Log Date: June 26, 2006

Location: Fijian Feast

In the morning a fiberglass skiff with a newish 40hp Yamaha outboard engine and one man about 35 with dreadlocks and no front teeth comes close to the boat and shuts of his engine.  He yells over that they are having a fundraiser for the school kids which will be a traditional Fijian feast and ask would we like to attend. I ask when and where and he told us to come by when the food was ready or whenever. I said 1:00, 2:00 he said "ya". 

He then told me the feast is tomorrow and that it will be late in the day as the meal is slow cooked in a lovo, which is a hole in the ground with hot rocks for heat. Each country in the South Pacific has their own name for the feast but they are all pretty much the same.  I ask how much? He says whatever you want to give. I ask when again. He replies, "Tomorrow when the food is ready."  Off he goes to the next boat.  After he leaves, we call the other boat on the VHF radio to get the scoop and are told that the "standard" payment is $10 FIJI ($6.00 US) per person. What a deal.

The next day, we went snorkeling but the water was a bit rough due to the high winds that we have had since we arrived. The ocean water is warmer than the air and it felt good.  We were able to see some colorful coral and a few fish but the clarity wasn't that good so we decided to call it a day.

We dinghied to shore about 5pm and we are the last ones to arrive - oh shit we are late - well not really as it turns out dinner won't be ready until 7pm!  The tide is almost completely out and we leave our dinghy about 1/4 mile from shore and have to wade in.  After a few steps we hit a mud patch and I loose one flip flop - I can't see but I reach down and feel around for it - got it - go to step and my other foot is stuck and I barely catch my self from going over.  I had on my sulu and am walking through muck trying to keep my flip-flops on, sulu dry, and most of all myself vertical swearing now and again.  I had to reach down again to locate my other sandal and say "screw-it" and walk through the muck barefoot praying that I didn't step on any critters.  I made it unscathed and unnerved.

On our way there we had to cross a bridge. We stand on the bridge with an old chap with a spear in his hand.  This is a piece of bamboo about 10' long and attached at one end are about 5 metal prongs.  He tells us he is looking for a crab.  It is low tide and the water beneath the bridge is muddy (the color of kava) and about 15' down.  He looks intently for about 60 seconds and chucks the spear into the water.  He yells and a couple of kids come running and go right into the waist deep water.  The kids fool around trying to get the spear out carefully - not to lose the 8" crab that the old man speared from 15 feet away, in murky water.  In my cynical way, I am sure that this is rigged somehow...the other folks that saw this with me said "naw - just years of practice".

Finally we are greeted by dogs and pigs.  There is a man shaving coconuts into a large bowl by scraping them with a tool he sat on that had a metal scraper at the end that he dug the fresh coconut meat out - it worked quite well.  We want to eat - but since the food will not be ready until 7pm, we all decide to have kava beforehand. 

The feast was all native food.  Many things were wrapped in taro-leaves. They had bananas wrapped in taro, fish wrapped in taro, taro pie with coconut, crab, white whole fish, fried and boiled cassava, fried taro, fresh water shrimp, papaya, bananas. Everything was presented nicely with limes and oranges as garnish on plastic platters.  We ate on glass dishes with a fork - although most of the food was actually finger food.  The nice part was that the cooks were close by and graciously described what we were eating.  Everything was on a table decorated with leaves and there was a kerosene lantern for light. We sat on two benches that faced each other without a table, to eat.

After dinner - more kava - and entertainment - singing, guitar playing, and a short war dance.  They had left a bowl out for the donations - when it was full they took the bowl, counted the money and told us there was $100.  They made a short speech that they were thankful for our donations and they would be using this money to send the children to some championship games (rugby or volleyball) on another island. Sports seem to be very important to this village.  The Methodist preacher, took the money, and said a few words in Fijian and presented the money to one of the elders of the village. He also thanked us in English.  It was quite a pleasant evening. We made our back to the dinghy in the dark through the mud and ankle deep water without any problems.

Just another day in paradise.

Enjoying Life Onboard.

Susan and Laura

SV Mystic Traveler