Day 5 Vanuatu - Our introduction to fireworks.

Everything was blissfully quiet the morning after the earthquake when we all woke up.

Age was still exhausted and slept till past ten, grumbled as his eyes opened and promptly went back to sleep. 

I was thankful I'd packed a bunch of craft and art supplies for the kids to keep active with. They were really good at staying quiet while we slept and getting their own breaky. 

This mornings craft was spent digging away at a block of plaster of paris which promised glow in the dark dinosaur bones. It made a huge mess and produced a few slivers after about half an hour of hard slog. The kids got a bit jack of it, the heat and the flies. I don’t blame them, I was sick of it after a few mins of scoring and digging at it.  My romantic idea of being a archeologist was finally dashed at that moment…

With Adrian still not well and very tired, we decided to go off for the day and wander around the streets and port. The kids were pretty set on seeing what was open and to play on the parks there.

I’d been amazed at the selection and availability of fireworks around. Here in Aust they are banned and only the older ones of us can remember firecracker night.  It seemed every corner store had a display of them outside, as well as any bloke who had a spare set of stairs to prop them up on. So, what does a fine upstanding, sensible mother do when faced with a load of really cheap fireworks with no instructions in English?  Thats right - she goes and buys a bunch.  Well, to say there was no English my be a bit unfair.  Each one had a picture of where to light it or ignite it and the words - “light and run.”

We wandered about town, knowing that most places would be closed, but delighted in the tiny spots where still attracted people. I know I am going to sound really dumb and culturally insensitive here - but there were heaps of people, just sitting around. On stairs, on the street and in the gutters. just accumulated and sitting.  What the heck where they waiting for?  In one spot we found some live music but after a while decided that Vanuatuan music was a little off beat for us.  They certainly had a lot of joy and energy in their exuberant displays of musicianship.  I guess my ears weren’t in tune with them though.  We found a little cafe and on our mission to have fish and chips - found. yep - no fish.. however they did have chips so we ate local yam fries. They are super starchy and sweet.

We found the juice bar down on the docks and while the kids ate ice cream, I had a coffee, discovering that it had free wi fi. It was pretty slow and timed out alot, so I stopped getting excited about it. I did  load up a few photos from Christmas onto facebook, but quickly dismissed the idea of coming here often as it was a good 3 km walk to our place - one way We played connect four on a set that kept dumping all the disks - but made us laugh anyway. It rained spiratically but you kind of get used to the jeckle and hyde nature of the weather where is stinking hot then suddenly pouring with rain. 

We got home to discover Age had gone off exploring by himself for the afternoon and had only just arrived himself.  Morgan proudly displayed all the fireworks we bought and set about telling all the other occupants in the complex about our fireworks display to night.

In inky darkness, we set all the fireworks up along the jetty. The kids loved the small bangers which exploded when you threw them on the ground.  My personal favourite ones were the cherry bombs which you lit and threw into the water.  They exploded from a depth of a few feet, lighting up the watery surrounds.  Boy they were loud if they didn’t reach the water though!  Age set up some fountains at the end of the jetty, which showered silvery spurts into the sky.  

Our finale was a rocket which was stuck into the sand and lit - and everyone ran and hid ( just as the instructions said) It shot off with a huge sizzle and exploded colours into the night sky.  So awesome!  hummm.. might have to buy some more tomorrow!

There were some other young folk there who were equally impressed and promised to take it in turns each night to provide the fireworks.. what fun!

Earthquake

I certainly was enjoying all the extra time sleeping. I can’t recall the last time I had more than 6 hours!  But all good things come to an end they say. Christmas evening - a few hours after everyone had gone to sleep, I woke, feeling pretty ordinary. I blamed having eaten half a cow at lunch time.  A bit of a rude shock for all of our bodies after being vegan for most of the year. I felt feverish suddenly so piled two blankets on top of me while everyone sweltered with the aircon on. The romantic in me says that I felt the disturbance in the earths energy. Its more probable that it was my lunch telling me I was a pig and was now feeling the effects of my overindulgence.

I got up again, uneasy and checked if the kids were ok, then got a drink and went back to bed. I tossed and turned and stared at the dark ceiling, wondering if I was doomed to stare at it for hours till the sun came up. 

Then bed started to shake; not just a little - but violently. At first, I thought Age was having a major seizure. However, I put my hands on him and found he was blissfully snoring on. The bed continued to shake and I started to wonder if I was in a scene of the poltergeist. and then everything stopped.  

I heard dogs howling and knew then it was an earthquake. I got out of bed to check onthe kids and then went outside. Others within the complex were also searching the inky darkness and chatting excitedly.  Further down the street I heard shouting and cars began to beep their horns. 

There didn’t seem to be any damage or anything to do, and given my whole family were still snoring away, I went back to bed and fell quickly asleep.

Later the next morning I found out that it had been a 7.7 with some disturbance with the water levels. However, watching the beach, there didn't seem to be much difference. Perhaps the high tide was larger.  We were warned not to go into the water for the rest of the day; so given that, we planned for a quiet day.