Most of these photos were taken on Tanna, one of the islands of Vanuatu. Happiness seems to be the dominant emotion in Tana, with most people smiling for most of the time. It is a nice place to be.
One of the main reasons to visit when we did was that it was the annual John Frum day celebration at the custom villages on Tanna. John Frum is a semi mythical American soldier from 1936 who promised the local people lots of cargo. The tale seems to have been embelished over the years, but several villages still believe that John Frum will one day return with lots of cargo. It seems to work as several film crews turned up for the day with quite a bit of cargo for the villages. One crew alone brought $20,000 worth of gifts.