11:05.07S  152:25.17E

21^st July 2010 – Utian, Booker Island

A beautiful day,thank goodness, to clearly see the coral lying just beneath the surface of the sea as we negotiate yet another difficult entrance to this island. With our hearts in our mouth, we hope that we do not hit these coral heads, which are the dark patches in the photos.  Thankfully, we did not, but still have to negotiate or way out in a few days time, which may not offer such good weather, or visibility as we have to leave earlier in the morning.

It’s not long before we get loads of visitors asking us to trade for fruit and vegetables and shells

Swanky and Kanaloa anchored close together in the bay at Booker Island is quite an attraction for these islanders.  They are very polite, and try and find out what we would like before asking for things they would like.  We were pleased to offer them school exercise books, biros, children’s clothes and sugar and women’s clothes.

So we went ashore to see the primary school.  Kids out of school couldn’t wait to give us a warm welcome

Booker Island school

The teachers at the school explain to David how they teach the children.  They trained at the main island of Misima for three years.

They couldn’t wait to follow us on our walk through their village

Typical kitchen belonging to one of the huts

They look like wild boar, not a lot of meat on them.

Of course the kids just loved showing off for their photo

Stafford explains how the man’s face carved on the front of their boat holds the spirit of the tree the boat has been carved from.  They become a partner with that spirit to guide and look after the boat.

All these kids in a dugout without an outrigger is quite dangerous, the boat tips up so easily!

Thankfully they wanted excercise books to trade for these shells.  I hope they were found and not killed!

Thankfully, we were not asked to trade for these clay pots, the speciality of thiIts Booker island, which they can trade with other islanders for cooking their vegetables in.  It’s great to see this ancient tradition continued, as they have plenty of aluminium pots which they buy at the store on the main island.

The women hard at work cutting back the weeds in their garden behind the school.

We were glad to get away from the non-stop trading that seemed to be accumulating around us.  The island has 300 people, of which I am sure we must have been visited by 50 in their dugouts!

We already traded for a lot of paw paw and spinach the previous day