A Visit to Vanuatu

By Wang Li

Before June 1st, 2009, some colleagues and I visited Vanuatu to make a documentary about the local people on the archipelago on the south Pacific Ocean. After boarding a plane in Australia, we flew eastward for three hours and touched down in the legendary island nation, which came into being in the middle of the 20th century. The archipelago is composed of 86 small islands (65 of them inhabited) with a population of about 200,000.

Before the plane touch down, we are able to have a birds view of Erromango, the largest island of the republic. The shoreline zigzags against the azure waters of the sea. The aerial view is breathtaking. Later we find the beaches have crystal sands and we see a lot of shells on the beaches. The sea is so transparent that we can see yellow croakers, eels, lobsters, scallops and corals in the sea near the shore. Sometimes we can see from the beach shoals of fish in the water. At night, lobsters glister in green.

We learn that Vanuatu has rich fish resources. Precious sea creatures such as sea cucumber, cuttlefish, abalone and tuna fish can easily be caught here.

We take a ride into the depth of the island.We soon find ourselves surrounded by an emerald rainforest. Albatrosses and parrots can be seen everywhere; banana trees and coconut trees are also everywhere.

We take a fishing trip one day with Rudy, a tribe chief.As we approach a fishing ground, we see a waterfall in the distance. It splashes down and waters divert into some streams. A few teenage girls are bathing in the downstream. Rudy shouts to them in the local dialect. The girls run away, giggling. The baits we use are sliced hams and cucumber. We wonder how we can catch anything with such baits in such rapids. A few minutes later, Rudy catches a 1-km salmon.I catch some small fish. After three hours, we have caught enough for a banquet. So we throw all the remaining baits into water. The fish is cooked with salt only. No seasonings are added. Rudys wife prepares a fish soup that I think is the most tasty soup in the world.

The people in Vanuatu never worry about food. The islands have thick layers of guano and ample rainfall. Fruits grow everywhere, fishes are abundant and crops are easy to grow.

As people dont have to worry about food, they seek fun and adventure in bungee jumping. It is said that the jumping has been around for the last 1,500 years. It takes place in May every year before the harvest season starts. The jumping platform is about 40 meters above the ground. Jumpers are young men. They need to bath in the sea, embalm themselves with coconut oil all over the body, and decorate themselves with tree leaves and a string of pig teeth around their necks before the jumping. Women and men who do not participate in the jumping will gather and cheer. The bungee jumping is the biggest show in the island nation. The courage game has now spread all over the world.

Pigs in Vanuatu are viewed as wealth. The residents hold regular pig shows. The local residents have no great interest in money. They prefer pigs, which serve as hard currency and can exchange for food, cow, sheep and seafood. Pigs are also used as marriage gifts at weddings. The most valuable pigs there are those with two rows of buck-teeth. A pig with two rows of buck-teeth is worth 30 pigs with ordinary teeth. Local people have a way to raise pigs with buck-teeth.

We have a roast-pig banquet at the house of a local resident. The barbecue is done in a pit, lined orderly with slabs on the bottom and the four walls. A fire is built with wood. When slabs become red, a 40-km pig, wrapped up in banana leaves, is put into the burnt woods and then covered with earth. After an hour or so, the earth and the banana leaves are removed. The roasted pig glistens in yellow. In a nearby barbecue pit are crabs and salmons. We think this is a banquet for us Chinese guests only. But neighbors troop in and help themselves to the tasty food. The host does not think it wrong that guests come in and enjoy themselves without invitation. We learn that it is a local custom for neighbors to walk into someone elses house and find food.

Girls in Vanuatu are beautiful. We think probably they owe their beauty to the pleasant climate and a large quantity of seafood and fruit in their diet. They are tall, they are brown, and they have black curly hair. Girls seem not to care very about marrying a rich man for a villa, luxury cars, and jewelry. We are surprised by their open attitude toward sex. It causes no great fuss if an 18-year-old girl becomes a mother of an illegitimate child. It is quite common that married people have lovers openly.

The people in Vanuatu love leisure. The most important thing in their world is happiness. So while the rest of the world is experiencing the biggest economic crisis, the islanders in Vanuatu are basking in sunshine. In 2008, Vanuatu ranked the lowest in the worlds GDP list and it ranked first in a 178-country survey called Happy Planet Index in 2008 in terms of happiness (The United States ranked 150th).□