I went up to Vao Island to visit my friend Cade last week for a few days. Vao is a very small island off the northeast coast of Malekula. It's very popular with tourists, especially francophones, because it has a reputation for being beautiful and having strong traditional practices.
It's about an hour and a half, two hour truck ride up to the boat landing. As I've said, it's been really dusty lately due to the drought, so I was choking on dust all way there. I counted twenty-one people in the back of the truck with me, which is pretty solid. I think we could have even fit in a few more people, provided that they were petite/actually children. On the road up to northeast, there are a bunch of little road markets selling vegetables and bread. The prices are always much better, so the trucks always stop so passengers can do a little last minute shopping before they go home. I got bread and some tomatoes--right now, there are tomatoes everywhere.
When I got to the landing, there were a bunch of men from Vao who had just gotten back from the garden. The boat wasn't too packed--maybe 10 people only. The sun was going down, so it was getting close to kava o'clock when I got there. That night, Cade's little host brother Nesario was having a party since he had just gotten his first tooth. I talked to his uncle for a while, who was one of the sharpest and most opinionated teachers I've met in this country--really cool guy. So his mom gave us chicken soup on rice in takeaway containers and sent us off to go drink kava with his dad (host parents are now separated). His dad has built this really nice new nakamal with Buvez Coca-Cola and Nescafe signs. Really good looking.
The next day was really slack. We got up, had tea and doughnuts his family gave us, then walked around the whole island. It only took about an hour and a half, but it was really pretty. When you get to the far side, you can see Malo island. Then we went swimming, made ramen for lunch, and lazed around until it was time for the French volunteer's good-bye party. They went all out. I don't think I've ever been to that fancy of a farewell in the whole time I've been at Vanuatu. I think it's because the primary school is so big, and Vao is wealthier than other parts of Vanuatu. Anyway, it was a lavish send-off. Lots of food, cake, kava, a laplap, and he got lots of presents and salusalu (like leis) past his chin, I swear. Afterwards, me, Cade, and Adrien (the French volunteer) had some of this terrible jug wine-based beverage they sell in Lakatoro and talked about America.
Day 3, Cade and I did disaster programs with the kids at the primary school. I did a more thorough talk with the kids in Class 4-6, about what disasters are, how you can prepare for them, and what they should do as kids. With Class 1-3, I was going to do this, but because the kids don't really speak Bislama, we played a disaster-themed game instead. Wash, rinse, and repeat for the kindy. There was a 50 day funeral event, so we had lunch there.
In Vao, one of the things that really struck me is that their kastom is really different. In the Shepherds, men and women mix pretty freely. They do separate at two of the churches, and usually at community meals men will butcher the animal and women will get started at preparing the carbohydrate. But men and women sit next to each other, drink with each other, hang out together, et cetera. On Vao, at this event, men were sitting in one location and women were sitting in another. Cade went to go sit with me and all of the women so I wouldn't have to chill out by myself.
Another point -- on Vao, there are roads that women aren't allowed to walk by. These are really central roads, not men-only places in the bush. This is the first place I've seen that in.
That afternoon ... Cade and I painted his canoe. I wish I had a photo, but my camera is broken. It's boss. Think like Dr Seuss meets fish meets the 1960s. Then he showed me the nasaras--kastom gathering areas, kind of--on the island. That night, there was the dead, and I had kava and some bread for dinner because neither of us was feeling laplap.
The next morning when I left, I felt a little sad. Vao's really great for a little vacation. You get to swim, look at pretty things, eat bread, talk to Cade, shout over to Cade's girlfriend on the phone 6-10x daily, and generally hang. It was one of the cooler work/play trips I've taken so far in this country, and I've taken a lot of little trips.
It's about an hour and a half, two hour truck ride up to the boat landing. As I've said, it's been really dusty lately due to the drought, so I was choking on dust all way there. I counted twenty-one people in the back of the truck with me, which is pretty solid. I think we could have even fit in a few more people, provided that they were petite/actually children. On the road up to northeast, there are a bunch of little road markets selling vegetables and bread. The prices are always much better, so the trucks always stop so passengers can do a little last minute shopping before they go home. I got bread and some tomatoes--right now, there are tomatoes everywhere.
When I got to the landing, there were a bunch of men from Vao who had just gotten back from the garden. The boat wasn't too packed--maybe 10 people only. The sun was going down, so it was getting close to kava o'clock when I got there. That night, Cade's little host brother Nesario was having a party since he had just gotten his first tooth. I talked to his uncle for a while, who was one of the sharpest and most opinionated teachers I've met in this country--really cool guy. So his mom gave us chicken soup on rice in takeaway containers and sent us off to go drink kava with his dad (host parents are now separated). His dad has built this really nice new nakamal with Buvez Coca-Cola and Nescafe signs. Really good looking.
The next day was really slack. We got up, had tea and doughnuts his family gave us, then walked around the whole island. It only took about an hour and a half, but it was really pretty. When you get to the far side, you can see Malo island. Then we went swimming, made ramen for lunch, and lazed around until it was time for the French volunteer's good-bye party. They went all out. I don't think I've ever been to that fancy of a farewell in the whole time I've been at Vanuatu. I think it's because the primary school is so big, and Vao is wealthier than other parts of Vanuatu. Anyway, it was a lavish send-off. Lots of food, cake, kava, a laplap, and he got lots of presents and salusalu (like leis) past his chin, I swear. Afterwards, me, Cade, and Adrien (the French volunteer) had some of this terrible jug wine-based beverage they sell in Lakatoro and talked about America.
Day 3, Cade and I did disaster programs with the kids at the primary school. I did a more thorough talk with the kids in Class 4-6, about what disasters are, how you can prepare for them, and what they should do as kids. With Class 1-3, I was going to do this, but because the kids don't really speak Bislama, we played a disaster-themed game instead. Wash, rinse, and repeat for the kindy. There was a 50 day funeral event, so we had lunch there.
In Vao, one of the things that really struck me is that their kastom is really different. In the Shepherds, men and women mix pretty freely. They do separate at two of the churches, and usually at community meals men will butcher the animal and women will get started at preparing the carbohydrate. But men and women sit next to each other, drink with each other, hang out together, et cetera. On Vao, at this event, men were sitting in one location and women were sitting in another. Cade went to go sit with me and all of the women so I wouldn't have to chill out by myself.
Another point -- on Vao, there are roads that women aren't allowed to walk by. These are really central roads, not men-only places in the bush. This is the first place I've seen that in.
That afternoon ... Cade and I painted his canoe. I wish I had a photo, but my camera is broken. It's boss. Think like Dr Seuss meets fish meets the 1960s. Then he showed me the nasaras--kastom gathering areas, kind of--on the island. That night, there was the dead, and I had kava and some bread for dinner because neither of us was feeling laplap.
The next morning when I left, I felt a little sad. Vao's really great for a little vacation. You get to swim, look at pretty things, eat bread, talk to Cade, shout over to Cade's girlfriend on the phone 6-10x daily, and generally hang. It was one of the cooler work/play trips I've taken so far in this country, and I've taken a lot of little trips.
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