[password] forester11
[position] 16 06.515S 168 07.749E
[status]  EPI AND AMBRYM ISLANDS
A whistle stop at Havannah Harbour, where we met up with Blue Summmit, Zest, Lettin Go and Pixie, had us make the decision to join them on their voyage north to attend the Back To Our Roots Festival at Ambrym, which includes the famous Rom Dance as its finale. We had a great sail to Lamen Bay at Epi where we celebrated the second birthday in two days - and saw the hugest turtle we've ever seen. Zest were up and away at 6.00am the next day in an attempt to get an extra half day in at the Festival, while the rest of us left a couple of hours later. To our dismay they relayed to us that the Rom Dance was taking place on Friday rather than Saturday ... and we knew there was no way we could make it. Great fishing success on both Blue Summit and Lettin Go, and a beautiful anchorage at Nopul Bay, went some way to compensating and we all enjoyed beautiful wahoo that evening. One of the special things about the anchorage is seeing the strong glow from the volcano reflecting in the clouds - the molten lava lake up there must be ginormous to reflect so much light!

Saturday had us on the beach at 8.30am ready for our truck ride to the Festival (some 50 minute walk from the anchorage). The Back to Our Roots Festival has two aims - one to teach the young and keep their customs alive ... and the other is to raise funds to allow their children to attend secondary school. At the moment the government only funds primary school education, though apparently legislation is in the pipeline to extend the funding. Perhaps it is as well because few of the young took part in the dancing - maybe the young men feel too self conscious to dance wearing nothing but a penis sheath, a belt and a bit of vegetation in the back of the belt.

When so many of us turned up ( maybe 25 Palangi) the elders agreed to do the Rom dance on again as well as a cooking demonstration (bread fruit and coconut cream) and lunch. It was another amazing experience - the combination of costumes, rhythmic chanting and dancing and a story that we couldn't actually follow ... all of which are part of a chief's progression through the various levels of chiefdomship. The main dancers were definitely the men - the women had a very peripheral role. The lunch was possibly the nicest we have had at any village activity. It did, however, seem somewhat of a contradiction to have the women serving lunch wearing plastic gloves and hair covers serving food on banana leaves as plates! A kava drinking session at the chief's house followed ... it was a lot blacker and more potent than the Fijian kava, but no more palatable!

A lay day (i.e. boat jobs day) followed and last evening we all went in another local taxi (ie on the back of a ute) to a local restaurant. We were treated to a smorgasbord of dishes ranging from pizza to flying fox (fruit bat)!!

Zest, Lettin Go and Blue Summit were up before dawn to head to Santo, but the Pixies and ourselves stayed another day. Tomorrow we will head to Malakula together, where we will hopefully see some dugongs.

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