Sunday 23rd July 2017
Sulvua, Emae Island
After a good night on anchor it was off to church. Eight of us in the small dinghy carefully made our way through the coral to shore. Then a 3 kilometre walk past the cows through a gate to the village of Novo. The pastor of the local church was away at another village so we had a small service led by an elder. The service and singing in Bislama was great, well the music was great can’t say I understood too much of the service.
To the local clinic to set up for tomorrows session. They will have a bit of a lighting problem as there is no electricity at the clinic.
Back to Chimere for lunch. Then Barry led Nicola, Glenys and myself for a walk up the hill to the village of Sesake a bit over 5 klms. We passed cows, goats and chickens along the track. Interesting to see the fence posts actually growing.
Chief Samuel from the village came along and welcomed us. A dozen smiling kids came racing out very curious. They couldn’t understand English, but wanted their photo taken, they followed us everywhere we went, we felt like the pied piper. It was pretty obvious very few westerners came up here. Chief Samuel was so welcoming and so friendly. He offered us a bunch of bananas, we were a bit taken aback when he walked over and chopped the whole tree down. He wouldn’t accept any money so we gave a couple of kids some money for him, by our standards the village was very very poor.
For us a very interesting afternoon with lots of photo’s.Meanwhile Rob will be very pleased that Todd, Vic and Mark did a great job scrubbing the waterline on Chimere while we were away.
Another day in paradise, work for the medics starts in earnest at the clinic 7.30 in the morning. From comments and questions around the villages they will have a big line up tomorrow for eyes, teeth and general health issues.
Sorry, no photos, couldn’t get enough internet anywhere on the island, I’m told you need a Digicel sim card and we all have TVL [or Rob to provide images from 2013 and from PredictWind map (below) – Webmaster] . It seems we can text and talk but no data, hmmm.
If you are reading this the satellite worked again.
Fair winds, smooth seas and an afternoon with Chief Samuel.
Phil Wicks