HAYWIRE Issue 2 Fall 2013
Some words are different, pikinini
means “child”, and kakae means
“food”. But the grammar is totally
different. For example, yumi means
“we” – but only I and the person I talk
to.
When we arrived in Port Vato, there
were many people waiting for us. They
were very happy that my father arrived,
and they were so curious about me,
especially the children. We got flower
necklaces, and we shook hands with
everyone. This sounds like a lot of
people, but in fact there are only about
two hundred inhabitants. I already
knew one person there, Abel, because
he had come to Berlin to stay with us a
couple of years ago to work with my
father.
We lived in a small hut that they
use for visitors. The beds had mosquito
nets hanging from the ceiling to prevent
malaria. It was great to sleep under
them, but I always made sure that there
was no hole in them. Our house was
actually quite comfortable compared to
most other houses that were made out
of bamboo walls and just had mats on
the floor to sleep on. We even had a sun
collector to produce electricity for my
father’s computer and camera.
During the days I hung out with my
new friends. We could understand each
other quite well because some of them
learn English in school, and I acquired
some Bislama. We would often go to
the beach, which was so close you
could hear the waves crashing at night.
About once a week a ship arrived at the
beach, which brought visitors and some
food for the small store of our village.
The boys like to play football and
sometimes go hunting for wild boars in
the bush. As for the girls, they like
hanging out, dancing to music and
swimming in the ocean. I had a lot of
free time when they had school. I could
read a lot, especially as there is nothing
else to do – no TV, no radio, no
Internet.
A few times I got an invitation to
go to school and to talk to the children
in English. The school belongs to three
villages, and there are about
eighty children. They have
English, French, Maths, and
something like Science. And of
course, Sports. Each class has its
own little building, and
sometimes there are two or three
grades in one room. The teachers
live with their families on the
school grounds. The schools are
very poor. They do not have a lot
of books, and sometimes they
even don’t have a lot of paper to
write on. Computers? No way!
The teachers hang up posters with
English words or little stories for
the children. I had to suppress my
urge to point out that there were
quite a number of mistakes, like I
must buy a new pants, a socks,
and a shoes. I introduced myself
and told them about the JFK
School, and how it is similar and
how it is different. One time I
even got a chance to bring my
violin and play a few pieces. I
showed them how the violin
works, and how one can write
down melodies on the music staff.
They were very interested about
my life. For them, they don’t
know what the rest of the world is
like. Some have crazy images
about life outside from Vanuatu
because they watch action movies
on video and think that they are
real.
Every day, we got our food
from another family. Sometimes it
was only a few crackers for
breakfast with some coconut jam.
But on other days we had yummy
gato (this is French, from
gateaux), a kind of donut.
Sometimes we had the best
bananas I ever had – very sweet
and fruity. For lunch, we had
some ready-made noodles with a
chicken, or some rice with pork,
together with cooked leaves. They
call this aelan cabij, “island
cabbage”. For dinner, the same. I
did not want to eat flying fox –
that’s a big bat – or tamadu, fatty
grubs roasted over fire. On
Sundays, there was laplap. For
this they grate maniok or pumpkin
and add some kind of meat and
coconut milk. They put this in
banana leaves and bake it for
several hours on hot stones. In the
meantime, they go to church, and
then they share it out to everyone
in the village and eat it. My father
liked it.
After four weeks we had to go
back. There was a big feast the
night before with laplap, where
people said thanks for the books
that my father brought in their
language. I was really sad to
leave, and so were my new
friends. I don’t know whether I
will ever have a chance to come
back. Now I know now that life
can be very, very different.
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