Sloggs' Blog

My last two weeks as Chief on Vorovoro.

sl0ggs — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:37:00 GMT

Firstly an apology, for taking so very long to write and publish my final blog from my month as Chief of Vorovoro way back in September. Life has been a little surreal for me since then, with hardly time to think, let alone sit and write my usual lengthy blogs... I'll touch on the reasons for this briefly in this and future blogs.

So, after the first two weeks of finding my feet and managing the gulf of difference between being a tribe member and a chief, and getting over the loss of team Fiji to a funeral, things were in full swing on Vorovoro again! High on the adgenda were of course the showers, the ongoing and big project started in August. Many of the gardening projects were put off due to the weather not healping and on Tuesday the four peaks challenge was cancelled after lots of rain the night before (which was welcomed of course for our water supply!). Tuesday saw a wonderful Sevusevu day with Tui Mali, where Geoff and Mary (Amy's parents) who'd been staying on Vorovoro for around 6 weeks, presented a very special Tatau to Team Fiji and Tui Mali, which I've written about seperately here. This set us up for a classic Tuesday session, with all the boys and Tui Mali on top form. The remainder of the week saw rendering on the showers take shape and the tribe helped dig trenches in the gardens in preparation for the rainy season soon apon us. On Thursday Giles returned to Vorovoro with Ben after their week in New Zealand climbing in the snow, for his last few days on Vorovoro before heading off home to England to begin his studies to become a doctor! Team Fiji had plans in place to have a big celebration with their favourite brother this Friday and the tribe were sworn to secrecy... which was funny as whilst sat at the Thursday night grog session the boys openly discussed their plans in Fijian with Giles, who speaks a LOT of Fijian sat in attendance... nice one boys! Lol. Thursday afternoon was a classic as Giles managed to finally catch the elusive trigger fish whilst on the reef trip, which I was witness to. He was buzzing after that, its been a long time coming, nice work sir!

Friday was setup to be a classic Vorovoro day. Giles was slotted onto the school trip in Mali for his last chance to see the kids for what might be a while and then Team Fiji leapt into action building a Lovo and decorating the village and grand bure ready for a celebration. Tui Mali was on island too, which gave everybody an added sense of occassion. When Giles came back from the school trip we dressed him in the traditional garments and he took pride of place at the head of the mat with Tui Mali and Ben for a powerful and emotional ceremony with speeches from Tui Mali, Ben and Giles. The tribe had been practising Meke all week so that we could perform it for Giles. We ate a magnificent Lovo and had a brilliant and long night around the Tanoa with Giles. The team were on great form producing one of my most memorable nights on Vorovoro.

The following week started off with me wondering if the reeds would ever turn up and if my months main project would happen in my month at all! The showers were still being finished off, more digging in the gardens was required to finish the trenches and various other small scale projects were underway this week. One of these was the idea to build a bench up near the new showers to commemorate the passing of Tale and Kasa's father Peta Tale one year ago. This week also saw myself and Ben Keene come to some agreement about an opportunity for me to conduct some work for Tribewanted after my Vorovoro stay, as I was keen to remain in Fiji and he needs some help here with the Vitika trek option and a bit of promotion work in Nadi. There were three key visitors to the island this week, coming to see Ben, discuss the business, and to enjoy the island again. Ulai, Tui Mali's nephew and Tribewanted Director/Lawyer was coming, Jonathan from Oceanic Marketing in Suva who has helped Ben from the early days with marketing and merchadise and Anthony Ho, Tribewanted's Fiji based accountant. This was a nice opportunity for me to meet them albeit briefly before I set myself up in Fiji for the next few months.

Monday saw the Sevusevu happen early this week as Tui Mali was due out of town on the normal Tuesday slot. After a big grog session we were up early for the sad departure of Giles from the island. Team Fiji insisted on a few Tanoa on the beach before the boat left, and we had a full singing session with grog on the beach. It was quite a moment, with Leavi sounding like I'd never heard him play and sing before, and he is always quite brilliant! It was a poignant moment, and as Giles left on the boat Tevita and Leavi were both in tears along with some tribe members swept up in the emotion. Api took Giles along towards the headland as myself and Ben marched Rejeli into the sea. When they reached the headland, Api turned back and sped back towards the buoy where Giles back flipped off of the boat (in his clean clothes for his flight!) for the crowd on the beach before holding a standing salute on the boat as Api took him off round the island the other way and away from Vorovoro... The rest of the day was a right off from that point. Team Fiji stayed on the grog mat ALL day, their way of mourning a big loss. This was something that caused a little friction on the island the following few days as Ben docked their pay for that day lost. Some new cultural lessons were made this week by Ben and the rest of us, proving that you can never fully understand something as complex as this culture, but at least we can continue to learn and build stronger links all the time.

On Wednesday the 24th September the reeds finally arrived from Nakawaga!! Team Fiji were on form and Eremoni's new roof was almost finished in one day! Pupu continued to work hard on the showers with his new assistant Jay and the whole place was flowing nicely. Thursday saw another excellent sustainability forum which was hosted this time by Ben Keene in the absence of Mr Katz and the tribe helped Team Fiji bash the mangroves to tie in the roof on Jim's house. The weekend saw some of the tribe go to church and come back with the usual glowing report.

The next week saw the start of some mat making with Francis and Va showing the tribe this skill, the showers were much nearer to completion and the chiefs bure roof would be the next one done... but before I knew it was coming, Tuesday was apon us and it was time to hand over to the new chief for October.

During the Chief handover ceremony I thanked everyone on the island and in the team for helping me through a tough month, one which saw the celebrations of the 2nd anniversary of the project [which included me being filmed making my acceptance speach by Fiji TV and that being aired a couple of weeks later around all of Fiji!], the start of the third year, the departure of the project director and the installation of a new one, the subsequent teething problems that came with that, two funerals, one massive project hangover, lots of tribe members, and lots of grog! I enjoyed the experience immensely, from fending off neighbouring villages advances for help from Vorovoro, cleaning the toilets and tidying the kitchen away after it had fed 30 people, to meeting new members and showing them around and answering tons of questions everyday. I hope I kept my energy levels high throughout the month, although I know of a few times where I faded due to the extra responsibilty!

Thanks must go to Giles and Ben for their guidance throughout, to Jim, Ben Katz, Amy and Dan for their constant support and to Ratu Tevita for always having the right words and the right advice... how I do not know, but he keeps on doing it!

Vinaka Vaka Levu Sara Tribe for having me as chief of Vorovoro for September. Apologies again for the very late blog, I've been soooo busy. Ooops!

Hopefully I can remain linked to the Tribewanted project into the future and if not at the very least I will be back to my second home some time in the near future... my heart is firmly attached to Vorovoro and all the wonderful people that make it what it is.

Moce
Ratu Paula.

Building foundations & pulling people together on Vorovoro.

sl0ggs — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

For Geoff. Sorry it has been so long coming.

On Tuesday 16th of September something very special happened on Vorovoro. Tribe Manager Amy's parents, Mary and Geoff had been on Vorovoro for some six weeks, to visit their beloved daughter and to experience this wonderful place, of which they'd heard so much, for themselves. Today was to be their last chance to express to Tui Mali and the tribe as a whole just how much Vorovoro meant to them and to present Tui Mali and Team Fiji with a special Tatau.

Geoff and Mary have lots of artistic flair and skill and during their time on Vorovoro they both got heavily involved in all aspects of village life, including Geoff having a major hand in the design and construction of the new shower project. During their stay they took every opportunity to learn about the Fijian culture and the history surrounding Vorovoro itself.

To this end Geoff began to create a carving from some very old driftwood found on the island, which he would present to Tui Mali on this day. Below is a transcript of Geoff's speech that day, and Tui Mali's response which I recorded on my camera:

Geoff: "Tui Mali. Mary and I would firstly like to present a tatau in our thanks to you, team fiji and tribewanted for our unforgettable stay here on Vorovoro.

You have all accepted us into your hearts, your culture and homes. We have experienced many excursions in our six week period in Fiji having originally booked for a two week stay. We do not want to go back but the taxman calleth! (We think you know what we mean)

We have had so many memorable times and had an open house welcome every time. We have been to the depths of your people and at times been where none other than Fijians have trod.

There have been weddings, birthdays, school trips even passing out parades, painting trips and the important 2nd anniversary celebrations all within this time. This has also been a time to work and learn from your Team Fiji on the developing projects and again they have taken us to their hearts. We take our hats off to these talented members of the tribe. Wonderful memories and some things money can't buy.

Thank you for letting us come to your beautiful island and this is only a small token of our appreciation. We also would like to thank you personally Tui Mali, and as you know we came here to enjoy some wood carving, and collecting driftwood is one of our families occupations as you may have heard. We were hoping to extend our time with yourselves and would have liked to passed on some tips from my fine furniture and woodturning experience to the team here but Fiji time has been on fast forward and the chance never came to show the tribe some of the techniques in order that they might like to take up a sport other than rugby or volleyball.

So this is a gift to you, to personally thank you for your kindness, your people and your island. I would like to tell you a story... one day in September 1824, rough seas founded a boat carrying Fijian people here on the reef and broke into pieces which drifted onto the island.

The people also came ashore and felt that this was their chosen land. As the boat was washed up onto the shore so to did this piece of driftwood (Geoff presented a large piece of driftwood planking) found on sagosago beach, which represents that day. The head man, Ratu Apinisa Bogiso, a fine young man and chief, set up his home and family here on Vorovoro, which translates into 'broken pieces'.

Tui Mali, this carving represents your great great grandfather who first came here and forms that broken bond. (Geoff presents his carving, beautifully wrapped in coconut leaves)

Today we join a new vision for your Vorovoro. The base was cut yesterday to represent that new beginning as Tevita predicted 'people will come to this island'. People have come and I would like to ask you to join me in planting the new vision with your ancestors in bonding Team Fiji firmly with Tribewanted. A gift that we hope you will treasure not only of the thoughts of past but to your future and the future of Vorovoro and Tribewanted.com. So so Ratu, may god bless you and your tribe". (Tui Mali & Geoff placed the carving into the cut base together).

Geoff then presented some tools for Team Fiji and explained to Tui Mali and everybody how he made the carving using them, including using English tea to make the stains. Tui Mali recieved the tatau in Fijian before addressing everybody in English afterwards and presenting Geoff with a chief's mat to take home with him...

Tui Mali: "The Fijians believe that some of our ancestors are still here and still around us and some times they watch and hear. This afternoon on behalf of Vorovoro and the family, you know the family here in Vorovoro is all over the world, there is a mat, from Vorovoro to be given to you. Vinaka Vaka Levu, thank you very much for raising up Vorovoro together, and we hope that Vorovoro is going up to where the world will see and I hope when you go back, you'll go and tell them the story about Vorovoro, and this is our gift to you, Vinaka Vaka Levu".

It was a touching moment indeed.

There are many things that happen on Vorovoro which one could put down to coincidence, and the timing of this could have easily been construed in such a way. The giving of this perfect gift not only represents the bringing together of the old traditions here in Fiji and the new era represented by Tui Mali and Tribewanted, but also serves as a reminder to everybody connected with the project that we must pull together and make a firm binding to each other in order to best understand one another and to be strong for our future together. This is something that Ratu Tevita himself told me the previous morning when I was low, that we would be reminded soon that we must all remain strong and pull together on Vorovoro, the chief, the team and Tui Mali together.

A fitting parting gift indeed, and a fitting sentiment for everybody connected with the project.

Thank you so much Geoff for the inspiration that this brings... every time a new tribe member sees your sculpture, the story will be told again and again... another fine legacy on Vorovoro.

Lets all keep pulling together in the same direction for a good future both on Vorovoro and around the world as one community.

Vinaka
Paul.

My second week as chief on Vorovoro, for Tribewanted

sl0ggs — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:18:00 GMT

This week started off with another visit to the doctors for me, which was a bit of a waste of a day on Vorovoro personally, but better news with the ear canal looking better. It's so hard to keep from swimming and snorkeling in the beautiful waters here... hopefully my efforts will pay off and I can get back out there next week, yeay!! In my absence on Monday the tribe cracked on with the usual 'karmic duties' to keep the place running smoothly and a gang helped team Fiji on the hill by the water tanks with the huge shower project. Monday night saw the usual grog session which became a blur sat at the top of the mat... I have taken to making the mat 'space' a little smaller than it seemed to have been in my previous months as part of the tribe. I prefer to be closer to the Tanoa and the tribe, and so I will continue to do that where I can, I hate missing out on the banter around the bowl! ;)

On Tuesday we didn't have a four peaks challenge in the morning due to only having one official member of the TW team on the island, who had to stay in the village for obvious reasons. Instead the tribe helped collect shells along the beach for the mosaic design that will decorate the showers and helped move some of the finer sand from the island up to the showers to make cement for the main posts in the construction. After another hot morning's work, we all got scrubbed up for the usual Tuesday visit of Tui Mali and our Sevusevu. Tui Mali was in good form today and we all had fun chatting around the mat. I Kerekere'd Tui Mali to write some words in the (Tribewanted) passport of Hassan, who was leaving the following day. This doesn't usually happen, but Hassan was such a great character and friend after his two month stay, I thought it would be a nice gesture... Tui Mali took pleasure in doing that and wrote some lovely words for Hassan. After the sevusevu Tui Mali also spoke to the tribe in English about the project and how he has found his two years stepping into the unknown with Ben, which was unusual, he doesn't normally address the tribe as a whole like that at sevusevu. He'd earlier been up to see the progress of the showers, and I sensed that he felt quite excited about the project and perhaps the permanency of the construction on this latest project is more than just a coincidence having just received an extension to the lease of Vorovoro from Tui Mali! Once again Tuesday turned into a mammoth grog session and I slept very well!

Wednesday saw five people leave, inculding some big characters. The remaining tribe helped with arranging the flooring slabs for the showers and collecting shells and glass from the beach. I lead a small group on the four peaks walk this morning, although it wasn't an official Tribewanted event. It was a good walk and I enjoyed showing the tribe the island views. The afternoon developed into something completely different... A highly respected village elder had passed away in a neighbouring village of ours (on Mali island) and we were required to give something to the village to help them with the Lovo. In a huge gesture of his generosity, Tevita presented Tui Mali with a Tabua (whales tooth) and some new mats, on behalf of Vorovoro! This was quite something, as a Tabua is the most important gift one village gives to another through their chief. After the presentation, Tui Mali and most of team Fiji left Vorovoro to go to the first part of the funeral, where all of the gifts are presented to the bereaved family.

On Thursday the island was quiet as the actual burial took place and team Fiji were there for the whole day, drinking yet more grog, until they returned and continued the session on the beach. I couldn't face grog tonight and sods law came into play as according to the few that sat and drank with them, Tui Mali was in amazing form, telling lots of stories all night... typical, the first grog session I miss in two months! :( Geoff carried on working on the showers in the heat today, determined to see it finished before he leaves next week. The gang that went on the reef trip were treated to lots of shark viewings today, so they were all buzzing when they came back.

Friday was another busy day with lots of the big slabs being carried up from the beach for the showers flooring, and the rocks being pounded and broken up to fit them all in. A couple of the girls went to help Tevita transplant some tomato seedlings into the gardens and we managed to squeeze a singing lesson into the morning with Save! After an early lunch five of us went off to the Mali District School. The children sang some different songs for us today, which I've not heard before on my previous visits, and we did some meke with them, which was great fun. The afternoon was spent playing with them all in serious afternoon heat! The rugby was brutal today, they all seemed to have personal vendettas with each other today... even I got clattered by a lad half my size, heheh! It was a fun visit as always. When we got back to Vorovoro team Fiji were ready to leave and the tribe sat in the grand bure for a short grog session with Marau who was 46 years old today... no one knew until he mentioned it late in the day! He'd spent the day working hard as always. We enjoyed some good banter with him before he left to go home to a proper party with his family... The evening was quiet with most people sloping off to bed quite early, tired after another hot and busy day. Myself and Brett stayed up with Api and Tale, sat on a mat, under the shetler of the kitchen roof from the rain, drinking grog until near midnight.

Today (Saturday) I'm picking up a few things in town and enjoying some chinese food before heading back to Vorovoro for some relaxing time...

On Monday we should be receiving the cut reeds for the Bure roofs, and we should be able to finish off the showers (all apart from the mosaic work), it should be a good week!!

Vinaka Vaka Levu
Tui Paula

Pics from Vorovoro

My first week as chief of Tribewanted.com, September 2008

sl0ggs — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 23:16:00 GMT

Looking back now, sat in the ecotricity hut on a Sunday afternoon, the week behind me is a bit of a blur!

I've been in the enviable position of being installed as chief for the first month of the third year of this unique project, and all just in time to have the official handover on the 2nd anniversary of the project, which is a huge milestone for Tribewanted.com and a very special day for myself.

Before I tell you about my week I'd like to pay tribute to the two chiefs that I've seen in action during my time as a tribe member for July and August, Mariah and Dan. They have shown me so much and shared their ideas with me from day one, which has helped a lot. I've also been lucky enough to have met Kaz this last week, chief from April and long-time supporter of the project, and her advice, support and energy has also been an inspiration for me. Not to mention the great team here on the island, and the opportunity to hang-out with, and pick the brains of, Ben Keene for my whole stay... my timing could not have been better in coming to Vorovoro!

As preparation for my month as chief, the team invited me to their monthly meeting, on the 31st August, to help me understand what happens behind the scenes on Vorovoro. Becoming chief gives a fantastic insight into the running of the island from day-to-day and month-to-month. Once you become chief, you are part of the team, so certain other responsibilities befall you... such as heading up the weekly meeting of all the team members on the island (an adventure in itself when you're thrown in at the deep end with that one!), joining the weekly rota of toilet and kitchen cleaning, shutting down the kitchen and village lighting of an evening, heading up off island visits, representing the tribe when visitors arrive and of course having some input in all of the planning and running of tribes time and activities. We talked about the continuation of Dan's mammoth project, the new showers, and about my September project of strengthening and tidying the bure roofs in the village for the rainy season and building a new bure for community manager Tevita. It's nice to have some exposure to the accountability of the business and to discover just how tricky it can be to negotiate with service providers or product suppliers in Fiji, something which isn't entirely evident as a member of the tribe. A huge amount goes on behind the scenes, which is largely unoticed, testament to the effort and good team work of the people that work here.

And so to my first week... Monday morning I awoke in my comfy bed in the old Vale to the greetings of my fellow tribe members of "yandra chief!". I'd prepared my bags the night before for the short walk to the chiefs bure, and was looking forward to moving in! I had breakfast with the tribe as usual and then started to move my things into my new pad. Emma gave me a hand to sweep it out and kindly pointed out to me the many huge spiders living in the roof, thanks Emma! Next came the blowing of the conch shell to gather the tribe in the great bure for my first meeting as chief... even after some practise blows last month, this did not go well! I had the added pressure of Moya and Emma taking photo's of me doing this, which produced much laughter as all I produced for three or four attempts was a loud wet fart of a sound! I nailed it fifth time though, and it was loud and clear... it takes a bit of puff and has a tricky technique, and left me a little light headed afterwards, lol.

I sat at the head of the mat in the great bure and everyone filed in, the tribe was quite big this week, and all of Team Fiji came in too. I'd met with the team before the meeting to make notes about the week and todays format and was ready to start the week. Talking has never been a problem for me, as many of you reading will already know(!), but today I was a little more nervous than I thought I'd be, which passed as soon as I got going and started to tell the tribe what would happening in the next two days leading up to the party. I opened by offering congratulations to Jim and Dan on their new appointments, which officially began today. The meeting went well thanks to the support of the team, and the tribe were soon splitting off into groups to help prepare the village for the 2nd birthday party on Tuesday, raking the paths and greens, collecting leaves for decorations, etc. The Karmic Duties board was also full of willing volunteers and everyone was busy today. The tribe also had two meke lessons with Save today, in preparation for the party tomorrow where we would be performing in front of our guests after the ceremony was finished.

I spent much of the day floating around between all the projects, keeping up with as many of the tribe members as I could and keeping abreast of everything happening. It felt like I didn't sit down all day! In the afternoon lots of new tribe members arrived in the boat from town, and so I took them for my first tour of the village. Afterwards I'd remembered a few things that I'd not told them, so I need to improve with that! I did manage to catch up with everyone later though and hopefully they weren't too bored or badly informed!

During Monday evening we had a mahuuusive grog session with the team, who deserved it after their efforts and were pretty excited about the party tomorrow... midnight came and went before we retired.

Tuesday was epic to say the least! I've written a seperate blog about the whole day, you can read it by clicking here...

Wednesday I had to go to Labasa to see the doctor as my ear infection was now unbearable, which was a shame and a waste of nearly a full day as chief! Ben Katz headed up the meeting in my absence, and after a tough Isa Lei, with some big characters and long-term tribe members leaving, some heavy rain clouds came in and kept the mood low, even though we needed the water. After the rain cleared the tribe took down all of the shelters built for the celebrations and set all the fronds out to dry in the sun ready to use for something else. Meanwhile in town I met with the new tribe members and after a village tour shortly after getting back on the island, we prepared for yet another monster grog session for Pupu's 69th birthday. I've bonded really well with Pupu over the last couple of months, so it was nice to have him sit as wingman (no dondo's!!) and to be able to present one of the new Tribewanted postcards with his picture on, signed by the whole tribe. Dan had made him a giant birthday flapjack which was presented in the morning along with a singsong with the whole tribe. This evening I also presented some grog to Team Fiji on behalf of everyone in the tribe for their hard graft this week in preparing the village for the party and to thank them for their support for me in my first week. I think I will give them some grog each week that I'm chief, which is something the tribe used to do some time ago, as it is a nice gesture.

Thursday was another bleary eyed start and after the morning meeting the tribe broke up the palm fronds to lay them down as a new floor in the great bure to put the mats on, it was really comfy after this!! Marau and Tale started on a new floor in Eramoni for Jim and the team worked on improving the rain catchment on the hill. We had meke class in the morning and song lessons in the afternoon with Save, singing Daru Mai Lele, which is a nice song to learn and sing around the grog bowl with the boys on an evening. The reef trip was full in the afternoon and all of the tribe mucked in with Karmic Duties and general help around the village, it really is ship-shape this week! On Thursday evening I had the most bizarre business meeting of my life... Tevita had two of the heads of the youth organisation from a local Mali village coming over to negotiate a price and do a deal for the reeds I need to get the bure roof project done. Tevita spoke to them in the Fijian village to arrange a price and then they came down to meet myself and Jim to shake hands on the deal. We met under a coconut tree, in the pitch black night, shook hands agreed on a deal (including feeding them while they work here and a grog session when they're finished) and then said goodbye before they hopped on a boat home. If I saw them in daylight tomorrow I wouldn't recognise them, lol! Anyway, we got ourselves a good deal of 300 bundles of reeds, delivery and their help installing them for $600, which I'm happy with (this won't include the great bure, as that will be a one off job afterwards, which I hope to stretch my budget too this month if possible).

Friday saw the Tribewanted giftshop open its doors (well, setup on the dining table) after the morning meeting, and lots of the tribe got stuck in buying sulu's, bags and postcards. Team Fiji split their forces as Marau and Tale were finishing installing the floor in Jim's new home, Leavi was gardening and the rest were working on the showers. The tribe all lent a hand and brought up some rock slabs for the shower flooring from the beach and an other good mornings work was done. In the afternoon we took our trip to the Mali District School, where the tribe presented themselves and some gifts to the class and enjoyed some songs from the children. We arrived a little late unfortunately, and so there wasn't much time for working in the classroom with the kids before they wanted to race outside to play. There was netball/basketball, rugby and football with the shiny new footballs that Rob and Holly kindly donated to them. The lads there from the tribe lined up against the kids for a game of full contact rugby, it was five versus twenty kids and they weren't messing around! Full head-on shoulder tackles from the crazy little guys... it was great fun and they knackered us all out in the sun and made us look silly with their skills... :) In the afternoon we had a little grog session as normal to bid Moce to team Fiji as they leave the island for the weekend, and it was nice to chat about the week and the success of the party and have a final sing-song and a laugh with them all. The tribe had a pretty quiet night with a couple of bottles of wine and a fire, which was interrupted with a decent downpour for half an hour which Emma and I stood in for a while, should've taken some soap it was that hard a rain storm! I had a little 'moment' late on in the evening where I suddenly missed my dear family and friends from home... its been a long time since I left home in January and this place is such a joy and inspiration, I'd love it if they could come and see it for themselves!

Saturday morning started out with more people leaving, including the sustainability manager, Ben Katz for a months well earned break. This is a bit of a blow as his imput is huge on the island, and he is a close personal friend now... I'm looking forward to his return already. I've waved some good friends off from this beach these last couple of weeks... good job it is easy to get so immersed in island life and that there are always good people arriving, there's no time to be depressed! ;)

Sunday was a nice day of relaxation and recuperation after a hectic week, with a meeting with the team in the afternoon to discuss the week ahead. It was also Sarah's birthday today, so we had cake, songs and a present organised by her traveling companion and friend Liz and a bit of a grog session on the beach near Api's house.

I'm looking forward to a good second week, albeit I'll miss the Monday morning meeting due to having to go back to the doctors to have the ear checked out again! Hopefully we can get the showers to a stage where they are operational and start using them, plus my project of starting on the bure roofs should kick off...

Thanks for reading, cya next week.
Vinaka
Tui Paula.

Tribewanted's 2nd Birthday!

sl0ggs — Mon, 1 Sep 2008 23:08:00 GMT

What a day! Tuesday the 2nd of September 2008 was the 2nd birthday of Tribewanted on Vorovoro, and the preparations and subsequent celebrations were fitting to say the least! We also recieved a wonderful news from Tui Mali in what was his first English penned speech given on the island, but I'll leave that to Bengazi to reveal in detail...

For me personally the day itself and the preparation couldn't have been more surreal. I had been installed as chief on Monday the 1st of September! Having been part of the tribe for two months already had readied me in a sense, I knew what the island was all about and knew all the key members of the team already, but to take over and chair my first morning meeting with a large tribe, the day before the party, and to then take part in the chief handover in front of all of the guests for the party, was NOT your average day-in-the-life! I have been very lucky and highly privileged to be here as chief for this time, and I thank everyone that gave me the chance to have this opportunity.

A few days before the celebrations, team Fiji built some shelters around the rear of the Great Bure, where we would hold the ceremony, and on Monday the tribe helped cut and collect leaves to use as cover, flooring and decoration for the posts. The posts were all wrapped in coconut leaves, weaved around them and tied off at the foot, and then flowers and decorative leaves were attached. The shelter for Tui Mali was decorated with traditional Fiji cloth with shelves either side with huge shells and ornate pieces of drift wood from around the island and lots of colourful cloth was hung all around the shelters... it looked beautiful!

The morning began with a VERY excited Ben Keene running around the village waking everyone up personally at 6am. He slid running into the chiefs bure with music blaring out of the speakers in his hand and busted out some typical 'pointy-elbowed' Ben Keene moves whilst shouting happy birthday at the top of his voice! I was genuinely excited to be here for this time, for Ben and for everyone that has worked on the project, as the work they have done in taking Tribewanted this far is always so understated to the outside world. Ben and his team have worked immensely hard to make this work, and so they should be congratulated. Congratulations!! :)

I got myself up, and after a pretty hefty grog session the previous evening (my first as chief) had to blow a few cobwebs out of the head to get started. I had also woken with what felt like another ear infection starting (this was to be my third on the island!). The day ahead was huge though, and I wasn't going to let that detract any enjoyment from the celebrations. [The rest of my day was fueled by pain killers, antiinflammatories and grog! ;)]

By the time the tribe were up and about, team Fiji had a huge fire pit ablaze behind the kitchen area, filled with large rocks, heating up ready for the Lovo. In what often provides a contentious discussion, the killing and preparation of the pigs for the lovo, I found it to be very educative and interesting to observe. This is an age old tradition of cooking in an oven dug into the ground, with hot rocks put inside the pig to help cook evenly. The pigs were here for this purpose, after being given to the tribe by Tui Mali some time ago, and they were killed quickly and cleanly with the minimum of noise or fuss. The process of wrapping all of the fish, pig and veg is quite an artform, all neatly and tightly tied into palm leaf baskets for cooking in the lovo. This is all then piled into the 'oven' and covered with huge leaves and then soil and left to cook for a few hours.

The tribe split up into teams to help with the final preparations, helping descale the huge fish that Marau had caught the day before, grinding the coconuts to make the sauces and preparing the veg. All three kitchens on the island were in full flow, with team Fiji, their family members and the tribe all helping. The newly constructed table and original dining tables were decorated and laid and a final sweep up of the paths around the front of the village was done.

Once everyone had eaten a bit of breakfast and completed most tasks, we all gathered in the Great Bure for a quick meeting about the day and then had a sing-song with team Fiji, singing Isa Lei to say goodbye to the last year and happy birthday for the special day on the island. The boys got carried away and we had a few more songs and lots of dancing, whooping and laughing, it was a wonderful moment, as a tribe, before all the guests arrived.

Through the rest of the morning the tribe readied themselves washing in the sea, dressing up and helping to guide guests around the island and village as they arrived. [Hassan is a legendary Vorovoro tour guide!] We had a cameraman from Fiji 1 TV, local villages and organisation representatives and VIP guests all over the village. Just before twelve thirty, myself, Tevita, Ben, Jim and Dan walked down to the Fijian village to address Tui Mali and tell him that we were ready to recieve him. We presented him with some grog and a bula shirt to match those of team Fiji and the TW team members, these were brought from my budget as chief as a gift to the gang so that we can all look smart in the same colours when we attend events or host visitors.

Everyone in the village had readied themselves and Tui Mali and his guests were the last to be seated after approaching to the sound of the Lali drum being beaten to announce his arrival. There were five sat in the head position, Tui Mali, his wingman who is a chief from a neighbouring village on Mali, a pastor from Mali, the head master of the All Saints Secondary School, and the Mali Sharks rugby team captain. I sat as wingman to August chief Dan in a seperate shelter to the side, which was shared by Giles (project director until this day), Jim (the new project director), Ben Keene and Pupu. The rest of the tribe and some guests were sat opposite Tui Mali under a large shelter and more guests were seated off to one side under the trees. Team Fiji and Ben Katz were sat off to one side of the central mat, ready and dressed in the traditional costumes for the Kava ceremony, with Kimbo being back on the island for the anniversary in the full dress as server for the day (he did a superb job!).

The formal part of the day consisted of a speech from a Tribewanted village elder, Leavi, for Tui Mali and his wingman receiving the kava. Tevita, the Vorovoro community manager, then spoke for several minutes about the project and the island was utterly silent for this, he also presented a Tabua (whales tooth) to Tui Mali. I have no idea what exactly Te said, but everyone could feel the emotion and passion from the man, who is "a force of nature", to coin a Ben Keene phrase. The grog was then brought forward and mixed for Tui Mali and his guests to drink. After this came the chief handover, and the heart started racing a bit more! Dan went up to have the Salusalu* removed from around his neck by one of Tui Mali's guests and then sat to speak to the tribe (and guests) about his time as chief, and then it was my turn to approach Tui Mali... the etiquette is to clap three times for Tui Mali and then I went along to the guest and he shook my hand and offered some advice and asked me to carry on the good work of previous chiefs and continue to educate the world about the Fijian culture, he then put the Salusalu around my neck and I turned to address Tui Mali and the tribe. I thanked everyone involved in the project for allowing me this opportunity to be chief and expressed my desire to take the project forward as best I could into the third year, and thanked the previous two chiefs for their good example during my 2 month stay.

After the handover and formalities were finished, Giles gave a speech to Tui Mali and Team Fiji in Fijian, which was very moving for everyone, even though we only understood a few words. His demeanour and body language said it all. He then went on to tell us his thoughts in English and after working on Vorovoro for a long time and having close personal bonds with everyone on the island he will be leaving in a happy mindset thanks to the experience and lessons learnt here. Ben Keene spoke next and talked about the project from its beginning and how it has evolved and developed with the hard work and leadership of the team. He presented some gifts to Tui Mali, Giles (receiving on behalf of the island) and Tevita (on behalf of Fiji). Tui Mali then spoke of his pride and admiration for those who brought the project to life and worked hard to make it work, of his own personal pride in being involved in something so special and of the future for Vorovoro.

Next came our entertainment for the guests... the tribe left the mat and went to put on our grass decorations and paints ready to perform our meke. I led the tribe back to the mat and the men seated with their backs to the assembled crowd for the Vuki Malua. It was met with the usual joy and enthusiasm and we were 'hit' with the normal talc, sulu's, sweets and kisses routine designed to put us off, always great fun! The girls of the tribe then joined us and we performed the six meke's individually and then a complete runthrough of one to six and then the girls performed their own meke for the crowd. Giles and Ben then stitched up a few members of Team Fiji after Kerekere-ing Tui Mali, and had them up to perform the girls meke, which was hilarious! Tale and Sosi are naturals... Fafaas, heheh.

We then went and enjoyed the wonderful Lovo feast and sat on the dining tables and beach to eat with our guests. The food was amazing, its incredible how they manage to make so much and such good stuff with such limited resources.

After the Lovo we went back to the mats, which were now out from under the shelters after the midday sun had passed, and got stuck into some grog. I asked Will, one of the new tribe members, to come up and sit with me on my mat near the top, partly for selfish reasons (company at the head of the mat!) but also to give one of the tribe a different view of the whole thing. It was nice to sit and get to know him and help fill in some blanks for him about the day and its formalities.

The ladies had baked a large birthday cake for Tribewanted, with the 'X' logo on the top and lots of icing, and so this was presented and then the candles (all two of them) were lit. Tui Mali offered the blowing out of the candles to me, but I suggested that we both did it, and so we both leaned in and blew them out together, which was quite a nice moment! During the late afternoon hours the guests began to leave a boat at a time, until it was dark and just the Tribewaned tribe remained. Most were tired, as the night before was quite full on and late, but I was determined to enjoy the full day to the max, as much for Ben as anyone else, it was his baby's second birthday after all!

Early evening Va brought out a second birthday cake, this time it was for Emma who turned twenty two today, what a birthday party she had! We sang the usual 'happy birthday' and 'happy longlife' songs for her and then I installed her as 'wing-chick' for the rest of the night... which was to be long! A core group of us carried on into the early hours, including Leavi, Pupu, Save and Sosi and we had a good singing session and lots of grog. [Emma got to the point of seeing things that weren't there, quite an amusing side effect of late nights and lots of grog! ;)]

We closed the day and said a final happy birthday to Ben as we all went off to a well earned sleep. It was going to be short as the next day we had a huge amount of people leaving early and Pupu's birthday to celebrate... making it a three day-long 'session'!

What a great honour, and great privilege it is to have been installed as chief for this time. It was a very special day, in the company of some very special people, and I will never ever forget it.

If you get the chance, be here for the third birthday, you won't regret it! ;)

Pics from the day are here!!!

Vinaka Vaka Levu for reading...
Moce
Tui Paula.

* The Salusalu is a colourful traditional Fijian woven piece worn around the neck of the chief for official formalities.

Tribewanted's Virgin Footsteps, a Trek in Vanua Levu

sl0ggs — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:01:00 GMT

On Friday the 22nd of August 2008 a group of tribe members and a certain mister Ben Keene left Vorovoro for a mini-adventure, trekking into the interior of the northern Fijian mainland island of Vanua Levu.

We didn't just decide we'd go and do this on the spur of the moment, it was all part of a fledgling business idea of Save's brother, Junior. This came about after the recent initiative from Ben to help local entrepreneurs with their business ideas in order to win a government grant to help start-up.

Ben, myself, Sue, Moya, Hassan, Geoff, Ed and Kristin all boarded the boat on Friday afternoon with our small back packs and set off for Labasa and into the unknown...

Our guide for the weekend, Junior, met us at the Grand Eastern hotel and we had half an hour to kill before we needed to be on the bus which would take us to our first stop, somewhere in the interior of Vanua Levu. Most of us took the opportunity to pop into town (downtown LA) to fetch some munchies for the long bus ride ahead and (Hassan) to visit the internet cafe to check emails.

Whilst waiting for the Best Dressed Man on Vorovoro to come back from the internet cafe, the rest of us walked to the bus station to save some seats on the bus, which was leaving at 3pm. This was an interesting spot to sit for twenty minutes, as the bus was near full, with confused patrons clambering on and off of a host of buses trying to find their route, meanwhile a (literally) crooked peanut salesmen wandered around in the smog of the bus fumes selling bags of monkey nuts for 50 cents. Moya and I obliged him and the nuts were good! (Phew! ;))

Shortly before 3pm and with a near full bus, Hassan arrived with Junior and Ben and we were all seated and underway before the scheduled departure time! This generally does not happen in Fiji, hence the phrase 'Fiji time', however having just pulled out of the bus station, the bus was abruptly brought to a standstill by several pairs of hands thumping on its sides and the last few passengers loaded their casava roots underneath the bus and climbed aboard, putting the bus journey bang on schedule! The buses here have open holes where the windows would normally live, so we had good air conditioning and lots of dust for the near three hour journey after leaving the tarmac of Labasa behind after only a few miles of travel. We amused ourselves on the bus with snacks, conversation and the usual sprinkling of humour that is traditionally associated with anything 'tribewanted'. Jazzy Geoff (off of painting Api's house fame) was on form and struck up a lengthy conversation with an elderly Fijian chap for much of the journey. On route we saw yaqorna trees growing along the green road sides, which produce the Kava root that the whole of Fiji drinks (the now infamous 'grog'). Partway through the trip the bus stopped outside a little shop for a five minute stretch of the legs and a cigarette break, which was appreciated by a couple of our group. There were also several stops along the way to let passengers off, some of them with no obvious destination in sight, literally being set down in the middle of nowhere. The people that live out here in the sticks do a LOT of walking!

Somewhere between five thirty and six we arrived at our stop, a junction called Coacoa Road. There wasn't much to see, apart from dense green bush and the red muddy tracks splitting at this point. We waved farewell to those left on the bus and picked up our bags ready to walk... somewhere. Junior had organised an evening meal and accomodation for us, but had not told us quite how far we'd be walking to get there. He did suggest that torches were a good idea! I'd estimate a 4-5 kilometer walk along a battered pick-up truck smashed track through the jungle, with "this is the last hill" being uttered several times over! It was soon dark, and a few of the group were in their thongs (flip-flops!) and were starting to feel the strain underfoot. If you ask a Fijian "how far to go" or "how much longer left", you'll be greeted with the answer "not far/much" regardless of how we might perceive it and so the beach footware remained for those wearing them for the rest of the walk. Rain helped us stay refreshed for some of the night walk, which was actually quite welcomed.

We arrived at our destination around seven thirty, not knowing where we were or in what environment, only that we'd gone up hill much of the way. As is customary in any Fijian home, we were made to feel very welcomed and were introduced to the men who were sitting around the grog bowl on their breezy porch, and the women who were busy inside the house preparing our feast in their tiny kitchen. The ladies went to freshen up inside as the guys sat down around the bowl and presented a sevusevu and sunk a few bilo's. The ladies joined us and after a quick freshen up we were invited to go inside to eat in the kitchen. The dining table was full of taro in various guises and some casava. We tucked in and took in our new environment in the kitchen with its walls covered in posters from what looked like a typical western style sunday supplement with pictures of gourmet menu items including steaks, cheesecakes and other delicious looking fare! Ben did point at one item and request it from the kitchen, which was met with plenty of hearty laughter by the ladies. After we'd all filled up on the delicious food, we took more grog on board before settling down for the night in the spacious rooms inside the large house. We literally slept on the mats on the wooden floor, with blankets and pillows. I slept surprisingly well, no mean feat considering the added disruption of pretty much everyone snoring thanks to the nasal canals being full of dust from our bus journey earlier in the day! [Junior won the snore-off by the way, its a family trait to be good at snoring I think! ;)]

Early next morning we woke one by one and walked out onto the porch to be greeted with our first sighting of where exactly we were in the world. The house was atop one side of a huge valley, which was as green as you could ever imagine... in the distance were large impressive hills and peaks with a green textured blanket as far as the eye could see. In the beautiful gardens surrounding the house several dogs and one large pig pottered around sniffing for scraps. We were in a small settlement of only a few homes, called Ba-Acu, which literally translates as 'wooden gate', and we'd been graciously put-up at Semi's home for the night, even though he wasn't actually there (his brother had played host). After a seriously strong and sweet coffee and some casava cake (its pretty good actually) we took ourselves down into a stream nearby for a 'shower' under a running tap into a huge water butt and brushed our teeth here too. It was very refreshing and had everyone suitably awake to prepare themselves for a day of walking.

We took a few pics and took our time to say goodbye to everyone at the house before leaving and walking into the green hillside. The walk was headed up by our host from the evening before, who also carried lunch and Junior brang up the rear of the group. The pace was steady and pretty relaxed, with a view to taking everything in and enjoying the walk, and not drenching ourselves in unnecessary sweat. The first part of the walk was on a similar track to last nights effort, although it was a track less travelled by vehicles and was a little more overgrown. Two of the young Fijian men we drank with the previous evening caught us up equipped with boots, head cover and machete's, taking a short cut behind us to go ahead and help cut an easier path through the overgrown and rarely trekked jungle ahead of us. We reached our junction along the track (which goes on to the local school) and took five minutes to drink some water and rest, before heading off down hill into the jungle proper.

The pace remained sensible and Junior filled us in with some info about the species we were seeing on route. The jungle was dense in places and it was a fairly typical jungle walk, stepping over fallen trees, brushing aside vines and treading carefully on mud and slippery roots. Some of the steeper downhill sections were slightly more precarious, but everyone faired well and enjoyed the walk (including 'slippery Sue' who introduced the jungle floor to her backside in style just the once!). We could hear wild parrots shouting at each other in the hills, but unfortunately weren't able to sight them during the walk. We were also afforded some amazing views when a suitable gap in the trees allowed so before descending too far down the hillside into the valley, including seeing the ocean on the south side of the island. At the bottom of the hill we came across a wide river, low due to the dry season and this was our stop for lunch and a well earned rest. The bed of the river was rock with some huge rounded bolders lining the banks. It was nice to get the shoes off and dip the feet in the cold water and have a little splash around here. We ate sandwiches prepared by the ladies at the house this morning and rested and reflected here for a while. This was where we were told that no white men have taken this path or walked this river, which gave me an inflated sense of pride and made us feel slightly more adventurous than we already did. The next part of the walk was along the river itself, which was quite good fun hoping from rock to rock until we came to a track alongside the river and got back into the greenery.

The group were pleasantly surprised when we reached the outskirts of the Nakura Settlement near to the coast, as some of Juniors extended family were waiting for us with a mat, lots of packs of biscuits and some fresh cooled juice. We sat in a wonderful setting, on the grassy banks of the river where it opens out into a large pool which is used by the settlement for washing and fun and games. There was a huge tree on the opposite bank to where we sat with the thickest rope I'd ever seen, hanging from it as a swing over the pool. The water was too low for us to easily swim here though, and after the break we walked on down into the settlement with an ever growing entourage of Fijianas across a field housing their cattle and stepped out onto the most fantastic piece of coastline I've ever stepped on to. We lingered here for a while and spoke with the family whos house was literally right on the beach edge and took photos with the excited collection of kids.

Beach walking has never been so pleasurable... we walked with lots of the family from the settlement with more joining us from along the beach at our destination village, on beautiful fine warm golden sands being lapped by a warm high tide, the entire coast fringed with palms, reaching out over the water as far as they could possibly stretch. We stopped before our destination village, something which we later learned (days after the trek) that wasn't the best etiquette on our part, instead we should have arrived, presented sevusevu and THEN gone back along the beach to play. I guess we thought it better to bath in the sea and play games with the kids out of sight of the village in case we upset anyone accidentally in doing so. Anyway, it turns out that no one in the village was upset by this, but we have learnt for future trips! We took the opportunity to swim in the sea, relax and play some games with the kids on the beach. Ben started them off, playing rugby with a coconut and then having races and running gym-style circuits with them, much to their amusement. More and more kids arrived, news filtering through that we were there, and we played French style boules with coconuts, had a three legged race, sprinted along the beach and generally had a blast with them, taking lots of pictures along the way (which of course added to the entertainment as they got to see the pictures of themselves doing all these things too).

Naboudini Village was our destination for the evening, and after the fun and games we made our way down there. We were staying in Junior's deceased grandfathers house, which has prime spot over looking the ocean at the front of the village. One of the lead chefs from Vorovoro, the wonderful Va, hails from this village and her house is right behind the one we stayed in (in fact, the girls from our group slept at Va's house in the end). We relaxed here for a short time and had a little venture into other parts of the village to have a look around before we were invited to one of Juniors Aunts house for a late lunch. The room was clear and clean and they had laid out lunch on beautiful cloths on the floor. We ate a huge lunch of traditional Fijian food and then headed down to some benches on the beach to relax and take it all in. When we got back to our accomodation there were several men from the village in there with Junior, mixing a bowl of grog to welcome us [instead of the more traditional carved wooden tanoa, they had an old sea buoy with its top cut off and used as a stand for their tanoa]. The chief of the village arrived and we all sat, drank and chatted and told stories for hours, although the time simply flew by. It grew dark outside and only 3-4 hours after eating a huge feast for our late lunch we were informed that dinner was ready! We went back to the house we ate in earlier, although not entirely enthusiastically, and were greeted with another huge spread. They'd made a dish which we eat a lot on Vorovoro, papaya curry, but this one was pretty spicy, there was also a delicious mash potato with garlic and chilli in and a very tasty coconut soup with onions and chillis, plus some nice crisp crunchy salad. Suddenly everyone was into eating again, as it was all so nice! We rested and nattered by the sea after tearing ourselves away from the Shrek movie which the kids put on while we were finishing up our meal, and then wandered back to our accomodation to join the grog session.

We had to hunt for the grog session, as they had vacated our room by the time we got back. After a walk through the village and a quick chat with a few familes along the way we found the gang. They'd holed up in what we later found out was called the glass bar, or something similar. There were a lot more men from the village in on this session, and they welcomed us on to the mat and started filling the glass(!) bilo for us to drink. This was odd in two ways from what I've seen so far during my time in Fiji, firstly you could see the colour and amount of the grog all too vividly inside, as opposed to just seeing the light shining off of the top of it in a coconut bilo, secondly, the bowl was always wet on the outisde as it didn't have the natural drop-off on the bottom like the coconut bilo, so grog went everywhere, dripping down the arms and onto the sulu. It was messy, lol. It was also messy as it was bloody strong! They mix it a little differently in this place, I guess they are a tad more flippant with the vast supply of grog they tend to in this part of the country! Each round was broken with a song and a new amount of ground kava being mixed into the huge bowl with a few more bilo's of water... it seemed to keep getting stronger all night! We sat there in a grog-enduced daze for the night before the Fijians themselves gave up and pronounced the session over.

After a much better (grogged?!) nights sleep we arose to wash and ready for our departure. I took a freshwater shower (trickle) in the house bathroom but the girls got the inside scoop from Junior and wandered off to a local river and creek to wash in that! From what they tell me it was like something out of a TV advert for a tropical hair shampoo, yes, that scene in your head right now... With the guys not-at-all-jealous, we all headed over to the Aunt's house for a breakfast of freshly baked scone 'slabs' and caramelised coconut rolled cake, both of which were amazing! Washed down with lots of cocoa and tea meaning we all had to reach for the tooth brushes again before leaving.

Our send off was wonderful, even with the church running a kids club that Sunday morning, we had a lot of the village stood watching us board the pickup truck and waving us off. The pickup truck was driven by a blinged up Indian lad and had some great welding 'scars' in the floor of the back (where we had our feet), which would fail in an annual Motor Ordinance Test in the UK in a second flat! He drove very considerately of his live-stock though, which was no mean feat considering the dirt tracks we took. Junior suggested we took a different route back to Malau, via the south coast and an interior dissecting 'short-cut' where we could see more of the countryside and some more settlements on route. The views of the coast and the interior were stunning, and even though we got our bums bashed on the hard wooden bench for some three hours, we enjoyed the journey taking several breaks, and stopping to talk to a few random people out in the middle-of-nowhere too, all of whom were delighted to see us. Junior enjoyed showing us (approximately) where we were on his new map of the island, which made me laugh at one point as we all poured over it on the bonnet of the pickup at one stop, seemingly studying the map to work out our route... we were on a single mud track, that went straight through the middle of the island, heheh.

Just before we got back to Malau we stopped at a shop and Moya treated us to ice creams and we took a break. Ben called to arrange our boat transfer back to Vorovoro and we were in the strange place of ending our adventure, but looking forward to getting back 'home'. Johny was waiting for us down at the dock in Malau and before we got off of the pickup Hassan collected a donation from us all as a tip for Junior. It was his first trek, and his costs pretty much ate up all the money we gave him to go on it in the first place... a harsh learning curve, but it only needs to happen that once. He was touched by the gesture and we all had hugs for the man and left him waving us off on the dock after a very good two days in his company.

The whole trek went very well from beginning to end and everyone enjoyed it, even Junior who had a look of concern for much of the weekend what with it being his maiden voyage. Every person we met on route was warm welcoming and freindly, and genuinely interested in meeting us. Junior learnt a lot about how to run this kind of event and should hopefully go on to develop the idea into a decent little business for himself with Bens expert assistance. Since the trek some of us met with Junior on a recent town trip to provide feedback about the two days and he has some more ideas himself about routes and activities too... I'm sure I speak for everybody that has met the man when I wish him the best of luck in his venture!

Here's to the next 'Juniors Trek', I'll be there for sure as long as I'm still in Fiji...

Pics are over on facebook, here and here!

Vinaka Vaka Levu
Sloggs

Happy days... but tears today.

sl0ggs — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:52:00 GMT

Life is good. I sit on the beach, surrounded by friends most days wondering how I can keep this thing going... everyday is good.

But today I received the news I'd dreaded for some months. One of my best friends died this week, and a big part of me is lost. My Bullmastiff/Boxer cross, called Chester finally lost his battle with cancer this week, after a long and happy life with myself and Sarah, and this amazing woman had to deal with this without me there. Thanks for being so strong, for doing the right thing and for the words to let me know. Perfect as always! x

I will be taking the time to say goodbye myself this week from Vorovoro. Tears are rolling, and I fear random outbreaks today and for some days to come!!!!

Thanks for your thoughts... look out for more blogs soon!

Sloggs

Tribewanted Meke to ~1000 people!!!

sl0ggs — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:04:00 GMT

On the 14th of August 2008 Vorovoro was left empty* as the entire tribe made the trip to the All Saints Secondary School after being invited to meke for the crowd at the Cadets passing out parade.

The day began with an early breakfast at 6:30 and after loading up on porridge and banana's (good Meke fuel!) everyone put on their colourful outfits ready to represent the tribe at a big district event.

After the first two boats arrived in Malau we entertained ourselves whilst waiting for the next two loads by practising some meke and eating poisonous packaged foods(!) from the little blue shop at the port**. As usual there were some people waiting for the Malau bus at this stop, but I think by now they are used the mad-house that is Tribewanted arriving and behaving in a strange manner! The bus arrived just as the last two boats were racing into the port and we were soon crammed into a near full Malau bus and on our way. [What a dangerous thing the Malau Bus can be in another context! ;)]. Once underway there was a shout of "Meke practise", which was met with some embarrased laughter and a few random hand waves. Tui Mali (the chief of the whole Mali district, including Vorovoro) joined us from the next stop and after twenty minutes or so we were alighting at All Saints which was busy with students entering under the glare (and chastising) of the teachers on duty on the gate.

The enormity of the day dawned on me at this point as there were hundreds of school kids, cadets, parents and staff members swarming the school and in a front-row position in front of the playing fields sat a VIP guest seating area, shaded from the hot sun. This months tribewanted chief, Tui Taniela (known as Daniel Mason to his friends & family) had one such seat next to Tui Mali and a MAHUUUUSIVE big-wig from the army, who made everyone at the event look small. The rest of us were provided with old-skool style wooden benches to sit along side the VIP section as the announcer blared out over the tannoy that we were here and would provide entertainment... yikes!

The parade began and the hundreds of cadets put on a superb marching display with accompanied drums under an intense sun. Some of the tribewanted team Fiji staff had family in the parade, one of Leavi's daughters was out there and also Tale & Kassa's younger brother was leading one of the units through the parade. I took some photos of him to print for them as they don't possess a camera. Some of the marching was impressive as they held a rather awkward looking body angle through some of it! Once the parade was finished and some awards for the top students were given, we were ushered off to change into our costumes for the performance. Some of the tribe members had made the leaf wrist bands and necklaces the previous evening and the men had the obligatory black paint adornment on the face, arms and chest and we were off onto the field after a small group of school kids had finished their national anthem combined with flag dance. Team Fiji positioned themselves behind us with the Lali drum and the men lined up ready with our backs to the crowd to perform the Viki Malua Meke. I wasn't aware that the boys were going to be amplified until they started singing with Tevita hogging the mic as he was the only one I could hear to begin with! (That man belts out the songs with so much heart!!) The Meke started well, and with Jim sat in front of me, at the head of the line, I was confident that the timing of the turn would be spot on... that was until we did the second turn, the one where we end up facing the crowd, to find that we were three or four seconds ahead of the rest (and the majority) of the line!! Oops! We held it together and waited for the rest to turn before joining in for the finale... lol!

The crowd received us well and then the girls joined the line ready for the run through of the six meke's which we'd been practising like mad all week in preparation. Jale, Jim and Save sat out front, for the line to follow, but also to take the brunt of the inevitable challenge from the onlooking crowd, which was now looming large in front of us! I was thrilled to be there for such a big crowd, but partly as I've become pretty confident with the meke now after 5 weeks of practising! After the last meke we did for a tourist student group visiting us on Vorovoro where my 'challenge' during meke number 5 was accepted by a group of them who came and sat on/next to me, putting me off the rest of the meke succesfully, I was only nervous about who to point at in the crowd! As it happened the whole line were targeted anyway, especially Jale in front with his wonderfully over exaggerated meke style ("it's all in the shoulders!"). The boys got given HUGE pieces of cake covered in icing (gutted!) and the girls got sweets that tasted like hospital floor cleaner (heheh!). They gave Rich a piece of cake bigger than his head, superb! The meke went well, and everyone involved enjoyed the experience. As we left the field we were thanked by many of the crowd, which was estimated by all there to have been in the region of a thousand people!

We were provided with delicious ice cold orange squash, tea and lots of food before we were invited to sit with some of the top army men under their make-shift sun shade, for a quick grog session. We said hello to them and sat and watched as the school staff presented them with lots of different coloured sulu's complete with the school name on them during a sevusevu, had some grog and then bid the school farewell to go and catch the bus back to Malau.

At the bus-stop chief (Dan) bought us all ice creams and we chatted about the great day we'd had whilst watching two full buses go past. [Save and I played a game of hitting the face of the opposite kerb with stones, and of course he was brilliant at it... grrr! ;)]. We had to take the third bus that came through, which was nearly full, and half of us ended up stood in the aisle, much to the amusement of those already seated. When the first bell rang to stop and let someone off, we (the tribe) let out a big "ooooh noooo", which was met with much laughter (maybe you had to be there!) and this then followed for the myriad of stops until we all had seats. When we got the final stop (the wood yard at the Malau port) Dan asked the driver if we could have a photo of everyone hanging out of the bus, which he was happy to facilitate and we did exactly that (picture to follow soon hopefully!).

The boats back to Vorovoro were subdued as everyone was day dreaming about the day and we were soon rounding the island and going home...

That evening we had a grog session with team Fiji down at their old grog site along the beach between the two villages, and after many bowls and hours a well earned sleep was reward at the end of yet another fantastic day-in-the-life of Tribewanted!

Vinaka Vaka Levu for reading...
Sloggs :)

*Vorovoro is never left completely empty of course... but today saw one of the biggest leaving parties, leaving literally only a few of team Fiji behind to enjoy the tranquility that an empty Vorovoro offers.

**The little blue shop had a shiny new, bright-red facade when we left later that day... a fact which was missed by all apart from myself I think! (Told you porridge was good fuel! ;))

My new postal address...

sl0ggs — Fri, 8 Aug 2008 22:42:00 GMT

[Postal address at the bottom of this blog! ;)]

So, here I am, on Vorovoro, thousands of miles away from home and from most people I know. My family is growing by the week and I am calling this home. When we pass around the headland coming home from a day trip, I look longingly at my beach and village hidden in the trees, a warm feeling inside making me feel glad to be back... Leaving is going to hurt!

The Fijians make everyone so welcome, not only on Vorovoro but also in the villages we visit on Mali and the mainland. They open their hearts and homes to us and we become part of their families almost instantly! Respect goes a long way, and in what the Tribewanted project is doing here, this is gained straight away. Who could want for more... it is perhaps lucky that I don't have a bottomless pit of money, and that the TW team have put a maximum stay on the time a visitor can spend here, else I'd be tricky to remove...

Life has been good, and as the first month has passed each new day proves to be as good as the last. During the first month there have been some moments that have really stood out of course, but there are no bad days here, unless you choose to make one yourself! We've had a murder mystery party, brilliantly organised by Jo and Cathy for Dan's birthday, and the whole frogbombing incident which culminated in a ("Mickey Mouse") court hearing and punishment being metered out by Tui Mali himself (myself, an innocent bystander being 'gifted' a place on the workforce in the absence of one of the criminals, lol!). I was here for the Vorovoro Session, where the Mali choir came to Vorovoro to sing for us and to be professionally recorded for a TW download, along with the songs usually heard during the week on the island. I've visited village elder Leavi's farm and helped him dig and plant yams and now I've been to Api the boat captain's home on the mainland and helped him paint it. These are unique opportunitys in life, and I'm very happy to be here and have this chance to improve myself as a person. Long may it continue. Maybe I can magic some way up of staying here or returning... it's certainly in my heart and mind!

We also have countless small moments that are golden... too many to recall as I sit here in the ecotricity hut typing on my laptop, best to use my photos and comments to recall those where possible. Some things that have stood out these recent weeks and days... Emma leaving (sad day!), Greek ladys, Chewbacca, Bean Toes, My name is Jenniiiii, Oh my god (oh your god!), amaaaaazzin, many many grog sessions, songs, meke, Jim becoming project director for next year (ammmmaaaazzzzzin!), the guys arriving and realising Jales' dream of building a gym on the beach, it's called the Jim-nasium lol, walking the four peaks and running parts of it (fun!), reef snorkeling trips and encountering a MAHUUUUSIVE sturgeon with Emma and Benj whilst we were being followed by a small school of yellow fish, playing bad chess!, reading books!! (suddenly after many years of not reading, I'm a book eating machine. I've read Dice Man by Luke Rienhart, The Bourne Legacy and now reading Keith Allens autobiography, which is laugh-out-loud funny!) and not forgetting countless firepit talks and hammock wrestling... who needs television! This is real life and I love it. I'm making lots of new friends, and some of these friendships will hopefully continue on for some years to come.

I miss certain people who have been and left during my time, not least of all Emma, who arrived on the same day as me... hopefully she is having the time of her life now teaching kids hockey near to Nadi!

One bad day I had here, was when my ipod had an accidental wash in the sea... I've been so careful with my gadgets so far this year, and to lose it now is a hefty blow! It was only purchased to bring with me on this trip, and having used it countless evenings to get to sleep in noisy dorms and on flights and just to enjoy my favourite tunes, it is a big loss. Having only bought my laptop in Australia and of course, not backing any of my 1500 tunes up to it since buying it, it means I only have a few albums with me that I purchased online in New Zealand... bah! At least I did insure the thing, so hopefully I can get that cost back and try and pick another one up.

So, umm... check out my pics over on facebook. They are a sod to upload from the connection in Labasa when I get there, and there are lots more on my PC, but they give a good indication as to life here...

I've written a blog about a day out where a group of the tribe went the Api the boat captains house to paint it for him, as a way of saying thank you for the two years of excellent service he has provided to the project... it's over on the tribewanted site, so please click and read it and have a look around on the site. Joining is free and you can get involved on the forum with discussions about the island and how it is run and keep up to date on me, the project and even check out the profiles of those people staying on the island with me... go go go! Vinaka!

Laters
Sloggs :)

P.S. I found out today, on my visit to the mainland to upload this post, that my blog is the 28th most read on this site... a fact I find astonishing personally, but thanks to everyone for reading!!!

I'd love to know who you are, what you think of my blog or even how you came to find it... It would be great to hear from you in a comment on here or via email sl0ggs@gmail.com. I might not be able to reply to everyone very quickly as I only have a couple of hours online per week currently, but it would be great to hear your thoughts and find out who is reading... cheers! :)

P.P.S. My postal address is as follows... if you want to make a future chief happy, send sweets! But anything is welcome... heheheh! Thanks! Love ya!

Paul Sloggett
Tribewanted
PO Box 2760
Labasa
Fiji

Big Decisions

sl0ggs — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:57:00 GMT

This year I've been looking for somewhere that would leave a big impression on me, and somewhere I could maybe stay for a while longer than my original itinerary was fixed for. I've found it. The traveling thing, in a traditional sense is great, and I've really enjoyed it. Even having taken so much from this year already, and making changes and improvement in myself, I have still been looking for something else. Pretty much from the first day her on Vorovoro I've felt like I could stay here, and the longer I stay the more that feeling grows. I've now taken the bull by the horns and extended to stay here in a big way! I've booked until the middle of september, and I'm applying to be the TW chief for the whole month of September, which would mean if I get it, I would be here until mid October! I really very excited about this, and so pleased I've done it. I want to get to know the TW team and Team Fiji really well as they are all wonderful people, and I really want to get the most out of the cultural and ecological side of things while I'm here. I can see some big changes being made in myself from this place, and all for the good. This of course means that my whole trip has been extended indefinitely as I still have to go to the west coast of Australia and to South Africa! I'll update once I've got a firm date...

This might be my last blog entry for a while, as life on Vorovoro will be pretty much the same from day to day from here on in, apart from of course, meeting loads of great new people and the odd special day when the come along. With the internet being so hard to get to, I'll limit the time I spend online anyway... so expect the occassional update, enjoy rereading some of my other entries and lookout for a new pictures now and then!

Vinaka Vaka Levu!
Sloggs