Wednesday night we got together with the group of yachts who had cleared in with us on Tuesday and got Tawa to drive us up to Yasur Volcano. We parked a half kilometre from the peak and walked the rest - a steep and slippery track through the ash. On reaching the top, we were literally standing 2 metres from the rim of the volcano. Yasur was active at level 1 to 2 - on a scale of 5 - at 4 they won't let you up the mountain, at 5 you can't go within 2km. It was absolutely awe-inspiring; the first thing you see is a fierce glow as you approach, then rocks and lava being shot up hundreds of metres into the air. Then, as you reach the rim, there is a deep thundering roar that literally shakes and vibrates your chest. Then, like an explosion in thick, boiling soup, gas rock and lava explode into the air in front of you. We could look down into the crater itself, and it looked like one of those NASA pictures of the surface of the sun - red-orange-white hot, swirling and roiling. Unforgettable! We felt quite safe, until Tawa said: "If you look up and the lava is coming down to you, keep looking at it and move to the side so it doesn't hit you". Thank you Tawa! Last night we visited the John Frum Village, where the locals are waiting for John Frum (probably a World War 2 GI with plenty of cigarettes and cash who said "I'm John frum America") to return in a cargo plane with 1,000 American girls for the men, cars, Coca Cola, money, radios and food. They have even set up a cleared area in the jungle as a landing strip for him when he returns. They were singing songs about his return with the booty on old guitars, to country and western tunes. We have been to the dispensary and were almost in tears seeing how little they have. They have no nurse, never a doctor at all, only the chief's son Johnson who has a little handbook "Buk blong sik-sik fiksimup finis" for various ailments. They have leprosy cases (about 15 in the village) having monotherapy with dapsone, TB (MANY including, I suspect, Ronnie the chief) who basically don't get any meaningful therapy and chloroquine-resistant falciparum malaria which they treat with chloroquine for a few days after onset of any fever. Johnson also acts as midwife, and sadly told me they do lose a significant number of women and babies peri-natally. We gave them some antibiotics, some syringes and needles, some bandages, splints and topical therapies, but will definitely try to do more when we get home. All our friends, prepare yourselves for a donation later in the year!! We're probably leaving these wonderful, innocent and gracious people and heading off to Port Vila tomorrow or Monday, weather permitting. We'll keep you posted. Bye for now.