Thursday 14 October 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Banam Bay, Malakula, Vanuatu; Thursday 14 October 2010 בס"ד

Today is Nadja's birthday. Aboard the ship, I read more Mauritius Command, then passed out until lunch, as I was still recovering from being kavafied. I woke up completely refreshed, ate lunch, and went ashore on the 1300 skiff. I went walking with Georgie, Vicky, and Dapper along the beach looking for a spot to chill before the Kastoms Dans (customary dance). Vicky had to leave soon after we found one to go do clinic stuff, and so it was the three of us. We were sitting around telling stories and talking about people when all of a sudden, I just crawled over to a nearby tree and started violently puking my guts out. It all kind of went black for me once this started happening, but according to what I heard from Georgie and Dapper, I was saying the funniest stuff between pukes. Examples include: “I need to chew my beans better,” and “Take an action photo!” Dapper did take a photo, and it's pretty funny. Anyway, the two of them just kind of sat with me for several hours making sure I didn't die, and we all missed the Kastoms Dans. Just at dusk, I managed to recover my senses, and was like, “What the hell just happened?” So we walked over to the village and met up with everybody having the after-party at the community center. I was thinking of leaving for a soon-scheduled skiff run, but as I arrived the Captain saw me and thought I was on my way out, not in, and told me I shouldn't leave since this is once in a lifetime sort of stuff. Not wanting to tell him that I was puking away my life force for a few hours, I stuck around and actually had a low tide of kava. That helped me recover better, and at some point Shawn and Dave got me in on doing a dance for the villagers Palmerston style. We did it, and it sucked horribly, but hey, I was back in action! Danced a little bit, and caught the last skiff back to the ship.