Monday 24^th  June, The Coral Sea, South Pacific Ocean  17:48S  161:14E 

Today’s Blog by David (Time zone BST +10.00; UTC +11.00)

You wouldn’t do it,  would you?

I mean jump off that tower with a couple of creepers tied to your  ankles – tied only with more plants:

The idea is that the vines are carefully measured taking into account your height and body weight – measured by a ‘foreman’ (on whose ‘right side’ it is probably sensible to keep!). You launch yourself into the air – Wheeeee……

relying on a platform like these to check your fall as it, itself, breaks to absorb the impact

Bringing you up just short of burying your head in the mud

As Lenie said this has its origins in some folk lore and is now a ritual offering to improve next year’s yam harvest. That ritual is a private affair and happens in May. For the rest of the year, it  is simply a performance put on for the punters who each pay handsomely for the privilege. Not a lot of money really; while one can pay, say, US$400 or more to fly to see it on a round trip from another island you can get to see it locally for about $75 per head. I guess the whole village garnered no more than US$2000 for the sake of risking  nine lives  and having perhaps forty villagers singing and dancing.  I have no idea how it is split up but  if they do it say 10 times at each of the four sites in Pentecost it is very useful income for the villages. 

It’s a big thing for the village with young and old alike joining in …err… without inhibition:

Wow!   Who can judge the risk/reward equation in Vanuatu?

Our experiences in Vanuatu have been uniformly pleasurable.  The people have been so openly welcoming.  Just like in Fiji, it is politic to talk to the village chief before wandering around his land, fishing or snorkelling ins his bay etc. but in Vanuatu there is absolutely no expectation of the visitors bringing gifts.  (Contrast the expectation of some Kava and a few bank notes in a Fiji village.) The Chief is your host and it is rude to decline his hospitality.

Each time we have been conducted around by a senior villager – perhaps not the Chief himself:

Chief Richard of Loltong, Pentecost

And each time we have fond an excuse to contribute some money to a local find raising (e.g. to buy some screws for the roof of the church being rebuilt after last January’s cyclone) or some old clothes etc. Much of the population is Christian  and there are an awful lot of people we met called David! 

The villages themselves are quite varied. They did not seem quite so traditional nor so regimented as those we saw in in Port Resolution in Tanna last year.

The Village in Port Resolution, Tanna

Some we have seen this year were still quite basic:

Chief Massie of Nopul, Ambrym with his outside his home

These were in Loltong, Pentecost

They can make a local breeze block brick and many buildings have block walls (quite often held in place by poles through the holes – no cement!) with a more traditional palm roof.  Sometimes, they got quite twee!

A Backpackers’ Guest House in Loltong, Pentecost – two rooms and no facilities

(Good luck with that, backpackers!)

Most communities have to be pretty much self sufficient in food terms – those on the coast have better communications and can barter with other villages. We found very few “shops”; a few stalls; here is the local tobacconist by the airstrip in Lonore, Pentecost:

The plaited twists are dried tobacco leaves

That is not to say that Vanuatu is without entrepreneurs:

As everywhere in the Pacific there is a lot of singing. We have come across very similar “skiffle music” with guitars,  drums and usually male voices in many places and it was here to greet us in Vanuatu.  I can’t say I focused on it before but in Vanuatu we noticed the bass being picked out on an instrument that comprises a string a stick and an old tea chest.    It looks quite a difficult instrument to master – the different notes are made by more or less tension on the string which is achieved by moving the stick backwards and forwards. It evidently takes some concentration:

Although it doesn’t  capture everyone’s attention!

So Farewell, Vanuatu!

We are now on passage to Australia. 1100 miles as the crow flies but with a dog leg to get through the Great Barrier Reef. The weather looks set fair with normal SE trade winds which I expect will get a bit fluky tonight as a weak front passes by.  Overcast and no sun since we left but we hope for better tomorrow!