While moored at Hunga Haven we were visited by a man named Vaha in a small outrigger canoe. As usual, Tim struck up an easy friendship, and Vaha invited us to come visit him sometime in the village.
Hunga village was just north of Hunga Haven and easily accessed from inside the lagoon by a concrete small boat dock and a steep concrete road/ramp up to the village. You can see the location of the village on the previous satellite image. So, one afternoon we dinghied over, and after so many of our very positive, welcoming experiences in many villages in Fiji, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Marshalls, we were a little surprised to be ignored and avoided by the people of Hunga. There was a group of young adult men smoking at the top of the ramp and they quieted down as we approach and did their best not even to make eye contact. Tim usually has a way of making people at ease, but after asking where we could find Vaha and them responding that they didn’t know, we just moved on. We walked around the village a bit, and it was neatly laid out in a grid of dirt roads, and the houses were modern-ish, certainly not fales of palm fronds. We did eventually find Vaha, but he told us he wasn’t feeling well and that we probably shouldn’t stay. So, we quickly gave him a gift of fishing hooks we brought, and he gave us some coconuts.
Later, when we were back at Exodus and the local ferry boat (which was just an overcrowded small fishing boat) passed us on the way to the village someone yelled at us to “go away.”
Clearly, there is some resentment harbored by the locals to their western neighbors and visitors. We asked Barry about it, but he said he knew the elders of the village well and never had any trouble.
Walking back down the ramp from Hunga Village
Gresham Family Exodus 