Another Ambaen Adventure

So a few weeks ago I had another mission to go on another adventure in North Ambae. It was Mac’s birthday who’s in North Ambae and she’s right by Joel. I was invited for a birthday party so obviously I had to go. First let me backtrack a little, I had my first birthday on the island! I told my host family that it was my birthday and they said they would prepare a little something and told me to invite some friends. I invited Joel and he said he would walk over and hang out on West Ambae for a little while. I also invited two gap volunteers (Australian/English) who are here for six months at a time. As the sun was starting to set and I was on my way to my host family’s house I was somewhat disappointed due to the fact that none of my friends showed up. Joel told me he wouldn’t be able to come if it was raining which it was by him and I have no idea where the other two where. I left a note on my door just in case and went up, my family was also disappointed that no one came because they really went all out. They made me a cake and killed a chicken. Just as I lost all hope and was about to eat, my two friends Katy & Lucinda (gap vols) showed up! I was super excited and so was my family. We ate cake first and then my papa took us up to get some kava at the nakamal. After the kava we got to eat some delicious laplap and chicken and my papa, being the only alcohol seller on the whole of West Ambae hooked us up with some Tusker (national beer of Vanuatu) which was awesome. All in all it turned out to be a good night and everyone had a good time, which sums up my story of my first birthday (and one more to come) in Vanuatu.

Going back to the original story, Joel did show up about 3 days after totally unexpected but I was super glad to see him. We celebrated my birthday again and just hung out while Joel admired the street signs on West (he’s from the bush in North). We also started making plans of rowing a small boat back to North so we didn’t have to climb all the hills of Vuingalato (which are extremely treacherous and difficult to say the least). We made a practice run and it turns out it was much harder and much slower than we anticipated so Joel made plans to take the ship that was going by in the morning back home and I wanted to go with him to go celebrate Mac’s bday. Unfortunately I had a class that morning and I couldn’t get out of it so Joel left on the ship while I was stuck teaching. For those of you that know me I’m extremely determined so I gathered a crew which consisted of James the French teacher, Amos the Science teacher and the Chaplain. I wish I took a picture but it was a small row boat consisting of two oars so we switched off every 20 minutes and rowed for about three hours. We didn’t make it as far as we thought and because we didn’t leave until late afternoon the sun was already starting to go down and I still had a two hour hike in head of me. They dropped me off and rowed back while I started the last part of the adventure on foot. I really didn’t know the road so every time I saw anyone I asked which way to the village Quantemele. I was walking along a stone beach when it just sort of ended and there was no way to get past these very large cliff rocks. Things got a little scary then because I started thinking of where to sleep because the sun was almost down and I had no idea where I was or how to find anyone. Luckily I saw a kid of about 15 rowing in a canoe who saw me obviously quite lost. He picked me up in his one man canoe and took me past the big cliff rocks which was extremely kind of him, I then immediately set off at a brisk trot hoping to run into someone else to ask for directions. Eventually I found a mama and when I asked her how to get where I was going she looked at me like I was crazy and said I can’t go now it’s too dark now. I briskly replied that I HAD to go and just asked her which way to go where she replied with an “on top” and pointed. So “on top” was where I was heading when you wouldn’t believe, but I got lost again. Luckily I kept running into Ni-Vans who would show me the way temporarily and then I would seem to get lost again. This happened about three or four times until it was past 7:00pm and I was lost somewhere in the bush in the dark of night. At this point I started calling out to see if anyone was around to help me, after ten minutes someone finally replied a long way off and we finally met up and I was very close and he escorted me the rest of the way. When I finally arrived at Mac’s village, I found the one house that had a few solar lights on and went and saw that it was Mac and her host family and Joel who were very surprised to see me walk through the door. They gave up hope that I was coming but I eventually made it there around 7:30pm soaking wet due to the rain. I was pretty tired but it was a good trip and I got to eat a lot of good food. So I hung out at North for a couple of days and then had to make my way back to my home on West. This time I found the truck road to follow for a while and then made it to the last village before the dreaded hills of Vuingalato. I asked if anyone had a boat but the man who had one was not there that day, one man took pity on me and took me in his one man canoe past the bigger hills and we rowed for about 30 minutes where he dropped me off at my friend Zack’s house. Luckily I knew the road after that so in just another hour and a half of walking I finally made it back home, just chalk it up to another gudfala adventure on Ambae!