Introduction to Vanuatu
Thursday, May 17th – Steve from Magic Bus has arranged for a guide to take him on a trek around the island. Would we like to join? Of course! Grabbing our yellow back pack, we check for bug spray, sun lotion and blister aid. We add in water bottles, and with a threat of rain looming, we throw in rain jackets. Off we go! The four of us climb into the dinghy. To The Captain’s continued joy, it fires up immediately with a satisfying rush of engine noise and a cloud of smoke which 2-cycle engines do emit.
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Looking back to Avante at anchor below Magic Island, we see an islander sitting peacefully in an old dugout canoe.
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As we walk along the beach to the arranged meeting spot, we see children at play on another old dugout while their mother, on watch, is fishing just beyond them.
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In the fringe of palm trees and shrubs just up from the beach, several thatched roof dwellings have been built. Instead of the usual island melange of whatever material is at hand, we are impressed with the woven siding of the walls. Crude though the building materials are, there is a neatness and pride of belonging here. There is also a fatalistic realism: Cyclones are a fact of life. Buildings wash away, but these can be rebuilt readily and cheaply with materials at hand.
Anatom is a very small village with limited resources. We had been told not to expect to be able to buy any sort of provisioning here, and as our friends on BluGlass had discovered, there were no vegetables, fruit or even eggs to be bought in the small store. Chickens are wandering all over the place. No eggs? “The dogs eat them before we can find them,” we are told.
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Leaving the beach to walk inland, we pass the school house. The First Mate is surprised at the size and overall good condition of the building and its grounds.
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The sign on the primary school cautions: “Always remember what you have learnt. Education is your life. Guard it well” Prov. 4: 13.
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The First Mate is reading “A Year in the New Hebrides, Loyalty Islands, and New Caledonia” which is an account of the early days of missionary work here on the islands from 1848 when Dr John Geddie and his wife were first sent out here to Aneityum (Anatom). There is also a series of letters written by a young man who joined the missionary ship “Dayspring” in 1872 as it made its round of the islands with supplies and personnel. The description of the islands and the life of the islanders and the missionaries is fascinating. Many were the missionaries who made inroads into these islands, and many were the missionaries who lost their lives in doing so. These were cannibal islands back then, and after their experiences with both the despised sandalwood traders who denuded their land, killed their people and brought disease and with the blackbirders who kidnapped their people into slavery, the natives were not always eager to hear the Word and mend their ways. Many early missionaries met an unsavory end, but eventually, as we have seen throughout these Pacific island nations, Christianity was embraced with zeal and is now a guiding force. There is no mistaking the religious symbolism displayed on the school plaque.
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Beyond the school, The First Mate is intrigued to see the John Geddie Memorial Church! She mentions it to a few islanders who were strolling along with the group, but they do not seem to know what she is talking about. She lets it slide. At least she knows who John Geddie was and why someone thought to name the church after him.
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From the early 1900’s to 1980, Vanuatu was jointly administered by the French and the English under a Protocol called the Anglo-French New Hebrides Condominium. The actual system of government that evolved proved just as cumbersome as the name. The island group ended up with a duplication of such vital services as judiciary, police, hospitals and schools as both governments attempted to hold sway over the populace. What a mess that must have been! The road to independence was not easily granted, mainly because the rich land owners who, of course, were not Ni-Vanuatu, resisted. Finally, in 1980, independence was granted, the Ripablik Blong Vanuatu was proclaimed.
Vanuatu’s claim to fame is that it contains the highest density of languages per capita in the world! There are over 100 native languages, and most of these languages have several dialects. How then can this nation of tongues communicate with each other? Back in the 19th century, a form of Pidgin English, Bislama, developed as a means of communication between islanders and traders. The language evolved and spread. Most Ni-Vanuatu speak Bislama, now the national language, as well as the native one spoken in their villages. Officialdom is conducted in Bislama, but education continues to be either in English or French dependent upon which country established the school. Since many Ni-Vanuatu also speak either English or French and understanding a need to communicate with the rest of the known world, both English and French are also listed as official languages of the Ripablik Blong Vanuatu. (The First Mate loves that name!
The next stop for our little group is in front of a building that appears to be the community bulletin board. A notice pinned to the board give the time and place of a political meeting that occurred yesterday afternoon. We learn that part of the reason no one had thought to fill up the police cruiser with fuel yesterday was that the political meeting had grabbed everyone’s attention. No wonder nothing got done! Reading the notice in Bislama, it is interesting how we can puzzle out most of its meaning.
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We meet Roger, our guide, who has brought along his 4 year-old son, David. He leads us inland along a village path that would do any landscape artist proud. We are impressed with the cleanliness, tidiness and community effort that went into creating these surroundings and are reminded of the villages of The Marquesas.
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We pass small groupings of well-maintained thatched-roof huts. Smiling children are at play. We wave. They wave.
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At the edge of a fresh water stream, a woman uses a flat rock to scrub clean her family’s wash.
Further inland, we start to climb gently upward, and our path narrows to a single track. Once again, The First Mate is amazed at how dense the vegetation is on these Pacific Islands. Was she expecting only sandy knolls dotted with palm trees? Well ….. whatever she had expected, it was definitely not such impenetrable bush! She learns that the pines she sees were imported and planted by Europeans in order to provide a fast-growing tree to use for building planks.
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Wild orchids bloom in vivid clusters. We climb down to a small outcropping where we are rewarded with a pretty view of a mountain stream cascading down from the highlands.
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We pause for a rest before crossing another stream. Roger cracks a coconut, and we all enjoy slices of the slightly crisp, slightly sweet coconut meat. That’s Steve from Magic Bus in the foreground, and Roger is waving in the background.
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David is a quiet, pensive child. Roger says that he does not talk, but The First Mate hears him talking and singing a song to himself as he walks along behind her.
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Returning to sea level and the cultivated plots of the islanders, Roger leaves us quickly to head into a grove of sugar cane. He returns with a stalk of sugar cane. Using his always handy machete, he wracks a chunk off for each of us.
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We peel the bark and crunch away on the sweet, sticky, juicy stalk. Bite off a piece, chew it up like a tobacco plug and spit out the pulp. Nothing could be better after an island hike!
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Nearing the village itself, we pass a house under construction. No, it is not a house we are told. It will be the neighborhood Kava House. Vanuatu is prized for its Kava which is stronger (ie: more numbing) and more peppery because it is processed earlier. Here, too, Kava is the ceremonial and social drink of choice.
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As we near a grouping of houses, Roger leads us across a lawn. We are going to his home. He invites us in to see his family’s kitchen. The wooden boards over the pots of cooked manioc are there to keep the cats from getting at their food.
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Ducking behind the cooking shed, he returns with a partially finished basket that his mother is weaving. The First Mate admires the tightness and evenness of the weave. Having done a lot of hand-work herself, she can appreciate the time and skill that has gone into this piece already.
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As a parting gesture, Roger takes us over to a pampelmouse tree and quickly picks giant grapefruit for each of us. Remembering how sweet the pamplemouse of The Marquesas’ were, The First Mate hopes these will be as good. Even Roger’s daughter, Marie, is given one to carry, and we are amused with the ingenious way she comes up to carry it.
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Returning to the beach, we see children playing amidst the crumbling remains of what once were substantial rock walls. We learn that they were part of the original missionary complex. Here where the people to this day still live in thatched huts with woven walls, what must their ancestors have thought of the construction of such strange, heavy edifices? “Not much,” thinks The First Mate noting that the design idea was evidently not copied and passed down to the next generation. Impenetrable rock walls do not allow soft, cooling island breezes to circulate through a long-seated, over-heated congregation.
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An engraved plaque set on a stand before the ruins catches The First Mate’s eye. Before Dr. Geddie landed and was able to make any headway with the islanders, Somoan missionaries were sent to Aneityum (Anatom). Many were killed and eaten or died of malaria. At some point in the past, the citizens of Anatom acknowledged the sacrifice and sought reconciliation.
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We thank Roger for his guided tour and for answering our many questions. He does not want payment for his time spent with us, but we give him a few good slices of our wahoo. The Captain also gives him one of his stash of small Leathermen knives which Roger immediately knows he will find useful.
What a delightful introduction to Vanuatu! Poor though the village of Anatom is, we were impressed with its cleanliness, its neatness, and the ready smiles and easy greetings of its people. Will the rest of Vanuatu be like this? We hope so.
A thoroughly enjoyable full first day in Vanuatu is concluded with an invitation to Ellen and Geoff on BluGlass to have dinner with us on Avante. Kai, whose second passion after fishing is cooking, offers to cook some of our wahoo. By now, our vegetable stash is limited, but we do have carrots which Kai cooks to a perfect crispness. Megan, whose culinary expertise is mashed potatoes, adds them.
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The First Mate puts out a tasty selection of appetizers, and as all cruisers do when invited over for anything from coffee, to sun downers, to dinner do, Ellen and Geoff bring donations of a bottle of wine and a warm artichoke dip for the table. We enjoy a wonderful dinner, for what could be better? Fresh fish garnered from the ocean shared with friends out here on the vast Pacific.