Vanuatu’s Southern islands- Cults, Volcanoes, Skeleton filled caves. August 2007

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Vanuatu’s Southern islands- Cults, Volcanoes, Skeleton filled caves. August 2007

Vanuatu is a man’s world. Men have all the wealth and power, which is determined by how many pigs you own and how many yams you grow. Of course they need a wife(s) to take care of those pigs and gardens, but they can’t get a wife until they can build a house and afford to pay for her. Women do most of the work, such as farming, raising the kids and cooking. It seems the men are mostly concerned with having enough Kava to drink. They spend most evenings drinking Kava in the ‘Nakamal’ or Kava house. It is Tabu or forbidden for a woman to see a man drinking in the Nakamal. Dave and I almost stumbled across one in Tanna. We were promptly stopped on the trail and told that Dave could continue but I would have to walk another way. Historically, the punishment for seeing a man drink Kava was death.

As in most other South Pacific countries missionaries came to try and convert. This has unfortunately led to a homogenization of the culture and an end to the individualities of the indigenous peoples and their time honored culture and tradition. However, Vanuatu was especially stubborn in regards to being converted and would often eat the missionaries that came ashore. Some stay Cannibalism still exists in some parts of this island. Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any of them, although we felt we were close at one time.

In Tanna we anchored the yacht in Port Resolution, named from Captain Cook’s ship from his second voyage of exploration. Here they live in small clan based villages. There has been a bit of a problem with a local village faction here in the past few weeks. A yacht crashed on the shore about a month before we got here and one clan claimed the boat as their own. They have been selling the parts and now that they have money so they want independence from the chief in the village. In another twist there was a committee who sold the motor, but one guy stole the money. So the sale of all parts has been stalled until a new committee is formed. Interesting that there was no punishment for the guy who stole the money. He still lives freely in the village.

People are extremely friendly in Tanna. There are so few cars that if the pedestrians hear you coming they move to the side of the road and stop to look and wave. At one point, I saw a little boy along the side of the road squatting down going to the bathroom, he was so exciting to see us driving by that he pulled his pants only halfway up in his excitement and then began jumping up and down waving. Tanna is the first place where we saw signs of malnutrition amongst the children. They have no shortage of root crops, but I think they certainly lack in the calcium and protein department. As a result of the malnutrition diseases such as rickets develop.

In Tanna we also visited Mt. Yasur, the most accessible volcano in the world. It was an incredible sight. We went after sunset in order to see the amazing colors of the lava shooting out. There were a few very loud bursts that scared me bit. A few days later some friends went again but this time it was even more active and one big lava rock flew up and landed BEHIND them! They quickly decided this was a bit too dangerous and time to leave. It was only a few years ago that 2 tourists and a local were killed by some flying lava.

For those of you who haven’t heard about the Cargo Cults on Tanna Island must do a Google search and read about it. Evidently a man named Jon Frum (which could have been Jon from America) showed up and told the locals that if they gave up their missionary ways and went back to their traditional lives they would be rewarded with cargo and loads of goods. The presence of World War II brought the Americans with their excessive wealth which only cemented this idea, hence was born the “Cargo cult”. These cultists are very active on Tanna and even built an airstrip in the middle of the jungle in anticipation of the arrival of the cargo planes. We had several opportunities to visit the cultists. One time we drove the dingy up the shore to the original Jon Frum Village and worldwide headquarters. The waves were big so we had to anchor out and swim in. The locals weren’t very friendly and this is the one time we thought we were going to be dinner! Another time we went to a different village on a Friday night, which is essentially their worship time, to watch them sing and dance all night. It wasn’t by any means a show, it was completely authentic and we just stood in the dark sidelines and watched.

After Tanna we stopped for 4-5 days in Erromongo. The villagers were great hosts and treated us to a feast along with music and singing from the local young guys. The buffet consisted of tray after tray of the dishes made mainly from the root vegetables, such as Yams, Cassava and Dalo, and of course there was lap-lap, the national dish. The dishes tasted nearly identical and it was hard to distinguish between them. This was also Dave’s birthday so I baked a cake and got the band to sing happy birthday. The following day the chiefs’ son took us up to some caves where their ancestors were placed after or during death….yes, during. There was a ‘death stone’ where those who where about to keel over where placed and left to die. There were bones everywhere and it was impossible to walk without crushing something. Unbelievable.

For more stories and pictures see Dave’s blog at: www.svlavie.blogspot.com

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