A Trek, Rom Dancing, Small Nambas, and a Rubbish Fire
The Adventures of the Good Ship Equinox
Cate and Chris Galloway
Wed 31 Aug 2011 08:08
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Hi All,
A pretty full on and rewarding day at Ambrym Island
- The trek up to the village to see the Rom dancing was about an hour alonga
formed road through several other villages. Even though the locals here see
plenty of yachts every year, they are really welcoming and friendly. To see a
group of 25 whiteys wandring through your village is probably a bit unusual, but
the response was really positive and we shook so many hands on the road iit was
really surprising.
The Rom dancing is a celebration in preparation for
the coming yam harvest and is steeped in kustom and tradition. After we had our
picnic lunch, we walked for about 15 minutes into the bush and came pon a stage
area adorned with carved drums called Tam Tams, and with seating made out of the
timber from the bush. The dancers (all male) wore two types of traditional
dress. The most impressive was the impressive traditional headdress with bark
and leaf cloaks, but the most intriguing was the "small namba", which is a belt
adorned with a penis gourd - and nothing else. I'm not so sure of the ergonomics
of it (things left hanging and all), but after an hour of dancing we
thought that overall it was the best cultural event we have seen in
Vanuatu.
After we walked back down the track, we hopped onto
"Bluegalss" and sailed the half hour or so back to the anchorage. We then had a
quick break before we popped ashore for a rubbish fire on the beach (with a
couple of sundowners) to clear all of our burnables. It is again interesting to
see how few of the fleet actively manage their refuse by separating out their
stuff into burables, biodegradables, steel and glass. We ended up being left
with a stack of tin cans which others had left in their rubbish for someone else
to deal with - a bt disappointing as Silver Fox did the right thing and took
them to ditch at sea at some later stage.
Otherwise, all is well here at Ranom. Our next
project is to find somewhere to stop for a few days to get some school done.
Will let you know how it goes, TTFN
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