Community Spirit

Each Ni-Vanuatu village is overseen by a chief. The chief inherits his title but not any real property as the land is communally owned. He is well-respected and has an important role settling disputes and dishing up customary justice.

This is the chief's office in Mele Village.



The village is largely self-sufficient though some residents own small businesses such as a tour company or a bus. The women are in charge of collecting money to pay for the municipal water and electricity supplies - the men had been responsible for this but no-one knew where the money went and so the women took control!

The women also seemed to be responsible for running a community facility in the school buildings. It was the holidays whilst we were visiting and a church conference had taken up residence for the week.

Home Sweet Home

The coconut tree is also used as a building material with the timber providing the framework of most traditional Ni-Vanuatu buildings.



The walls and roofs are made with banana leaves stitched together with bamboo and dipped in something smelly to deter insects.



Each family has two houses - a sleeping house and a cooking house where meals are made over an open fire. From our trip around Mele village, it seemed as though most families spent the rest of the time outdoors, often in a shady area during the afternoon, playing cards or entertaining the children after school.



We were told that the houses last for around 10 years - though a cyclone might cause real damage. But that doesn't matter too much as it only takes a day or so with some friends to put up a new house.

The Mother Tree

Coconut trees are known as "the mother tree" in Vanuatu, providing endless useful products from milk and cream and leaves for mats, hats and baskets to fibre for rope.



The coconuts also seem to make good chicken feed...

Evening catch

Sadly the Mele villagers have had to lease a lot of their coastal land to developers who are building subdivisions for tourists. They still have access to the beach for fishing though and, whilst we were visiting, the sardines were passing through.

Pacific Pigs

Pigs are an important part of Ni-Vanuatu culture. Pigs are used to pay bride prices, to settle disputes and to determine status within a community. Pigs with double circled tusks are particularly valuable and a tusk features on the Vanuatu flag.



The Mele villagers raise pigs to sell to city-dwellers who live too far away from their homes to find their own pigs for family celebrations. They also hunt for wild pigs in the hills in the centre of Efate so nearly every young man in the village has his own pig dog.

Fruit and Nut Bar

Our village host showed us some of the fruit and nuts that the villagers harvest throughout the year.

These nuts are said to resemble macadamias...



And these miniature bananas are used in curries, salads and breakfast platters...



This was J's favourite fruit - soursop. It has spongy white flesh under the green spiky skin with big black seeds that need separating out.



Mele Village also has large vegetable gardens away from the main residential area. The villagers grow the vegetables for their own use but other villages transport their crops down to the main market in Port Vila in beautiful coconut leaf baskets.

Ni-Vanuatu Villages

We've recently returned from a trip to Vanuatu in Melanesia. We stayed on Hideaway Island, once occupied by the people of Mele Village, the largest customary village in Vanuatu. In the 1960s, the villagers decided that the island was too small for them and they moved to the mainland.



Those Ni-Vanuatu people who live in the city earn little and pay a lot for their expenses. Those in the villages earn less but are proud of their self-sufficient lifestyle - no rules, no stress, no need to buy anything much at all.

I suspect that life is harder than the villagers let on but it was interesting to see how they live sustainably.

An egg

We found an egg last week. A small egg but tasty, apparently.



And then we found sixteen eggs yesterday. Down by the water tanks. At least we know where to look now!

Tui in the coral tree

Witches' Brew

We have two major problems with weeds:

1. We have a lot of weeds and weeds in NZ grow like, erm, weeds so we have to pull them up on a regular basis.
2. We have a lot of weeds and we don't know what to do with them when we've pulled them up.
   

So when we found some old olive barrels for sale at a local shop, we snapped them up and set about turning them into brewing vessels for weed tea.

If you want to have a go at this, don't google weed tea or else you'll end up with lots of recipes for a calming hot drink made with marijuana - try this recipe instead.

And you'll need these items:

• A brewing vessel big enough to hold your weeds plus water - a big black dustbin will probably be enough for most people
  
• A robust tap from your local farm supply shop - if you get a straight one with a wide opening, you'll be able to unblock it easily
  
• A drill with a hole saw bit
• Long arms for screwing one bit of the tap to the other from the inside of the barrel
• Darts and a dart board whilst you're waiting for the barrel to fill with water to make sure that the tap fits tightly enough (thank you K&B)
  
• Two or more pallets to stand the barrels on so that you can fit a watering can or bucket under the tap
  
• Lots and lots of weeds
• Lots and lots of water - preferably from a water butt
  

Total cost per barrel? $80 or just less than three trips to the tip.
Check back in six months' time to find out quite how smelly the brew ends up...

The Gang

I've finally managed to get the chickens to stay in one place for long enough to snap them. From left to right...

• The crazy fluffy chicken - definitely mostly silkie and very bad tempered. He crows a lot and so must be a rooster. He also attacks us by running sideways at us. Probably second in the pecking order and definitely first in the pot.
  
• The grey one - we thought this might be a rooster for a while because of its reasonably large comb and some attempted crowing. We're reasonably certain now though that she's a hen - particularly given her very fluffy undercarriage.
  
• The green one - you can't see this chicken very well here but we think it's another rooster thanks to the amazing green tail feathers and the ginger head. Would make a good feather duster.
  
• The speckled grey one - shy and retiring and hopefully about to start laying.
  
• The Rooster - this is our most spectacular bird and he's the cock of the roost. We knew he was a rooster from day one thanks to his strutting about. He's not quite so attention seeking as he used to be and seems to have matured quite nicely. He keeps the others in order.
  
• The dark speckled one - last in the pecking order, quite happy clucking around on its own. Looking forward to her eggs.
  

A gaggle of geese and a paddle of ducks

When we get round to replacing our bathroom, I'm hoping to install our existing bath in the garden as a duck pond. I expect that it won't be very nice to look at underneath so I'll plant all round it with flax and other natives.

Once it's filled up with water, I'll be able to acquire a few Indian Runner ducks from TradeMe to dash around the property looking busy.

Alternatively, I could just pop down to the park where they seem to have dozens more birds than they need...

Kauri Flour Bins II

Five months ago, I posted these photos of our kauri flour bins, purchased from TradeMe and a shot of James stripping the paint off them.



Since then James has sanded them down, oiled them and installed them in the kitchen. At the moment, they're looking quite rustic but once we've decided what colour to paint the kitchen, we'll probably do the bins in a contrasting colour.




There are a few too many borer holes in the bins and far too many ants in our kitchen for me to even consider putting flour in them. But I have found the perfect use for the drawers and bins - housing my ever expanding collected of plastic bags.