Lukim yu Vanuatu

Our last week in Vanuatu was spent doing a few local activities with Jane and Izzy.

Soccer at Malampa Day

After arriving from Santo during the first decent rain in 9 months we spent Monday checking out the Malampa Day activites at Lakatoro.

Over the course of my short 3 month assignment, I have enjoyed about 4 public holidays! Vanuatu sure knows how to put work into its rightful perspective J

Nanwut Bungalows - Uri Island

That afternoon we headed across to the nearby island of Uri for a couple of nights at the Nanwud bungalows. Jack and Lines gave us a great couple of nights, with snorkelling with the turtles at a marine conservation area being the highlight. Staying at Uri also includes plenty of toktok, storian and kakae with Lines (and Jack). Izzy also obliged with the painting of a new Nanwut Bunglows sign for the dining area.



We also managed to get down to the village of Robert Raven, and my adopted Nivan family of Grem, Alison and Brensom. Amazing hospitality was experienced once again, as well as a brief but meaningful garden wakabut capped off with a feed of Simbaro cooked in bamboo (manioc wrapped in island cabbage)

Had a great send off from my Dept of Tourism and Tourism operators, which included an handing over of some VSA funded safety equipment for use by tour operators.

For the last couple of days on Malekula Island, we headed to Losimwei on the west coast. (across the neck of the dog from my base in Lakatoro) A morning spent up at the Losinwei Cascades in the cool and refreshing water was a great way to end the week.

Losinwei Cascades

Even though a short tour of duty in Vanuatu I now feel a strong sense of connection with the place. Who knows when I will next return....there is the need for some follow with operators in addition to some personal unfinished business in the form the Lopvevi Island climb which we failed to complete due to inclement weather.....

As they say in Vanuatu, my experience there was Nabawan!

Lukim yu Vanuatu....

Tidying Loose Ends

Well, as expected my 3 ½  months has flown by!

The majority of the last few weeks has been spent talking to remaining tour operators and finalising risk management plans.

We did manage to fit in a trip to SW Bay to attend an opening of the Mahun bungalow, inspect progress of several others under development and to attend a meeting of the local tourism association.

Brilliant fine and calm weather made for a pleasant 2 ½ hour boat trip either way, although it did make us work hard to ensure us 'white men' were not sizzled by the relentlless sun. (there was also one other down side with a certain gastro bug severly knocking around two of my VSA colleagues!)

 While subsistance living is prevalent in Malampa province, my experience has been a strong and consistant desire by the Nivanuatu people to develop their economy and tourism opportunities  (without losing control to overseas interests). School  fees, improvements to housing, water supplies, clothing etc. all cost money so any increase in income as result of tourism development would inevitably flow through to help with these things.

As per their reputation, ‘Man blong Vanuatu’ are friendly, welcoming and grateful to the foreign Government, NGO and volunteer support they receive. There are many challenges here and improvements to core infrastructure and services are occurring slowly, but people here are used to getting by with very little.

A predominantly strong christian faith drives an emphasis on family, community and being grateful for what they have - with a correspondingly lower emphasis or need for work and material possessions. 

Jane and Izzy arrive today for a week's R&R then heading home via Brisbane and Jem, Josh and Maddies....

Fire, Rock and Ash

A planned 10 day trip to the volcanic islands of Lopevi and Ambrym coincided with a 'spel' of wet and windy weather. This resulted in the Lopevi summit climb being cancelled and lumpy boat trips between Malekula - Paama as well as for the onward journey in a much smaller boat to Ambrym.

Once on Ambrym, the itinerary got back on track (excuse the pun) with an east to south west crossing of the Ambrym caldera and Marum and Benbow volcanos. This was after a pleasant couple of days at Walter and Ronas place at Endu village

Peter, my trusty guide, successfully navigated us over the hill (including a nightime retreat from Marum after a dusk viewing of the lava lake), and did all of this complete with his trusty pair of jandals

As one might imagine an active volcano has its share of safety challenges including steep slopes, cliffs, craters volcanic gases and infrequent but possible 'bombs' or lava flows.

One good bit of advice from the Geohazards Dept here in Vanuatu reads as follows:

"Watch for bombs in the air - especially after explosions. Stand still unless you see bombs that are not moving left/right or up/down – these are coming towards you, and you should avoid them.

I think that the phrase "you should avoid them" is a polite Nivan way of saying "run for your life!" 

The crater, and lava lake of the Marum volcano was as terrifyingly spectacular as expected, particularly the ginger walk out to the edge of the crater rim to view the lava lake itself.

Another of New Zealander, Geoff Mackely's "abseil into the volcano" expeditions was on site camped on the crater rim, (courtesty of Vanuatu helicopters) which I have mixed feeling about - given the otherwise wilderness feel of the place, and the grumplings of discontent from some of the locals regarding lack of land access fees being paid and stories about buried rather than flown out rubbish from previous expeditions.

The later part of the week involved some actual work, with discussions and a workshop with tour operators and guides about safety and risk management for their businesses and the potential effect on business, if a significant incident were to occur. (and the things they need to do to reduce the chance of this occurring)

At the conclusion of the workshop we had a couple of days waiting for the once a week flight back to Norsup airport in Malekula. We managed to kill the time adequately at a few emerging visitor locations in west Ambrym including local Craig Cove bungalows and a freshwater lake formed by previous volanic activity (Lonwolwol)

After a hiccup with a dodgey front wheel on the plane (and a replacement plane sent from Vila) I am now back on the 'mainland' at Malekula and heading into the last last few weeks of my time here in Vanuatu !

A Dogs Head…..

Two more walks were checked out in north Malekula over the last couple of weeks…..

Malekula Island is vaguely shaped like a sitting dog, and as it happens the Dogs Head track travels across the ‘dogs head’ from one coast to the other over two days with a one-night village stay in the middle.

             

Given that our transport dropped us off at the start of the track at 5.45am we ended up walking the whole track in one day including a ‘small spel’ of a few hours at one of the villages en route and a feed of laplap for lunch (this time with banana rather than yam)

The other walk in this area is the Big Nambas Track…

Before coming back to Vanuatu, I had heard about the Big Nambas and Small Nambas people on Malekula and that villages and tribes were defined as one, or the other. A nambas is a penis sheath worn by the men, however the big and small refers to how subtantial and elaborate the garment is rather than anything else that might spring to mind....

Small Nambas

Big Nambas

The big Nambas walk concludes (or commences) with a night at the Big Nambas bungalows, perched up on a rock close to the high tide mark looking out towards Santo and the setting sun!

Unfortunately, the tourism story here is again around low numbers of people taking the opportunity to get out into heartland Vanuatu despite some great scenery, beaches, snorkelling and interesting culture.

People helping People….

One’s faith in humanity has been somewhat restored after seeing all of the good work being done here in Vanuatu post Cyclone Pam, by a range of Governments, charitable organisations and individuals.
For the rest of the world Cyclone Pam might be last year’s news, but luckily not for everyone.

It may not be pretty, it may not be very well coordinated, it may be inefficient and perhaps poorly directed, but despite this, some real help is getting through to the ground and the communities that need it!

Over the last few nights, I have had the pleasure of the company of Oliver and Mickson, a couple of Nivans based in Vila. They are working for the Farm Support Association, which is significantly funded through Oxfam, assisting communities in setting up small scale agricultural ventures by providing training, equipment and access to funding, as well as ongoing support for up to three years while their businesses develop.

On Monday, which was Assention Day here, (the third public holiday since I arrived!) I went for a bike ride up the coast to the Rano/Wala communities. There I encountered a heap of ‘white people’ heading for a local church service wearing uniform polo shirts branded with ‘Marine Reach’. After chatting with a few locals, I found out that these people from various countries , had all come from a NZ based ship, the Pacific Hope, which was anchored out in the bay and that they were here for a couple of weeks to provide primary health care, optometry and dental clinics. I later found out the Marine Reach is a branch of the international organisation Youth with a Mission (YWAM) and they run ongoing trips around Vanuatu at this time of the year, coming and going from Vila to swap volunteer health workers.
Note a RNZ National piece on this programme done last year: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/201773266/nz-medical-ship-visits-vanuatu

There is also of course foreign Governments here doing a range of good things (although probably for their own strategic reasons….) the Chinese building new parliament buildings in Vila, a new wharf in Santo and a new ‘coaltar’ road between Norsup and Lakatoro outside my gate.

The Australians funding a range of things including roading improvements and an important vocational training organisation known as TVET and NZ funding also directly or indirectly funding a variety of other economic development, health, security and education projects.

As expected, the Red Cross also features prominently through a range of rebuilding projects with Red Cross water tanks being a prominent feature on Paama to name one recently cited example…

VSA personnel and the equivalent organisations from Australia (AVID) and the US (Peace Corp) are also scattered throughout the archipelago imbedded in hospitals, health centre, schools and other organisations, often for long periods of up to (and sometimes beyond) 2 years.

On top of this I have encountered many examples of where NZ or Australian Rotary Clubs or Churches are supporting a particular village and its rebuilding efforts or at other times even individuals that have had an enjoyable holiday prior to Pam, heard about the damage and donated directly back to the places and people they met when here.

Despite the rest of the world inflicting various nasty things upon the Pacific, (including most recently climate change) some good things are going on to improve the quality of life for our neighbours….

These may be small relative to the need, but it’s something!

One Small Island

After leaving the second largest island in the Vanuatu archipelago, a few of my colleagues and I headed across to the much smaller Paama for a few days’ tourism development support.

The island is the smallest in the Malampa province being only 8 km from north to south and 5 km or so at its widest point and is dominated by hills, rising to a height of around 550 m.

It is also surrounded by the active Ambrym and Lopevi volcanoes to the north and east as well as the larger Epi to the south.

Note the abrupt ends to the runway!

Wikipedia warned me that “landing and taking off from this grass airstrip at the north of the island is not for the faint-hearted” as it is one of the shortest airstrips in the whole of Vanuatu with the ocean at one end and a ‘bigfala’ hill on the other!

The majority of the approx.1,600 people living on Paama live in villages close to the coast of the island and make their gardens on the hillsides nearby.

Our task was to work with villages around the island wishing to develop their tourism opportunities. No resort chains here! This is a few village based, basic guest houses and the beginnings of some associated cultural and outdoor activities where the majority of any benefits should go back the locals.   (with the exception of VAT tax and business licence fees which the government happily grabs L)

The island currently has very low visitor numbers with flights available only 2 days a week - so most suitable for the intrepid traveler wanting to get away from the bright lights of Villa or Luganville.

Some of the potential activities under consideration include a Paama custom experience, a walk to view the nearby and spectacular Lopevi volcano, (as well as an epic Lopevi summit expedition) and fishing both the traditional outrigger canoe form as well as the aluminum boat/outboard motor variety….

Our ‘taster’ for the Paama custom experience included traditional string games, impressive sand drawing,  basket and mat making with coconut and pandanus fronds respectively…and a climb up to one of the inland villages for a feed of laplap (yam with a meat filling, covered in coconut milk and wrapped in island cabbage) and a finale of custom dance.......

The Lopevi view walk provided a brief village experience, including an explanation about the use and protocols with the Nakamal (meeting house) within the village, as well as the spectacular view out to the Lopevi volcano itself.  









For any Gilbert and Sullivan fans out there, Lopevi has a vague resemblance to the island of Bali Hai from the musical South Pacific.

Although previously occupied, as a result of damage from volcanic eruptions, villages have now moved to nearby Epi or elsewhere. 

Plans are currently being discussed for a return to  experience the summit climb....

As well as being susceptible to cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis as with elsewhere in Vanuatu, Paama is also regularly affected by volcanic ash from nearby islands damaging crops, contaminating water supplies and inshore fisheries for periods of time. It’s relatively poor soils also the limit crops that are able to be grown and following rainfall events also slip readily blocking access routes between villages and to the few public facilities that exist on the island.  

‘Paamese’ people are therefore very resilient and despite these challenges, as with elsewhere in Vanuatu, extremely warm and welcoming to any ‘white man’ that might choose to visit.

A small amount of village based tourism has the potential to provide some modest, but important, cashflow for these communities to assist in getting their children through school, developing more cyclone resistant housing., improving hygiene and water supplies etc.

As well as limitations with access and natural disasters such as Cyclone Pam last year, national governance and important public infrastructure maintenance issues also have flow on effects to the wider Nivan community. A prime example at present is the ongoing runway issue at Port Vila which continues to seriously affect recovery of the tourism sector with news this week that Virgin Australia have again pulled out of flights in and out of Vila rejoining Air New Zealand……....

Living Simply in Lakatoro

View towards Norsup and Lakatoro

After a fine and scenic flight across from Santo, we are now settling into our base in the town of Lakatoro on Malekula Island.
Facilities and services here are one step simpler than those on Santo and a massive contrast to what we have back home and take for granted.
First impressions are of the roads – gravel, or more accurately coral powder, potholes, lumps bumps and everything in between. Sure we have some roads like this in NZ, but usually heading towards the backcountry rather than everywhere.

Power is 12v solar for most, reticulated water available in town but only on in the mornings and evenings, cold water showers, gas (or fire) cooking. Reasonable cellphone coverage between the two networks however......

Spent a couple of days in a village learning about kastom Vanuatu culture and practices. With nothing but a bush knife in their hand (and a lot of knowledge), food can be gathered prepared and cooked within the forest and garden areas. The genuine kindness and welcome provided by our hosts was very special.

Making Laplap

This week has been spent visiting the first two outdoor adventure tours....

The first of these is a forest and valley trek known as the Manbush Trail. Usually a 4 night trip from coast to coast of mid Malekula, we did the shorter 2 night version which is a loop back to the east coast.

View out over eastern Malekula

The second tour  is an outrigger canoe trip in the Maskelyne Islands at the south of Malekula. Usually a three night trip, we did the overnight version, camping and again feasting on the food sources available locally with seafood the specialty!

Campsite on Sakao Island

Small woven sails plus paddle power....

Today is Childrens Day in Vanuatu so families are out and about on a lovely day enjoying their pikinini, another bonus is a day off tomorrow also, then back to work Tuesday.