At 7am The Bloke was downloading the weather from Predictwind Wind with a 07:30 sched to broadcast to all the boats in the bay. By yesterday morning there were 5 and by yesterday evening 7!
We'd offered to take our sewing machine ashore so that the crew of Navigator could repair a badly torn UV strip on their genoa. They had been beaten up en route from Southport to Vanuatu. 6m seas they said! Frozzie also needed a small fix to prevent further deterioration to their UV strip. David was most obliging and we welcomed the use of a clean concrete floor with a solid table and bench seats.
By 08:00 we were in the dinghy with my Sailrite machine which is herniatigly heavy and a real bitch to lug up the companionway and through the cockpit. Luckily, David, as ever, was on the pebbly beach enthusiastically assisting. He'd never had a sail repair performed in his 'Yacht Club' before. You could see that he was registering it as an additional benefit he could offer passing sailors. This guy is completely 'on the pace' and entrepreneurial. The 3 Navigator crew brought their generator ashore to power my machine and by the time my power board was set up with it's 2 USB ports, mobile phones appeared from thin air for this not-to-be-missed 5 hour charging opportunity marathon. Word spread through the village grape vine pretty fast!
We left the guys to it to focus on getting up the river in the dinghy with my washing at high tide. It's navigable as far as an extensive pebble cascade which is of course where the washing could be done in among the rock pools. If we didn't time it right we'd have trouble crossing the bar.
The river is fed by a natural spring further up the valley. The village water supply is tapped at the head. A group of Aussies from Gladstone visit annually and have set up water pipes so that most family compounds have access to running water.
Theses folk have great access to water despite living in a rain shadow. The river enables the community to water their veggie gardens. They call them their 'gardens' and each family has it's own. The kinds of crops are coconut, banana, guava, pawpaw, casava, taro, manoc, pumpkin and cabbage. There are some mango trees too. It hasn't rained here for 2 months so their irrigation efforts (hand watering) are critical for their subsistence crops. Some gardens have been fenced in a variety of ways to try and keep wild pigs out. Villagers keep dogs for wild pig management and cats to manage mice near their shops and food stores. The concept of patting and petting animals here is bizarre. All animals earn their keep and are scrawny except for the chickens and pigs which they of course intend to eat.
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| Banyan Tree |
A couple of little girls came to watch and wanted to help with the 'draping' of my stuff. One noticed I had some washing balls in my tub. The pellets inside make a rattle sound. It wasn't long before these were offered to her. She accepted them in a heartbeat and was seen later in the afternoon showing off her bright blue trophies.
While we were washing, a large group of villagers assembled on the riverbank just downstream of the pebble race. My little helper told me there would be a baptism taking place. Actually, it wasn't just one but more like 50. The night before, we'd almost been kept awake by a 2 hour religious sermon (tirade) being broadcast over a PA system somewhere in the village. It was a fire and brimstone lecture from what we could determine from the booming bislama (pigeon english). This guy could talk under wet cement. He never seemed to pause or even to draw breath. This pastor is a Seventh Day Adventist (the locals call them SDA) and only gets to Erromango once or twice per year from the island of Pentecost further north, so they save up the baptisms for a 'job lot'. We just happened to be there to watch them bear witness to their faith. Dressed in European black dress trousers, a white shirt and black tie, the pastor waded out into waist deep water and dunked each of his new white-clad disciples one by one after proclaiming and praying over each one. There was no doubting this chap's commitment. It was really hot and that was backing up from his marathon preaching session the night before.
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| All ready for an open air screening of religious messages |
The poor Bloke had completed his boat jobs and was on his way to help/fetch me when he encountered the mass baptism and felt compelled to stand off rather than paddle past. After a while and resigned to the idea he was in for a long wait, dropped an anchor and sat it out, getting sunburn for his trouble.
It was after 12 when we returned to the the boat. There was washing to hang on the rails and a snack to prepare for our 1pm visit to the kindergarten. A withering pace and we were already a bit buggered from the morning activity. Tick tock.
We didn't want to disappoint Donald who'd arranged the shared meal. In the time available I was a bit pressed to think of what to contribute. I looked in the fridge and one of my food lockers and struck gold. Firstly the wand of mandarins I'd bought in Lenekal and had no hope of finishing - all kids love little mandarins and I had correctly assessed them as a rarity here. The wand presentation is fun too. Next I had some walnuts which are sweet, soft and unheard of. I found a tin of tiny Plumrose cocktail frankfurters which I quickly heated and popped in a thermos, the toothpicks with little flags on made them look like little sailboats. I peeled and chopped a couple of straight-from-the-ground carrots into sticks - also from the Lenakel markets and then the real trophy - A RED APPLE.
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| Donald |
They either don't grow carrots here or never eat them raw, so my 'munch and crunch' selection finished up a huge hit. Our food contribution was the only one intended just for the kids and I had a lot of fun with them. After the food was gone I showed them my 'zebra feet'. I wore sandals while washing in the sun earlier and the tops if my feet had a striped pattern as a consequence. They probably imagine white skinned people are the same colour all over and now they know that it 'ain't necessarily so!
Our day program was far from over. We were all very hot by this stage and ready for a swim. Donald, our 'black' village brother as he called himself, led us through the gardens deeper in the valley up to the water hole for a welcome dip and break from commitments.
It was 4'ish by the time we were returning to our dinghies and it was clear that people were returning from a day's work in their gardens, some women still carrying bunches of canes and pandanus leaves atop their head. Mothers were walking around with babies on their hips soothing them through the 'thunder hour', men and children otherwise invisible all day, were bathing in the river and unwinding in the receding light.
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| David's wife explaining the dishes |
Our day was not yet over but now following a more familiar pattern. We'd organized to go ashore for sunset BYO drinks on David's Yacht Club balcony, to be followed by our pre-booked 500Vt per head feast. By this time, our numbers were 13 heads. A worthwhile exercise for David's family for sure. They made a huge effort and further decorated the clubhouse with branches of coloured foliage and bougainvilleas.
A wonderful, if full day! We are 'off duty' tomorrow and have declined to attend church, all 9 of them!
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