Vanuatu: Port Villa; Old Friends, WWII, & National Museum

After Port Resolution we sailed North to Port Villa on Efate Island. Here we met up with Liz Kelsall. The Kelsall's used to live across from the Mante's in Hale, England in the 1970s. Liz, being a teenager at the time, would sometimes babysit the Mante children. Liz stood on the dock as we arrived and we saw her almost daily. Ewout's hopes that she'd kept the same rates for babysitting were disappointed. She did make some wonderful new logo's for Bravado (A hibiscus flower and a gecko).

 

Liz, who used to babysit Ewout in England in the 1970s, and Ewout.

On Efate we hitch-hiked around the island once again. One of our drivers took great pride in feeding us lots of seeds, roots, and shrubs from the jungle.

 

Hitchhiking around the island.

 

Jean-Claude, our driver, prepares us some lunch.

The goal for the round the island trip was to visit some of the World War II relics. Vanuatu was an important base used during the battle of the Coral Sea and Guadacanal. These battles stemmed the march of the Japanese towards Australia. Efate (and the more Northern Islands) are riddled with airstrips, former bases and abandoned/wrecked WWII equipment. On the boat, we watched several movies (Australia, and Bridge over the River Kwai) to talk about the war in Asia with the children.

 

WWII Map of Efate showing various bomber, fighter, and sea plane air-strips and bases.

 

A low-key WWII Museum containing lots of parts of several crashed Corsair fighter/bombers used by the U.S. Marine's.

 

Duck! Stray bullets coming your way!

One day in a local market, Hein was approached by a young girl who thought she heard Dutch. The two of them decided they wanted a "play-date", which resulted in us getting to know the Hoyaux, a Belgium-Uruguayan family.

 

Almost across the Pacific, we have our first trip in an outrigger canoe. The owner is from... ...Belgium!

 

Mante and Hoyaux children performing a short skit

The remainder of this blog consists of some schoolwork the children did whilst we were in Vanuatu.


The National Museum of Vanuatu
Yesterday we went to the Vanuatu National Museum. It was my second visit. Vanuatu is made up of eighty-three volcanic islands. I will now tell you how the people of Vanuatu, the Ni-Vanuatu, treat pigs.
In Vanuatu pigs are sacred animals and considered pets. If a Ni-Vanuatu went to England then he/she would be surprised to see that people there have dogs or cats as pets. Here in Vanuatu dogs and cats are scavengers. Pigs are part of daily life. For example, houses are divided into a section for humans and one for pigs. Pigs even are playmates for the children and practically members of the family. Parents love their pigs as much as their children and their garden. It is usual for a family to hand feed pigs for many years. Sometimes they even chew the food before they feed it to the pigs.
Pigs are also money. Male pigs are worth more than female pigs because male pigs have tusks. The pigs are kept until there is a certain ceremony and the the pig must be sacrificed or given away. When a new chief comes to power he must hand kill five hundred pigs. If there are not enough pigs to make the number five hundred, then as many pigs as possible must be gathered and killed. To make a place sacred you must pour pig's blood on the ground. A very valuable pig is the hairless pig, found on the island Tanna. The hairless pig is worth seven tusked pigs. Another valuable pig is the bisexual pig. In front it has the tusks of a male pig, but in the back it is all female. Fewer and fewer Ni-Vanuatu own pigs because pigs spread disease.
The Ni-Vanuatu are trying to protect their culture and try to live the way their ancestors did before colonization. They are doing this by hunting in the old way (with bow and arrow) and wearing traditional clothes.
I loved the museum.

 

Sand drawings: Hein learns how to draw...

 

..a stylized ant.

Hein Mante Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Museum of Vanuatu
By Eltjo Mante

Yesterday we learned about the culture of Vanuatu in the National Museum in Port Vila, the capital. In the Museum there was an interesting instrument made of hollow bamboo pipes hanging down from hooks. It was a crossing between a piano and a xylophone. The museum guide played the national anthem on it, and twinkle twinkle little star. I tried it too and I had fun, but I could not do it as well as the guide.

Eltjo with Bamboo xylophone

The guide also made beautiful sand drawings with his fingers. He taught me how to do it, but it isn’t as easy as it looks. I made the number one. The drawings have a lot of special meaning. You can not leave them on display for too long, because every minute the magic and meaning wear off a little.

 

Sand drawing of sea-turtle

The traditional clothing of the men is very different from our clothing. They wear almost nothing, but it is very hot here so that is OK.
When they perform traditional dances they wear nice masks with pig tusks. The pig tusks are important to the Vanuatu people, because pigs are their pets. The pig is the national animal. The male pigs grow tusks. The bigger the tusks, the more valuable they are. The pig tusks are on the Vatu (money) and on the national flag.

I loved the picture of a boy doing cats cradle with grass strings and the wooden boats, which looked like outrigger canoes or sailing boats.

Cats cradle using natural fibres

We learned that homes in roots of banyan/vine trees make the best hurricane shelters...

...a large tree can provide shelter for an entire village.

Eltjo Mante, Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

A few more pictures

 

Jet feels very welcome

 

Liz took us to a charity fundraising event at a local resort. Afterwards we enjoyed the pool.

 

View from our "Balcony" (aka cockpit)

Vanuatu: Mother Nature's Fireworks

We left Fiji, sailing through Bligh Water named for Captain Bligh of Bounty fame. The mutiny on the Bounty took place off Tonga. Bligh and 18 crew who remained loyal to him were put in an open overloaded 23ft tender and traveled 3600nm (6700km) to the Dutch East Indies. On this remarkable journey they were chased by cannibals the length of Bligh Water. We were a little more fortunate. We had a pleasant ride through Fiji, but a rough yet fast ride from Fiji to Vanuatu.

 

Futuna Island, a volcano we pass as we approach Vanuatu

Our first stop is Port Resolution on the Island of Tanna. In 1774 Captain Cook visited this bay and named it after his ship HMS Resolution. The reason Cook and we are drawn to this harbor is because of Mount Yasur clearly visible from the Ocean. Jet takes it forward from here:

Windy Hill... Hill?
===================
Yesterday we hiked up Mount Yasur in Tanna, Vanuatu. Mount Yasur is not not really Palo Alto's windy hill, or a mountain, for it's:

A god's forge,
A devil's gorge,
A mountain of ash, and gray
But in the center,
A fireworks display!

A volcano!

 

Hein's artist impression (dedicated to Uncle Gerbrand)

In preparation for our trip to Yasur we wore clothing that covered us up well since some of the Mosquitoes is Vanuatu carry Malaria. In the end we didn't see a single mosquito, but the clothing helped us against the high winds found on Yasur's crater rim.

 

The Conti's from Ocealys and Mante's from Bravado heading for Yasur.

As the pickup truck in the back of which we rode brought us closer to the volcano the vegetation changed. Massive ferns were everywhere and steam billowed out of the ground, particularly in the places where we had just driven. Very eery!

 

Hein and Eltjo standing on the rim

We hiked the final bit up the mountain. Though the wind was rather hard and cold we were thankful that it was strong because it allowed us to view "force 2" eruptions in relative safety from the very edge of the crater. We arrived just before sunset and as night fell the glowing lava was all the more visible against the night sky. The explosions were absolutely magnificent.

 

The explosions throw shoebox to bathtub sized blob's of lava 300m+ into the air.

First you would have a few smaller ones that were barely visible, then you would have a big one with lava shooting 300m (1000ft) into the air. Just before the lava reached its peak (apogee) the sound wave would catch up and you would hear a tremendous boom and the sulfurous smell would hit you. The lava would fall back to earth in a tempo that seemed like slow motion. After the explosion the lava would tumble from where it landed back into the crater creating glowing streams of fire. A few blobs landed outside the crater and we had to keep a good lookout as some landed around us!

 

Lava streaming back into the crater

 

Lava and stars (click image to enlarge)

After some 15 explosions and an hour of photographing, filming, and studying with the bare eye we headed back down the mountainside. While walking back, Hein, Dad, and I who had stayed a little longer than the rest found ourselves walking back in the dark without light. Overall the volcano was not super scary, but walking back in the dark, and seeing the lava shooting up beside you, while feeling the still warm sand between our toes was not a comfortable feeling. After blazing our own path for a while we made it back to our outbound track with a *very* healthy respect for mother nature!

 

Do you spot the incentive for not loosing your balance here as you find your way home? ;)

Back at the boat we had a dinner of baguette with cream cheese, or cucumber and mayonnaise.


P.S. Later we learned that the lava had a temperature of 1200 degrees Celsius. We also lifted some of the blobs of lava that were cooled down and lying all around us. They were very light containing lots of holes with gasses inside them and very brittle. We think the gasses and the high temperatures explain why the blobs of lava would fall back to earth so slowly.

Jet Mante
October 11, 2009

Fiji, SavuSavu: Curries and Goodbye to Aedgard

Lariekoek and Bravado jointly sailed from Mago Island to SavuSavu. Martin Livingston stood on the pier to make sure we left (safely).

 

Oh dear, another private island on our way to SavuSavu. Would Aedgard be able to resist the tempation?

Along the way nothing exciting happened other than that we got word of the Samoa Tsunami. Boats at sea tend not to get affected very much. However, we heard later from several of our boating friends in Samoa and Tonga who experienced some very scary moments. The local population was of course most affected. Even in Loma Loma the village we visited just a few days earlier, the Pier, church, and low lying houses were flooded.

 

A pretty sunset on our first evening in Savusavu

SavuSavu was a wonderful little town. Here we saw a lot of the Indian Fijians who run a thriving commercial sector. The ethnic Indians arrived many generations ago and now account for half the population of Fiji. There is a lot of tension between the Indians and the indigenous Polynesian/Melanesians, but frankly, they seem to need each other. A series of Coup d'Etats was intended to keep the Polynesian/Melanesians in control of the country. Let's hope sanity will prevail. In the mean time we greatly enjoyed some hot curries and Jet added another traditional dress to her collection.

 

Jet in traditional Indian clothing.

 

A hair clip Jet and Ewout are making from an oyster shell. To be continued...

 

Did we mention that there are mosquitoes near mangrove trees? The children chose a poor place to play.

We could not stay long in SavuSavu as hurricane season is approaching and we still have at least one more archipelago to visit. Lariekoek will be heading to New Zealand and Bravado to Australia. It was sad to say goodbye to Aedgard. Ewout has known him for almost 30 years the rest of the family a bit shorter, but we all love his sense of humor and independent mind. He was a great traveling partner. We had a wonderful last night on Lariekoek and played a game of cards (kwartet) that the children had made for him.

 

Eltjo and Aedgard reviewing the card game we made for him.

Fiji, Vanua Mbalavu

Malaka Village
While Aedgard was busy with Lariekoek on Mago Island, we anchored in Malaka Bay at Vanua Balavu in the Eastern Lau Group, 3 hours away. Normally it is difficult to get permission to visit this group as the villages want to maintain their traditional lifestyle. However, we needed a safe place for the coming high winds and couldn't proceed further until there was clarity as to what the state of Lariekoek was.

One of the staff from Mago Island helped guide us through the pass and then we moored at Malaka. Semiti Saini, the brother of the village chief, was very welcoming and hospitable. On our second night his wife cooked us a delicious curry. Ewout installed LED lights in his house, repaired his television and his washing machine. The latter was self interest of course, because then we could do laundry....

 

Hein helps to prepare "roti" a.k.a. Fijian Pizza.

 

Ewout trying to repair a portable DVD player.

 

The repaired laundry machine. No more hand washing needed!

 

Semiti's home: Satellite dish, generator power, and TV. (One of 2 homes in the village with these luxuries).

After two days Ewout went back to Mago Island to help Aedgard for five days and Judith was by herself with the children. The villagers remained lovely to us. Semiti visited us every day to see how we were doing. He brought fresh mangos and bananas We also took a truck, which serves as a bus, to the biggest village on the island: Loma Loma. There we saw the house of the prime minister who was in charge before the recent coup d'etat. The chief's wife baked the most enormous pecan  pie for us, which was delicious and from which we ate for five days. Jet, Hein and Eltjo took a rope from the boat to the village and all the children would join them in jump roping together.

 

Jumping rope with the village children.

Bay of Islands
When Ewout came back we went to the Bay of Islands (also at Vanua Balavu), which is one of the most beautiful places we have seen. Really stunning. You anchor in very shallow, crystal clear water. You are totally protected from the Ocean swells first by the reef surrounding Vanua Mbalavu, then by rings of small limestone islands. The water has erroded the limestone at water line level, hence many of them look like mushrooms.

 

View on the Bay of Islands from a hike we did.

 

Bay of Islands anchorage.

 

Mushroom style islets. At water level the limestone has been removed by wave action.

 

Crystal clear waters give view on underwater life.

 

How often do you see your boat's shadow on a sandy bottom?

 

A Beach landing in the Bay of Islands.

 

Hiking up to a coconut plantation and view point.

 

Coconut plantation. (Jungle is cleared and coconuts are given light to grow and chance to bear fruit).

 

One of many Fruit Bats that come out at nightfall.

Mago Island Tour Reports by Hein and Eltjo Mante

Mago Island Tour
September 29, 2009 by Hein Mante

Do you like the movies? You will now find out about an island in Fiji owned by a Hollywood movie star. The island, which he owns is called Mago Island.

Yesterday the caretaker, Martin, gave us an exclusive tour of the island. Martin showed and told us (Mom, Dad, Jet, Eltjo and me) many cool and interesting things. To make a long story short, I will just tell you three of my favorite things that I learned.

 

Martin showing us tiny little shells on the high tide line

My first favorite thing to learn about is the Strangler Vine. The Strangler Vine seeds are carried around by pigeons, because they eat the vine’s berries. When the pigeons do their droppings in the tree, the seeds start to grow and attach themselves to the tree. Meanwhile the roots grow inside the tree. The vine grows bigger and bigger until it starts to strangle the tree. Once the original tree is strangled the vine itself becomes the tree. The Strangler Vine’s real name is the Strangler Fig.

 

A strangler Fig attacking its host tree.

 

Another attacking Strangler Fig.

Second, Martin also showed us the place where the islanders take care of metal (I don’t know how the place is called so I’ll just call it the metal dump). The islanders find a lot of metal stuff. They find from pick axes, that the early British explorers used, to cars and generators.  They take care of the metal by hammering on it. That is done to look whether it can be reused or to break it into small – harmless to the environment – pieces.

 

An old metal truck in the area being cleaned.

 

Watching some metal brazing in the workshop

 

Martin testing the new hot shower that we saw being finished in the workshop.

The last thing is the life on the island. There are a lot of people, who are making houses, roads, pig sheds and many more things. The people of the island are only allowed very limited fishing. The animals are protected, that is why fishing is limited. It is unusual, but the owner of this island also owns the fishing rights for the reef around it. Hence, the reef is also protected. The movie star also owns a plane on the island and if anyone is very sick this plane will fly them out to a hospital. The plane will also pick up sick people from the surrounding islands. The plane flies out from an airstrip that the islanders have built. For all this hard work they get paid 3 Fijian dollars an hour (which is equal to 1½ US dollars). However this is above the average labor rate in Fiji.

 

The pool we swam in.

 

Martin and Rima's house where we had our farewell dinner.

In the afternoon we returned to Bravado. In the evening Martin and Rima invited us for a farewell dinner. We first swam in the pool and then we had a lovely dinner at Martin's house. Martin and Rima, if you ever read this, thank you very much for having us. I loved and enjoyed my tour.

Hein


Seeing Mago Island
by Eltjo Mante

 

A floating bungalow Martin designed for use on the Lagoon.

We went from Bravado to the shore in The Peerys (our dinghy). Martin was waiting for us hat the shore in his truck. We all went in and drove up the hill. In the mean time Martin showed us the workshop and where a new house would be built. Martin told Dad to pick some leaves, we folded them and they smelled deliciously.

When we drove further, Martin pointed out where they were growing coffee. There were sticks coming out of the ground with a plant next to it. The coffee plant had green leaves and red berries. Inside the berries were the coffee beans.

 

An old octagonal watertank converted to a beach home for one of the caretakers.

Then Martin showed us the bay on the other side of the island. We stood looking at it from the top of a hill. We saw another very small island within Mago Island’s reef. This was called Edward Island.

 

Martin, us, and Edward Island just visible in between Jet and Hein's heads.

In the distance we saw another bigger island and Martin told us an interesting story about that island. It was owned by a man, who married a Fijian woman from a nearby island. The man was very cruel to his wife and beat her. One day she had enough and she swam all the way back to her own village on the other island, a distance of at least 15 miles. She arrived exhausted and barely alive. Her people nursed her back to health. When she was fully recovered and strong again, they brought her back to her husband and said: You belong to him now, you stay there.

In the middle of the island there was a village. In the village there was a huge tree, which was made into a Christmas tree. It had a lot of branches and the decorations on the branches were mooring balls painted in different colours. I really liked it.

Painted Mooring balls decorating the Christmas Tree

Thank you for inviting us to tour the island and dinner afterwards. I liked seeing how good ideas and lots of work can make an island beautiful!

Eltjo