{"id":6495,"date":"2019-10-04T04:56:34","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T04:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=6495"},"modified":"2019-10-05T22:18:14","modified_gmt":"2019-10-05T22:18:14","slug":"it-takes-a-village-longan-island-ninigos-pt-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=6495","title":{"rendered":"It Takes A Village – Longan Island, Ninigos Pt 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We\u2019ve heard a lot about Longan Island from other cruisers, and it sounds like a great place to share the last of our trading goods.  I\u2019m also keen to distribute more of the \u2018Days for Girls\u2019 kits to the school there.  Longan Island is on the north side of the lagoon, about 4 hours away from Mal.  There\u2019s a south-easterly blowing so we unfurl the jib and have an easy sail across.  But we also realise that the anchorage at Longan isn\u2019t going to be comfortable in a southerly breeze, so instead late in the afternoon we drop anchor off the north side of uninhabited Hotum Island. I have a feeling it\u2019s going to be a very social time at Longan so we\u2019re looking forward to a quiet day of snorkelling and relaxing at Hotum tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pretty Hotum Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not to be. At 7.30am the next morning I hear \u201chellooo\u201d from off the bow.  I\u2019m frankly a bit irritated – it\u2019s too early for visitors.  But it turns out it\u2019s Oscar and Karen from Longan – people we\u2019ve heard so much about. They tell us that they paddled out and spent the night sleeping on the island so they could guide us into Longan in the morning – unfortunately some of the locals have recently started putting out shark nets so they can sell shark fins to the Chinese.  Oscar and Karen are worried that we may not see the nets on our way in. They come aboard and have tea while we chat. Karen has brought us green vegetables and collected some \u2018bush eggs\u2019 from the island – they\u2019re larger than chook eggs, probably frigate bird eggs, but she assures us they\u2019re good eating.  We tell Oscar that we have supplies to share with the village and he suggests that the best way is to bring it all ashore and he\u2019ll assist in distributing everything equally amongst the 22 households, which suits us fine. It\u2019ll be easier than handling lots of individual requests. He guides us to the anchorage just off the disused \u2018beche de mer\u2019 jetty while we tow Karen behind in their canoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oscar guiding us into the anchorage at Longan Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Karen steering the canoe as we tow her behind<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The residents of Longan Island come from neighbouring Amik Island, but have moved here so their children can attend the primary school (I think primary school here is the equivalent of years 5-10 in Australia).  Karen and Oscar say they like it better at Longan because it\u2019s not so crowded – they have two more years here and then they\u2019ll move back to Amik and someone else will take over their current house on Longan. Sounds like a great arrangement!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We gather all our remaining goods together, load the dinghy up and head into the beach. What a welcome! Everyone wants to shake our hand and say \u201cLetu solian\u201d the local Seimat word for \u201cGood morning\u201d. Then comes the serious business of dividing up the goods. They\u2019ve obviously done this before – they lay out a tarpaulin and everyone brings their bowls to receive their share of rice, sugar and flour. Oscar has a notebook in which he meticulously records who has received what, but there\u2019s also much joking around and fun to be had.  I get to meet Eileen Kalenda, the teacher at the school and she\u2019s very excited about the kits for the girls – it\u2019s very opportune as they\u2019re doing their PDH\/PE curriculum at the moment, so my flip chart on sexual health and personal hygiene will come in handy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Getting ready to distribute our goods<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The distribution in full swing!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After the distributions are all done, Rellen gives us a tour of the village and school and invites us to come ashore anytime to visit.  The village is beautifully neat and tidy and they obviously spend much time sweeping the paths and gardening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beautifully kept village<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A young girl husks a drinking coconut for us on our tour of the village<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Oscar and Karen invite us for a meal, as does Solomon and his family, and we have to start declining more offers otherwise we\u2019ll never get away from here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spend a morning with Eileen showing her the kits and giving her and a couple of the other ladies instructions on how to sew more. I\u2019ve brought in all my spare material which hopefully will keep them going for a while. They\u2019re sassy, funny, resourceful women, we laugh a lot and I thoroughly enjoy the time I spend with them.  By the time we leave, they\u2019ve made another twenty kits in addition to the 15 I\u2019ve given them. Wow, that\u2019s impressive! Hopefully Eileen can do an in-service to other teachers in the area so the sewing skills can be shared with more women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eileen with the ‘Days for Girls’ kits at her house. On the walls are her husband’s model sailing canoes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every time the wind blows the dads and kids are out in the shallows racing their model canoes – it looks like a lot of fun!
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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model canoe racing inside the reef<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We thoroughly enjoy our time in Longan. The dinners are simple but delicious – fried fish, boiled fish, chicken in coconut milk, greens, sago pudding, fried bananas – and we enjoy learning more about Ninigo life.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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lunch at Solomon’s house<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On our last day here Oscar, his two sons and Stanley take us out for a sail on his canoe – there\u2019s not much wind but it\u2019s still a fabulous experience and so interesting to see how they set and trim the sails.  Oscar is a racer through and through – he\u2019s constantly tweaking the trim.  To tack the boat they have to bring the whole sail down and reset it on the other side. Oscar says when they\u2019re racing they have 6-7 crew and can do this manoeuvre in a matter of minutes. The other crucial crew member is the \u2018engineer\u2019 – he\u2019s in the bottom of the boat bailing as fast as he can!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bruce, Stanley and the ‘engineer’ on Oscar’s canoe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The outrigger on the canoe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Oscar setting up the boom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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the ‘engineer’ on a break!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Oscar and sons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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coming into the shore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Other locals out for a sail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On our final night the village put on a farewell dinner for us at the school, complete with speeches and farewell songs. How lucky are we to have been accepted into these communities and to get a glimpse of their lives?\u00a0 They\u2019re the nicest, friendliest people we\u2019ve met in all our travels.\u00a0 We\u2019d love to stay longer but our PNG visas are almost expired. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have time to spend a couple of days back at Ahu Island. We snorkel, paddle our canoes and walk on the beach – what a great spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The beach at Ahu Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bruce making friends with a juvenile reef shark. The black colour in the water is a bait ball of tiny fish.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We spend a couple more days back at Mal before reluctantly heading off to Vanimo on the mainland, carrying all our beautiful memories of Ninigo with us. \u201ckemulik wanen\u201d (thank you very much) to all our new friends at Longan and Mal Islands. We\u2019ll miss you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We\u2019ve heard a lot about Longan Island from other cruisers, and it sounds like a great place to share the last of our trading goods.  I\u2019m also keen to distribute more of the \u2018Days for Girls\u2019 kits to the school there.  Longan Island is on the north side of the lagoon, about 4 hours away … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “It Takes A Village – Longan Island, Ninigos Pt 3”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-svtoucan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6B46t-1GL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6495"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6504,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6495\/revisions\/6504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}