At the Foot of Mount Yasur

(The travelogue below by Usha Alexander has just appeared in The Best Travel Writing for 2007 by Travelers’ Tales.)

I am six hundred miles east of the Great Barrier Reef in the archipelago of Vanuatu—or, as they say in Vanuatu, the “ni-Vanuatu” archipelago—home to nine active volcanoes. One of these, Mount Yasur on the southern island of Tanna, is said to be the most easily accessible live volcano in the world. Anyone can walk right up and peer down into its fiery belly. A real volcano: fire and brimstone and flying ash.

It is late in the dry season when I get to Tanna with my friend, Michael. The days are crisp and warm, the nights cool enough to require long pants and a sweatshirt—a departure from the perpetual warmth of Ambae, more famously known as Michener’s “Bali Hai,” which is the more northerly island, just shy of the equator, where I have lived and worked for eight months as a Peace Corps science teacher. We plan to spend three days at Port Resolution, and then head up to Ienemaha, the village closest to the crater, where Michael’s tenth-grade student, David, lives. David adores Michael as his teacher and a living soccer maestro, so his family graciously asked us to be their guests for a couple of days.

We climb onto a flatbed truck near Lenakal, the tiny capital of Tanna, alongside about a half-dozen Tannese, and jostle and bounce the dirt road distance across the island to Port Resolution. As teachers and foreigners, it always feels we are the objects of special attention, especially from the children. In animated Bislama, the local lingua franca, they ask about us and are eager to tell stories along the drive. Mostly, they recite meandering folktales, busting into giggles at the anthropomorphized exploits of familiar animals and magical beings.

(Continue reading At the Foot of Mount Yasur)

Comments

[Ruchira Paul]

Usha:
What a sparkling piece of writing! Not a surprise at all that it made it into the ranks of best travel writing for 2007. Thanks for sharing this magical experience with us.

A couple of questions. Where exactly is Vanuatu? Please provide a reference with a more commonly known place in its vicinity. Also, you speak the local language? Did you teach the kids science in English or in their native tongue? If the latter, how did you manage to become fluent enough?

I noted with interest your tempered take on "paradise," infested often as it is with snakes, mosquitos and intruders against whom one must lock one's door. It annoys me when wild eyed city slickers try to romanticize all untrammeled exotic places as the Garden of Eden, ignoring at their own peril, the serpent that lurks. And thanks most of all for the tale of man vs dugong. My heart leapt with joy at the outcome!

[Usha]

Thanks for your kind remarks, Ruchira. I love to tell people about Vanuatu :^)

Vanuatu is an archipelago in the South Pacific, nearly 800 miles long, stretching like a great, lopsided "Y" from about 10º S latitude to somewhere in the 20ºs S latitudes. It consists of some 85 islands (exact count depends upon whom you ask), most of which are inhabited. These islands aren't as tiny as the Micronesian atolls; I believe the largest handful are comparable to the mid-sized Hawaiian islands in size. Most have a rugged, montane landscape.

The country is difficult to spot on a map, but look in the vast oceanic space approximately between New Zealand to the south and the Solomon Islands (or Papua New Guinea) to the northwest. To the west is New Caledonia; to the East is Fiji. (Even Wikipedia doesn't have a decent map of it.) But here's Vanuatu on Google Maps.

The islands' lingua franca, Bislama, is an English-based creole. I learned it through Peace Corps training and partial immersion. For an English speaker, it's not too hard to pick up enough for basic communication (precisely the beauty of a creole). But I often got lost in the course of long-winded speeches or involved stories.

The school where I taught was an English medium school (all schools are either English or French medium). It was the school rule to speak only English with the students, and I always did. Given the poverty of resources and the cultural gap, I don't know how much science my kids really learned, but I'm glad I was at least able to contribute to their English learning.

[Shreyasi]

I have read this travelogue countless times from Mr. Namit's site and it has been my inspiration for a number of years now. I am very happy that it has made it to 'The Best Travel writing'. Congratulations and please keep it up !

[Yoram Yasur]

What an amazing volcano! This is incredible, I want to go there!