A Typical Day

Oceania » Vanuatu » Ambrym
February 25th 2007

Published: February 25th 2007

A Typical Day

I sit here on my volcanic island looking up at the blue skies through a series of incredibly tall coconut palms thinking sometimes this place seems well, prehistoric. What? You ask. Well if you were to experience all that I said but as dusk is emerging and so are all of the flying foxes. Yes, fruit bats with wing spans at 4 feet. You’d be thinking a dinosaur is about to come snatch you up, too. Even the thunderstorms are frightening, almost surreal.

But that doesn’t give you as much of an idea of where I live. So let me tell you more about the life here on Ambrym in a typical week:

Sunday: Most people here are Presbyterian although some are Catholic, SDA and there is even a large Jehovah’s Witness village in my community. So Sunday is for church. It’s a day where all women and girls must wear Island dressed and men must wear a collared shirt. My village, as they say, is on-top and basically the furthest hike to everywhere! So we walk, children and women first, 40 minutes to church. A nice, small building with hard benches (with no backs). Ni Vans love to sing. They even sing in 4 languages, vernacular (Local), Bislama, English and French! So there are prayers, readings from the bible, a lot of singing and community business announced. After, we ‘storian’ outside and walk home for lap lap. The rest of the day is meant for doing nothing. I’m attempting to visit a different village every week after church until I finish my assignment.

The working week: In my village, the week begins with a meeting. I’d go but they talk in “lanwis nomo” (local language) not in Bislama so I don’t understand. Just as well, it allows me to sleep undisturbed. A day’s work can mean anything. It could mean walking to the garden which they’ve planted in the bush. A garden which usually consists of many kinds of bananas whether they are the kind you must cook or not. An assortment of root crops such as sweet potato, yam (both not as we know it in America), taro or manioc and then cabbage. Here things like peppers don’t grow well because the volcano ‘spoils’ them with its ash. Sometimes they are able to harvest something before it gets spoiled. And of course, we have mangoes, papaya, pineapple (although few), grapefruit, and more. And it’s almost time to eat avocado! But right now everyone is eating breadfruit. They cook it many ways, and well, I can’t eat another bite now for a while.

I guess you can say a large part of their day is centered on food and or other chores. If they are not collecting from the garden they go into the bush. They hunt wild pig with the dogs; they shoot at pigeons and flying foxes with their sling shots. The men, that is. And it is not uncommon to see a group of boys come out of the bush with sticks over their shoulders with their portion of meat already divided out. Oh and let’s not forget the Namalao eggs which they dig up from their ground nest.

The women on the other hand, head off into the bush to collect “kabage blong krik’ or a type of edible fern which is grown wild. They also eat other leaves and collect things such as banana leaf which is used to make lap lap, a traditional meal which is cooked in banana leaves with hot rocks on top and bottom.

They also walk to the salt water, which for us is an hour. If they are permitted to (same as with the namalao eggs) by the chief, they fish. But more times than not, they come back loaded up with crabs! Yum!

There are other chores to be done, too, like collecting firewood, as they cook all their meals over the fire, collect water to do wash in (the women hand wash all the clothes),weave mats or build new homes. My house is made almost entirely of coconut palm leaves which they wove. I say almost entirely as the frame and floor is not, but the roof and walls as in fact, only leaves!

Today they also went to make some money. They sell copra to Santo which is in turn shipped to China where it is made into oil, margarine, and the like. Copra is dried coconut meat. Its process is long for the money. But they put no value on their time and they need very little money to live off of. Whether it is fair trade or not is another thing.

These tasks go on throughout the week with the minor exceptions happening on Tuesdays and Fridays. Tuesdays and Fridays are 1) ship days and 2) Market days. These are big events down at Craig Cove. Not big for you or I, but “BIG” for the Ni Vans. They go to the market with lap lap, coconuts and some goods from their gardens to sell to others for the cost of 20 Vatu for this, 30 for that (20 cents, 30 cents). But they don’t really care. They make the two hour trek to see who else comes, to storian (talk/gossip), to see what cargo ships come in and what comes off of them. Close to there is an airport which too, the two days a week planes come in, everyone loves to go. See who is coming and going. For me, I make the trip because that two hour walk leads me to the post office, the bank, a store and a phone!

And when they are not working, cards and marbles are their favorite pastime. And singing! They love to sing! You get the picture now?

*Rom dance is held May 5, June 5 and August 5. There is a guest house in my village which is roughly $15 US per person, which includes custom food to eat. The Rom is $40 per person. This probably includes food because I believe they kill a pig.

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