Only two more days left! This trip has completely flown by, and it feels like yesterday that I was stepping off the plane in Australia with absolutely no idea what to expect! I have had a blast! On Wednesday, we left The Beachhouse and drove 10 miles down the road to Votua Village. We were welcomed by many small children waving, smiling, and yelling “Bula!” Before entering the village, we all went to the city hall, and sat in a circle on the floor as we presented the kava to the village chief. We then introduced ourselves to the people there which were mostly the men and children (while the women cooked lunch for us) and participated in another kava ceremony. I accepted two bowls of kava this time, mostly because I was too afraid to refuse, offend them, and give a bad first impression! The kava is not bad….but definitely not good! It’s good that we have to swallow all of it in one gulp because if I stopped halfway, I probably wouldn’t be able to finish it off. All of the men were so friendly and many of them spoke very good English, but yet still spoke to each other in Fijian. We were then introduced to our homestay families and given beautiful necklaces draped around our necks made of flowers and leaves by our family (I think my family’s looked the best!). A Clemson student, Abby, and I were assigned to stay at the Weriera House, where the chief of one of the tribes lived. Two of the sons, “Iceberg” and Ronny, carried our bags to the house and showed us around. The village contained 47 different families and five different tribes. The houses were side by side, with every window and door open, welcoming in whoever happens to be passing by. The village was so alive, as every person in the village was on the move with their daily tasks. Children were playing, dogs and cats were everywhere, and every single person had a smile on their face. The village was right off the beach, and we could literally step out of our backdoor and be on the beach. Our family was great! We walked in the backdoor of the house because the front door is only used for the head of the house and met the rest of the family. The family had a mother, father, and six children. The two oldest sons, Iceberg and Ronny, were 23 and 20 and spoke great English, two younger girls, Esta and not sure the other’s name, were 13 and 11 and spoke very little English. Wally was 4 ½ and was the life of the party. He was so smart and made us laugh the entire time. And finally, Sara was 2 ½, and she was the pretties baby I have ever seen. Every time we would smile, wave, or make a funny face at her, she would grin and laugh. She loved our camera, and each time we took a picture of her, she would want to see it before she insisted on taking a picture herself. We met so many different family members throughout the day who continually came in and out of the house. Abby and I stayed in a room together that was very suitable under the circumstances. He had a clean and comfortable bed, lights, and a door! However, we had to go outside to use the bathroom, shower, or wash our hands. After we arrived, we sat on the floor in Indian-style and had lunch. The rest of the family watched as we ate, which is very common when guests are present, and ate with our hands for most of the meal. The food was so much better than I expected! We had bread, sausage, a potato and tuna dish, rice, pumpkin, soup, and lemonade. They have no refrigerator or freezer, and eat all fresh food from the village farm, ocean, or livestock. They have a very good water system that they have just installed, but are stomachs are still not used to the hard water that they drink, so the families boiled all their water before giving it to us. When Abby and I stood back up from our meal, the mother pointed out that we still had our shoes on, which we were supposed to take off before we came in the building. We forgot all about it! Normally, they rest after lunch, but Abby and I were anxious to see a little bit more of the village. Iceberg and Ronny told us they would take us snorkeling, and we were so hot and so excited to be going to the beach that we forgot to put our sulus back around our waste before leaving our bedroom. We blew it again! The mother was very friendly though and simply explained to us that as part of the Fijian custom, we had to wear our sulu at all times while in the village, but once on the beach we were free to take them off. The boys had snorkel gear for us and we followed them out to an absolutely beautiful reef that would definitely be classified in the same category as the Great Barrier, if not better. There were so many cliffs and ledges underwater, and so many different kinds of colorful fish. The water was so clear and calm that we could see all the way to the bottom in areas of 40 ft+ and the weather was perfect. There was, however, an extreme current that wore us out fast as we tried to swim against it and prevent being carried away. When we had snorkeled our quite a ways, we ran into some of the boys who had gone fishing with the men from their family. Abby and I climbed into the small boat, gave our masks to the guys to use, and watched as they caught our dinner. All of the men were in the water and had stretched a huge net across a large area. They then spread out about 20 feet apart and began to splash, kick, and basically go crazy in the water to scare the fish into the net. We watched as the men began to swim one by one up to the boat and throw all kinds of fish into the boat. There were unicornfish, parrotfish, stone fish, clown fish, puffer fish, sweetlips, and all kinds of other colorful fish. It was so amazing to watch, and unbelievable to imagine actually living like this. It was SO BEAUTIFUL! We were about 300 yards off the beach, in pristine, blue-green water, watching the Fijian way of life. The men then pulled the boat back to shore, with us girls still sitting in it! We tried to help but they insisted…. By the time we were back to shore, most of the other students were on the beach exploring and we all hung out for a while in the sun. At one point, I looked up and saw Wally sprinting down the beach with one boot on, yelling something, while the men in the village were laughing at him. He ran right past us, and just like that, he was gone. The little boy was wide open at all times!! Abby and I returned to our house around 3:30, and the boys took us with them to rugby practice. Rugby is, for lack of a better term, a very popular sport in Fiji. The men practice every single day at 4 o’clock and play against other villages on Saturday. The young men are pretty much expected to play it, and many of the villagers usually make the mile long trek to watch practice. Along the way, we passed a guava tree, and one of the guys picks a few for us. I’m not a fan. I liked the taste of them a lot but I hated the texture! The outside was tough and chewy and the inside had way too many seeds. It’s nice to say I have tried it though. About 8 of us students watched practice and refused when the Fijian boys tried to make us all play. On the way home, we stopped at an amazing overlook just as the sun was setting that gave us a breathtaking view of the ocean, village, and surrounding mountains. When Abby and I returned to the house, we took a shower outside in an outhouse type stall in the dark, with cold water. I took the shower so fast that I hardly felt clean afterwards. We then all met back at the city hall for our Lovo feast. We eat a lot of the fish that we had watched the men catch earlier that day and chicken. The meat was wrapped in banana leaves and placed in a whole full of hot stones. It was then buried, and left to cook for a few hours. It tasted great, and we also had many different vegetable dishes and fruit. Later that night, we had another kava ceremony (go figure), and a meke ceremony. I had just one more bowl of kava, making the grand total five bowls of kava I accepted while in Fiji. Some of the people in our group drank a few tsunamis that night, which was a larger bowl filled all the way to the top. I don’t think I could have handled that, especially all in one gulp! All of our homestay families participated, and then joined in for the meke ceremony, a dance ritual that involved seemingly everyone in the village. They sang many Fijian songs, danced, and played many different instruments. They wore costumes and laughed and had so much fun entertaining us. After that, our entire group stood up and sang “Lean on Me” and “I Will Survive”, although our performance was nowhere near that of the Fijians. We had so much fun that night and didn’t end up going to sleep until around midnight.
Abby and I woke up the yesterday morning to the sound of all the children whispering and giggling while peeking in the door of our room. When I opened my eyes, they quickly scattered and disappeared. We had pancakes for breakfast, which was fried dough that tasted more like a doughnut. They were so good but our mother cooked way more than we would ever be able to eat! We then took pictures with the family, exchanged addresses, and headed back to our bus! Before we left, the entire village sang the Fijian farewell song, and we left the village around 8AM. Altogether, our stay in Votua Village was amazing. Every single person in that village did everything they could do make our stay perfect, and we truly felt like part of their family. They were so sincere, happy, and friendly, and so unlike any place I have ever been in my life. Their joy was contagious, and although they don’t have as much as people in the United States, they consider themselves blessed and wouldn’t change a thing. How amazing it would be to live with that mentality!! I learned so much about life in that one day, and I’m so glad that we visited the village.
From Votua Village, we drove two hours to Port Denarau, where we caught a ferry to Bounty Island. Bounty Island is so beautiful!!! It’s a very small island that contains only one resort. We are staying in tiki huts literally a few feet from the ocean. Right off the beach, an amazing coral reef is protected from fishing or other harmful activities, resulting in an amazing array of fish and coral. When we arrived, we were served lunch and given the rest of the day to enjoy the beach. We immediately went swimming and snorkeling. Brittany and I then hired kayaks and rode around the entire island, which took only about 20 minutes. Later on, I fell asleep on the hammock outside of our tent…it’s tough, but somebody’s gotta do it! The weather in Fiji has been great, but the heat would have been miserable if we wouldn’t have been right on the water our entire stay here. This class has been a lot less schoolwork than our Australian course, making it seem like a complete vacation! We had a group debate last night, but besides that, we have had nothing but free time while on Bounty. While kayaking yesterday, I left my camera sitting well up on the beach, away from the water. However, when we returned, the tide had risen, and my camera and clothes were being splashed with the waves. Again, I need a waterproof camera! It definitely threw a wrench in my trip because none of my bottoms worked at all when I tested it out. I took the memory card and battery out and let it dry over night, and surprisingly, it worked fine this morning!! Today, we met early and worked on a research project for a few hours. After that, we had the entire day to ourselves, which we spent laying on the beach and enjoying the last of the Fijian sunshine! We will leave tomorrow afternoon and head back to Nadi for the night, spend the next day visiting the Nadi temple and markets, and finally board our plane at 10PM. We will leave at 10 on Sunday night and I will arrive back in Atlanta two hours later at midnight on Monday morning! I will be getting the day back I lost on the way to Australia, but be really affected by jet lag! I can’t believe I only have 48 hours left of this trip!!
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