Mar 1nd, 2014
First off….a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sister Kaaren. Hope you are having a great day and being deservedly
spoiled. Also, birthday wishes to Connor Cruz in Stewiacke, NS (half way between the north pole and the equator if anybody's interested).
We have had quite a week. Although the medical aspect of things
continues to be fascinating and always challenging, it was the most recent “excursions”
that have really given us great insight into the kindness and generosity of the
people here and the incredible beauty to be found.
We had planned to do a dispensary visit to a place
called Lamlu. It is about a 40 minute
drive into the centre of Tanna. When we
arrived, we were told that the woman who runs the health unit has been away for
2-3 weeks and that the dispensary has been closed. With a little extra time on
our hands, we visited the nearby school and were treated to the kindergarten
class performing an impromptu singing session.
It was very sweet.
We carried on driving to a good surfing beach on
the West coast of Northern Tanna called Louneal Beach. We had to acquire permission from a local
family to access the road that heads to the beach.
A group of young men opened the
gate for us and after a short drive, we hiked down to this incredibly beautiful
beach. The locals came over to us and
showed us the hidden features of the beach including a protected area of water
that formed this natural pool. Anna and
Sasha just loved this and we played for hours.
The next beach over was completed deserted and stretched for miles. It is absolutely perfect for boogie boarding
and paddle board surfing and will definitely require a return visit. As we were wrapping up, this same group of
young adults brought us all cocunuts that had been opened and readied to drink
the coconut water within. It tasted so
good. Somehow it didn’t seem quite the
same, but we offered them some cookies and they seemed to appreciate this. We hiked back up to the gate and were again
greeted by this group who placed several papayas in the car for us to take with
us. We also had the opportunity to meet
with the Chief’s son, Joseph. He immediately invited us to see the
waterfall that is on his property. We
walked down this steep series of switch backs,
all the while thinking how are we going to get back up this thing. At the bottom was this beautiful 100 foot
waterfall cascading down the cliff. The
pools were cold and clean and we all jumped in with all our clothes on. You could swim right to the edge of the
surprisingly powerful falls and experience the full force of the water. It really was very exciting.
We all hiked back up and we were sent on our way
with hot laplap (traditional meal of island cabbage and manioc) that his family
had cooked inside a bamboo shoot over the fire.
It was quite a day.
Yesterday afternoon was the first time we had gone
to see the flying foxes. They are very
large bats that reside in these huge colonies in a particular banyan tree in
the forest. Father Aniset, a catholic
priest who runs a school and a church nearby, has been showing visitors the
foxes for several years. He is a very
kind man and was very excited to take us to see them. I can only say that it was awesome. We walked through the dense forest for only
10 minutes and came out into a clearing.
When we looked up, the entire canopy of this enormous banyan tree was
covered by suspended bats. Any disruption
sends several of the bats into flight, circling the tree and then landing again
on a different branch. There was a
constant circulation of bats relocating on the canopy. Their wingspan is about 2 feet so you can
imagine how impressive this looks. We
moved around to various sites to appreciate the different views of the colony
and it truly was amazing.
We have not seen the volcano yet at nighttime,
which is when you really want to view the lava bubbling in the crater. We did however climb the “spine” of the
volcano 2 weeks ago when we were returning from a dispensary visit. We had
stopped near the bottom of this ridge that leads right up to the top of the
volcano. One of the nurses with us,
Johnny, decided it would be fun to “jog” up the ridge. Anna and Sasha thought that was hilarious and
started chasing him, only to pass him and keep going. Sean and I were close behind and by the time
everyone stopped the chase, we realized we were already half way up. We continued climbing, in our bare feet, which
was surprisingly comfortable. The ash
sand is very soft and we all described it as though you were walking through
cushions. As we approached the top, the tone of the hike changed considerably. The erupting volcano became really loud and
you could feel the earth shake with each eruption. This was happening every 3-4 minutes. We were high enough now that the ash cloud
was coming directly at us. It really stings the eyes if you look up, so we were
all staring down at the ground as we ascended.
The smell of sulphur becomes quite intense by the top. At this point the girls started questioning
the wisdom of our decision but we were so close to the top, it was really hard
to abort mission. That is when the rain
started and we were being pelted by heavy acid rain. Naturally you would think that this was the
time we turned around but that would just be wrong…. we were so close.
Sasha was initially enthusiastic for the first
half, always wanting to be out in front of the group, but then things went bad
a bit. The rain, the blowing sand in her eyes, took the good out of her.
Complaints and whining followed for a while, and then she gave us the quote of
the week. Sean was climbing with her and kept telling her that she could go
down and wait but she just kept ignoring him and pushing on, still whining. Finally
he said, “Sash, if it’s so bad then why don’t you just go down?” She replied
with a mixture of bewilderment and anguish saying, “I don’t know Dad!! I just
CAN’T”. ‘Atta girl.
We all pushed on and reached the edge of the
crater. You couldn’t see anything
because of the winds carrying the ash cloud and the rain directly into our
faces. We all turned around and just ran
down the spine laughing all the way down.
You could take one big step and travel 10 feet because the landing was
so soft, and then the sand underfoot would just slide with you. It must have been a ridiculous site from the
bottom as 6 people were running down the side of the volcano flapping their
wings and giggling. By the time we got to
the bottom, we had ash/sand in ALL the wrong places and our clothes were
completely grey. They remain this colour,
and every time we wear them, the stains serve
as a reminder of our big adventure up the volcano.
Bed time.
Talk soon.
Andrea (Sean helped too)
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