Final Days in Fiji

I don't know if it was the dead mouse under the bookcase this morning, or the live cockroach in my suitcase this afternoon...(for Justin, it's the constant assault by the flies that stalk our food and the mosquitos that stalk us), but we are ready to move on to our next destination. We are looking forward to getting to New Zealand tomorrow evening.

Fiji is not Hawaii. It's fantastically beautiful, but it is a third world country. And 3 weeks is a long time here. That said, we have had an amazing time and met some wonderful people and learned a lot.

We did another snorkeling trip two days ago, to Qamea. (there are 322 islands that make up Fiji) Apparently, it's regularly voted a top dive and snorkel site. It was amazing. We snorkeled right out to reefs edge to see the drop off deep into the ocean, it was beautiful and slightly spooky. If there's a shark lurking nearby, that's where he's going to be.

Yesterday I was slightly ill all day, it came on almost immediately after I commented that it was amazing none of us had been sick in any way since we arrived. We spent the day doing nothing, which is great at first... but after 3 weeks I have discovered that you can actually get anxiety from having nothing to do, even in "paradise"!

Today was spent packing and saying goodbye, and it is sad. We've come to adore Maureen and Sonia, especially.

Sonia's parents invited us for dinner tonight. It was all delicious, but the meal was very strange for us. The father sat outside with his brother and another man and drank kava, he didn't want to eat until he had his fill of kava. We were asked to come sit inside, where it was sweltering hot, and very small. We were all uncomfortable, but especially Liam. Sonia's mother laid a cloth down on the floor and brought out about 8 different dishes. She clearly went through a lot of trouble to cook for us (and she's 8 months pregnant). Unfortunately, as soon as the food was presented, so were the flies. They were awful, crawling all over the food. We really did our best to eat what we could, to be polite, but it was tough. She did not eat with us either, she sat on her bed and watched us mostly. It was all a little odd for us. But, they were really sweet and easy to talk with and clearly had gone through trouble to have us and we made the best of it.

There are many things I will not miss about Fiji, several of them named above... but there are many things I will miss. We will miss Maureen, and her care and her guidance, she has taken good care of us all. I will miss the emphatic BULA we are greeted with by everyone. Bula means hello and they say it with gusto. I will miss how much Fijians love babies, I'm getting pretty used to having someone hold and entertain my baby while I enjoy my meal:) I will miss the glorious sunrise and sunset, and the vastness of the night stars overhead. I'll miss Shorty, he's a really good dog! Justin will miss kayaking out in front of our house and catching a fish, at 5PM, when we realize we've made no other plans for dinner. Elle will miss Sonia, she's been great for the whole family, a bridge for Elle between leaving all her friends behind and this journey that she is on. I'll miss how just as the sun sets each night our yard comes alive with frogs, they come straight up out of the grass like magic. I'll miss the simpleness of life.

Sonia's School

We went this morning to visit Sonia's school. I'd like to have Elle visit a school in each of the countries we visit, so Sonia's seemed like the obvious choice in Fiji. Sonia goes to the only Indian school on Taveuni. Fiji's Indian population is very large as Indians were brought over by the English in the 1800's, as laborers. They now consider themselves Indo-Fijian, but more Fijian than Indian. Her school is a public one, and open to anyone who wants to attend. It is taught in English and Hindi. There are 400 kids that go to school here, K-8. We met with the Head Master and the teacher of Sonia's class. The kids swarmed us, I don't think they get many tourists there! They especially loved Liam. Babies are truly special in Fiji.

The picture of the bottles is from the yard directly adjacent to the school. They are all beer bottles. They seemed very incongruent with the elementary school setting. I joked with three older boys and said to them quite seriously "did you do that?" They thought that was quite funny and laughed about it for awhile. I did notice in the 3rd grade classroom that two huge posters were hung, one for alcohol and one for tobacco, condemning their usage and detailing their destruction. When I did ask seriously about them, I was told that the person next door collected them to be recycled in order to earn money.

Elle was pretty quiet and shy during the school visit. Later, I asked her what she thought about the school and she said she liked her own school much better. When I asked why, she said, "they had no rug to sit on". And, it's true, the rooms were pretty spartan. I, too, was struck by the barren-ness of the rooms. They had nice desks and chairs, and a chalkboard in each room, but that was about it. There was almost no artwork in any classrooms, no books on shelves, little in the way of organization and no rugs. But, it was clean, the kids seemed happy to be there, and happy to be learning. There was age-appropriate material on each blackboard. The only computers I saw were in the Head Masters office and with one teacher. There was no library at all. The school has grown so much in recent years that the 5th/6th grades now operate out in the yard, under an aluminum awning.

I think it was a bit of a shock to Elle, and we talked tonight about how fortunate she was to go to such a nice school. And then, she told me, "but mom, Sonia loves her school too." And, she does.

It's a rough life, and I'm grateful for it

Waste Not

The Fijians are not ones to waste anything, there is so little on the island, everything gets used.

Take the shark severed fish head, for example, our Fijian assistant did not want it thrown out- so he took it with him. I have no idea for what, but I suspect he may have eaten it. Possibly he used it for bait, but truly I think he ate it.

Maureen takes care of our trash each morning and the other day she came across some cookie wrappers. She must've determined by the weight of the packaging that a forgotten cookie or two lay inside. She returned them to me at once. Keep in mind these had been at the bottom of the trash bin all night (not far from where the mouse is known to dine). I told her, "no, I threw them out, I didn't think they were good any longer". She looked again at the cookies and determined that they were, in fact, still good and she took them home. I presume to eat.

She also regularly takes Justin's old fishing line- line that is hopelessly tangled, and she has a closet full of plastic Fiji water bottles, well over 100 of them. I have no idea why.

We went back to the resort pool yesterday and Elle jumped right in, practicing her new snorkeling moves. She screamed, "look mom, a crab!" I just smiled and stepped into the pool with baby. She shrieked again, made me look and sure enough there was a crab in the pool. Four crabs to be exact! Four pissed off, confused, sharp clawed crabs. They had wandered in from the beach and fallen into the pool. Justin got them all out and a waitress put them in a net. I expected her to walk over to the beach and release them but instead she walked straight into the kitchen. I believe crab will be on their menu tonight.

We took Sonia to dinner awhile back and she ate pizza with Elle. She polished off 2-3 pieces in no time. This is a 7 year old girl who weighs not too much more than Liam does, at this point. Justin had had roast chicken and finished it completely. Or so we thought. Sonia says "can I have that, it's my favorite?". Justin and I both looked at the plate and saw a completely empty plate, but he pushed it towards her and said "ok". We watched her strangely and then in disgust as she proceeded to suck each bone dry, draining the marrow. Even writing these words turns my stomach, seeing it was gut wrenching. She did it to each and every one.

I mentioned before that we almost always have to preorder dinner before going to a restaurant. They don't have food waiting to be cooked at the restaurant- they go and buy just what they will be making for the guests they have coming that night. When you have just 1-2 tables a night this surely helps to eliminate waste.

I guess this makes sense on an island where almost everything is brought in by boat. You can't waste anything, you never know when you might run out of supplies. Like butter. We have no butter. No one has any butter on the entire island. It's been 3 days now and people are stalking the stores for butter. Everyone's talking about it, but they also take it in stride. Next week it'll probably be coffee that runs out. The ship came today, hopefully they brought some butter.

The only thing that doesn't seem to offend Maureen if we throw it away is fruit. It's so plentiful, and goes bad so quickly, we routinely throw away masses of fruit. The humidity and the bugs destroy it within a day if it's not eaten. But hey, there's more on the trees out front. Last night Maureen said "what do you want for dinner?", we shrugged, and she went out and plucked a green papaya from the tree and an hour later came down with rice and the most delicious green papaya curry that I've ever had. I'm going to miss things like that.

Snorkeling at Honeymoon Island

Today we rented a boat to take us out snorkeling to Honeymoon Island. Honeymoon Island is a very small private island that is leased by a local resort and reserved for couples to spend the day at alone. The couple on the island that day was probably none too happy to see us pull up! Lucky for them, we only stayed for an hour or so. Lucky for us, they didn't seem to mind at all.

The snorkeling was amazing! The best we've seen on the island, and the best I've seen maybe ever. The corals are spectacular, even more amazing than the tropical fish. Elle joined Justin and I and made us so proud. She is such a little fish in the water, and had no fear at all. She swam with her mask (ditched her snorkel), nearly all the way around the island and wanted to go even further. She would dive down to get a closer look at the coral and fish, and often would lead the way. We were both amazed by her! Maureen came along and kept Liam onshore. He enjoyed the boat trip and water as well.

It's been a rainy, lazy afternoon since, which is just perfect with us!

Yesterday, I suffered a bit from island fatigue. Too hot, too muggy, too buggy, and bored! I know I will be eating those words when we get to chilly and bustling Beijing... so today, I awoke with a fresh outlook. I'm ready to enjoy our last few days in Fiji!

Pics from Last night

Sireli and the "Island Boys" set up shop on our deck and sang and played guitar during dinner. They opened with Twinkle, twinkle little star, Fiji style. That was a big hit with Liam. Then, they moved on to You are my Sunshine for Elle. They followed with their traditional music and it is beautiful.

Maureen made a delicious spinach and coconut soup, salad, stir-fried veggies and rice, lemon meringue and for the fish-eaters, fish! The girls played croquet in the yard, and we all had a great night eating, singing, dancing, and star-gazing. Wish you ALL could have joined us!

Island Boys, gone native

Fishing with Friends

Harry

A day of fishing! Harry, our taxi driver, had arranged for a boat to take Justin out fishing for the morning. An Australian guy, Anthony, uses the boat to run himself and supplies to an island where he is helping to build a resort. So, we were all up before dawn and out to the boat by 7. It was a gorgeous day, hot but a few clouds for cover and a good breeze. Once we got out to the furthest reef Justin got his first bite. He yelled "fish on" and then like lightening the entire line was stripped off his rod! Then, on the deck below, a fish was caught on a hand line, no rod, just line and a cylinder to wrap the line around. Hand over hand they pull the line in, not easy on the hands. Justin caught a few more mackeral and tuna, I believe. Later, Justin yelled "fish on" again, the boat slowed and he fought the fish. Suddenly, the reeling got much easier and as Justin pulled him to the surface we could see that a much larger fish, possibly a shark, had bitten the fish cleanly off at the neck! All in all, 6 good size fish were caught. Fish fry party at our house tonight, everyone's invited!

Coming in, we came upon a pod of Pilot Whales. Very cool, playing and floating and showing off in general.

Elle and Liam were total troopers. I am so proud of our babes, little adventurers in the making.

Lavena Coastal Walk/Bouma Falls

I am well aware that this is a horrible picture of me, but am hopeful it conveys my state of mind. Once there, the falls were beautiful and cold and refreshing, but we still had lunch and our return trip to face.

Thursday we set out to retry our trip to Lavena and Bouma. It was an overcast, but HOT and sticky day. We embarked upon the rocky road again for the longest ever one hour trip to Lavena. The river was within its banks and we crossed the bridge without event. Once at Lavena Village we paid our fee to walk on the beach--this is common when the land is owned by a village. As we walked out onto the white sandy beach we were looking forward to cooling off in the water and enjoying some beach time. But, almost immediately, we were accosted by black biting flies. They were literally swarming us and we didn't walk very far before we decided to once again abort our mission. After all that... it just wasn't worth it. SO, into the car we piled again and drove back to Bouma. From Bouma, the falls were just a 15 minute walk through a well worn path in the jungle. Liam had passed out asleep and I carried him heavily in the near 100% humidity to the falls. Once there, we all enjoyed cooling off, at least momentarily. We still had to drive home.

Before the drive home, however, we had arranged to have a woman in Bouma Village cook us lunch. She was a really sweet woman, but she made the most god awful curry we have ever tasted. She stayed to watch us eat (and insisted on holding Liam) and we stuffed down what we could.

After our exhausting day we decided today to take it easy, hence the pool pics below!

Tonight, we sat out and watched the stars for a bit. I have never seen so many before, it's awesome in the truest sense of the word. Over the past week we'd been debating about whether we were seeing shooting stars or airplanes high above. Finally tonight, we realized that they were satellites that we were seeing orbiting our planet each night. It was very cool, I had never seen that before and we see several each night here.

Fiji Imagined

After roughing it a bit yesterday, we headed to another resort to relax today.

More Wiwi Village

Wiwi Village

Kava Ceremony
Lovo- cooking in the ground

Children dancing for us

Elle and her new friends

I will attempt to put into words our adventure of last night, but I know I will never be able to capture the essence of the night. Maureen suggested that sometime during our stay we visit a typical Fijian village for a Lovo. Villages host Lovo's for special occasions of their own, and also for tourists in order to raise money for their villages. Lovo's typically feature singing/dancing, a kava ceremony, and a feast that is cooked largely in the ground.

After seeing many of the "villages" on our drive the other day, we were skeptical to say the least. Ordinarily, I would NEVER want to eat something prepared in a place that looked like the shanty towns we had driven by. With some ambivalence we agreed to go to Wiwi Village for a lovo on Wednesday night. But, even as we were getting ready to leave we considered cancelling. Elle was tired, Liam was cranky, and we were really unsure about what we were getting ourselves into.

The taxi took us deep into the jungle, on the same rocky road from the prior day, and brought us to one of the villages we had seen before. He even seemed unsure and asked us if we knew who we were to meet with. The villagers seemed largely unmoved by our arrival, but finally a woman emerged from a house to collect us. Welcome to Wiwi Village.

There are about 50 villagers that call Wiwi home. They are all extended family, sisters/brothers, cousins, aunts/uncles, etc. We were really uncomfortable and our initial impressions were to leave straightaway with our taxi. I felt as if we had arrived on an alien planet. But, we stayed, and we are so happy that we did! Even as I try to conciously practice non-judgement of people, places and events, this night illuminated how much work I still have to do.

The Fijians truly are some of the friendliest, most hospitable people I've ever met. Their gentle nature, warm smiles and amiable personalities set you at ease very quickly. And this happened within minutes at the village. The children were so happy and lovely, and they welcomed Elle immediately. Elle had a ball playing with them, she wants to go back to Wiwi to play with the kids.

The Ratu, the man in charge, took us to a bure where we removed our shoes and sat on a pandanus mat. A young woman, daughter of the Ratu, came and made small talk with us. The other villages paid little attention to us. Young boys were enmeshed in a game, older boys were coming home for a spearfishing trip, women were in homes doing their work. Two men were tending to the lovo. The young kids, Elle included, just ran around the yard picking flowers, rolling down hills, and playing little games.

There are about 8 huts/houses that make up the village. Most of them were made from aluminum and some plywood. They look very rudimentary from the outside, and we were very, very uneasy about eating dinner here.

Soon, 4 more tourists arrived and somehow made us feel more comfortable...a little less like we alone had been transported to an alien planet. The Ratu came back and gave us a tour of the village, and took us to see the lovo (the underground method of cooking that they use only for special occasions). They heat the rocks, lay the food down and then cover with large leaves. He very patiently answered any and all questions we threw at him. Such as,

- Do you have any power? Yes, a generator, it only runs from 6-9PM.

- Do the kids go to school? Yes, K-12. They walk a few km to the school

- How do they earn money? Farming, mostly Copra (coconut shells), Kava, and some fruits/vegetables. Some villages go into the towns and work at the resorts, but very few.

Next we were taken inside one of the houses and were shocked by 1. how clean the house was, the floors were immaculate. 2. by the amount of electronics in the home, tv's, radios, phones and cell phones too. There were chairs along two walls and the 6 tourists sat. The music was turned on and 4 adorable children did a dance for us. Another song started and the man and his son did a traditional hunting dance, very cool actually.

Next up, back to the bure for a traditional Kava Ceremony. Kava is the national drink here in Fiji, it's unavoidable. It's a mild sedative and relaxant. The kava root is shredded and pounded by hand in a cloth sack inside a bowl of water. It looks like muddy water and tastes like it too. There is much ceremony about the process, what is said, how it is drank, etc. We tried to decline, because frankly, it looks disgusting and the communal sharing of bowl and the same cup was off-putting, but the host was insistent and insulted. He says- you haven't been to Fiji if you don't try the kava. So we did. It tastes slightly yucky, and as for it being a sedative or relaxant, we felt nothing at all. But, now, we have been to Fiji.

Next it was time to eat, and plate by plate, out came a small feast. At least 10 different dishes were served. Most of it had been grown right on their land. Watermelon and pineapple, avocado, eggplant two different ways, whole grilled fish, coconut marinated raw fish, taro, veggie curry, passionfruit pie and much more. The flies were awful, even as our hosts did their best to keep them away waving palm fronds over the food. The food was quite good though, and the passionfruit juice was the best juice I've ever had, I think. I was downing my second glass when I began to question where their drinking water had come from.... I stopped drinking. However, 24 hours later we are all healthy!

After dinner, two of the village men played guitar and sang. It was all very, very pleasant. We learned so much about their village life and they were so welcoming to us. They hugged us goodbye, thanked us profusely, and said, now we are family and we are always welcome there. In fact, they want Elle back right away!

As we drove away, I was feeling so thankful for being a part of their village last night. We really got to step outside of our world, and be a part of something truly different. And although I quite like our life, I was thinking that theirs is a nice life too. They work together, for a common purpose, they support each other in work and in family. They grow everything they really need right there. The kids run freely and the joy on their faces is not something I see in the US. The warmth of their family unit envelopes you. Certainly they have their hardships too, but life is simple. It was a wonderful experience and will likely be a highlight of our trip here.

I have to add here something that happened this morning-- A enormous watermelon arrived for us. $25 Fiji we were told. That's about $13 US. That's an astronomical price anywhere, but outright ridiculous here in Fiji.

At the lovo, I had commented on their good watermelon, and noted that I hadn't seen it for sale on the island. He says "would you like to buy one?". To be polite, I said "sure, maybe". It was never discusssed again. But this morning, I got my watermelon. All $20 of it, we shamed him down to $20. It's not a good melon, but it is a good cause.