Bula!!!! Kadavu Island

Ryan and I have just returned to Suva from a week on Kadavu Island located off the southern coast of the main island of Veti Levu. If all the people around around the world were as genuinely good, hospitable, and respectful of God as they are in Kadavu there would be nothing at all to worry about.

Going back a week ago, we left Lautoka on Tuesday morning and took a taxi about 220 km to Suva, the capital city of Fiji, for $15 Fijian each (about $10 US). The drive took about 4 hours and was pretty stinkin' interesting as there were a few times when Ryan and I looked at each other wondering what in the hell the driver was thinking as he passed all the cars. When we got to Suva around 1 or 2pm we locked up and dropped our bags off on the ferry and went into the city to exchange some money and have a look around.

After walking around for an hour or so and eating some Kentucky Fried Chicken, which was damn good I might add, I noticed a bar we were standing beside and the fact that it had the cheapest beer we'd seen. Random Note: Fiji Bitter is pretty stinkin' awesome. When we walked in we were greeted by the stereotypical sketchy guy trying to sell us drugs who turned out to be a pool shark. After we bypassed him and ordered a Jug of beer (about 2 beers a piece) the bar tender asked us where we were from, where we were going, etc. When we told him we were going to Kadavu he told a man with no teeth and he came running over with a huge smile and a good gaggle for a laugh. We had now met Chief Iokimi of Waisomo Village on Ono Island... he was going on our ferry. Turned out to be a wonderful person. Not a few minutes later a mother (45ish) and son (25) came over to join us. Vah, the mother, and Poni, the son, were from Kadavu and were also going on the ferry with us. After talking for a short bit we found out that they actually knew Dillon, our friend from NCSU on Kadavu Island. Wierd that being in a city in Fiji of 300,000 people we met two people that knew our American friend on a different island. Needless to say, we all sat talked, and got pretty drunk.

The Fijians wouldn't let us pay for a thing. One jug after another kept ending up on our table. After we drank for quite some time Vah and Poni invited us to their family's house, the Cakacaka's in Suva for a bite to eat before we left on the boat. When we walked in the family was circled around the living room and beginning to pray. We quietly sat down and listened to what was the most beautiful prayer I can remember hearing (it was in English). They prayed for life, for their communities, for Ryan and I and for safe travels, for everyone in Iraq (all Fijians pray for both the US and the native peoples in Iraq), for understanding, for guidance, for health, happiness, family and friends, as well as other things. The prayer was probably 8-10 minutes long and was an amazing thing to experience. Afterward, we ate a dinner that was pretty awesome and talked with Sophie, the 22 yr old daughter that was home visiting. She had just won the Ms. Hibiscus title and another pageant at the Hibiscus Festival in Suva earlier. She's a beautiful Indian girl, very intelligent, and nice. Her face is on a couple billboards throughout the city of Suva. Kind of a random occurrance to meet her. As usual, we pushed our time as closely as possible and had to hurry out of the Cakacaka's and get to the ferry quickly. We were occompanied by Vah and Poni and our other friend, Chief Iokimi on the ferry named the Sinu-i-Wasa as we headed to Kadavu Island.

Ryan and I spent 1 week on the island; 3 nights in the village of Vacalea (pronounced Vathalaya) and 4 nights camping. When approaching the island on the ferry and able to grasp a larger vision of the island it reminded me of King Kong or the opening to Jurassic Park. It's amazingly green and, as most volcanic islands are, hilly. There are no roads on the island, only boat transportation and gas is $12 a gallon.... so it's expensive to travel. The family that kept us in the village took great care of us and treated us as family, I made sure to give them your thanks. They have very quickly become people I consider family as I could count on them for anything if ever needed. There is no power on the island, only generators that are far and few between.

The island is populated by many small villages, about 15,000 people at any given time although it fluctuates. Vacalea has around 100 residents and is a pretty good size village; the largest on the island has around 250 people. The villages still have chiefs and you are not allowed to wear hats, sunglasses, or anything else on your head or back (unless very heavy) while in the village. When entering a house you must take off shoes before entering and you must go in and sit down on the floor indian-style as it is rude to just stand around in the house. When you eat you sit (always indian-style unless you have bad knees) and the table consists of a sheet layed on the floor which is always covered by embres (straw mats woven by the women of the village). You eat everything with your hands with a spoon coming out every now and then and drink hot tea with pretty much every meal.

The food is amazing: Kasava (potato-like), Terro (hard grey potato-like), Dao (peas), lots of Rice, spinach-like leaves, lots of Fish (snapper, parrot fish, rockfish, etc.), Budi (really fat banana) served warm with sugar (brown) and milk (powdered but very good) - called Fijian ice-cream... very good, lots of Noodles (like Ramen), breakfast crackers with butter or jam, and in the occurance of a funeral or wedding a cow will be butchered and eaten (funeral on day before we left.... had curried stew-beef type food over rice... AWESOME). I'm sure there's more food but they farm everything and don't pay for food other than the noodles, sugar, and milk. Everything is super healthy and filling with no shortage of food but I managed to stay hungry a lot of the time probably because It was so good and I always was ready for meal-time.

A few words I've picked up: Vinaka - Thank You Bula - Hello
Bula Vinaka - best greeting possible, like "Life is Good"
Maleka - Nice Kana - Eat Naka Na Kana - Thank you for the Food
Naka Na Ti - Thank you for the Breakfast Bure - Traditional Grass Hut
Chilo - Excuse Me Boom-Boom - GrandMa Eo - Yes
Sah - Go or Shew (for the cats, dogs, and chickens) Tobai - Crab
Uh-Huh & Uh-uh - No & Yes - (backwards from America)
Moce (Mothe) - GoodBye

Most of the a's are pronounce as a light "an" and the o's have an "om" sound

I can count from 1 to 10 but can't spell all the numbers: 1 - Dua, 2 - Rua, 3 - Toro, 4 - Vah, 5 - Lima, 6 - Ono, 7 - Vitu, 8 - Wauru, 9 - Tilu??, 10 - Tiene

On the way from Kavala Bay to Vacalea, from the wharf to the village, Tom (our host and most awesome dude ever) picked us up and as we had just left Daga, where we dropped off an elder and supplies, Tom was looking at Ryan and me as we were picking up spilled butter from the rough seas. Side note: Have to get supplies shipped in on the Ferry for the village and Tom picks them up (sugar, milk, noodles, butter, etc.). As Tom was looking down at us, not paying any attention we heard Rafi in the front holler. I look around and as my perrefrial vision caught the trees, BOOOOM!!! We had plowed into the mangrove trees on the side of the bay at full speed. It was the best wreck I've ever been in. We very quickly found out that no one had been hurt, not even the boat. Rafi had ducked under and sat down in the boat, lots of butter broke my fall, lots of boxes broke Ryan's fall, and Tom somehow managed to hang on to something. I had butter smeared all over my back. We cracked up about that all week. It's something that I'll never forget.

One afternoon Ryan and I kayaked to the next bay over to do some snorkeling. We snorkeled a reef face that was pretty awesome. The coral had a lot of purples, browns, and blues, with a little orange; the marine-life could've been better but there were plenty of colorful smaller fish. The thing that was so cool was the actual reef face. The reef went from 5 ft of water down to 25 ft. and more (depending on the place) instantly. A huge face that went from reef and fish to never-ending aqua-vertigo blue in an instant. Look to the right and you see the reef, look to the left and you see a vast amount of nothing but water. The starfish are purple with a few red ones and the parrot fish look the same all around the world. There are a few sea-horses hanging around the grassy areas.

We hiked to a waterfall one day, led by a local guy from the settlement of Daga named Ben, where there was a deep pool at the bottom (at least 25 ft.) so we were able to swim and jump from the rocks. A couple good pics of us jumping. Ryan did a HUGE belly-flop!!! Pretty spectacular that was.... got a good picture of the red belly that ensued. Random note: That was the first bath I had in a few days as we were camping at that point. It was nice to get the salt off and feel half-way clean.

We went to a Kava Party in Kadavu Koro, a village of about 250 on Friday night. It was an amazing time. The Kava root has been ground into a powder and drank with water for as long as the people have been here. The Kava in Kadavu is the best and strongest in Fiji. Ryan and I sat on both sides of the Chief of Koro, Sammy, during the drinking. The drink is a narcotic and does numb the body and not necessarily the mind but it does impede your speech a bit. There's definitely a high but it's nothing bad, not even as crazy as alcohol. It was a wierd high but I must say that what I enjoyed most was the culture and the traditional things that took place. For example, when drinking you clap once before you drink and three times after for respect. We also throroughly enjoyed the conversation we shared with Sammy. The men and some women sit around drinking the Kava from a half of a coconut all night long. Bowl-after-bowl gets drunk with everyone taking one bowl then a pause for 10-15 minutes before the next. It's a cool tradition and very social but it does do a good bit of damage to your stomach if you're not used to it. My stomach's just now getting over the Kava from two nights ago. Nevertheless, it was an amazing experience that we were lucky enough to take part in with such wonderful people.

More than anything we did a lot of chilling out... lots of "Fiji Time" as the locals have taught me to say. No worries, No hurries, just chillen. I realized that I've been on Fiji time my whole life, just didn't know it. If someone says they'll be there at 4 they'll show up at 6 (actually happened).... and when that happens it's totally cool because you haven't got anything better to do than sit back, enjoy life and watch the time pass.

I would encourage everyone to set aside a chunk of time this week to dedicate towards "Fiji Time." It does the soul good!

We'll be flying to New Zealand on Sunday and will give another update soon afterwards.

*Pics will come when we can get to a reasonably fast computer... hopefully within a few days.

Bula!!! LA & Lautoka

So far everythings been awesome. While in LA we went up to a beach in Malibu for the day which was cool. So was the water, it was cold as hell. The waves were much bigger and more powerful and make you toss you around very easily. The city was much cleaner than I expected. Overall I was very impressed, wish I could've spent a few more days there.

So we made it safely to Fiji, arriving yesterday September 8th (Saturday) at 5am which was Friday, September 7th at 12:30pm for you guys. The people here are all so incredibly nice and welcoming. We flew into Nadi and drove about 30km to where we are now. We are in the town of Lautoka on the western coast of Viti Levu island. There is always a very nice breeze and the temp stays around 80 degrees. We're staying in a dorm style hotel room w/about 12 beds but we're the only occupants. It's got it's own bathroom/shower and it's even got AC. It's about $11-12 a night (US).

Yesterday as we were walking down the street a Fijian about 25 yrs old named Pana stopped us to chat and find out what we were up to. After talking for a couple minutes we invited us into the store where he was working and introduced us to the store owner (an accountant) and about 5 or 6 other very nice fellows. Not too long after we began talking they brought out some Kava, a native drink that resembles muddy water. It is somewhat like alcohol but it makes you hallucinate if you drink it all day and night. We sat and talked and drank with the group for probably an hour and a half. While the Kava didn't make me hallucinate or anything close to even getting drunk it did numb my tongue and the inside of my mouth a bit. I've heard that the Kava in the more rural areas is much more potent. Yesterday evening we met four young Fijians (13, 16, 20, and 21 yrs all with a very uplifting and happy vibe) and hung out with them first at a local bar and then out by the ocean.

So far I've seen maybe 5 white faces since we left the airport, so we stick out a good bit, especially considering we are not in a tourist area. The kids we were with last night told us that Americans/Europeans hardly ever come through Lautoka, especially ones that are our age. We might be three of a very small number of Americans that they will ever get to see and hang out with.

I'm excited about going to church in a couple hours. There is a Methodist church having a service at 5pm that I'm going to. Not sure if they'll be speaking English or Fijian but God will be there none the less and the lady I talked to is excited for me to come. I'm gonna try to get Ryan and Nate to go with me but if not I'll go solo.

The internet cafe I'm at is only 1$ Fiji money so about 60 cents an hour. The food so far is good, I had a huge plate of some kind of chicken stir fry and rice at 7am for about $1.50 in US money. Exchange rate at the airport in Nadi was 63 cents to the dollar, much better than the 78 cents to the dollar at LAX. Our ride from the airport was with a nice guy named Peter who drove us about 30km for $15 Fijian.

Fiji's land is beautiful and the air is clean but the roads and towns are somewhat dirty. Once we get out of the town and into the rural islands I'll have a better idea of the paradise we've always heard about. They have a huge market where everyone brings there fruits and vegitables to sell. It's pretty sweet and is full of many different smells, most of which are good.

Fijian words so far:

Bula!!! - Hello/Welcome
Vinaka - Thank You
Sevusevu - Greeting to the village chief asking permission to stay or hike, etc.
Warunaka (spelling?) - Beautiful

Tomorrow Ryan and I will be traveling to Suva, the capital city, where we'll board a boat at a midnight and travel south throughout the night to Kadavu, an island where we have a friend from NCSU that will host us for a week or so. Where we are going in Kadavu is a small village with one telephone so no internet. I'll be sure to update again in about a week and a half.

I'm looking forward to this adventure we are kicking off, I'll certainly come home with a little different mindset than I left with.