Yesterday we set off early leaving Port Stanley behind. We reached Banam Bay around 3pm and were greated by a pod of small dolphines. It was too late to go ashore but not too late for a swim. Not long after we got out of the water we had a visit from three kids in a canoe welcoming us to their bay. They had brought us some pomeloes.
A few minutes later two more canoes arrived from across the bay. They weren’t quite as polite. Without invitation one of them climbed aboard and was looking around to see what we had. They told us we should go to their village to see the waterfall. They didn’t mention they charge people to go see the waterfall. We asked them to leave and they did.
This morning was productive. We had breakfast and a swim then did a few jobs, all before 8am. We then loaded the dinghy with things for one of the villages we had vistited before. As soon as we had dragged the dinghy up the beach Rasras and some other kids from the village raced down to meet us. They had recognised Imagine therefore hadn’t come out to harass us in their canoe.
Once in the “Vilig Nuba Fiv” (village number five) we distributed kids clothes donated by Kmart NZ along with adults clothes donated by others. We noticed the village boat had no anchor so we went back to Imagine to get them an anchor and rope donated by Darren (my brother). They gave us some pomeloes and told us to come back and they will get us some Chinese Cabage.
We went back to Imagine for lunch, then loaded the dinghy again and headed to a different part of the Bay. We found the track that took us to the village where we had repaired their boat a few weeks ago. Again they had recognised us and welcomed us in. We distributed the clothes to both adults and kids, getting lots of laughter as we tried to match people to sizes
Paulo showed us the new house he was building, while others went off to get us some fruit and veggies. They brought a spade that had split while they were digging and asked if we could fix it. We took it with us when they drove us back to the beach. I went to Imagine to get the angle grinder to cut the split section off. That didnt last long as the battery was almost flat. So it was old school time and use the hacksaw.
We then returned to Vilag Numa Fiv and found Rasras and his mother who invited us back to their house and gave us some Chinese cabage. They told us there had been five boats come into the Bay this season and we were the only one that offered them anything for their fruit.
Back on Imagine B prepared dinner using the Chinese cabage, which we would call Bok Choy.
