{"id":9473,"date":"2021-04-11T04:07:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-11T11:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=9473"},"modified":"2021-04-10T21:56:38","modified_gmt":"2021-04-11T04:56:38","slug":"souvenirs-from-vanuatu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/vanuatu\/vanuatu-vanuatu\/souvenirs-from-vanuatu\/","title":{"rendered":"Souvenirs from Vanuatu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When we lived in Vanuatu, we bought a few souvenirs, but not many. There were a couple of shops on Port Vila’s main street with items designed to attract tourists, especially the Aussies who sailed in every few weeks on a big cruise ship. The stores’ specialty was T-shirts with humorous or obscene images on the front or back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vanuatu’s people live a simple life, close to the earth. They don’t make ornate handicrafts. They make things that are meant to be used not sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These are a couple of masks I bought at a shop in Port Vila. The dark mask on the right was made in Vanuatu. The long, lighter colored mask is from the Solomon Islands, a neighboring country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These slit drums (also called tamtams<\/em>) are used to call the village together by hitting across the slit <\/em>with a big stick. The sound it makes isn’t loud, but the villagers live close together, and since there are no televisions or traffic, the slit drum doesn’t need to make much noise. In the photo on the right, you can see the height of our largest tamtam<\/em>. It’s over six feet tall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Robert, who worked for our landlord, hooked my husband up with some carvers from his home island who were staying in an encampment in the woods at the edge of town. Eugene asked them to carve the three tamtams<\/em> you see above. He also ordered a dugout canoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The canoe was seaworthy. That’s all you could say for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’d think that living on a chain of islands, the ni-Vanuatu would be good sailors. But they mainly live in inland villages. They plant yams and raise pigs. Of course, they catch fish now and then, but it’s not a mainstay of their diet. Their dugout canoes are heavy, they have no real keel and only one outrigger, so (as we found out) two people attempting to maneuver one canoe is more comedy than fun. Eugene and I gamely took our canoe out on the water a few times, but our zigzagging path up the lagoon was so annoying and we shouted at each other to turn this way or that so many times that we finally gave it up. We ended up pulling the offending canoe ashore and getting some help to move it to our backyard where we used it for a planter. The bougainvillea spilling over its sides was beautiful and a great save.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As you can see, the pendant on this necklace is shaped like a tamtam<\/em>. I bought it at a small jewelry shop in Port Vila run by a Frenchman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a reminder: When in Vanuatu<\/em> will be published on April 27, 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Facebook Launch party, sponsored by the Edmonds Bookshop<\/a> will be at 6:00 pm on April 29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we lived in Vanuatu, we bought a few souvenirs, but not many. There were a couple of shops on Port Vila’s main street with items designed to attract tourists, especially the Aussies who sailed in every few weeks on a big cruise ship. The stores’ specialty was T-shirts with humorous or obscene images on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[43,253,1,2093],"tags":[2138,2137,2136,2134,2135],"class_list":["post-9473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-travel","category-vanuatu-vanuatu","category-when-in-vanuatu","tag-carvings","tag-masks","tag-slit-drums","tag-souvenirs","tag-tamtams"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-2sN","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8374,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/vanuatu\/vanuatu-vanuatu\/vanuatu-a-country-with-no-covid-19\/","url_meta":{"origin":9473,"position":0},"title":"Vanuatu, a Country with no COVID-19","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"September 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't lived in Vanuatu since 1993. 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