Tantric Yoga in Mongaliliu

I am sitting here in Mangis about a 20 minutes hike north from Mongaliliu. This place has become our little sanctuary away from the village. It is a short hike and it is a beautiful sandy beach under some huge trees. A few of us set out hammocks up and take turns taking naps on this lazy Saturday afternoon. I do feel a little productive today as I helped my Mama make some Pima Coleslaw. The Pima Coleslaw has earned a permanent place among my condiments at my dinner table. It is nice and HOT!!!

As I woke up in my hammock with my book lying across my chest I thought back on how wonderful this last couples of days have been. On Thursday after lunch we divided our group into those who are teacher trainers and those of use that are Regional Training Center Advisors (I am an RTC Volunteer). Well the teacher trainers sat through yet another toktok, while we headed up into the bush and began building a karen (garden.)

When we arrived to the spot it was about 2 feet deep with vines and shrubs and plants. You could not see one inch of dirt due to all the plants. So we worked in pairs to clear out a section of land about 40’ by 40’. After we cleared the lot some of us headed a little deeper into the bush and began cutting down trees using our bush knives. The ideal tree was about 20 feet tall and about 3 inches thick. We then hauled these trees back to our empty lot and turned some into fence posts and the others into rails. You may be wondering what we used for nails? Or more likely it never crossed your mind, so I will just tell you. We headed into the bush again and found a special tree that we cut down and peeled the bark off of to make rope. We then took our straps of bark and tied the fence rails to the fence posts. It was really one of the best days that I have had here. When we finished we all sat around admiring the work that we had completed as a team.

At one point we all learned a valuable lesson from one of our fellow trainees. He thought it would be a great idea to clear out more bush and expand the garden even more. Well at this point we had already spent a grueling two hours clearing the bush and everyone was tired and trying to catch a little shade before going to get the trees. So he tried to rally the troops and got a little snappy with us saying “COME ON GUYS!” WE NEED TO CLEAR THIS BUSH OUT LETS GO!” Well I don’t respond well to people telling me I need to do anything, especially when they are not doing anything themselves. So I grabbed my bush knife and said “I am sorry, is something wrong with your bush knife, because you are more then welcome to use mine!” To which he replied oh well I have a blister. Lesson is: Don’t tell people to do anything that you are not willing to do yourself!

When we finished we headed down to the solwota and spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the water and watching the sun drown into the ocean. As I sat there watching the sunset and started getting emotional at the thought of this wonderful place. I am so lucky to be here in Mongaliliu. This place is amazing and so are the people who call this piece of paradise home. In a week I will be heading off for my wokabaot to my permanent site. Being in middle bush is going to be awesome, but I am going to miss the ease of walking 100 yards from my house down to the solwota to swim or just watch the sunset.

Well that night the chief came and got me and told me he wanted to take me and his host son up for some kava and storian. He bought a shell for Brian, McKenzie, and me. This shell was filled to the top, so it was more like two and a half shells. He talked about how we should drink kava by looking at the moon, saying a prayer, and then drinking it in one go. I had a hard time getting it all down but did manage to do so. A little later McKenzie asked if I wanted another one, to which I “should” have said no. But of course I said sure. My body was revolting before I even started drinking it. And after I did drink it my body was just a little angry at me. I had to walk into the bush where my mouth watered with the anticipation of throwing everything up that I had just drank. I managed to keep it down and came back to the group where I had a great conversation with the chief. I felt bad that I had been out so late and wanted to get home for dinner.

When I got home there was no food sitting on my table which I thought was very strange. Maybe mama was upset that I was not there earlier. Well it turns out that it was Jackie’s seventy-second birthday and she is my cousin by way of host families. So we headed to the chiefs house and had a big feast. I love how family gets together for anything here. It always has such a warm feeling. It is a good thing too because as Jackie found out it is tradition to have a bucket of water thrown on you for your birthday. My grandmother said come here I think your dress is dirty, while Jackie’s Mama came up behind her to dump the big bucket of water over her head.

My Mama then asked me oh when is your birthday Kaltao? I told her but then said but I am save (understand) to their little game. My grandmother laughed and said she was going to throw it through my bedroom window which is about three inches from me head. I told her on November 16th I am going to close and lock my window, to which all the Mamas laughed.

Well all day Friday we looked forward to our Friday night debauchery. We were to start the night off with our first Tantric Yoga class followed by a fire and hanging out on the beach. Well I was just sitting down to diner with my Ted Laelarula ,(my aunt Bridgette) when my papa walked up. I had literally just scooped my dinner on my plate when he asked me “ Kaltao, yufala i kakae i finis?” (Have your finished eating?) I told him no and he said good and that I needed to come drink Kava. I told him no, that I did not want to go. I recounted my horrible experience form the night before and explained I needed a night off. He told me that my grandpa had already bought it for me and he was waiting.

Well how do you tell your grandfather no? Here, you just don’t! It would not be kosher. So I pushed my plate back and headed up with my papa to go to hoas blo papa blong Noah where the kava was being made. I am glad I went, as this was one of the best kava nights I have had. Not so much because of the kava but more so because the sense of community and the camaraderie that I saw and felt there. It was absolutely amazing. Noah then pulled out some wine which just hit the spot. It is really nice to get the kava taste out of your mouth. I talked with the Chief about the white men who I saw in the village earlier that day. They are from the TransPacific Real Estate Company. There are a lot of land disputes in Vanuatu right now. So this is a very hot topic. Pis Kop is trying to do a lot of education on the selling of lands right now. There is no way we are going to stop the locals from selling their land. Our goal, or the goal of many of us, is just to make sure they are making educated decisions, hoping that that they think about the needs of their pikinini before just selling the land for a quick buck. In Vanuatu they have a saying graon i laef. (Ground is life) With out ground you have nothing.

I looked at my watch and realized I had five minutes to eat and make it to Yoga. I told one girl I don’t think I am going to make and to apologize to Jani because she was really counting on me being there. But it was just out of my hands. Well I go to sit down and my Mama walks up and tells me that the dog ate the entire diner off the table and that she sent my papa to go get more beans and tin meat. I told I wanted Rice only (rice is the only thing the dog did not eat, and I was fine with just having that, especially after all the Kava.) But she insisted that I could not eat just rice. So I had to wait for my papa to go to the store and bring back the beans and meat. I scarf’d it down and then excused my self from the table. I felt a little bad about eating and running but I really wanted to make it to Yoga

I made it just in time. There were actually a lot more people there then I had expected. In our morning yoga we usually have only 4-5 people, but tonight we had about 20 people. I think most were curious about the myth behind Tantra. I am so glad that we had such a great turn out. We gathered in a circle and used our kerosene lamps for light. It is hard to explain exactly what we did, but I think the main thing was to take you out of your comfort zone and become vulnerable to the others in the group.

Some of us volunteered to make an inner circle in the group, where we faced out towards the rest of the group. We would spend about 3 minutes with the person in front of us before the outer circle would move to the left. While the person was in front of you we had different task with each person. The first person we just stared into each others eyes, looking to see the beauty or divine light in that person. As we rotated the circle the tasks turned to telling that person all the things you fear while they listened. After two minutes or so you listened to what they feared. As the outer circle rotated around it went on to telling what you loved, hated, etc. It was a truly wonderful bonding experience.

We then broke into groups of four and took turns walking around a person in the middle whom kept there eyes closed while we whispered things in there ears things that we loved or admired about them. We did this until everyone had a turn. I think this came at just the right time for our group as different clicks start to get frustrated with other people in the group. It was such positive experience and I am looking forward to us doing it again.

When we finished the yoga it was time to play! Jani had ordered some fire Poi and we were going to put a show on for the rest of our group. I think they were all amazed, but more importantly though, it just felt great to play with some fire. There is nothing like the sound of fire whooshing past your head while big circles of flames leave trails of light buzzing around you. I love it!!! I am going to look for something to blow fire with next time I am in town.

We then just sat around a beach fire sharing stories and laughing. That is until someone came down with a pile of mail! You have no idea how nice it is for volunteers to get stuff from home. I don’t think it even matters what is inside. Just getting that letter or package feels so good. Thank you all for the letters that you have sent. Please keep them coming. I promise there is mail heading your way too. I hope all is well.

Lukem Yu,

Kaltao

PS- Big thanks to Marcy, Monica, Tracey, mo Lex for the packages. I can’t tell you how much myself and all the volunteers appreciate it. Although, I think we all ended up with tummy aches. Thursday night we are making a Halloween celebration here, so I am going to bust out that package of Candy Corn for all the pikinini. I am sure they are going to love it! We are also going to carve pumpkins, have apple bobbing, and one volunteer made a shark piñata!