Mais oui. All of a sudden the Ni-Vans (Vanuatu people) aren’t speaking English anymore - they are speaking French? To be fair, English is their third language, following their native language and Bislama, but they learn it in school and it makes it easy for us to communicate. Now, instead of English, they speak French to the yachties. Apparently, we have passed the demarcation of the islands (Epi and those to the South) that had been controlled by the English and the islands (Malekula and those to the north) controlled by the French. Vanuatu, at the time called New Hebrides, was ruled by both the English and the French at the same time. In the southern islands along with the English language went the Presbyterian (and SDA) church, while in the northern islands it’s French and the Catholic church. Interestingly, we also now seem to be seeing a number of French cruisers - makes sense!

We were one of seven other boats in Port Sandwich, and found that the following day was the beginning of a 2-day Cultural and Arts Festival in Lamap. We were told that they would pick us up on the road in front of the beach at 9AM and take us and return us from the Festival. Then, when we were at the Rainbow Store run by Rock and Noela (a really neat store), they told us 8:30AM for pickup. Since they were speaking French and Bislama with us I tried to clarify and was laughingly reminded that 9AM and 8:30AM are the same in island time.

On the beach, several men came over to us at our dinghy, and again in French and Bislama, they showed me a cable from an outboard that had broken and asked if I could fix it? I left Cindy with them (as collateral) and took one of the guys back to the boat and using my crimp tool crimped the broken cables together. They were excited and I hope it actually worked for them. They asked for and I gave them several extra butt-connectors and showed them how to use a pair of pliers (they had no crimp tool). By chance, one of the men was the chief of the local village, so we were accepted in good standing.

The Cultural and Arts Festival was nothing short of amazing. The first day was focused on the men of the village, and the second day on the women of the village. We were welcomed and saw kustom dances within the men’s Nakama (where women of the village can not go, and the males only after they have been circumcised and accepted as grown men). The men showed us how they made the bamboo walls of their huts, the thatched roofs, their canoes, snares, bows and arrows - including specific arrows for birds, fish and people (poisonous tips that break off). We also got to see sand drawings and story-telling, and their money crops of copra (coconuts) and cacao - did you know you can eat the fruit around the bean that eventually becomes chocolate? They served us a wonderful lunch and an island string-band entertained us. We were lucky that one of the villagers did speak a little English, but the French cruisers got a bit more info than we did. The second day the women did their Kustom dance and showed us cooking (laplap, etc),weaving, etc. The kids entertained us with their traditional games and we got to see a special men’s Kustom dance with their masks. If you haven’t already seen all the pictures that Cindy took and posted on FB, be sure and take a look. It was an amazing look into the traditional culture that is still in place and blended with their way of living today.

In addition to the exposure to these traditions, we also got the opportunity to get to know the villagers. Cindy exchanged gifts with one of the young ladies and met her at church (a 3 mile walk one-way for Cindy) the next day and gave her rosaries for others. She also gave the kids little plastic flutes, and you could hear them all over the village. We found out that the village that was supposed to have hosted the Festival had a death, so at the last minute this village accepted the responsibility for hosting the Festival. We were blown away by the effort these people put into this event and so appreciated that effort.

In addition to meeting a number of other cruisers, we also got an opportunity to meet a young lady from Germany that was doing an exploratory trip of Malekula to focus her dissertation research in anthropology. We also met two Peace Corp workers that were completing two-year commitments in villages on the island. It was great to listen to their different perspectives.

Port Sandwich was a wonderful protected anchorage. However, it did have one drawback - there have been shark attacks in the bay, so you are warned not to swim!