Our walk to the Western Union Bank is entertaining. First we have to power the dingy over to the main wharf (a long dirt embankment extending out into the lagoon) and find a parking spot. This simple task is complicated by the fact that the much awaited supply boat has finally arrived (three weeks late) and most of the island's inhabitants are on the wharf helping to unload the much needed everyday essentials, mail and donated construction materials. There is a baker on the island, but he has been unable to make any bread for the last week as he has not had any flour! This island is isolated! Anyway, we manage to find a rock to tie up to and head out for the bank. We have been told that it is in the last village, we are currently in the first village, then there is the middle village and the bank is in the third village. The villages of course all have names, but they are finger twisters (tongue twisters too) and the locals mostly refer to them as 1,2,3 to "palangi" (white people) like us. The hard packed white sand road is very busy with traffic today, but all vehicles are piled with goods or people. Finally one truck stops and offers us a ride which we gratefully accept as it is beastly hot out. Two seconds later he drops us off at two little white buildings that look like any number of other little white buildings scattered over the island and says the second one is the bank and the first one is customs. Now the bank does have a computer and there is a desk/counter, but they do not do cash advances on credit cards/debit cards, however they will convert U.S. dollars to the local currency. Very luckily for us we happen to have some of that stuff in our wallet (US $). Cash in hand, we pay our entrance fee to customs then wait for the health officer to collect us to go over to the makeshift hospital (old Methodist church) to pay the health fee. She thankfully gives us a ride back to the wharf with a side stop at the "store" (very loose term for small building with not much in it) for some water, which they are just unpacking from the ship. I say all of this in detail, boring as it is, to show that this simple task that we take so for granted in Canada, has taken us the better part of the day. We get back to the boat in time for me to prepare a "dish to share" for the pot luck dinner being held for the boaters at Sia and Nico's place tonight. Not their house, that was washed away in the tsunami, they have two small garden shed like buildings to sleep in. One has been built by the Red Cross and the other Nico has built from the roof of his old shop which he miraculously found intact in the bushes after the tsunami and other bits and pieces that he was able to scrounge from the litter that was once the lives of the people who live on this island. This tsunami happened at 7:30 am on Sept 30, 2009, the anniversary is this week, and just about everybody lost everything. We've seen "before pictures" of a very orderly and picturesque village and stare in disbelief at the shanty town it is today. But Nico and Sia and their three boys are generous to a fault. We all enjoy a lovely evening eating and visiting with them and the people from two other boats, learning of their lives and their ways. The family sings a beautifully harmonized song for us to end the evening.
We do our normal tourist activities here, go diving one day, go for a walk through the coconut plantation to the beaches another (stunning secluded beaches). Our friend Michele arrives in his sail boat from Samoa and we have him over for dinner on the boat. He is Italian and we have fun trying to understand what each other is trying to say, we have no shortage of conversation. Sunday we go to church and are happy when Sia and Nico invite us to go with them. The service is in their language, so we don't really get much out of that, but the singing......, Oh the singing. How I wish that we had a recording device with us. No instrumental accompaniment, only the finest strongest voices in all vocal levels - Perfect! Then we join the family for a traditional Sunday lunch of delicious local dishes under their "breadfruit tree". But the morning was not without a bit of excitement as our dingy decided to free itself as we were halfway through our walk to the church. Nico had to rush back and rescue it with his own boat as it seems all of the "yachties" were still sleeping and not answering their VHF radios.
Sia's boys picked and cleaned some fresh coconuts for us which we wanted to pay for, but they would rather trade for useful items like, flour, sugar, perfume, fishing lure etc. as these items are hard to come by here. WE also traded them a dinner on the boat in return for their generous sharing with us. The boys got the biggest thrill out of watching one of Glen's old racing videos. Things that we take so for granted, they are so in need of.
Our time here has been full and rewarding. We have made some more new friends.
We packed up bright and early today and are headed to Vava'u, the next island group in Tonga. The day is sunny and the water is relatively smooth.
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