Transforming Into Little Sista!

Vincent and Chief Kaisa sailed to Port Vila with us. It was
an interesting week getting to know these two men.

The main transportation of goods and NiVans between islands here in Vanuatu is on a ferry called Big Sista. Big Sista is known to carry anything and everything for a price – and the price changes each time you try to get a quote and not in your favor!
 
The cost of shipping a single item such as a bag of rice or flour or a box of whatever is generally 500 Vatu  (VT) or about $5.00 USD. To you and me, it is well worth the price to get goods sent somewhere.



The whole family came to see the boat.

To the out-island villagers, the price is astronomical since they have little cash and few ways to earn some. Therefore, they go without until they have someone heading to the “big city” of Port Vila or Luganville to buy things. Then that person returns bearing the burden of carrying all of the purchases.

 
Since our plan was to go to Avokh Island and scope out the situation and then return to Port Vila for the goods needed, we became the ferry for Chief Kaisa and Vincent. These are the two men with whom we connected in 2014 and the reason we decided to assist Avokh.
 

 
It was an interesting experience sharing the boat with them for six nights and the passages down and back. It was also intriguing to watch them navigate their way around Port Vila once we got there! 



Then it was time for them to leave so we could weigh anchor.

Even though they are an overnight sail from Port Vila, they knew many people there – extended family, governmental people, and friends. They managed to fit in a few nights with family and several nights of kava drinking with friends while we were there. They had set up appointments with governmental people so they definitely were on a mission to accomplish their tasks.

Some missions were more successful than others: Chief Kaisa met with their Member of Parliament (MP) and was able to secure 40 sheets of metal roofing for the village community building, which had been blown completely off during Cyclone Pam. The problem now was how to get it to Avokh. Big Sista charged $7 per sheet to transport it. That was the final price after they had been told both $2 and $3 a sheet originally. (But that is the way it goes in the islands!)
 
 
They did not have money for shipping or the lumber, screws, nails, etc. to put the roof on once the sheet metal made it to the island. Besides, Big Sista doesn’t stop at their little island, which is surrounded by major reefs, so they have to pay to have it transported from the loading dock on another island. The sheets of metal are too large to be paddled on a canoe for many miles so transportation needed to be worked out.

 


After shopping for guttering, computer and printer, roofing
materials and supplies and much more, we looked like this! 

Dennis told Chief Kaisa that we would spend 100,000 VT ($1,000 USD) to help them restore their island. All they had to do was to tell us what needed to be done and prioritize the projects before spending the money. This was an interesting concept to get them to communicate what was important and we aren’t quite sure why it was so challenging.
 
 
 
Eventually we did manage to get the list of needs from them. Since 500 VT for shipping a box on Big Sista seems like an unreachable thing, I think they were overwhelmed with what 100,000 VT was – and why we were offering it!

Chief Kaisa and Dennis met with Dave of the Butterfly Trust.

Part of our personal mission is to help them understand ways to work in a society were money is necessary to acquire the products they cannot produce on their island. The villagers sell fish, copra (coconut) and kava to vendors on Big Sista for cash, but it is not a lot and it isn’t a regular cash flow. The community does have some money for things, though. And some individuals receive money from family members living on the mainland islands.
 

No place to walk or stand. Even the galley
floor was filled so I did little cooking!

The next step was to go shopping to compare prices and set up a budget before spending any of the money. The first priority was to pay for the shipping of the metal roofing on Big Sista. The next priority was to replace the guttering on the church as it is the best roof and has a large rain water catchment cistern next to it. The current guttering is too small for the volume of rain coming off the roof and it overshoots the gutters. The plan was to remove the existing gutters carefully so they can be used on several other buildings with catchment tanks nearby and install larger gutters on the church.



Once the guttering system was sorted out and priced, the next priority was installing the roof on the community building. Being concerned about how much things were costing and how quickly the gifted monies were being used up, Chief Kaisa thought it best to use nails on the roof rather than the very expensive screws made for the job. Dennis convinced him to “invest in the future” by saying “nails vs. screws – roof blow off or roof stay on!” In the end, the roof should stay on with the roofing screws!
 
 

Vincent's sister had a "few small" boxes for us to pick up!

By the time the materials for the gutters and the roofing projects were assembled, most of the money was gone. Lumber was very expensive and would have to be shipped on Big Sista for some fee, so Chief Kaisa got on his cell phone and directed the men to start cutting wood to make the trusses for the roof. Apparently, there is one person with a chain saw who cuts lumber for the price of the gasoline, which they call benzene here. But benzene is expensive and they have no way to haul it from the islands where it is available.
 
 
Both Trillium and Starblazer had each donated a 20 liter petrol can filled with benzene so the island now has a way to have 40 liters at a time for the generators and chainsaw. We then learned that the community had used 6 liters to run the generator for the Independence Day celebration! Since no one pays for anything and it seems to be free, they just use it! Well, there will be a new approach now after we have had some time with Chief Kaisa and Vincent to talk sustainability and economics! (Later, Chez Nous gave us two more benzene containers so now Chief Kaisa can run his own petrol station!)

And a few more on another canoe!

Part of the gifted money is allocated to refill the benzene so they have a full 40 liters on the island. In the future, anyone needing benzene will have to buy it from Chief Kaisa with the money collected reserved to refill the tanks. In the past, when it was gone, it was gone and there was no way to refill. Dennis showed him what the pump price is and told him he needed to charge at least that amount so he would have the money to refill the tanks. Even with this concept, he told us he was selling it to the community building committee for less so they could get the roof lumber cut! I guess he will figure it out when he doesn’t have enough money to refill the tanks. (Sigh!)

 

Two happy islanders. One stuffed Hallberg-Rassy 46!

Chief Kaisa and Vincent had a list of items to purchase for villagers so they did some shopping on their own and had the goods delivered to the boat in the marina. They said there were a few things. Well, their version of “few” is extremely underestimated. Suddenly S/V Trillium looked like Little Sista! That became our name for the rest of the trip. Aboard came many bags of rice and flour (some that were leaking), piles of cardboard boxes filled with who knows what (we don’t usually allow cardboard on the board to avoid cockroach eggs!) and bags of more stuff. Every nook and cranny of the boat was filled again. And with the building materials added, it was challenging to find a place to walk and no place to sit except in the cockpit. Even the galley floor was covered!
 
 

Limona brought us a lunch of laplap.

Then as we were planning an overnight stop in Havanna Bay, we were asked to stop near Vincent’s sister’s village on the west side of Efate to pick up a few things. There is that word again: few! We found the village – it was the one where everyone was standing on shore waiting for us! Then two canoes bearing gifts came out from shore. There were so many boxes on these canoes that you couldn’t even see who was paddling. I still don’t know where we managed to stow everything, but more cardboard boxes made their way onboard!

Since it was a nice anchorage, we decided to stay there for the night. Vincent and Chief Kaisa went ashore and spent the night with family. Vincent and his sister seem very close as they are also close in age. And you could tell they were siblings by their smile, eyes and many mannerisms. It was fun to see how excited he was to get to visit her. We enjoyed giving them the opportunity to see family and friends in Efate.

Independence Day (or Week)!

The landing on Lutes, Uliveo is in a sheltered area behind
the mangrove trees so it is an easy place for arrival - that is,
if you have safely made it across the barrier reef!

Vanuatu is a relatively “young” country in terms of independence. For years, they had been ruled by both the French and the British – at the same time. As a result, part of the population was educated in French and the balance in English. The two countries had disagreements on how Vanuatu, then known as New Hebrides, should be governed.




Lutes is a well laid out and very neat and
clean village with straight "streets" and hedges.

While the two powers fought over this, the people went about their business and each island had its own native tongue. This is why there has been little interaction or communication between the islands of Vanuatu of their history.

A view inside a typical home. Note: no furniture! Mats R It!

As a result, there are over 160 different languages or dialects in all of Vanuatu. They often cannot communicate with another island. Therefore, the new language of Bislama is being developed and taught. I have noted that the little children really don't understand my English and often look toward an educated older child or adult to translate.

This is how the ladies spend the time during the football game.

Their Independence Day is celebrated on July 30^th. We have heard that it can be a wild event and that the celebration may go on for days with little work or business being done anywhere. Our plan was not to be in Port Vila for the celebration. We intended to be on Avokh or Awei, away from the large crowds.


(We later learned that it is not a "wild" event, but rather a drawn out one as it went on for days so nothing gets done!)

The kids found other things to do during
the football games. It was an all day event!

As it turned out, the weather and wind determined where we would be. This is often the case with “best laid plans of mice and men!” Since S/Y Caduceus was anchored at Lutes, Uliveo (oo-lee-vey-o), they suggested we join them for the holiday. It was only a short distance away, still in the Maskelynes. It was time for all of us to have a little R and R (rest and relaxation) – or as Martin says, “knees up.”

A colorful sight on my walk through the village.

We were looking forward to the down time and being with other cruisers for a few days. Sometimes it is just nice to hang at anchor and relax. Cruising is much more active than you might think. Especially when you are constantly going to shore and back in a dinghy.

The school here is very nice.

 Uliveo, is a much larger island with three large villages, the smallest (Lutes) is larger than all of Avokh. The school is very large and has boarders from the other islands. We brought rice and milk powder ashore as we learned that there is no governmental support for the boarding students room and board. So we gave it to Stuart who is in charge of the boarders. Since this is an upper school as well as primary, many of the students are from other islands.

This is the oven for the boarding school.
Maybe we should have brought flour
and yeast as well. I don't think the
students are well feed.

This is also where the main dispensary is located and Dr. Elizabeth has spent a lot of time.

The Dispensary Boat is supposed to take the nurse to Avokh to run the baby clinics and check on patients needing care on a regular and as-needed basis. It appears that the nurse has been making the mothers and babies cross rough waters in canoes or sometimes in the Dispensary Boat for which they pay to come to her!


I have a feeling that Dr. Elizabeth will be filing an interesting report when her tour of duty is over here. She is a volunteer, but they will be moving on to Indonesia soon and will rejoin us in the World ARC in a year.


Martin on his way to play the bagpipes.
He is a true Scotsman.

As it turned out, Dr. Elizabeth and Martin were the guests of honor for the Independence Day celebration on Uliveo. Unfortunately (or not), they missed most of the morning activities because no one told them!


Once they were finally contacted on the boat and went ashore, they sat on the stage. We somehow got added to the mix just because we were from the USA. Sitting on the stage to watch two football games, girls doing formation marches, listening to speeches in a foreign tongue, etc. was not exactly a celebration for all of us.



The church is this village is very large. The missionaries
did a good job of establishing Christianity in these islands.

The cleanest "restrooms" on the islands
is found at the Kindy schools.

Dutifully, Martin stayed put all afternoon and into the early evening when he played the bagpipes for the lowering of the flag. He was in his Scottish attire and was quite an attraction. After all, he was a man wearing a skirt and the islanders found it amusing, but he got rave reviews for his piping!

This is what it looks like inside. At least, it is
 a step up from what we found in rural Russia.

Dennis stayed with Martin most of the afternoon, while Elizabeth and I went for a walk to the village of Pelange.  The villages on this island are well planned communities: straight “roads” (walking paths) crossing at right angles to make “blocks” and hedges separating the road from the “yards.”

Grave markers. The phallic symbolism here is strong.

They also have a lot of banana and breadfruit trees right in the villages. Because the island is flat, this concept works. The village on Avokh is build up the side of the hill. There isn’t even enough flat area for the children to play football.

How to keep your pigs out of your yard!

One of the highlights of each village we have visited is to see the Kindy school - or as we know them, Pre-school. The Butterfly Trust in New Zealand has a mission to support education and health in rural Vanuatu. They work alongside communities to improve their access to health care and education and have been doing so since 2009.  Their focus has initially been on the south and southeast of the island of Malekula, but the Trust currently has projects on Tongoa and Ambae as well.

The "roads" connecting the village provide
a lovely walk through the bush or forest.

When we were in New Zealand, I saw canisters for Butterfly Trust donations, but I thought it was to save the Monarch butterflies. I later learned about it as Dr. Elizabeth has been working through the Butterfly Trust. Now we have visited a number of the Kindy sites and seen the water catchment systems and playscapes funded by the Trust, as well as the classrooms themselves.

Our guide showed us some of the foods being prepared.

During our village tour and my walk with Elizabeth on another day, we saw normal village life: women cooking and weaving, cemetery, kitchen gardens, neat yards, kids playing, etc.

She has peeled this root vegetable and is
now grating it to make laplap.

Our guide in Lutes introduced us to a man and woman who were cooking. Apparently, they run a "take away" business: they prepare the food at their house, then take it up the road where there is a free-standing counter. People come at dinner time and buy prepared food from them. Sounds like the version of a food truck!

 Tasty octopus, anyone? Not for me!  How about some snails? I think I am vegetarian!    Dennis had developed a serious infection in a cut on his left shin and has been seen by Dr. Elizabeth several times for shots and medication. I am quite concerned about it, too. He needs to keep it out of the sea water so I pull the dinghy up as far as I can and then call the men who are watching me to come to help. They will help if you ask, but they don’t rush out to offer! Hopefully, the infection will be under control before we separate our travels from Dr. Elizabeth and Martin.



There are mud crab holes everywhere in
these islands. But you never see a crab!

There are a number of ways to get hurt in this environment: cuts from shells in the water, scrapes and cuts from working on projects. bruises from a variety of sources, catching colds from the village snotty-nosed kids (adorable, but runny noses are disgusting - no Kleenx here!), worms, bad water, and ... Our systems seem susceptible to things that don't bother the villagers. Dr. Elizabeth said their skin is so tough that she can hardly get an injection needle through it!



More mud crab holes. I am surprised there are not more
sprained or broken ankles! I guess the children often get hurt.

Here is another way to get hurt: stepping in a mud crab hole. They are everywhere! But you never see the crabs except when it rains hard and they get flooded out. Once they hear or feel footsteps, they disappear.
 

This is how you stay warm in winter here. It
was 73 degrees, but to them it is cold!

 
 
 
 

 

And Now for the Men

A happy skipper getting the bags of
clothing off the boat - finally!

A few of the younger men had grabbed a few items for themselves on the day the children selected their clothing. A bag of adult clothes made it to shore (along with a few other bags that were not to have been transported, i.e. Exercise books and Bibles) accidently.

The women had set a fine example of how to select their clothes without the chaos, so it was decided that the men would be called in groups by age with the elders going first.

Out came our sail again! Last time.

The sail was brought out again and we dumped bags by like items: pants, shirts, jackets and vests, hats, etc. Each person was asked to select one thing. We thought we had a lot of men’s clothing, but we were stunned by the number of men who showed up. Where had they all been last year? It seemed like they had dropped in from the tree tops!

There were not enough clothes for the men.

As it turned out, there was only enough for one item per person! I felt bad about that, but it was out of our control. We had what we had and that was all. So the need is still great as there are men wearing shorts with holes in the back so their underwear hangs out – if they are lucky enough to have a pair of boxers or briefs. Again, we encourage cruisers coming here to bring clean used clothing, water in containers that can be left and food.

When one of the young men complained about the older men going first, Dennis reminded him that he was an older man and where we come from you show respect to your elders!



Everyone wanted to get their hands on something!

We heard several times that there are some “bad boys” in the village and they will take anything left out. The word “stealing” wasn’t used, but it was strongly implied. That was a heads up for us to not bring stuff ashore without the Chief overseeing the goods.

Dennis purchased a tool box with a lock for
the community and gave the key to a chief.

We learned a lesson in Tanna on dispersing tools. Dennis had put together a couple of sets of tools for the village at Port Resolution, Tanna. When we arrived and he was offering to help someone fix something, he learned that there was a Phillips screw driver here and a flat screw driver in the house over there and a hammer somewhere else.


Chief Kaisa loved this oil-skin coat!

They don’t seem to get the concept of keep things in sets and sharing the whole set when tools are needed. He would like to be able to use the set of tools when working on project while we are here. Dennis spoke with the chiefs and Chief Nawa will be put in charge of keeping the tools together. Hopefully he has the authority to have the tools returned to the community tool collection.

Vincent's father received a yam shovel.
Each of the four tribes received one. It 
must have gone to the elder in this case.

In Avokh, Dennis stressed to Chief Kaisa and Vincent the value of keeping the tools together. They seem to have gotten the idea, but we are not sure the whole set will come back after someone has used it. It is out of our control so we should stop thinking about it. It is amazing what thoughts wake us up at night!

This man is known as "the boat builder" as he has carpentry
skills. It does not appear that they teach the younger men the
various skills and trades needed on the island. They believe
God has given you a talent and it can't be developed otherwise.

We also shared with Chief Kaisa how they disperse gifts on Tanna. There each Chief and his tribe sits in an area and items are equally dispersed among the four chiefs. The chiefs then divide the items up among their people. There was no grabbing and chaos there. Maybe it will make a difference on Avokh in the future. At least, Chief Kaisa seems interested in what life is like on the other islands we have visited.

The Big Day for Dresses and More

We had told the women that there was a surprise for them and that the men must stay away. Again, the men had a difficult time with this concept as the whole community tends to participate in everything.

When Dr. Elizabeth was making house calls in the village, everyone followed her from house to house to watch the proceedings. I guess the patients are accustomed to this and don’t seem to mind. It makes for Live Action News!

The dresses were arranged in piles of Small, Medium and Large so they could find their size and choose a color or pattern they liked. This time we used a table instead of the sail on the ground. The ladies lined up and stayed relatively orderly except for a few who don’t understand English – and apparently, don’t pay attention to instructions in Bislama either!

The dresses were colorful and crispy new. The style is basically the same for all. I could guess which color a woman wanted after a while as they each tended to pick the same color they were wearing. Just like we do! We know what we like and what feels right on us. So do they. It was an interesting study in human behavior.

The women were actually giddy and giggly over the new underwear. Some were embarrassed which is why the men were told to stay away. Most of the women wanted the bikini panties that were for the younger ones. The medium sized were lower cut too, but that didn’t seem to matter.

I had to hide the bikinis until the younger girls came through as we started with the most senior women first and worked down the age ladder. I know some of the larger women cannot get their bums into the panties they chose and if they do manage, the elastic band will be very uncomfortable! No one wanted the larger panties even though I could tell you who needed them!

Then there were the bras! Some were very excited to get one; others, not so much. After all, they had gone without for years so why now? The bras were more difficult because there was no way to get the right size to them so they held them up, picked one and left.  It seems that color was more important than the fit! I imagine there will be some trading among the women. At least, there was the option to have one if they wanted it.

We had 100 dresses and were told there were 68 women age 15 and up. In the end, twelve extra dresses were selected by some of the younger girls. That was fine and why I had extras made as I did not want to be short. The remaining dresses will go to the ladies on Awei and others we meet. None will be coming home with us.

I felt great joy watching them get their new clothing. I can’t thank those of you who donated to Dresses for Dignity enough. Your contributions really meant that we could do more for the village. With the matching funds we provided, we were able to buy the underwear, additional household items and food for the families.

A number of you have asked how you can help.
We are still accepting contributions as we intend to fill the boat once again with food in Port Vila and take it up to Avokh and Awei before we leave Vanuatu. If you wish to contribute, please send a check to Sherry Day with Memo: Avokh to PO Box 348, Port Austin, MI 48467. It will be deposited so we can access the funds via ATM.

Oh, Happy Day!

The day had finally arrived when we were to start unloading the boat! Yeah! We are happy to see the bags and containers leave so we can have our space back. The villagers are waiting in anticipation for what surprises (as they often call “prizes”) we have for them. Since there are so many bags, it was decided to start with the rice, milk and household items first.

We gave them our old mainsail plus three other sails that had been donated. Of course, they will cut them into smaller sails for their outrigger canoes, but for now our sail will serve as the staging area. Picture a snow white sail laying on the dirt about to be trampled by 200 dirty bare feet. What a sight! But it is a great use for a retired Hallberg-Rassy 46 sail!

The Community Committee was in charge of dispersing the goods fairly. They went about setting out 50 bags of rice (5 kg each), a bucket, bowl or dishpan and a can of powdered milk. Then they dropped in one teaspoon, a single cooking utensil, plates, cups, etc. and one of anything they could spread around. The concept of keeping a “set” of anything together for a family was beyond them. So much for my careful shopping! In the end, everyone had a number of things – a pot in one household with its lid in another! My western mindset doesn’t translate well here and I have to keep reminding myself of that.

The people were happy and it pleased the chiefs that there was food for all. Hunger is a big concern for the chiefs. There is not much they can do until the harvest is ready, though. And, of course, safe drinking water is a huge concern. I don’t know how these people manage in the warm climate and sun without much water. They must be dehydrated. And this is winter so it is cooler now, but with spring and hot summer coming soon, the situation will be more severe unless they can get help with the water issue.

 

Next we started dumping the bags of children’s clothing. We put boys at one end and girls at the other. The bags had been labeled by ages so we tried to explain that, but totally missed! Everyone waited for it all to be placed on the sail and for the Chief Kaisa and “Mr. Dennis” to speak, then it was a free for all!

The instructions were for the little ones to go first with the mothers and each get something to wear – one or two items only. Right! The little ones and the big ones and the parents just started scooping up by the armful. These people are so desperate for food, water and clothing that they could not contain the excitement and control themselves. It was wild! I have a wonderful video of it all!

In the end, the children’s clothing was gone. Only one family missed out as the mother was the Kindy teacher and not there for the chaos. She has six children. Fortunately, we still had a lot of things on the boat designated for Awei so we able to meet her and her six children and give them clothing a day later. We hauled a large bag of goods up the hill to their house and handed out several pieces of clothing to each of them.

Unfortunately, in the distribution process, we could not keep track of what was being put out into the lots of 50 rice piles and we lost a few things that were designated for other areas. The big bag of red exercise books intended for the school were grabbed up by the adults! They are so hungry for things to call their own. We also lost track of the New Testament Bibles donated to the church so hopefully they ended up in the hands of those who will use them.

We learned a lesson on this one, so we strategized on how to deliver the dresses to the ladies and the adult clothing to the men in a more orderly fashion. And it was decided to be done on other days – one for the ladies and another day for the men. I personally enjoyed making the men wait to the end as in this society, the men always are first!