Santo Opening Ceremony

29 Apr Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. The Opening Ceremony on Santo was quite different in many respects from the Closing Ceremony in Vava’u. The ceremony was held outside of the chief’s community hall. The hall was built of all imaginable materials - the roof was corrugated plastic covered with dried palm fronds secured by chicken wire, the walls were solid wood, lattice wood, woven pandanus, bamboo, and cloth, and the floor was concrete. I thought the simple but rich textures were a lovely contrast to the dull gray concrete block buildings erected in the former East Germany during the Soviet occupation, which Hilarie, JoAnn K, and I saw 3 years ago on the Christmas Nutcracker Tour led by Helga and Jack of Posh Journeys.
Today’s ceremony started with a tribal dance by native ni-Vanuatu (Melanisians) wearing loincloths, palm fronds, leaves, headgear, painted torso and face, and performed in a tight cluster facing inward while chanting and pounding the ground with long sticks. There was also a pig on a leash, and from Michener’s description of the importance of the boar in ceremonial tribal culture in “Tales of the South Pacific”, I had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be a good day for the pig. And so it wasn‘t, as the pig was sacrificed to honor the occasion while we watched. I believe it would be served at a feast in the evening (I‘m eating fish onboard Cleveland, thank you). The sun then broke from behind the clouds, and there were many speeches honoring the hosts and guests. The people of Santo are still very grateful to the US Navy and Army for defending the island during WWII, and for the lasting improvements they made to the Luganville area that are still enjoyed today, e.g. fresh water catchments and filled marshland that reduced the mosquitoes. The ceremony was concluded with a reception line in which the Pacific Partnership personnel formed a line and the locals walked the line shaking the hand of each of us. Thus I got to say hello to all of the local attendees personally. Compared to Tongans, the ni-Vanuatu Melanisians are much darker, shorter, and thinner, and seem more reserved although certainly friendly. I’m putting some photos on my flickr photo stream http://www.flickr.com/photos/babs-pp11.
Cheers!