Yesterday was Sunday and so the villages had a slow start, then Church. Ranon and Ranvetlam are Presbyterian villages, since the Scots were the first Europeans in the area - the church is simple and sparsely decorated, in contrast to the more ornate and prominently-placed Catholic church we passed along the coast at Olol. The village of Ranon is nice - neat and spacious and very welcoming. About 50 or so families we estimated, living in simple timber and banana-leaf thatch huts on woven mat floors or in a couple of cases on concrete slabs. There is a small store operated as co-operative by the villagers, supplying basic canned goods, flour, rice and simple clothing items, as well as providing a perfect venue for the Ni-Van habit and art of standing around chatting and laughing for hours on end. We met Reuben, a local woodcarver who makes tamtams (traditional drum-like instruments carved from huge straight hardwood logs hollowed out and decorated with human-like stylised faces a bit like tikis, and used to communicate within and between villages to call people to chiefs' meetings, to declare and end war, and other such things). Reuben is renowned and proudly showed us a very large tamtam ths height of two men that he is making for a private buyer in France. Reuben was in the Vanuatu army and spent some time in New Zealand, but returned to his village and traditional life and Kastom ways. Family and village are very strong ties for these people. The villagers like and feel warmly about Australia, but particularly to New Zealand - the Kiwis have been far more forthcoming and accommodating with their schme to allow Ni-Van men in to do seasonal fruit-picking and return here with much-needed cash and strong bonds of friendship. The locals can't understand why the Australian authorities and trade unions find it so hard to get such as scheme (often talked about) up and running in a substantial way. We agree with them here. We're here for at least another night, and we'll keep you posted.
Click here for pics. Best wishes to all.