I'm on a Boat

A couple of months ago, a couple of friends and I took a trip to another Island in Vanuatu called Espiritu Santo to celebrate with some friends over there. To get there, we had two options. We could fly and it would take us fifteen minutes, or we could take a ship and it would take us anywhere from three hours to eight, depending on the ship. In the spirit of trying new things, we decided to take a ship. So we went to the wharf and asked for a ship and the only ship available was one that took copra (a coconut product that Vanuatu exports) to Santo. We decided to jump on this ship and off we went after a couple of hours.

We were about an hour into our trip and were passing a small island called Atchin, when we suddenly saw a speedboat coming after us and the men on the speedboat were signaling for us to stop. I think the crew of the ship recognized the men on the speedboat and did not want to stop, but eventually the speedboat caught up to us and they practically threw a man abroad. From the attitude of the crew of both the ship and the speedboat, nobody was happy about the man coming abroad, but it seemed like they had to let him on. The man came abroad the ship ad immediately went to a cabin and started talking to a woman who was sitting by herself inside. I had noticed that the woman earlier and she looked sad.Now she was pointedly ignoring the man who seemed to be begging her. Eventually a crew member told us the story.

It turns out that the woman is/was the girlfriend of the guy. Let us call him Mr. X and let us call the woman Miss. Y.  So, Miss Y comes from Santo and Mr. X comes from Malekula, from an area called Atchin. Miss. Y and Mr. X had been seeing each other for a while (in Vanuatu, this is called frending. If you ever come to Vanuatu and someone asks if he/she can frend you, it doesn't mean what you think it does). Miss. Y came to Atchin to visit Mr. X and found out that Mr. X had been seeing other women of the alphabetical persuasion. However, I guess that her love for Mr. X could climb any mountain and cross any sea, because she forgave Mr. X and stayed with him. Until one day, Mr. X becomes angry at Miss. Y and, I guess forgetting how strong her love was for him, decided to throw an axe at her. I am not sure if he missed or not, but seeing that Miss. Y was still around, either he missed, or the axe was blunt, however it is sharp enough to destroy the love that Miss. Y had for Mr. X because Miss Y. decided that enough was enough and she left him to go back to Santo and her family. Mr. Y realized his mistake too late and decided that he cannot live without Miss. Y and so finds out the ship that Miss. Y is taking to Santo and decides to come after Miss. Y and beg her to take him back.

Nobody was happy with the man, and I believe that even if she decides to take him back, he will have to deal with her family and make a sorry ceremony or something. However, this was a very interesting beginning to a memorable trip, the details of which will be continued in the next post titled..Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls