Sep 2013 00:20
Pos 15:32.75S 168:08.83E
Loltong Bay
 
Thursday and Friday 19-20/9
 
Our visit to Loltong by Alice:
 
Hello everyone ! Few days ago we discovered the beautiful village of Loltong on Pentecost Island, and here comes a new story.
We first discovered the « yacht club » opened by Mathew, the fourth son of the chief. It was one of this beautiful traditional houses, delicately decorated with flags from the different boats, nice shells and
baskets available for sale too.
Then, we start walking through the village and meeting the people who live there. The small houses are surround by little gardens , trees and flowers. The habitants were very welcoming on this island. We will not
mentionned all of them but the following are the memorable ones for sure !! the first women i met was.. How to say this gently .. a bit out of her mind. She wanted to make some shoes with all the different sea
cumcumbers she could find. I spent few minutes talking to her but as it she was hardly understandable, we continue our way up the hill.
On the way to the Catholic School we also met Anne, a lovely woman and her son Devino who had recently opened a very small and adorable guesthouse available for rent.  We visited it before to continue our
way.
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                               Annes guesthouse
 
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Once we arrived at the school, all the kids had  just finished the class, it was a Friday, the beginning of the weekend. It was a beautifull school with a big grass playground, a basket ball area in front of the church
and all these with  great view over  the sea. I think it looks like the dream  school for most of the children in the world !
 
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       The two J’s. Volounters from Australia.                                                                           DJ the tame bird.
 
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                  is this a good place for a nest?
 
We became very quikly surrounded by the kids. A lot of them spoke french and they had so many questions.. at the same time of course !! After getting to know each others, they brought me to see their
classroom. There are 3 classes in the school. The classes were full of poemes , reciepes , kids stories,drawings and of course with the rules of the class, very important !  They asked me to read their poemes and
were listening very carefully. At the end of each poem or story they were all screaming a big « yoooouuhouuu !!» What a wonderfull moment !!
 
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                             The laundry room.                                                                                         Can we come on board?
 
Then we went back with the kids to the beach, I spent a lot of time to discuss with 2 amazing children : Kella, 9 years old and her little brother Lillon, 6 years old.
We talked about their week at school, our families,  our bracelets, their village, ..etc They also showed us their garden with all the different  fruits and vegetables. Kella is an unbelivable girls, full of life in her
eyes, beautiful, spontaneus, relevant and fair. She behaves like a woman even if she is only 9.
 
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                     Walking home from school. 
 
In the afternoon the kids came to the boat to visit it and we spent a very nice time with them. Mark was teaching the older boys  Brasilian Jui jitsu , Sanna painting their nails, Tif and Diego swimming with them
around the boat and Lars and myself, chatting and listening to Bob Marley on the boat with them.
Mark and I also went for a ride on their dug out  canoe , a very funny moment but good news,  we managed to not sink their nice handmade boats !
 
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At sunset, we finished the day on the beach drinkig Kava.. again ! haha and with a nice dinner with fresh vegetables from the islands at the Yacht Club.  The night ended up in music with Mark and Laurence, from
the Alaskan yacht Radiance playing some great guitar and accordion for us .
 
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       Kava
 
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Dinner
 
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      and music. Great way to end a great day
 
Alice.