What a contrast tonight at the YC, a group of men from the Malaita Is. group of the Solomon Islands playing the panpipes in their tribal costumes and scary masks while Russia plays Poland in a fierce soccer match!

The Malaitans are the group most feared here as warriors of days gone by when they were headhunters. This group is one of the few that passes land down through the men from generation to generation, as most Pacific Island groups pass land through the women. We are learning a lot from our Roderick Bay village friends from the Florida Island group. Each island seems to have it's own distinct trademarks and definitely different looking people within the same country, even though the islands are fairly close together. The Malaitan women are marked when they're babies, with designs much like the sun or something with lines and dots, etched into their cheeks on both sides, and as they grow, it stretches into something much like a tatoo. WOW. A lot of the women in the market have these marks and it's very interesting to see.

The Malaitan men's group performing had two men wearing masks with white circled eyes, horns, and an ugly gaping mouth with a tongue lolling out, rather fierce like. They wandered around with a spear in their hands, circling the musicians and singers. The flutes they were playing were of various lengths and sounded haunting, seeming like you have to blow really hard to make much noise, and in an eerie off key sort of way, like wind in the trees. One man had shell shakers on his wrists, and they all wore natural woven armbands and shell headbands. They also wore a loincloth of some tapa cloth like material, but it was more like a cup that ran a vine through their legs and up to their waistband, which didn't look very comfortable! They weren't oiled up like the Fijian men do for dancing, and they all faced each other in a tight circle except for the two masked men who kept wandering around with their spears. It was very haunting and intimidating for sure! Morgan and Wyatt sat in the front row checking it all out.

Our Solomon Island friends that we met in the RMI and ran into here unexpectedly had tried to get ahold of us last weekend to go to a wedding of their Malaitan relatives, as they thought we might enjoy seeing the traditions of culture. These are the people who make elaborate "shell money" skirts that measure 6 feet in length (wealthy!) and tops, with headpieces and leg bands that are really beautiful. It's really AMAZING that this place seems really so untouched in those out islands from modern conveniences and materialism and are shockingly raw and down to earth. WOW is all I can say!