Many of you may wonder how I keep myself occupied, even if you don’t I’m going to tell you. I swim at a wharf near my house where most of the Ni-Vans go swimming which is pretty cool. I also do a little fishing, which is a little bit different here. I don’t think there’s a single fishing pole on any of the islands, at least I’ve never seen one, and yet people here still collect a large amount of fish, any guesses? Here are some of the main methods: the first and my most personal favorite is using a spear gun. You must take a spear gun which is spring loaded and dive down and stay still so you don’t scare the fish and then shoot you’re mini harpoon at the nearest fish you see. This not only takes great skill but a very long breath. Some of the men can stay down there to shoot a fish, reclaim the harpoon, reload the gun and then shoot it again. I can barely stay down for 30 seconds so obviously I haven’t caught many fish, I usually leave it to the Ni-Vans to take care of it. I do get to be the shark bait though, once they catch a fish they put its head through a wire so you can carry many fish (like a belt, while you’re swimming, filled with dead fish) and that’s what I usually do. Since you have to stick a wire through their head and they just got harpooned you can imagine that some of their organs are hanging out along with bleeding. Whenever I’m the shark bait (fish carrier) I like to hold a knife, just to feel a little bit safer.
The other day I was with my buddy Zack and we wanted to go swimming. All I had on my mind as far as plans go for that day was just swimming. It was then that I saw my friend who stopped his truck and asked if we wanted a ride. We gratefully obliged and hopped in; he told us he was going to Devils Rock so we obviously went with him. It turned out to be an all-day fishing trip complete with a fish roast (along with one lobster) on the beach. Afterwards I went back to his village where we drank kava at his nakamal. The name of the village was Lolowalaquesa (sp?) Where we baked laplap, I was adopted by a papa, and then was then made into a high ranking chief with the name being Alanamoli, which has something to do with pigs tusks swirling around and my papa told me I outrank the chief of the village there currently. I wasn’t too sure how that worked as I didn’t really do anything but hey, there ya go, some days you just plan on going swimming but you can turn into a chief at any moment. Only here could something like this happen, oh man, TIV (This is Vanuatu).
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