Hello again guys, gavin and becca here blogging from tavua. We've been away from internet and telephones for a while in the beautiful classical fijian village of nananu. Working under the hot sun and getting to know the amazing generous people of the village while also getting alot of down time in the shade getting to know each other better, this down time is called what the people like to call "fiji time".
so this is what we have been up to...
After a long and interesting system of public buses and sitting in the back of trucks we finally arrived to the village. we were welcomed by a colorful party of children dancing laughing and singing and host mothers embracing us and giving us fat sloppy kisses even though they never meet us before, just a small example of how warm and welcoming everyone here is. The group was split up into pairs and after the welcoming ceremony had come to a close we were handed over to our host mothers and quickly swept away to meet our host families. The group was slightly skeptical about the living conditions at first but it was all put to rest when we found out there was running water and showers and the food was certainly nothing short of incredible.
We have been treated to four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, tea, and diner. Breakfast is a combination of kinds of cakes, pancake like things cut in the shape lightning bolt, and fresh fruits. The favorites are usually the rainbow cake (multi-colored cake with frosting on top) and bananas (in which we put penut better that we bought in town).These are the same kinds of food also found at tea time. We also try the mystery meat of the day at lunch and dinner loaded with their version of ketchup (which we place on everything) Oh but the highlight of one of our days is when a fan was installed by Collie in the dining room, its not exactly winter over here it reached a peak of 103 one day.
During the day we work on building a cement road that goes through the village. We collect small rocks from outside the village, mix cement, dig some dirt, or a large amount of time napping in the shade. After our work is done we go soak ourselves in the river trying to get cool. One day we were rewarded for our hard work and the villagers took us up to a waterfall right out of national geographic.
The people here are very spirited, the nights are never quiet. On special accosions they will offer us an ancient Fijian tradition of kava. It was interesting to gain insight into their culture through this age old tradition. During this time music is a large part, they listen to Chris Brown and other popular American artists along with a lot of native island music, while they dance to the early hours of the morning.
Till next time....
Gavin and Becca
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