“Look stranger, on this Island now The leaping light for your delight discovers”. Each Island we have visited has been beautifully distinctive. Fiji that we just left way surpassed expectations and today we ate delicious simboro outside of Port Vila in Vanuatu!

My late mother Marcelle (“Cella”) Schkolne ‘nee a Cohen Treves of blessed memory had the most soothing beautiful singing voice. She sang hauntingly and tenderly that: “Que Sera, Sera.  Whatever will be will be, the future’s not ours to see, Que Sera Sera”.

Last year, when we were contemplating this cruise, one of the key factors that swung it for Sheryl was the opportunity to visit Easter Island and its evocative moai statues that had always fascinated her. So we booked, and celebrated with Dr Seuss: “Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!…..”You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll Join the High Fliers who Soar to Great Heights” “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…” 

When, anchored off Easter Island, the Captain ended a lengthy announcement with: “continue to stand by, but it does not look promising”, we knew that the sea would be too rough to go ashore. And there have been other potentially wonderful, special places on the itinerary that we were not able to go to  – due to weather, change in specifications about which ships are allowed in and of course, the big one: COVID-19.

So  – there have been disappointments!  We realised quite quickly that when on a ship as a passenger, you are not the person who decides where to go! And neither is the ship’s management!!   Which Port next, if any! is a mystery…

“Oh the places you’ll go… Except when you don’t because sometimes you won’t”!

“… there’s a very good chance  you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.”  “I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.”  “Out there things can happen, and frequently do, To people as brainy and footsy as you. And when things start to happen, don’t worry, don’t stew. Just go right along, you’ll start happening too!” 

It is sometimes difficult being away.   One morning recently we woke up to learn that, in the words of Catherine and Alain, the wonderful people from France that are staying at our house in Milnerton Cape Town, the “geyser had “exploded” (over the week-end!) !  We were about to disembark in Papeete, Tahiti in French Polynesia, 12 hours behind South Africa. Profuse amounts of water through the roof damaging ceilings and walls, drenching the carpets in various rooms and causing serious damage to important files, precious books and casettes. Yair our son has been amazing   – taking charge of the situation. The carpets have now all been ripped up and we await the Insurance Assessors report. One kind of wants to be at home under these circumstances!

Some have suggested that, especially due to COVID-19  –  we cut and return home while we can. Some on the ship intend to do that!  However, everything considered, despite the Bang-ups and Hang-ups, we are not seriously considering that right now!

The people in Fiji, who greet you with their welcoming hello: “Bula”, were wonderfully warm and friendly. The beauty of its impossibly green and dense mountainside. The Waterfalls, botanical gardens, hot springs and mud baths. The humidity.  The azure coloured seas. The living coral and multicoloured fish.

The woman who cut my hair had never been “abroad”. (I could speak to her! I couldn’t to the hairdresser in Montevideo that cut my hair six weeks ago. He couldn’t speak any English at all. And I can’t speak Spanish. Luckily “hair” is a universal language and he did a great job!)  Her son was in the Barbershop. He plays rugby and she had hopes that he would make the National team which would give him opportunities to travel and to develop a career. There are interesting religions in Fiji  – Christianity is the main religion but also Hindu, Islam, Hare Krishna and apparently about 50 Jewish people. Fiji reputedly has the highest proportion of Hare Krishna people relative to the whole population, of any country in the world.   The most fervently practiced religion that I experienced there however, was Rugby. The Fijians are incredibly proud of their rugby team  – especially their “Sevens” team that has inter alia won Olympic Gold!   The few people that we had proper conversations with in Fiji had also not been abroad: the taxi driver, the bus driver and the incredibly friendly shop assistant.

And so we recognised yet again how incredibly privileged we are to be on this travel experience, and how small our disappointments in the greater scheme of things….

Each Polynesian Island we visited was spectacular. There are consistent cultural practices across them all such as the ubiquitous flowers in their ears and the crowns of flowers decorating their heads. There was the little Polynesian girl feeding the Khoi fish in Papeete – with her Polynesian grandmother. Distinctive. Yet this could have been a granddaughter with her grandmother anywhere. In this way, people are people everywhere…

Today we learnt a little Bislama – the English spoken in Vanuatu. We for example saw the “Pablik Laebri Blong Port Vila. Vanuatu Kaljoral Senta” (Which of course is: Public Library (that belongs in) Port Vila and the Vanuatu Cultural Centre). Not to mention the “Nambawan Premium Bia Blong Vanuatu” (Ie Number one Premium Beer belongs in Vanuatu). We ate simboro: grated tapioca, wrapped in Island cabbage and boiled in coconut milk for 15 minutes. Tomorrow and the day after promise to be further special Vanuatu experiences, at Champagne Beach and Pentecost Island with the death defying Naghol ceremony jumpers.

Meantime, COVID-19 is impacting more broadly, more globally all the time and it seems, the situation is deteriorating.

So after Vanuatu: What next?

“It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. Tho’ much is taken, much abides”

“Strangely enough it all turns out well” says Geoffrey Rush in “Shakespeare in Love”. How? His ubiquitous answer:  “I don’t know – It’s a mystery”

We have been to great places over the last couple of months. And if from here we don’t –  then we won’t!!    C’est la vie.   It is all indeed a Mystery and Whatever will be will be…… 

I remind myself that: “When things start to happen, don’t worry, don’t stew. Just go right along, you’ll start happening too!” 

Written by Raymond

Quotes from: “Look, Stranger” by WH Auden; “Oh the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss; “Ulysses” by Tennyson