The ABCs of Vanuatu
I've been living in Vanuatu for over three months now, and while I'm no expert, I have learned some things about this beautiful country.
Yes, you could just Wikipedia the country and learn some basics, but then you aren't allowing me a blog post on the subject, are you?
Above is the flag of Vanuatu. The red represents the blood of the people. The green represents land. Gold represents the Christianity, the predominant religion of the country. The Y is the shape of the formation of the islands.
The tusk on the flag (the swirl around the leaves) represents the kastom way and Melanesian values. The leaves are namele leaves. They represent peace, and are an important part of Vanuatu's culture. They are used to protect land and places. If you want to indicate to others that a beach is off-limits for fishing, you place namele leaves nearby. In certain islands' culture, the chiefs can touch a leaf on land or buildings to claim them as his own. You can place a leaf in front of your garden so no one removes food from it.
There are six provinces of Vanuatu, and they are all named after the island groups of which the province is comprised of.
Torba
Torres
Banks
Penama
Pentacost
Ambae
Maewo
Sanma
Santo
Malo
Malampa
Malekula
Ambrym
Paama
Shefa (my province!)
Shepherds
Efate (my island group!)
Tafea
Tanna
Aniwa
Futuna
Erromango
Aneitym
Each region is known for certain things, just like in the USA. These are those things (both things of interest to locals and to visitors), as told to us by one of our language trainers.
Betcha learned something new.
Yes, you could just Wikipedia the country and learn some basics, but then you aren't allowing me a blog post on the subject, are you?
Above is the flag of Vanuatu. The red represents the blood of the people. The green represents land. Gold represents the Christianity, the predominant religion of the country. The Y is the shape of the formation of the islands.
The tusk on the flag (the swirl around the leaves) represents the kastom way and Melanesian values. The leaves are namele leaves. They represent peace, and are an important part of Vanuatu's culture. They are used to protect land and places. If you want to indicate to others that a beach is off-limits for fishing, you place namele leaves nearby. In certain islands' culture, the chiefs can touch a leaf on land or buildings to claim them as his own. You can place a leaf in front of your garden so no one removes food from it.
There are six provinces of Vanuatu, and they are all named after the island groups of which the province is comprised of.
Torba
Torres
Banks
Penama
Pentacost
Ambae
Maewo
Sanma
Santo
Malo
Malampa
Malekula
Ambrym
Paama
Shefa (my province!)
Shepherds
Efate (my island group!)
Tafea
Tanna
Aniwa
Futuna
Erromango
Aneitym
Each region is known for certain things, just like in the USA. These are those things (both things of interest to locals and to visitors), as told to us by one of our language trainers.
- Torba: Coconut crab, crocodiles
- Penama: Land diving, kava, Manawo lake, black magic, yachting
- Sanma: loads of expats/tourists, Million Dollar Point, largest island, kava
- Shefa: the Underwater Post Office, the capital city of the country, tourism, kava
- Tafea: volcanoes (Tanna is the biggie), kava, kastom (traditional, non-westernized way of living), John Frum
Betcha learned something new.
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