We timed our circuit of Malekula to coincide with the Big Namba Namaki Ceremony at Leviamp on the north west coast. This ceremony occurs every 15 to 30 years when a paramount chief passes his title to the next generation; it's like a coronation. The highlight of Day 1 was the Mens' traditional dancing, a grueling endurance test lasting three hours. Forty-eight men with blackened faces and torsos were decked out with feather headdresses, hot pink pandanus Nambas (penis sheaths), leaves to cover their buttocks (sort of), anklets of seed pods which rattled in unison with the beat of the tamtam, and archaic rifles, many of which malfunctioned at the critical moment. The dancing was primal, performed with energy, enthusiasm, and a lot of dust. During the ceremony the new (and inexperienced) chief had to a club a pig to death, unfortunately a very slow death.

Day 2 featured the Womens' dancing. They also wore feather headdresses and we noticed that most of the roosters in the village were missing their tail feathers, most of the pigs were just missing! The ladies wore hot pink pandanus skirts and bodices. The girls had their faces painted with orange clay, whereas the women wore long pink pandanus veils, presumably to hide their faces from the new chief. Their singing and dancing only lasted about 2 hours, with another pig killing, this time thankfully more effective with a smaller pig.

The anchorage at Leviamp was a "roadstead anchorage," with no protection from the ocean, so on Day 3 when the wind swung around to the south-east, the five yachts anchored for the festival decided to leave. Perhaps it was fortuitous as the agenda for Day 3 was the killing and distribution of 150 pigs to the chiefs and sub-chiefs, and then dancing all night by the entire village and their guests.

Our next stop was Malua Bay for our own endurance test. In 5 days we saw 65 patients, extracted over 80 teeth, did 11 fillings and 19 cleans. After this marathon, I asked David how I was going as a dental nurse. He said I showed potential!!@#? and had great legs! David extracted a tooth from a distinguished looking 90 year old man who had walked 5 hours to reach the clinic. We later learnt that John Peter was actually Chief Armahabath, whose father was the Big Namba "Cannibal King," who was converted to Christianity by the missionaries. Our week in this village was a wonderful experience, building relationships with some special people. It was also quite an emotional experience for me; more than once I had to fight back the tears in my eyes, something that rarely happens back home. When we weighed anchor, we looked back to the beach, and as usual there was a small figure with arms waving widely. In Vanuatu, they have a saying "It's easy to say Hello, but hard to say Goodbye!"

Culinary Corner (returned by popular request): Laplap, laplap and more laplap (it's not a dance)! We've had all the variations - manioc, taro, yam (my favourite), with pumpkin, with fish . When our hostess, Margaret, removed the special giant leaves which wrapped the kastom laplap we had been invited to share, there was a fowl in the centre. She had a big bowl of grated coconut to which she added water, stirred it with her hands, then squeezed the coconut milk over the fowl, forming a dipping sauce.

We've met up again with our German friends from Galatea, the yacht that has been cruising for nine years. Anna Maria has treated us to Mahi Mahi sushi and gravalax. She's even had a fresh spice cake (she grinds the seeds herself) and banana bread ready for us with coffee at the end of a busy day at the clinic.

We caught a small 60cm Skipjack tuna on the sail up to Luganville. As we got it close to the boat, it was a race between David winding it in and two sharks which had already sampled the dorsal fin. I screamed throat-burning shark-scaring noises. The tuna-for-dinner result was Courtesan 1 : Men in Grey suits Nil!

Our current experimental project is making our own 100% chocolate from cacao beans!

Love, Heather

So what is the difference between big namba's and small namba's anyway? Although we both looked intently, we still couldn't tell the difference, finally deciding it's all about my namba's bigger than yours!

This last month or so has been all the things and more that we had hoped for with the remote area dental care and it is alarmingly clear that chronic oral diseases are a significant issue for these folk. I'd just like to take a moment to publicly thank my gorgeous and tireless dental nurse, crew, psychologist and lover to whom I am so fortunate to be married. She always has said yes to just about all my schemes, but has also always vowed to never be my dental nurse...well that's changed and I have to say she's doing well for only a couple of months in the job and there is potential there for Heather to have a distinguished if unwanted career as a Dental Assistant.

Anyway, thank you, as it's only possible to do this work because we are a great team. I'd also like to thank those who drop us a line from home; we really enjoy your news and comments very much and I apologize if I'm not a faithful correspondent with replies. I don't expect any sympathy, but life's busy as hell out here! Time, which has ruled my life as a dentist, has slowed down but speeded up. We find we have the time to really stay in the moment, not worrying about or being scheduled to be at more places and do more things in a day than is sane. Each thing we do, each patient we see, takes as long as it takes, which equals no stress for me, but at times my back says differently [old age??]. So time slows down, but the weeks fly by! I'm calling it DC's law of relativity. lack of time consciousness warps time into a two dimensional mode, the moments last longer and the experiences fly by!

Which brings me to the Millenium Cave trek, which I'm certain will be World Heritage Listed at some point. We'd heard from a few cruisers that it was the best thing they'd done yet and we wondered why. We set off early with Glen Russell, who discovered the cave in 2000 and hence the cave's name. He's a Ni Van who is an environmentalist, bush walker and philosopher and 2hrs in the back of a ute on a bumpy jungle road on the way to the trek with him was engrossing. A 90 min walk from a remote hill village brought us to a river into which we plunged, waded and scrambled as it descended in a series of cascades into the "Cave". The greens of moss and ferns framing the 50 m high entrance gave way to total darkness and the engulfing noise of water finding its way over boulders. Torches on and we could feel the bats and swallows flying by close to our heads, the water drowning out all other noise. At times up to your chest in water, holding the torch high with stalactites and mites throwing shadows, we traversed the 500 m of this river course through the rock, finally opening out to a sun lit river bank where our lunch had been back packed by picanini from the village. Donning wet suits and holding inflated wheel barrow tyre tubes, we entered the canyon which looked impossible to negotiate. A series of ropes, chains, bush ladders and chutes in the massive boulders saw us slowly move down stream to the gorge. Just when you thought, well we've seen the most amazing part, the next experience literally washes over you, as we proceeded to float serenely down the gorge for an hour. Only 5-8 m wide with deeply sculpted 60 m walls, it was like drifting through a gothic cathedral with the green of the sunlit jungle for stained glass high above on the brim. Small waterfalls tinkering down for music. Finally beaching ourselves there appeared no way to get out of this gorge. Armu our guide took two steps and disappeared and following we found ourselves climbing up an almost vertical small waterfall, with natural hold spaces for a confident steady ascent. If you ever make it to Santo the Millenium Cave is a must.

I'll tell you about the Blue Hole next time as things are moving on here, low tide and time to go gather some oysters.

Love David