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.