Family Picnic

Most days not much happens, but the one day where I actually make plans my village decides to overload me with commitments for that day.

It started with Jimmy and the boys coming over to record a Christmas song that I thought they had forgotten about. He has an AMAZING voice so if you want to see the video just email me. Seizing my opportunity, I asked the boys if they could help me with a side project - writing and recording a few songs about domestic violence which I want to use to raise awareness.

Then, almost immediately after, my crazy but fun aunties told me they were having a family picnic down by the beach and to run down to the salt water to catch up with my uncles who were diving and fishing. I've wanted to go fishing with them for weeks, but they always forget to bring me.

So this time, the one time I had plans, they remembered. I grabbed my trunks, mask, and camera and stumbled down to the beach where close up to 30 kids were swimming. Mind you, I haven't really gone swimming at site because I've been scared of sharks. But on this day, I thought to myself that if I swam when there were a ton of kids in the water it would lessen the chances of me getting bitten. Sharks go after weaker swimming animals, and since I'm oh so graceful when I swim I figured I would be semi safe (Note: when I retold my theory to Mac she reminded me how awful that sounded, but in Vanuatu everyone is just so blunt that it hadn't phased me as it came out of my mouth).

My uncles had sacked the net on the other side of these boulders, which are quite difficult to climb over, so after 15 minutes of climbing I found them and this beautiful reef that I had no idea existed at my site. So I swam around trying to scare the fish into the net while my uncles kept it from tangling in the coral. But the salt water was so incredibly rough that we kept getting sucked toward a rip current, and because we didn't want to die, we gave up after an hour.

I opted to go swim with the kids, who were holding these big wooden boards. Turns out they carve out white wood into boogie boards and ride the waves on them. It totally beats those gross styrofoam boards we use in the States.  Now, I've gone boogie boarding many many times, but the kids wanted to teach me so I humored them and played dumb. After riding a bunch of waves, we were all waiting out in the deep for the next set when a huuuuge sea turtle popped it's head up next to us. Everyone is catching on to the fact that I'm obsessed with turtles, and stayed quiet so I could get a good look at it. It was pretty freaking awesome.

As the sun started setting, I pulled a few boats to shore because the water was so rough - as my dads boat came in he had to bail ship to avoid a rogue wave - and laid in the sand listening to stories about this whale that had once washed up on the beach with his head cut off. They said sometimes fishing boats show up off shore and slaughter dolphins and whales. They said they think they are Japanese boats that are coming into Vanuatu water. If you've ever seen "the cove" then you'll understand the significance of this story. One day my dadi got so pissed off he reported the ship but I don't think anything ever happened. Hmmm maybe I shouldn't be writing about this.  Not sure if it would get me into trouble, or breaking some censor rule. Whatever.

Anyway, it was a very unusually busy day. That's my story.


Sent from my iPod