Hi
We left Tanna, the island of giant Banyan trees, and did a day sail, in continuing strong wind and v rough seas to Dillons Bay on Erromango Island. Arrived about 4.30 and about 6 other arc boats there. Village had arranged a ceremonial welcome and 'feast' for us at 5.30, for a small price supposedly towards building a new school. We joined the others and went ashore for the welcome (fully covered in 100% Deet anti-biting stuff. Village seemed much poorer than the one in Tanna - no working generator and no piped source of drinking water. We had a moving welcome into a large hut they had decorated for the occasion with fresh greenery and flowers. Lots of singing followed by lots of prayers and then a band played for us. There was one guitar and lots of stringed instruments made out of sticks with strings attached. They were good and tuneful, but repetoire rather limited. All the villagers then waited while we ate first (I did manage to find some edible chicken curry, rice, squash and a leg of coconut crab, plus a drinking coconut). Even when we finished eating the villagers still did not start eating. So we started dancing to the band, to much excitement from the villagers, and one intrepid woman joined us. They then started dividing up their food. We stayed the night in the bay, as we wanted to visit the village again in daylight and to do some snorkeling around the bay, but all the other boats left about 9pm on an overnight sail to Port Vila - our next ARC rendezvous point.
We went ashore next morning and found a guide to show us around the village and walk up the river. The village is on the banks of a wide, clear river that flows down a chasm-type valley to the bay. There are about 200 people in the village. We walked through the village and visited the pre-school playgroup, which is a very unstable hut of poles and corrugated iron roof, but they have made a very pretty garden around it, with ropes and other things for the children to play on. We then went on to see the primary school, which is a proper building and has chairs and desks in the two classrooms. When children are 12, they go the the main island to school. We walked further up the river valley to see the giant mango trees, banana and root vegetable 'gardens'. The villagers supplement their diet with chicken, wild pig and fish. There are also lots of wild horses on the island. We also saw the broken pipes which once provided the village with drinking water from higher up the river by means of gravity feed. We then waded across the river, using stepping stones where possible, and climbed up the bank to visit a hidden village of around 30 people on the other bank. This village had all traditional huts and pretty gardens with lots of chickens, but did have lots of taps around, with running water. Our guide said that the women from his village walked across to this village to collect drinking water - quite a distance to go. The smaller village did not have a generator, but did have a small nursery, with a few tables of liners growing sandalwood trees. The villagers sold the prepared sandalwood which grew in and around the village, to China and New Zealand. Once a year a team would come in and collect the trees. The nursery produced an ongoing stock of seedlings to be planted out. A tree grows to sufficient size in 10 years to be harvested for the sandalwood.
We then returned to the first village where most of the villagers were at worship (it was Saturday, but they are something like 7th day adventists). We also saw about a dozen men hard at work on building a concrete building which was going to be a church, not a school. There is a missionary in this village, and the females wear these baggy 'mother hubbard' dresses designed to disguise any hint of female shape. We all felt quite ambivalent about the village - it was the most poverty-stricken we had visited, but instead of putting their efforts into mending their generator or more importantly their water supply, they are concentrating on building a large concrete church, presumably at the urging of the missionary. We were told so many times how they were a very poor village and could not afford to build a proper building for their pre-school children, but we are fairly certain that the money we donated the previous night was going towards building the church rather than the school. Probably another factor hindering the situation is that anyone with any skills or education probably leaves the village for the main island, so that those remaining lack the skills and knowledge to effectively help themselves. Anyway, enough of my anger against organised religion. We returned to the boat, did a bit of snorkeling, had supper and left about 8.30 in the evening to sail to Port Villa and meet up with the rest of the rally.
Picture today is of one of the giant Banyan trees in Tanna.
All the best from
Jackie & Michael
jackiebanyan