Monday 17^th September

A bit more than a year ago we arrived in Vanuatu on 2XS and spent some time in Port Resolution on the island of Tana.  We had a great time and loved our first experience of Vanuatu.  People in Tana were friendly, lively, helpful.  It was strange when we were on other islands to hear that any trouble in the country was because of those people from Tana.  They are NO GOOD.  Any riots, muggery, thuggery – blame it on islanders from Tana!

I think every country has an area which is looked upon with deep suspicion by the others.  In John Faine’s book about driving from Melbourne to London with his son, he often writes about meeting people in remote little villages.  They would be greeted warmly and hospitably, and, invariably, they would be told, Thank goodness you came to us and that you didn’t try to stop in the village over the hill!  The people over there are NO GOOD.  They would attack and rob you.  Lucky you came to us!

Fear of strangers and yes the Greeks had a word for it…xenophobia…

I often think of Tana because we had one of the most awe-inspiring experiences of our lives there when we walked up to the very edge of the volcano.  If you approach the island from the sea at night you can see it glowing red in the dark sky, and as you get closer, you can hear it rumbling.  The locals proudly call it their “sleeping lion.”

I wrote about our walk to the top of the volcano in this blog last year so I won’t repeat the whole story.  But on Sunday Claire visited with her children and said that Jemima, who is 4½, had been asking questions about lava all the way to town.  “If a bit of lava touched a leaf, would the leaf die?  And if it came near people…would they run for their lifes??”  (Claire herself at 4½ was full of questions.  Is all the water in the world joined together?  And many complex questions about classification of the animal kingdom…usually she would ask when we were in the car, early in the morning, before my brain was anywhere near fully engaged…Now it is her turn to be The Knower!)

I was very happy to re-enact the fantastic volcanic display for Jemima, with much waving of arms and loud, thundery noises.  We don’t, for various tragic technological reasons, have any film or photos, but we are well jump around and tell anyone who wants to hear about it how very memorable it was to be so close to a fearsome, active volcano.