#natalou

The Sabeto Project: Day 15

Short report today as not much really happened which was excellent after last nights stuff around. As an added double bonus, today was probably one of the best planned and organised days of the entire trip, making it so much more enjoyable. The fact that we had a set plan and actually stuck to it allowed all of us to actually feel at ease and take in what was going on around us, instead of always worrying about what we were meant to be doing.

We started the day in Natalau village and went on a tour of the place before our arts and crafts session later in the day. Compared to Sabeto village, Natalou is absolutely gorgeous. The grass is greener, the houses tidier, the gardens well kept and the whole place seemed relatively spotless in comparison. I think this has a lot to do with the chief of the village and how much respect everyone has for him, whereas the Sabeto chief is relatively new and a lot of people have no faith in him so don’t clean up and look after the village.

Afterwards we had a quick demonstration of their arts and crafts before a Lovo lunch of many horrible things. I am really not a fan of the food here, it’s really quite gross. But you know, you have to be polite and at least try the things!! The weirdest of all is they always cook their fish with head and guts intact, which just looks completely disgusting and definitely doesn’t satisfy the appetite.

Thankfully, Michelle and I got our rest today before tonight’s recordings so went straight back to the hotel from Natalou for a nap. Amazingly enough, the recordings went so ridiculously well and we finished at 11pm without any major hiccups at all. The music was absolutely beautiful though and they have such incredible voices, so it was a great experience all round. The only annoying part of the whole night was the tea, coffee and kava gathering afterwards. We ended up sticking around for about an hour and a half and then Geoff had to do two runs to take the women back to Sabeto that took another half an hour. So by 2am and after a good 16 bowls of kava we were finally on our way home!