Pentecost
Kokamo's Pacifc Meanderings
Tom and Rachel
Sun 10 Oct 2010 02:06
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Kokamo is at 15:57.16S
168:11.53E
We are now anchored off the Southern
end of Pentecost - the area famous for the 'land diving' where the young men
make huge bungy style leaps from the tops of specially built wooden towers with
no more than a piece of vine tied to their ankles to break their
fall. - A gift to the gods to ask for a good yam harvest or perhaps a
macho demonstration to prove their manliness! Nevertheless, we won't be
able to witness this spectacular event as it is the wrong season. The
village, which is used to dealing with huge influxes of tourists
and had 6 cruise ships stop by this year (with up to 1800 passangers
each) feels rather sleepy at the moment but initially there
was a slightly different vibe here with people generally less keen to chat,
perhaps rather bored by the prospect of more visitors. We did our best to
overcome this today by attending the morning service. Our bislama is good
enough that we were able to follow most of the service and it
sems to go down well to attend - the idea that we might not be religious is
incomprehensible but people are very concerned to know which demonination
we belong too - maybe a telling indication of the degree to which competing
missions have converted people here - it is important to know which club you're
in!
Anna, tom's
sister, arrives tomorrow which we are really looking forward to.
She will be onboard as we head south back towards Port Vila.
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