Relax day – or not?

Today I slept in because the tour to the other cannibal tribe the ‚Big Nambas‘ was postponed to tomorrow. So I decided to walk to Lakatoro where the internet cafe is. I prepared a USB-stick with pics and then started to walk. On the little map in the Lonely Planet it looked like Norsup and Lakatoro are right next to each other but I am outside of Norsup in the direction of Lakatoro and to the first houses I walked 45 minutes (and then within the village more walking). The road is dirty so whenever a car sped by I got a dust-cloud on me. Two cars stopped and asked me if I wanted a lift (probably laughing about the stupid white tourist who walked… 😉 ) but I kindly declined. The first shops that I saw was a Supermarket, a butcher and several banks. I went into the supermarket to buy water but the shelves were nearly empty. In the fridge the only thing I saw were chocolate easter bunnies… 😀

Since I didn’t see an internet cafe but knew that there was one I continued on the road and walked another couple of minutes. There was no sign that the village continued so finally I decided to turn around to get back to the supermarket and ask there. But then I saw a white-skinned woman coming up and I approached her to ask if she knew where the internet cafe was. She was a german frpm Berlin who had emigrated to New Zealand 13 years ago and is volunteering in Vanuatu right now. Since she headed in the direction that I had to take we walked together for a bit. She showed me the market and then behind a soccer-field I had to turn right and go up the hill. There was another supermarket that actually had drinks (no water but sprite, coke, milk etc.) and attached to it was the internet cafe. But again it was my lucky day because the internet didn’t work. A kind lady called the internet company and they said they had technical problems and that we should retry one hour later. I waited 1.5 hours and then I left. While I waited several men came inside to use the internet as well and with one I had a nice conversation. At this point let me tell you a little bit about the people in Vanuatu: they are all very kind. And they giggle a lot when they are in company. Even the men giggle. Conversations usually start with the question where I am from. Then I am asked which places in Vanuatu I am visiting and then either they ask me how many kids I have/if I am married OR they tell me that they are happy that Germany won the Soccer World Championship. 🙂

So – while waiting for the internet to finally start working I listened to a band playing songs in front of the supermarket. Some people remained to watch and sing or clap along. I have a video of that (I think I will have to do a Vanuatu-video when I get back since some things simply can’t be caught on a foto….)

When I finally decided to leave the sun had disappeared so I walked back too instead of hopping on a truck. When I was back in my room I was a bit tired. 3 hours of walking…. but I am glad I did it. Tonight we obviously have a barbeque in the garden and I have been told that I need to taste cava. Cava is the national schnaps that is usually only drunk by men. But for female tourists there are obviously exceptions…. So – we will see. I have read that one is enough because after two you might not be able to walk straight any more… 😉
And tomorrow it will be BIG Namba-Tour in the morning. I don’t know yet what I will do in the afternoon since my Kindle died on me and so I have nothing to read (no books to buy here….). But I will find something to do… maybe visit Norsup although I don’t think there is a lot to see or do.