Life in Vanuatu
We have been here a week now waiting for the school project to begin. We decided to take in a Melanesian dinner and show. We were approached by Bob in the markets doing the spiel for the show, winning us when he said the money stayed in the village. We paid a deposit and after I had serious thoughts about whether it was legit. Anyway we fronted to the post office for the transport pick up and found ourselves in a beat up " bus" the seats of which have a serious upholstery problem in company with 6 other starters. The venue was at the Secret Gardens not far from where the school project is. It was getting dark so we had little time to explore the gardens. This place is full of the history of Vanuatu, told in pictures and stories of myths and culture, set in the gardens and authentic buildings. Definitely not enough time to take to all in. Time for the entertainment. If you wanted a glitzy choreographed show this wasn't it. It was a real down to earth cultural show. Their "dancing" was like our indigenous corroboree. Facial markings similar too. It was an honest, sincere show by locals proud of their history. Then the " feast". I was disappointed that it was only the vegetables cooked in the ground, but the that was the same in Fiji. We were invited to return in the daytime free of charge to further explore the gardens. There is a lot of work being done both in building replacements and plantings in the damaged gardens. These people are all doing it tough after cyclone Pam and they need all the support they can get. Top marks for getting together an attraction to become self sufficient. We had an extra 4 passengers for our return trip so the " bus" was a bit squeezy.