Food is plentiful. Only seasonal food is available, but everything grows easily, particularly root vegetables. The islands are surrounded by good fishing waters. The only times of hunger is after a cyclone. Most houses are built from local materials -  wood, leaf thatch roof and woven matting for the walls. After a cyclone, the roof and walls may be blown away, but can be quickly rebuilt from local materials. For many people, particularly the Kastom villages, nature provides everything – food, housing and clothing. There is no need for anything else, and no need for money. Pigs are often used as a form of currency, as well as for ceremonies, status symbol and occasionally even food! The crop on the floor wasting is pamplemousse (grapefruit)

Tanna is famous for its volcano, which is one of the most accessible active volcanoes in the world. Many westerners come to Tanna for a one day trip, just to see the volcano. It erupts every 5 minutes or so from one or all of its 3 vents. The night time show is the best. Only 20 years ago, any truck venturing up the volcano would be stoned as it was the local belief that the souls of the dead reside in the volcano. Now they are happy to let tourists visit, as long as about £13 is paid.

We mentioned that Ni-Vans are most hospitable and welcoming. Most are happy to chat in their best broken inglis. One guy we met was Willy. We passed a few minutes chatting one day then bumped into him again the next day. He had formed a bag out of his shirt to carry manioc (a root vegetable). This time he invited us back to his wife’s village, a collection of about 10 houses with a nakamal (meeting place). We had noticed previously the number of pigs roaming around, so asked him how they caught them. He took us to a clearing and banged two pieces of wood together. Immediately, about 20 pigs came charging into the clearing expecting food of coconut. At the big Toka ceremony, which is held every 2-3 years, about 300 pigs are killed. Coconut trees are everywhere. We had been concerned about our safety every time we heard a coconut crashing to the ground from about 100’, so we asked Willy if coconuts ever killed people. His reply was that coconuts have a soul, and therefore always miss people when falling. We felt much safer after that! Watching Willy split open a coconut with an axe for feeding to the pigs, we thought that humans had the better side of this agreement.

His sister-in-law, Mary, although only about 20, had three children. Even though her father was the village chief, he was not able to afford the cost of the school fees after the age of 11 – the age when parents have to start paying for their children’s education. Her 5 years education must have been good as her spoken English was excellent though she couldn’t write. Only about 10% of children attend school past 11 yrs. On leaving, she gave us two necklaces plus a woven bag as it is a custom to give a gift to a person who visits the village.

No-one on Tanna wears a watch. If setting a time for a meeting, it is usually given as morning or afternoon – that as precise as it gets!

The Reith lectures were mentioned previously. One of the Sach’s suggestions was that the rich countries should donate anti malaria bed nets to all the poorer malaria infested countries – about 300 million nets. The cost of such a donation is about 1 day of the USA’s defence budget expenditure. Malaria is a big problem in Vanuatu, so we were interested to understand how many bed nets were in use. It is almost impossible to obtain any reliable statistics in Vanuatu, so self collection is often the best way. In our daughter’s residential school (residential as the villages are so far from the school) only about half the children use nets, and these are often so ripped to be useless. Other village houses we visited also did not have nets. The local hospital used to freely give bed nets, but stopped after it found that they were being used for fishing. So, we visited the Canadian doctors on the island to understand the problem a little better. They said that about half their hospital intake is for malaria, but fortunately the type of malaria on Tanna is the mild type, from which people rarely die.

On Tanna, village people believe that you only die of old age. If you die younger than around 60, it is due to sorcery. We can see it being a big education task to convince people to use nets, as in their eyes, malaria will not be spread by the mosquito, but by bad thoughts and sorcery.

I mentioned earlier about the land dispute at our previous accommodation. We visited there again on return to Lenakal to find that one of the bungalows (the one in the picture above – before the problem) had been burnt during the previous night with 4 Australian Rotarians inside. Fortunately they were not hurt. Vanuatu desperately needs the tourist dollars, and attempted murder on tourists will not help. It also relies on donor aid and the Australian Rotary Club is a big aid provider to Vanuatu. Trying to burn 4 of it subjects will not help the cause. The police know who is doing this but are not prepared to arrest them without catching them in the act.

Vanuatu was granted independence in 1980. Previously it had been ruled by a joint French English administration. Each tribe has its own language. When the French / English arrived, they brought with them Bislama – a form of pigeon English with many French words. All people will speak at least 2 languages, their local tribal language plus Bislama. Bislama is the national language. Many will speak English or French in addition. The following is a poster in Bislama

People live in tribes, the tribal group being one extended family living in several villages on land always bordered by two rivers. Each village has a chief, a hereditary position. If you ask anyone their name they will say “I’m X, the son/daughter of the chief.”  Work is split 70% women and 30% men. Employers prefer women because they will turn up for work. Men will agree to work but will arrive days late and often not at all. Women provide the food from the tribal garden which will often be a mile away from their village. If it were closer the vegetables on which they depend for their entire diet would be eaten by their un-penned pigs and cattle. They wash clothes by hand and leave them laid on grass or the beach to dry. They may have up to ten children to care for. It is rare to see men doing anything. When we ask what men do, their job is to chop wood and build houses.  The following picture is of the market in Lenekel, which occurs twice per week where women will sell their vegetables and fruit and small animals. Note the live chicken in the bag.

Women have very low status. The order of importance is men, pigs, women. Women are required to shut up and obey. They are sometimes pressed into extra work by their fathers and husbands. A French bungalow owner said such conscripts would typically break glasses or take food to show their resentment. Other women who work of their own free will are happier. There is a high suicide rate here – all of whom are women. They see the lives of their mothers and grandmothers and decide that life has nothing to offer them. This information is anecdotal as no records are kept of births and deaths.  

In our parents’ generation, people were told that smoking was good for you as it clears the lungs. In our generation, alcohol is promoted as the drug with few health issues, even though we have personally lost 2 friends/relatives by alcoholism. On Vanuatu, and most of the South Pacific islands, the intoxicant of choice is Kava. Kava is made from the roots of the kava plant. Traditionally, the roots are chewed by young boys to make them soft before water is added and the liquid is strained through muslin (or a bed net!). In the Kava bars, around towns like Lenakel, a food mincer is now used instead. When in Rome……………….

Drinking Kava is a male domain, so in the interests of science Roger asked a local to take him to a Kava bar, one which sells unchewed root due to the high incidence of TB here. Kava is served in coconut shells, in half shell size (25p / $0.50) or full size (50p / $1). The routine is to take your shell and drink the contents as fast as possible. The taste is like nothing on earth – absolutely horrible. The locals will then wash their mouth in dirty water and spit a lot to try to get rid of the taste. You then sit around for 15 minutes or so as the kava takes effect. This cycle is repeated as many times as necessary.

Mi ting se hemi bin dring tumas kava hemi stap wokbaot dakdak

(I think I’ve drunk too much kava, I’m walking like a duck)

The effects last about 12 hours with a similar feeling to being drunk, but with a happiness and well being toward your fellow man. The next day there is  little desire to work. This is why the men drink kava whilst the women work!

Next week we move to Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu on a different island, Efate.