Fiji

We go to the Methodist church on Sunday.  We don't understand anything except the little bit they say in English for our benefit.  What impresses me most is the church bell.  Every church we've been to since leaving home has had regular bells.  Bing-Bong, Bing-Bong, Bing-Bong.  After we sit down in this church, which we think starts at 10:00 but in fact starts at 10:30, there is this loud Thunk....Tink-Tink...........Thunk…Tink-Tink...........Thunk...  Tink-Tink.  We go outside to a little gazebo, and see a woman swinging an 18" long by 2" diameter club against big old hollowed-out block of wood, emitting a loud pleasant Thunk…Tink-Tink.

Vanuatu

One thing we don't miss about the U. S. is all of the concrete walkways, barricades, and signs to control our access if this volcano were there.  We drive to the gate, and pay our entrance fee, then park in an area big enough for 4 cars, and are let out to roam.  We hike about a quarter mile up to the rim to witness the most fantastic fireworks show we’ve ever seen.  All by ourselves, us and a couple from another boat, and we walk right to the rim. In the States, they'd have a sign saying something like: "Danger, big hot flying rocks can cause serious injury or death."  In Vanuatu, they assume you might already know it. 

We stand there and then all of a sudden, kawhummp, and the earth shakes, and big orange blobs fly out by the hundreds, high into the air, and then land all around the inside of the rim, mostly on the far side of where we are.  Most of these rocks probably aren't much bigger than a twenty-seven inch television, but when they land on the rim, oftentimes shattering, it sounds like a hailstorm.  The whole volcano is less than a kilometer across at the rim, and there are plenty of twenty-seven inch television sized rocks outside the rim, even as far as the parking lot, causing us to keep our eyes open.  The wind is whipping up here, from the rising heat of the volcano sucking in air from all around it, and we’re all coated with ash and sand until we get back to Faith.  In our eyes, in our hair, in our cameras (but we got some great shots), and everywhere.  We’re washing sand out of certain crevices on our persons for days to come.