Monday, March 12, 2012
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Fiji: first contact
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Well, it's been a little over a month now. Everyday I continue to learn more about the Fijian culture and the way in which things get done here. Relationships are everything. Time is about as unimportant as it is possible for it to be. Some days I feel like I could stay here for a long time, other days I just need to get away. It's not easy living and working in the same place with the same people but I am welcoming the challenges and am feeling good about where my experiences are taking me. The other staff members are great. All of them are from England as are most of the tribe members so it is like being immersed in to separate cultures at the same time. Most of the aspects of Fijian culture that we follow here are all but lost in the rest of the country. The impact of a bunch of westerners coming here and giving respect to their tribal chief in the ancient ways is having a terrific effect on the local population. We certainly have brought with us a few of the negative aspects of western culture but on the whole, our presence here is a good one and has the potential to be immensely positive. Life here is a balancing act between cultural values, cultural shortcomings, and improving the standard of living while reducing our negative impact on the environment. The practicalities of this process of integrating two extremely different cultures is sometimes daunting but day to day, things run pretty smoothly. We are still lacking a long term vision of where we want to be. At this stage in the project this is probably a good thing as it is allowing us to shift and adapt with the realities of living here. Though we do have the occasional set back, most days, that vision becomes more solid. I feel that we will soon be in a position to draw a realistic picture of who we are and what we want to be.
The island is beautiful and I can't begin to describe the sunsets. Apparently the snorkeling is much better on the eastern side of the mainland but it is still beyond anything I have experienced previously. My days are filled with everything from weeding in the garden to doing safety and maintenance checks. So far I haven't started any major new projects but I just recently came across a good salt water pump in Savusavu that could help us improve our fresh water supply through desalination system that would also give us hot water for showers sea salt for the kitchen ( they only have iodized table salt which almost makes me pass out when I smell it), and a source for irrigating the gardens.
We had a visit that I set up from the agricultural department last week. The will be returning in a few days with some much needed composted manure and a drip irrigation system. There are a lot of things missing from the current systems which is confusing and frustrating at times such as where the gardens are located the lack of easily established root crops and fruit trees, etc. basically not a whole lot of thought was put into the design of the village. That being said, it is still very comfortable and beautiful, just not as sustainable as it could be had a little more planning gone into the process and I guess that's where I come in.
The food lacks creativity and salad :) I miss lettuce in a way I never anticipated. It is probably healthy compared to most peoples diets but it could do with a bit of sprucing up which is another area I have started to put some attention. There is however a nice selection of imported wines available in Labasa of which we partake around the camp fire looking up at the clouds of Magellan. Nights on the island are usually spent singing 'round the grog mat (kava) with the Fijians or me playing my ukulele round the campfire. I seem to be developing a bit of a following. It's quite fulfilling to hear songs I've written being whispered under the breath of the tribe and to have a hammock full of 19 year old girls begging me to sing the superhero song or Franky and Albert again does wonders to the ego. Hope it doesn't get to my head to much :). I haven't yet drank so much kava that I couldn't walk but I have stumbled a bit on my way home after a long night round the tunowa. All in all, the experience continues to be fulfilling in just about every way.
In love and gratitude
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