Wanting to travel to make a difference, Erica Louise went to Vanuatu to volunteer as a Vanua-Tai. This is part one of her story. Part two will be posted tomorrow.
Day One
I woke up early to the sound of the roosters and birds in Port Vila. My flight arrived in late so I didn’t get much sleep. I stayed at a budget hotel run by a Korean family. The rooms were clean and pretty spacious, and breakfast is great, prepared by the family each morning. The views over Port Vila harbour really made up for weariness. The turquoise and green of the Coral Sea beneath me was a fantastic introduction to the beauty of Vanuatu awaiting me; a great start to the day.
I took a short stroll through Port Vila to get my bearings; it’s quite small but has all the amenities. There are a number of tour operators, restaurants, a few bars and a lively market which bursts with life on Saturday mornings.
The people of Vanuatu are known as Ni-Vanuatu or Ni-Vans. Ni-Vans are incredibly welcoming people. As I walked the narrow streets of the nation’s capital, I would receive a ‘hello’ or ‘good morning’ in return, from locals on their way to their daily duties.
By late morning, it was time to head off to our turtle monitoring destination; the village of Tasikirion the island of Moso. We hired a pick up truck which is one form of public transport on Efate Island. On route, we collected Kalo; Moso’s Turtle Monitor (known as a Vanua-Tai) of the Tasikiri village community. The roads around Efate are bumpy and potholed outside of Villa, and really just long strips of dirt track.
We stopped via a small roadside community turtle education centre, run by another Vanua-Tai, Donald. I asked Donald a few questions about his turtle work, and like many Ni-Vans, I found him to be quite shy, but he soon grew enthusiastic when sharing his knowledge and passion for his shelled marine friends. As a Vanua-Tai, it is Donald’s responsibility to educate others of the importance in conserving turtles, as well as taking part in nesting survey work. Donald has around 20-30 hatching turtles which he keeps at his education centre to educate passing tourists of the work he is doing.
We left Donald’s community for the water’s edge on Efate, directly opposite the Tasikiri village of Moso. Whilst waiting for the boat to arrive, I had the opportunity to talk to George from local NGO Wan Smolbag Theatre, whilst other members of the Tasikiri community started to arrive for the boat. George is extremely knowledgeable about turtle conservation, and has been lucky enough to travel the world and educate others of the work of the Vanua-Tai turtle monitors.
Around sunset the motor boat arrived from Moso Island, and approximately 20 of us climbed aboard along with a wheelbarrow of coconuts, boxes, buckets, and other food commodities, certainly a tight squeeze, but nice to be surrounded by smiling faces of the Tasikiri community. During the short boat journey, one of the children started playing with something I can only describe as an oversized maggot. It must have been about the size of three fingers in length and width. After a few giggles, the maggot was passed amongst our fellow passengers, as we were told by the village Pastor these maggots were usually roasted and eaten. The maggot didn’t reach as far as Michelle or I, as George had already taken a meaty bite, much to my dismay! The rest of the community laughed at my crumpled facial expressions which made me laugh too.
I am pleased to say shortly after the maggot eating incident, we had arrived at the Tasikiri village. We couldn’t see much as darkness had hit the skies and the community didn’t have electricity, but the villagers we did see were full of smiles, and we received a few welcome hand shakes.
We settled into our bungalow, and sat down outside with the light of an oil lamp. We had a chat about the turtle monitoring work ahead of us whilst dinner was served; a selection of meat and fish dishes, fresh tomato, rice and paw-paw.
After an early night, this was a perfect introduction to life as a Vanua-Tai.
Although born and raised in
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