We had quite light winds so we motored up the west coast of Nathula Island and anchored beneath Sawa-I-Lau. On the way we had two lines out and snagged a nice sized Walu which we bled and kept to be given to the Nabukeru villagers later.
After lunch and a rest we all piled into the dinghy and headed ashore. We had hoped to meet our previous friendly guide, John, but he’s been away on the mainland. He had been expected to return on the boat that day but he’d apparently missed it. Hopefully we’ll see him today. We gave away our fish to the locals who met us on the beach – they were quite pleased – before heading off to visit the school.
We’d brought some supplies for the school. Janine had brought a few things from Australia and we had the school supplies that Anne and John had brought but had been unable to donate as it had been stuck in their delayed luggage. After donating the supplies we were allowed to visit the classrooms. The first was a computer lesson. We were bowled over to see the kids working on about 12 laptops which had been a gift from the Melbourne Rotary. They were all playing hangman and seemed to be enjoying despite the fact that the phrases they were guessing (observed examples being “Cray Research” and “The Milagro Beanfield War”) had to be pretty meaningless to them. I was pleased to see they had other software, one which reinforced times table knowledge by firing random questions – the best way to learn I believe.
After visiting the school we decided to climb the hill behind making it all the way to the top to see the fantastic views from there. After a needed rest we descended back down to the village where we were given some fresh coconuts to drink from and a couple of papaya. We also bought a few bananas from one of the locals who also asked for some cream for a nasty condition on his ankles. After dropping everyone at the boat Brian and I returned with some cream. Our next request was for some ice as someone had hurt their elbow. That we could do so another round trip. We had feared to return to a ward load of ailed villagers with new requests but fortunately that was that.
This morning we’ll visit the caves before the ‘crowds’ arrive. Visitors are brought up from nearby resorts so we want to beat them to it and have the place to ourselves. Fingers crossed for John’s return so we can repeat the climb up to the white rock and perhaps view sunset there.
One last hope for today will be some lobsters. One of the villagers offered to catch some for us last night. If they’ve had any luck they’ll show this morning sometime. My mouth drools.
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