Jab Jab

Jeuve began with Jab Jab this morning at 5:30am. That’s not really true. It started about 10pm last night with music throughout the night with the start of the Jab Jab parade at 5:30am this morning. Jab Jab is a reference to the devil. Many are covered from head to toe in molasses or, more usually, used engine oil. Paint, many colours of it, is more usual.

We awoke at 4:45am, grabbed a coffee then headed off to the lagoon to catch the ‘beginning’ of the parade. The parade was the usual trucks with stacks of speakers followed by crowds of followers. It hadn’t started moving along the street when we arrived so we walked towards where the trucks were gathering.

In the dark the atmosphere was a little devilish but overall jovial. It was hard to avoid the paint as some was being thrown around and, more directly, folks in the street carrying cups of paint would smear it on us. It didn’t take long before we began to collect our own daubs.

We soon ran into Jim and walked down the road together back again to the start. We saw the tail end of the parade and the street behind in a mess. The parade was a judged competition so we made our way forward to where the judging was to take place as we figured that’s where the crowds would be most enthusiastic. I eventually concluded they weren’t really holding back at all and everyone was just enjoying themselves.

We watched all the lorries pass us by again and once the tail end had again passed we headed back to the dinghy.

We motored around to the Caranage to see how the procession was going. It was still in full swing snaking all the way around the bay.

Then it was back to the boat to clean up. We stripped off and jumped into the water to try and get rid of most of the paint. Then it was into the shower for more soaping and scrubbing. We still look a little pink and rosy on the cheeks despite our efforts.

Now we’ll rest up a bit before heading back into town. We want to see the pageant competition in the national stadium which starts at 1pm. We don’t have tickets for this so we hope to pick them up at the door or on the way. More later. For now, here are some pics of Jab Jab.