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My Fijian Diary
Rakiraki, Fiji Islands

Vatukacevaceva and Navolau Villages
written by Antje Simdorn,
Essen, Germany


The first 2 days

In Fiji people are very friendly, smiling all the time. This is what I heard about this little paradise, and it´s true! Additional to this the Fijian people are very beautiful, maybe because of all the laughing. These are the thoughts running trough my head when I arrived in Nadi and bumped into Mereseini who was waiting for me at the airport together with some of their female friends. „Bula“ she said with a big smile and put a great shell-necklace around my neck.

This was the begin of a wonderful friendship, with Mereseini who guided me the whole time more like a best friend than a tourist guide. And this was how I felt all the time, like somebody visiting close friends and not like a tourist „exploring“ an island.

But back to the airport where the beautiful Fijian ladies put me (and my luggage) into a minivan and drove me to a cute little motel where I stay overnight to have some rest after the flight. But before going to bed we all sit around for another while chatting and discussing like we know each other for a long time. It was great, just like coming home after a long journey.

The next morning Mereseine, her husband and the driver were waiting for me at the arranged time and together we drove to „my“ village, the Vatukacevaceca village in the north of the main island. Already the drive was an experience teaching me the variety of the island. When we started in the lush green in Nadi only on our way to the mountains which were glowing golden in the north, we we passed lots of sugarcane fields and more later some dry areas before we arrived in Vatukacevaceca. And all the time Mereseini was giving me deep impressions about the fijian lifestyle and the traditions.

In Vatukacevaceca the houses are mostly wooden and very colorful and lots of lush vegetation gives it all together a great first view, in the background the mountains were still glowing golden while the sky war blue, blue, blue.

At this time the church was over and all the villagers came out, most of them were wearing their traditional dresses which means a deep blue skirt for the men. A very unusual view for a German lady!

After a short but cordial „hello“ we entered Mama Lissys and Bequas (these great and warm hearted people were my hosts) house and I gave the Kava (Mereseini helped me to organize some), so the Kava ceremony -which is obligatory before I would be allowed to stay in the village- started:

The head of the village took the kava, put it in front of him and said a lot of things I did not understand, cause it was in the fijian language. (later Mereseini explained to me, that he the thanked for the kava and did welcome me to the village.

After this Bequa filled lots of water in a wooden bowl and put the kava in a little sack. Then he dropped the sack with the kava inside in the water and squeezed the water/kava mash back in the bowl. This he did for several times.

Hereafter he scooped some of the kava-water with a little bowl and presented it to the head of the village and clapped into his hands. Those clapped also in his hands, took the bowl, drank it, clapped into his hands again , together with all the other persons who took part in the ceremony. The next who got the little bowl full with Kava was Baqua and after him it was me.

A little bit unsure I took the bowl and watched the contend ; it looked a little bit like slush and the smell reminded me on the same. But I was brave and drank it and waited for the result. I expected to feel absolutely relaxed like beamed into strange pheres after a second, but the only thing that happened was that my lips and tongue got numb, and I had to pucker my mouth because of the taste what makes the others laughing a lot...

„On Sundays“ they explained to me, „ most of the time we do nothing but drinking Kava with family and friends, after the church, for sure“. And that was right, the Kava ceremony held on for whole the day with chatting and drinking while the kava bowl was going round and round, only interrupted for two great meals! „Whow“, I thought“ I am in paradise, relaxing and eating all day long? Great, these are the things I can do best!“

And Mama Lizzy is a great cook,her slogan is „Eat more!“ and she shouted it again and again during all the following meals with a big smile on her face!

I had a long journey, so I went to bed very early but even the first day was very short I was simply sure, that I will have a great time on Fiji with all these great people.

The third day:

"Angie my daughter, wake up", is the wake-up call from Mama Lizzy at 6.40am. We- that means Mama Lizzy, Mereseini and I, wanted to go to the next town by bus to buy some stuff and- most important for me- to send a letter with an originally fijian stamp to my father.

The 7.20 am Bus is also the school bus and absolutely overcrowded with people of all ages. For sure I was the one who gave the occasion for the first big, friendly laughter of all passengers when I entered the bus and asked the driver for a ticket, what is unusual as Ii know now... (you pay when you leave the bus, and you will never find a ticket machine at the bus stop, just do not search for it. Until today I did not understand the system of when the bus stops. My impression was that the driver stopped everywhere when he saw a person standing at the street. One thing that was absolutely amazing was the communication from the passengers in the bus with nearly everybody who passes the bus or who was just standing in the village when the bus stops. It seemed like everybody knows everybody and the bus was something like a "great instrument" to meet and speak a lot of people in a short time! Additionally all the passengers, wearing colorful dresses, did know each other and were talking about the news and everything interesting in a jumble. It was the pulsing life!

Mama Lizzy left the bus earlier to visit some relatives and we agreed in meeting her later in the town. After arriving in town our first shop was an Indian restaurant where Mereseini and I drank lots of milk-coffee and had some great brioche. A good start in a day full of new experiences! Much to my astonishment I found out, that the restaurant did not only sold food and drinks, but they also sold watches, bags, cosmetic articles and –believe it or not- some jewelry. How practical!

Mere and I did a city walk -checking every shop- visited an internet cafe and the post office and after all this sat on a meadow together with lots of other fijian families and waited for Mamma Lizzy who arrived shortly after us. The last thing to do was the food shopping. Again The supermarket was surprising for me for two reasons. The first was that nearly every article I know from home was available. The second reason was more shocking- the prices were nearly the half of the prices home. But Mereseini told me how much the average salary of a fijian family, and with this knowledge it was easy to realize how expensive food -and with this life- is for the Fijians! But away from this we were humping big heavy bags when we were entering the bus home.

After enjoying another great, rich meal with Mereseini and I spend the afternoon with a village walk, meeting all the residents, having lots of talks and fun. Especially Marselina who is Mereseini's sister in law is great, with a big smile, a superb humor and a super cute little daughter. Later in the evening we met three ladies sitting together in Mamma Lizzys kitchen, drinking coffee, talking and laughing all night while Mama Lisa and one of her friends were watteling matts in an artistic way and speed. It felt like visiting closest friends, so harmonically and peacefully- a big warm felling in my belly.

The 4th day

When I woke up I thought that I was still dreaming for two reasons. The first was the fantastic view I had from my bed directly through the window where I could see the golden mountains, the lush green palms and the clear blue sky. The second reason was the smell of fresh pancakes in the air. Mamma Lizzy was already working in the kitchen and served –yes, yes, yes delicious, fresh pancakes for the breakfast. Through the whole breakfast she was watching me in a very satisfy way ( because in her opinion normally I eat too less) motivating me to eat more by shouting „eat more, eat more“ for several times when I stopped eating only for a minute. And I eat a lot this morning!!!

Marsalina and her little daughter and I started to check a natural swimming pool not far away by a river. As a a means of transport we choose a cute, brown horse. Marsalina put a blanket on the horseback and her daughter and I jumped on. A lasso around the horse neck functioned as the rings and we started our ride through the meadows along mango trees which were growing by the river. After a short ride we arrived at the "pool-place" at the river. Marsalina fixed the faithful horse and we all went down to the river. Ooops, it is pretty cold, my first impression about our afternoon destination after only dropping one toe in the water, but after having a little sun bath the girls motivated me to jump in the pool for some cool home photos. I did, and just after getting in the water it was not longer cold. Now there was no chance to stop Marsalina anymore. In her pretty pink dress she jumped into the pool catched a liana and posed for some of the best photos I made during the whole trip. From todays point of view I can say, that Marsalina counted the impression from several German man about the absolute attractive fijian ladies at this time point when she was hanging at the liana in a pink dress with a staggering smile, which I fixed on a photo. But also Mereseini was a brave girl, jumping in the pool although her mother has told her never to jump into cold water! For sure, there are also some photos to prove this!

After another great lunch Mereseini and I joint to the village where she was living when she was a child. The name of the village is Navolau. But this time when she came back she had a mission: In the evening there was a village meeting where she should present her business idea of bringing tourists in the villages in front of all the important men in the village. Oh my God, Mere had butterflies in her stomach, but she did so good, giving all the right answers and even I did not understand only one word I felt that she was acting very professional, like she had done it hundreds of times before.

To describe the village meeting in short words it seemed to be a big kava session, starting with a prayer but as a whole with much more stricter rules as the private-Sunday- kava-sessions and a agenda.

We stayed the night in Navolau in the home of Meres grandma who is a charming old lady with a voice like a melody of little bells, I could listen to her for hours without saying one word. Her voice made me feel like sitting on a boat on a peacefully river. Unfortunately she was already going to bed before we came home again. But before we were going to bed we celebrated Meres baptism of fire with lots of tea and cookies.

The fifth day

The smell of pancakes was in the air again when I opened my eyes at the next morning, and again my noise did not error. This time the cook was Meres auntie and the breakfast was great again. Shortly after this I met a little girl five years old, her name was Mathilda, and she gave me company for the rest of my stay in Meres village. „Today is beach day“, Mere promised me and so it was. We took a blanked and sit at the beach together with Mathilda who was fascinated about my digital cam was checking my photos again and again. The camera made it possible for her to do a „eye-trip“ around the world from Egypt to Fiji with further stops in Singapore and Australia without leaving the blanket. It was incredible how fast she learned to handle the camera and after an hour she wanted more: She wanted do her own photos. For this we had to search some attractive motives and so we decided to go more near to the sea through the mud flats trying to find some crabs or shells.

Okay, we did not reach the border of the sea, cause Mathilda was a passionate photographer, picturing everything, the main thing for her was that a palm has to be on the photo. But –nearly unbelievable for me- after 10-20 shots with her finger on the picture she created very good ones without her finger, but with something like a composition. I was amazed, month ago I met a professional photographer in India and with lots of patience it took him days before I was able to do something like a composition, and this 5-year old girl did it in 30 minutes? But not only this, additional to this she was dominating our conversation. Why? Cause she did understand me, but I did not understand her... She was cute, smiling and giggling all the day!!!!

Unfortunately we had to leave again. During a stop in the town where we had to change busses Mere and I made a walk over the marked which gave me again the possibility to get some great views into the fijian life and the option for some more good photos.

But arriving home a big surprise was waiting for me. Mama Lizzy must have had spend the whole day in the kitchen creating my fare-well dinner. I still can find no words to describe the food and the way I felt about all her work with this. It was fantastic and Mere and I eat until our stomachs were aching! Later Bequa celebrated the last Kava session for me to say good-by and after a long night of absolute interesting and high intelligent conversation with some of the villagers I crawled in my bed, a little bit sentimental cause this was my last day.

The last day

Mere and me left Vatukacevaceca with the 3pm bus in the company of Mama Lizzy, Marseilina and her little daughter who stayed with us in the town waiting for our next bus. The good by was sentimental but not that painful, cause I already did know that I would come back! Mere instead accompanied me until the doors of the airport stopped her and I started to miss her a second after she turned her back after our final good-by.


Vatukacevaceva and Navolau Villages
by Antje Simdorn,
Essen, Germany