After visiting Ranon village, the following day we went ashore at Ranvetlam village, where we met that village's most respected wood carver, Joseph. He took us around the village and showed us the usual, slightly sad, "Dispensary" or clinic, which is fully operational except that it doesn't have any medicines any more, so the nurse doesn't come, and the villagers have to hike about three villages along the coast to the nearest staffed dispensary that has both a nurse AND medicines. We couldn't see the point in leaving any medicines where there was nobody to dispense them, and so we just sympathised and moved on, although we did give Joseph some anti-inflammatories for his arthritic knee. Back in Ranon, Reuben had arranged a display of local Kastom for us - he first of all explained the intricate grading process behind the wood- carving art. It seems that some men are graded or "accredited" to carve tamtams with only one face or head, others are permitted to do tamtams with two, and some like Reuben may do them with three - apparently occasionally there are men who are graded for four. These grades are partly personal and partly familial - a bit reminiscent of mediaeval European trade Guilds. He then showed us some of the techniques he uses and demonstrated his skills on a work he is currently doing. We then had a fantastic display of "sandroing" - sand drawing - where for ceremonial reasons, or purely for amusement, intricate symbolic drawings are done on the ground in a mixture of sand and ash by skilled boys and men. A painfully shy local boy of 13 who is clearly an artistic genius demonstrated some of his favourites for us. Finally we were shown some local sleight of hand tricks they call Kastom Magic - used by "sorcerers" to impress their audience - amusing but some of the tricks were a bit transparent! We left Ranvetlam the next day and pulled up after only three hours sailing in Wali Bay, on South West Pentecost Island. After the very windy and boisterous conditions in Ranvetlam anchorage, this was heaven on a stick. Calm, quiet and almost windless - we heaved a sigh of relief, anchored and went ashore to meet the locals. We first met JeffLynn - a strong-minded local woman who has no hesitation in telling anyone who will listen what is wrong with anything you care to name. But she is a bit of a firebrand spokesperson for the local people, trying to get a better deal in schools and medical care for the villages from an often insouciant or even corrupt central administration. It was late and we arranged to meet in the morning to walk to the Land Diving tower. Overnight, the island trading ship the "Tina l" came into the bay - in fact passing within 20 metres of us and Wombat at 2:30 in the morning as they entered the anchorage, sounding their foghorn loudly to let the people know they were there. We jumped from bed, turned on our deck lights, and looked up to see the crew looking down on us, amused by our confusion and panic. The villagers had previously assembled their taro, manioc, sweet potatoes and kava roots in big bags to be collected by "Tina" and taken to Port Vila for the market there. They had been told the "Tina" would be there at 9:30 in the evening but the weather was against her and they sat under the coconuts behind the beach singing in lovely harmony until their fire burnt down, and they fell asleep until the ship's horn woke them. The ship has a barge-type bow and drives up to the beach and opens the bow like a drawbridge for loading goods. The people have relatives in Vila who will collect the goods and take them to the market, and eventually they will get some return for all their efforts. More about our adventures in Wali Bay next post - we are tired tonight from walking and climbing! Cheers from us and best wishes to all!!