Blogs from Vanuatu, Oceania - page 22

September 3, 2007 We are just getting ready to leave Port Vila and continue our trip north to visit the rest of the Vanuatu Islands. I don’t think I will have internet access until we get to Honiara, Solomon Islands, which could be a few months. Have a happy rest of the summer. ... read more

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 ... read more

Vanuatu is a country we didn't know very much about so were itching to get there and explore. What we did know is that the third world country is melanesian, not polynesian, their official language is French though most people speak pidgin English, and that it has been voted "happiest country on earth". We were welcomed at the airport by a local string band singing songs about Vanuatu. The songs were fantastic, although they gradually all began to sound very similar. Not to worry, this did not detract from the enthusiasm of the eight male singers and musicians who sang of their beloved homeland, keeping time with a consistent left to right stepwise dance. They wore custom dress, ususally a long colourful smock, and floral head dress. Their instruments included a bass string instrument fashioned out ... read more

Early December of last year a small black and white pup was born. His mother was unable to give her babes milk so he ate popo (paw paw/ papaya). After one month of life I carried him, an hrs walk, to my village and named him Jack. It was here where Jack began to thrive. All his siblings eventually died from lack of a proper diet, but Jack's new mom spoiled him with lots of love and tin meat (and other sorts of human food). It took no time before he grew strong and at 4 mos he started to join the other dogs in the hunt for wild pig. Jack was the envy of all the dogs and he knew he was special. When I yelled out "JACK!" all the dogs knew it meant feeding ... read more

Black Magic I know it has been a long time since I’ve written my sister to update my blog. Life here has been a bit mad. Still waiting on a new house and to build a school. So there are days when I am just “kranky” (crazy) but there are also days when I’m very happy-often both occur in the same day. There has been a lot of things happening, earthquakes, tsunami (warnings), very active volcanoes, a cyclone. Yes, Mother Nature has been very busy this past month! Try sitting through a cyclone in a house made of nothing but coconut palm leaves! But this is all normal for this chain of islands and we all remained safe. There have been other disasters unrelated to Mother Nature, unfortunately. Black Magic occurs on islands with volcanoes, and ... read more