Yes, well there was that time kilograms of heroin just washed up on the beach over there. Piles of the stuff. And of course quite a bit of it disappeared.

You see, Captain Efate started collecting the glass coke bottles as they washed ashore, having been piffed into the ocean by well over 100,000 American troops posted here from 1942 to 1945.

After the magnitude 7 earthquake this morning, everyone in the meeting seems fine, so we continue with our work.

Nakamals open when the kava has been prepared in the afternoon, and stay open until it runs out.

Locals eat at the Mama’s Market. Tables covered in colourful aged plastic in neat rows with simple benches. Strangers and friends sit together, wherever there is a space.

Occasionally a place and a people can open up, and let you see truths that you would never initially imagined.

It’s hard to pinpoint the subtle background static that suggests unpredictability. Anticipation. It doesn’t brew in many places.