They all smiled and led us back to the main village. One of us told the guys we were big supporters of what they were doing. With another big smile we were told to wait where we were. He ran into one of the huts and came back holding a parcel, neatly wrapped in a green banana leaf….
Which we all then proceeded to smoke. Nothing better than island style… I got reminded of how one of my close friends smoked up on bubba kush cbd when he was on vacation in the Caribbean. It was his first time smoking…little did he know he was on a sweet soothing ride.
Our bud burnt really well and managed to make its way around the circle too many times to count. As if that wasn’t enough a second one was also rolled, lit, and passed around at the same time. Our worlds became nice, light, and fluffy. Everything was good, the sun was shining, children laughing and playing in the water… The water, oh man, it looked so good. It was too tempting, so we had to get in and bathe. And that was exactly what we did. We swam across the river and lazed around. Nobody ever asked us what we were doing or why we were doing it. We took full advantage of the hot sand, as we spread our limbs and relaxed. One of us happened to look over and see Tomoses and a few others bathing naked across the river. None of us are even disgusted by the sight of an old naked man. If anything, we were happy. We shake our heads with a smile on our faces and take in the moment. It was too good to pass.
The people here live such beautiful lives. They live within this complete paradise and they’re constantly surrounded by their family and friends. It would be so easy to just slip away from reality forever and live a life more simple. A life full of joy and happiness. And you can tell the people here are so genuine, so caring and helpful. They always have a smile to send your way, and there’s no doubt it’s a genuine smile. I often wish that everybody could just drop everything and come see this magic. There’s just nothing else like it…
As we lay in the late afternoon sun, we were entertained by the children of the village. Its crazy how creative these kids can be. By having such limited resources in general, they make the most out of the resources that they have. And after spending a while with these people, you soon find out that they have a million uses for everything, its great. So these kids started playing war games with all the things they could find on the sand. Twigs, old coconut shells, coral, and even leaves were all used and each kid had their own aircraft, or boat or machine gun. They were totally engulfed in their games, totally in the moment, enjoying life. They would make blasting noise, trying to destroy each others forts. This was so much better than any video game.
Some of the kids got real keen and took it to the next level. One guy ran into the bushes and grabbed branches and vines. He started tying twigs together to make an extra strong fort, and covered it in leaves.
Boys playing battle ships.
We were mesmerized by these guys for hours. Of course we were, we had just smoked some great local stuff, rolled in a banana leaf and we were lazing around in the sun building forts out of twigs. The thought itself is pretty buzzy. Its not everyday you get to do that. Unless you live here of course, which we all contemplated for a little while. Time was floating by and it was heading towards dinner time and we remembered we had leftover lasagna waiting for us on the boat. Win. Mouths watering, we said our goodbyes and headed back.
As we were walking along the beach, we ran into a group of people sitting on some logs, toes in the sand, with smiles painted across their faces. And they all had some sort of dreads in their hair. So we decided to stop and chill out with them for a while. Everybody was introduced, and as always, no names were really remembered. But it didn’t matter, everybody was happy. There was a relaxed silence for a few minutes as we all absorbed the situation. We ask if they smoke and they all nod and smile. So Brady rolls a smoke, a pretty good size for our standards, and lights it up, and tries doing a little weed smoking trick. Although he didn’t get the smoke ring right, it was still quite impressive. When it gets passed around to one of the guys, he shares a loud friendly laugh. He is laughing because for him it’s the smallest smoke he’s ever seen. He looks to his side and around the rest of the circle and doubts it’s going to make its way around. We all share a laugh. He says it’s too small and looks to one of the women who soon disappears for a while and comes back holding something a little bigger. She hands it over to us and says “for you… to smoke on boat”. Oh sweeeeet. We give our many thanks and carry on. The lasagna upheld its reputation. Thanks, Brian.
The next day we woke late in the afternoon as usual. We met a lady named Danessa who lives in New Zealand, but comes to visit her home town here in Vanuatu, once a year. She asked if we could give her and three other children a lift to the island just across the channel. Yeah of course, we will pick you up on shore in about 15 minutes, we say. Four people turn out to be seven people so including us, there’s now eleven people loaded into the dinghy, which has a rated capacity of 6. Nothing like an adventure we say. So we all squeeze in and make our way to the other island across the channel. When we all arrive, we are greeted by many family and friends who gather around and follow us all down to her home village. We weren’t sure whether she was extremely grateful for the ride or if she was just super excited to be home because she was just bursting with energy and excitement. I figured it was probably a bit of both. She’s like one of those aunties who are always fussing and doing something to make sure everyone and everything is Ok. We stopped to rest and she was frantically cutting pawpaw and coconut for us to eat and drink. I’m always blown away by the hospitality of these people; always wanting to make sure your ok and doing anything they can to make you feel at home. It was touching.
And before we knew it, she was taking us on an adventure through the jungle to the gardens where they would gather all sorts of fruits for us. In the end, we had accumulated about 7 coconuts, 9 grapefruit, pawpaw, a handful of nuts and seeds, cocoa, a heap of ginger and a huge bunch of delicious bananas. Wow, all of us had our hands full. We were set.
So we loaded the dinghy up and said our goodbyes. Danessa and the gang were so happy we gave them all a lift, it saved them having to canoe over, which is pretty hard work, so they all stood on the beach waving their arms above their heads until we were out of sight. Danessa was also so happy to be home, and why wouldn’t she be. With abundant fruit and beautiful people, I think she was extremely lucky to grow up here.
We made our way back to Delos and decided to make one more stop onto shore before sailing into the distance. It may or may not have involved another banana leaf surprise. Nevertheless, we all wished we were able to stay in this magical place for longer, but time was upon us and we had to move north. So we pulled up the anchor and sailed off into the distance, where more adventures await us. I was sitting on the deck as we sailed away, and I witnessed an absolutely magical sunset, where the suns rays glistened through the clouds, where all sorts of crazy colours spread into the sky. Good times.
Its crazy how similar Vanuatu and Jamaica are. Not that I have been to Jamaica myself, but if I had to imagine it, this is what it would be like. Its really quite interesting actually, for example, the Vanuatu flag holds the colours red, green, yellow and black. Red representing the blood of the people, green representing the land, yellow representing the sun and beaches, and black representing the skin of the people. The flag also shows pigs tusks, resembling prosperity and in the centre of that, a Namelle leaf which represents peace.
A lot of people here have dreads too, which is unlike any place I’ve seen. And of course, those are the ones that like to smoke. A lot. They also love their rasta hats, Bob Marley t-shirts and reggae music. And its quite funny, if you ask a local about Jamaica, they are quite unaware of the similarities that both countries have. Some don’t even realise the colours are the same! Some just shake their heads as if they don’t even know where we are talking about. Hah. But nevertheless, although the cultures seem to be insanely similar and they’re worlds apart, it doesn’t matter, they’re both happy as can be. So pretty much, Delos found the Jamaica of the south pacific. And how wonderful it was.
Out here, every single moment is too good to pass. I’m just so grateful to be out here experiencing it. I have to say its often pretty difficult to embrace every single moment. I try my best to absorb the whole thing as best as I can, but it can be a little overwhelming at times. Always being on the move, constantly being surrounded by paradise is almost too good to be true right? Well, its not because we’re fortunate enough to be out here doing whatever it is that we’re meant to be doing. I often wonder what has lead me to being here? But in the end, I figure that it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I feel exactly where I am meant to be. Happy days.
