Wokabaot Nomo

by Timothy

While walking through one of hundreds of similar coconut plantations here on Ambrym my mind was elsewhere. I am thinking about December 7th and the change that will bring to my life. I am distracted from the beauty around me until I hear a large thump a foot or two behind me, coconut. Anxiety overtakes me, " I was almost killed," and my heart rate quickens. Then I settle down with the comfort of one of the many lessons that I have learned here. A coconut plantation, like life, can be encountered in many ways. If you take it too cautiously and go slow all the while looking up, you may only be delaying the inevitable and you may trip over a log or step in cow shit. Each outcome showcases the folly of being too focused on one thing, especially worrying. Or you can race through the plantation and hope to avoid the possible projectile. But if you do so you may miss the afternoon sun on the coconut stumpas turning them a soft yellow-orange. Whichever method you decide to use, if a coconut is going to hit you, it will hit you-such is life. Just enjoy the beauty of your surroundings, whatever they may be.

While here in Vanuatu I have uttered those words of this story title more times than I can count. Whether because that really was all I was doing or because I didn't want to tell that particular person exactly where I was going, I said "wokbaot nomo." These two words however simple they seem have come to encapsulate my and Megan's entire experience as volunteers in North Ambrym. In looking at the Bislama word "wokbaot," it means the physical act of walking, going someplace on a specific errand or a sabbatical like trip from your place of origin. In the true spirit of Bislama I have used it in all these manners and sometimes it has meant all these at once. Before coming to Vanuatu I was an avid hiker, not much of a walker, but a hiker. I guess it is just a technicality of one word sounding more rugged and mountain based while the other makes me think of my grandparents attempts to stay in shape by cruising the neighborhood. I considered myself in fairly good shape and whenever the weekend came it was to Mt. Rainier to hike or some state park for mountain biking. But now that we have come to Vanuatu I am a walker. This is only due to the lack of the appropriate word in Bislama not that the activity has changed much, so I guess I really am a "wokbaoter." In my case, wokbatoing has been hard and kicked my butt more often than not, but I suppose that's because it's been in North Ambrym. For those of you who have not been there, think bigfala hill and that is it. Ambrym is shaped something like a triangle with its twin volcanoes in the middle, isolating the 3 points. North Ambrym is shaped like a peninsula at the tip of this triangle with a large mountain directly in the middle. From Mt. Vetlam (1,175m), which literally means "really big" mountain in tolongken the language of North Ambrym, everything goes straight downhill to the sea. For us in Fangever village we are about 1/3 the way up its slope and one of the highest villages at 350 meters. From here everyplace we normally walk is downhill (read: everything is uphill coming home). All the slopes of Mt. Vetlam, and all of North Ambrym, are covered with thick bush growing out of soft dark, volcanic soil. Gardens flourish here and yams grow to 2 meters long and 20-25 cm in diameter, no joke. Only the occasional coconut plantation interrupts this thick beauty.

This is the backdrop to all of Meg and my walks and we have come to love it more and more as our familiarity with this place grows. We can now walk most the usual roads in the dark because we know them so well and know all the obstacles, holes etc.. Granted we prefer the daytime, but too many times we have been caught away from home at dusk with no torch. It has become a passion for us to walk. For various reasons we leave the village about 3-4 times a week for a walk and clock up at least 20-25km a week of walking. We have our normal routes: to Ranon (Eric&Christie) 6km roundtrip, to Linbul (telephone) 3km RT, to Fonah (Coop) 5km RT, to Olal (Church) 10km RT, to our garden 1km RT or to Ranle (our new school site) 1km RT. So a normal week has us going to church on Sunday at the Catholic mission in Olal, the garden, a couple trips to the phone to check on stuff for the school, a trip to the coop and at least 4-5 trips to the new school site where a classroom is being built. Then there are the not so regular trips like to go visit students in Fonteng 15km RT, 4 trips to the volcano thus far 30km RT (we did this one time in a long 13 hour day) and our latest excursion a 4 day round island walk that was 60km along the uninhabited east coast. And of course there are the times when we "wokbaot nomo" and have no objective and just want to go to the beach or visit friends in neighboring villages. As wonderful as the people in our village are, we early on decided to get out and make contacts and friends elsewhere as well. In doing so I am sure we have meet 90% of the 2,500 people it is said reside in North Ambrym, and we have been to every village (all 53). We didn't realize how great a decision this was till later on or even now as we look back on our experience.
By walking around North Ambrym and meeting people we helped spread the news about our RTC and the work going on there, thus making future students interested in coming. We walked and broke down stereotypes about what it means to be a "whiteman." Despite being a minor tourist destination in Vanuatu, North Ambrym sees only about 100-150 tourists a year. On top of this most don't make it away from the coast or the volcano hike starting point, so villages like ours don't see many. Fangever has had 6 white people come through since we have been here. So, by meeting others and forming friendships we break down the damage done by thoughtless tourists. We walk and form "roads" to differing villages, i.e. friendships and contacts in the kastom villages where the black magic of Ambrym is still alive and well. Some locals call Ambrym "Tabras" because of this, terrible island. If we didn't wokbaot we would miss out on this wonderful aspect of Vanuatu, or more specifically of North Ambrym. Our village is SDA and thus they have supposedly swore off kastom and other "pagan" beliefs. People know some of the stories and believe in other people using "apio" (poison, nakamas, black magic), but they aren't allowed to be too vocal about it or too interested. So, in making roads to other villages, especially Fanla, Neuha and Halhal, we have been honored by invitations to kastom ceremonies. We have been to the tourist paid for dances and nimangki ceremonies, but these don't compare to the real thing. When kastom chiefs (yafukon) and other men in the kastom society perform real nimangki (grade taking) and Rom dances, done for themselves and to preserve there traditions, it is amazing. And this is why we walk, and continue to wokbaot, because our time here has been made immensely more rich by seeing all of this place we have called home for nearly 2 years.
And now it is almost time to go back to hiking and we can almost count down the kilometers left in North Ambrym. If we go by the average there is only about 250km left to go. I hope I always remember the wisdom of walking in the coconuts. Don't slow and get caught up in your worries, don't speed up and miss the beauty, just wokbaot nomo and enjoy the time you have been given.