The daily emails from Lance in Vanuatu.

"He is like a shell fish""Don't YOU be a shell fish!" Read on...One of our gardeners was having a bit of a moan about the other one: "Hemi gat fasin sel fis" he said in Bislama, which translated means "He is like a shell fish"Huh? I had never heard this expression, and I started wondering what...

I routinely ask people I meet here in Vanuatu "What is it about Vanuatu that makes you want to stay here?" I get many different replies, but a common theme in almost all the answers is "Freedom" and they go on to give some illustration of the freedeom they mean. Sometimes to live the life they...

Let me tell you a story about a media beat-up...Last month a prominent news organisation which tends to publish sensational stories published a series of articles along the lines of "Fugitives, politicians and disgraced business people buying Vanuatu passports"A careful reading of the article...

What's the opposite of "woke"? Would it be "asleep"?So in a country that's "asleep" there would be...* No "cancelling,"* People encouraged to work at something constructive* People congratulated when they create successful businesses, * Personal opinions respected* People who have a...

So I stop at a roadside market stall on my way into Port Vila. I want a pineapple.Bananas, Pamplimous, Passionfruit, Melons, Coconut, Naus, are on display. But no pineapples. I expressed disappointment to the lady behind the table, because my wife Adeline is particularly fond of pineapple. "When...

Yesterday I wrote about the laid-back attitude of people in Vanuatu (Ni-Vanuatu or Nivans), and how it makes for a peaceful society.Here in Vanuatu there are some interesting traditions that date back to before the first "western" explorers scoped out the area hundreds of years ago.One of them...

Something I have been drawn to about the Vanuatu culture, is their laid-back attitude.  Case in point: over recent weeks there has been this upheaval in the parliament.  The government side weren't getting something they wanted, and in protest a lot of government MPs boycotted the parliament...