We arrive after a smooth crossing to Tana in the Vanuatu. This is our first stop in a country where we intend to stay three months traveling from the South to North.

The Vanuatu offers some beautiful islands and anchorages but its main asset is the kindness and happiness of the Ni-Vatus. Most of them speak three languages : bislama (mixed of broken english and french), their local dialect, French or English depending on the school they attended. This is the remains of an Anglo-French governance of the country before its independence in 1978.

The languages made it fairly easy for us to communicate and no one was surprised to hear parents speaking in French together and English to the boys. The Ni-Vatus are very religious (mostly Anglican in the North, Presbyterian Church in South) but also have a very strong belief in their traditions, otherwise known as "kastom". Some islands have stronger kastoms than others. There are some important values to grasp before spending time with villagers. They can be different chiefs in a village, ie the kastom chief, the chief in charge of daily routine etc... The power of a chief is shown not so much by money but with the possession of numerous pigs. He also needs to kill a large number of them to show is bravery. The role of the wife is mainly to look after the home and the children. The Chief mostly regulates the on-going life in a village but also interfere when some land disputes among tribes arise. The Melanesians have a very strong sense of property and this is the main source of disagreement at village level. They are otherwise extremely genuine people.
In Ambrym, they are no visits allowed to the volcano from September 1st to end January as this could disturb the gods and badly impact the harvest of yam. Despite their strong traditions the locals are very approachable and are very keen to meet new people. We also did our best to respect their customs, introducing ourselves to the Chief, checking if any place where "tabou" or entering the Nakamal (social house in a village) by the appropriate "lady" door. Marc also was invited on a number of occasions with Mathieu (our crew) to drink Kava with the chief and it is very difficult to refuse this "delightful" beverage, made of roots, that makes your lips totally numb after a bowl and your mind and head very slow after a few drinks.
It is fair to say that landing onshore with two kids makes it much easier for any contact with the inhabitants. Our blond devil was having tremendous success wherever we went and he was very quickly becoming a star. The boys were welcomed in all villages by dozens of children and always looked after by the older brothers or sisters which gave us a time the opportunity to speak undisturbed to our new friends. In some of the remote anchorages, where there is usually no electricity, no road, no phone and often very few commercial boats, the arrival of a sailing yacht is the opportunity to get things they need (such as clothes, books for school, hooks, rice etc..), and they very naturally offer fruits and vegetables from their garden which is their main source of food a part of the exchange. The villagers do not fish very often which can be surprising for islanders but their culture focuses pretty much on land. They do sometimes have cows, pigs or chickens but most lives from a vegetarian diet!
The ni-vatus have got very little means, but overall are always smiling and seem very happy. Most have very little contacts with the Western world and are totally satisfied with their existing life but for one thing, the school fees that many cannot afford to pay. They have nothing to sell as such hence no source of income to pay for the fees.
Our time in Vanuatu was also time for many discoveries for the boys such as crabs, snorkeling (watching sea turtle, dugong, manta rays), making fire and spending lots of time with children and happily playing together with no toys!