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| September 13This morning instead of leaving Maewo we
just moved to a new spot as our anchor chain had completely twisted itself up on
some coral heads. It was quite difficult raising the anchor, and, once up we had
to try three times to set it in a proper spot. The first time I felt we were too
close to another boat (Valella - but not the same as the one with Garth and
Wendy – from The woman from Valella came by and we
chatted a bit and she mentioned that Gene on “Noason” was doing some work
for the village and is in very tight with the chief, so I had the idea to go
over and chat with him and see what he thought the reaction of the chief would
be if he knew we had not entered the country legally (ie. make our first stop
one of the official ports of entry). I met his wife, Robbie, and daughter
Allison – who is almost 5 – and invited them to come and visit with us,
which they did. Allison and Jonah got along fabulously and Robbie gave her
opinion that no one would care about our status and we should have no problem.
The national government is apparently far away both geographically and
psychologically from the people at the tribal level. Surprise. Robbie also told us about their involvement
in the village, how this is their third visit in 3 years and last year they
stayed here 4 months. Gene (Robbie’s husband) has apparently been
“adopted” by the chief in an official pig killing ceremony (Gene had to kill
the pig) and consequently they are quite fond of the place. They are working on
several development projects within the village including water management,
building a women’s crafts center for displaying and selling local crafts, and
a “Yacht Club” – all of which are being funded by grants they applied for
on behalf of the local Chief and the village, all of which will be run for and
by the villagers for their benefit. The “Yacht Club” (which is still being
built) will apparently be a bar and restaurant catering to yachties (there were
2 other boats here when we arrived, 3 others have arrived since – including
“Noason” which came from Santo with a load of food and building supplies -
for a total of 6 here now). In the afternoon we inflated the dinghy and
went to shore. We found Gene there in a building doling out the supplies he had
brought from Santo. Apparently they give he and Robbie orders (some pay in
advance) and he goes to Santo and buys all the stuff and brings it back. They
pay him exactly what he pays at the shops in Santo – I watched them do the
distribution and bookkeeping, Gene and the Chief. Jonah played with Allison and
the kids from the village while we chatted with other yachties and the locals,
asking questions, looking around. Tomorrow is apparently a big party day
celebrating the formation of the |
