Avunatari, Malo

Malo is a large island lying just south of Santo and we took ourselves off for the weekend to stay in the Pandanus Guest House http://www.positiveearth.org/bungalows/SANMA/pandanus.asp.
First it was a canoe trip across which had an interesting tidal rip in the middle of the channel where the boat was tossed around gently on a calm day. Not to be crossed on a bad day!

The guest house in the area of one of the original Presbyterian Mission which dates back more than 100 years.  We were greeted by Vomalehi, a lovely gentle woman who looked after us beautifully. She would sit down next to us with a straight back and interested face and talk about this and that.

There were 3 small bandas ("bungalows") and bucket shower and toilets  were separate. We had a lovely leaf house to sit, relax, read, listen to the sea or enjoy her delicious basic island food. One evening she cooked laplap in bamboo canes and she showed us how she packed it before putting it over the fire.

Not that we did very much. We wandered over to the clinic where they had just installed solar electricity and up and down the road.

 The nurse had been on a course run by Annie and was very pleased to see us. She has invited us back again.
Annie, the older nurse had been brought back from retirement to help the stretched medical services. The midwife's house proudly states that it was built by local subscription.
 We dipped into the sea and were met with the different world of plentiful reef fish and plate coral spreading down the whole reef.

 Volmalehi took us to visit her sister in law roasting the copra. The price of copra has been oscillating wildly  rising from about $40 per ton to $70 then dropping back to $30 and even $24. However it seems that $42 is the price at the moment. I think someone somewhere both locally and in the futures markets is making a lot of money. 

    

Sun setting over Santo

Evening light

Independence Celebrations

Independence celebrations last for about a week with various activities organised each day. They start with Childrens Day and a gathering of schools for a kind of Sports day with netball, football and tug of war.

There was a splendid array of umbrellas and balloons.

On Saturday they had the actual Independence day. Dignitaries made speeches and the Vanuatu Defence Force marched past. They were very smart, in step and proudly showing off their news weapons that had apparently been given by the French having seen use in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There was then a sail past of some of the provincial boats. The crowd adjourned to the shore line and after about 40 minutes a ragged procession of odd sized boats proceeded down the Segond Canal. It was a good opportunity just to enjoy the sea breeze and the children to pick over stones on the reef looking for crabs. Some like Lemarco choose to just sit out.

The young hang around. Lots of women had their colourful aelan dresses and their daughters dressed up too. It was a good time to catch up with friends and let the children play around. Some were not so amused as others or maybe just bored.

    

There were many stalls selling laplap (baked traditional food), barbecued meat, grilled fish or banana cake. Music was provided by many bands and in the evening the Kava stalls opened. We retired before the evening got going.