Right...
So, basically all the interesting parts of the trip have happened now. I've either been too poor, too rushed, or too far from any internet to update this, and I do regret this. Firstly, I fear I've probably lost the interest of many of the followers I've accumulated. There were quite a few of you. I'm not sure why.
Secondly, I wanted this blog to accurately track the ups and downs, the catharsis of this trip. Partly, the blog was to hopefully remove the problem of summarising, generalising, and ultimately trivialising the ebb and flow of this excursion. But, now, I'll have to summarise, generalise, and, I fear, trivialise, so much of what we did (and we did so much).
So, after I last left you, Jack and I did one final dive down to the Coolidge, as Kilv was still dying, and this time, we visited the Lady, an old wooden carving (of a lady), and we kissed her, because that's how this sort of underwater thing works. We both ran out of air. She took our breath away. She riodes a unicorn. What a lady.
In the afternoon, Kilv was feeling better (his eye is still bloodshot now), so we headed off to Lonnoc beach, with our driver Jackie (the one who showed us ALL those rivers). This time, we expressed a liking for a certain song from the Solomon Islands about shining stars and being happy. Now, Jackie does seem to be the sort of person who, if even a passing interest or liking for something is indicated, will facilitate as much of that thing as possible. We heard no other song that entire car journey. And we heard a LOT of music. So...
The next morning, we departed for Pentecost Island. Now, for those of you who don't know, Pentecost is the island where we spent our six months, teaching children in a very haphazard way, jumping off waterfalls, and having the dormant form of malaria secretly released into our bloodstreams. This time, we'd decided to land in the south, and spend a few days walking up it, to our village, Nambaranguit, before catching a boat back to Vila (eurgh). We wanted to see more places, and chat with random passers-by, as this is really what Vanuatu (but not Vila, or Luganville really) is about. Kilv hadn't managed to get a seat on the flight, because he's lazy, and forgot to come to Vanuatu on time. He was getting a cargo ship into Pentecost and meeting us on the second night.
We set off from the airfield, Lonorore, after a hurried exit from Santo, and, after three hours walk, and some minor regrets about not getting on the truck that offered us free passage (But NO! We had to WALK! Because we were not TOURISTS!), we reached Ranwadi. This was the school where some of our friends, Amy, Rachel, Sarah and Selena (?), were teaching. We'd been here before. We'd watched a mass baptism here. We'd angered our unexpected host, by sort of destroying his house, and eating a lot of his food, and bringing a cat into said house, when we KNEW he didn't like cats. We'd got freaked out by a simple concrete path with stripes, when we were a bit...erm...intoxicated...on...erm...mari...erm...juana. This time, we just chilled out and waxed cynical with our far more amiable host, Katie, who was very much bored of her overly religious companions. We had our first Pentecost kava of 2010, and continued to expand our lapsed understanding of Bislama.
The next day we got a truck out of Ranwadi (we felt LAZY!) and after a little of walking, got another one up a hill (it was STEEP!), and then down the hill (we still felt LAZY!) into Bwatnapne, our base for the second night. this was also where were meeting Kilv off the ship. We were staying with a guy called Roger Tari, a man so nice and generous, Jack almost wept (he was TIRED! Riding in trucks is TIRING!).
We went for kava again, this time on the beach, where Roger Tari continued to just give us things. The boat was due at about 6. It arrived at about 11. This is, for the most part, how Vanuatu works. Jack was pretty kava'd up by this point. For a long time, Kilv didn't get off, and we thought he was a) asleep; b) still in Santo; c) asleep in Santo. But no, he got to shore eventually (oh, and it was raining), and we all retired for the night.
RIGHT. This is where I stop. I'm still not very far through. We haven't even got to the part where we were stuck on Ambae for DAYS (3 days). But I thought I'd try to re-pique your curiosity, before writing a massive update tomorrow in Sydney airport, because internet is free there.
Also, we've played a lot of shithead, with lots of Estonians and Australians, and I'm confused about the scores. But let's just say that Kilv's winning. Well done, Kilv. Very well done.
No comments:
Post a Comment