A chance encounter on an express bus

  Navua, Fiji
Thursday, September 28, 2006

After our escape from Nananu-I-Ra we jumped back on the local bus (express this time) and after rolling the dice decided that we would head straight down to Pacific Harbour on the coral coast bypassing Suva completely. As per usual plans change and we got off the bus in Suva and had a wander round. My main mission was to find a chemist because I had been bitten so badly my hands and feet had swollen up bearing an uncanny resembelence to Shrek, even the woman in the chemist looked at me like I was a leper. I got myself some antihistamine, Fiji Strength and some better mosquito repellent and hoped that soon the swelling might go down and I would return to normal, thankfully it was only my hands and feet and nowhere on my face! We had bought some form of yellow concogtion from an Indian guy on the market which he said would help my bites, i'm sure it was just turmeric mixed with water and the only thing that it did do well was stain my clothes! and I accidently left that somewhere to avoid Manu insisting that I put it on and walk round looking like I really had some tropical disease with swollen hands and feet and now yellow skin.

Suva seemed quite small to me,although we didn't really do much exploring and actually ended up going to the cinema to kill some time (and watching the worst "horror" film ever-Silent Hill, although really it was just an excuse for us both to sleep) we booked into a hostel a few kms out of town called Raintree Lodge @ F$24 per night. It is supposed to be an eco friendly backpackers and it did seem really nice although we arrived and left pretty much under the cover of darkness and didn't really see much of it. The dorm was one big wooden chalet style place and this seemed to freak Manu out as we had to sleep in the two bunks upstairs right in the corner nowhere near anyone else, the place was full of women, or appeared to be because there was stuff everywhere but the dorm was like a ghost town, god knows where they all were. I don't think we actually saw anybody else who looked like they might be staying in the dorm the whole time we were there (although that wasn't long) we went to get some decent food from their restaurant which is on the edge of a lake (thats why they say, i'd call it a swamp) which is full of fish and a huge eel thing. Food was good and fairly reasonably priced which is always a bonus. This place also had loads of showers and some hot water if you got up early enough and a kitchen where you can prepare your own food which is always useful. I think its the only hostel around Suva but like I said we didn't really see much of the place and one city/town in Fiji seems pretty much like the rest!

We left early the next day and got another bus heading down towards Pacific Harbour, as usual we sat at the back of the bus and several of the Fijians came to sit near us and chat (or just stare!!). One guy Manu chatted to called Manua said that he was off to visit his Grandfather to help him and the family move house and invited us to spend the night with them in their home in Navua which we eagerly agreed to.

  
                                                                               



When we reached Navua there was another guy waiting there who turned out to be Manua's cousin, Sevalia. The house where they all lived, on first impressions looked pretty huge however they only lived in 1/4 of the house and they being about 10 of them. I wasn't really quite sure how many of them actually lived there as there were two rooms which people kept appearing from and returning to and I don't think we actually got to meet the whole family but from what I could establish Sevalia lived in the house with his Mother and Father (whose names I cannot remember) and his two sisters Salome and Vinnie and all their children I met 3 children, Sala and Alfred who were the children of Salome and Mary who was the daughter of Vinnie although there were many more of them scuttling about in the back ground.

            



It traditional in Fiji that when you are invited to stay in a Fijian House (village) you take them a gift, its usually a gift of cava which you would present to the chief, obviously as we weren't anticiptaing this visit we had nothing for the family and had to go into town to get some cava and some food for dinner which we did with Manua and Sevalia after meeting the family. On our return to the house Manu was wisked away with Manua and Sevalia for a "walk on the beach" which I think must be code in Fijian for "lets go get high". I was invited, out of courtesy rather than out of want for my company and decided that I would stay at the house with the other women an children and "know my place".

    


It really hit home while I was with Vinnie and Salome just how poor in respect of actual possessions they are, obviously it noticeable travelling around on the bus and seeing the villages and the way the way Fijian's live but to actually be invited into a home and to experience it is totally different. Their house has a fitted kitchen with a cooker and a TV but they can't afford the electricity to run them and they cook off a small kerosine burner (the smell of which takes some getting used to). There are god knows how many of them living in the house which has, as far as I could tell, only two bedrooms. The living area was a big room and the only furniture in the room was big mats woven from dried banana leaves on the floor which is where they sit, eat and sleep. They have a functioning toilet although whether it was fit for human use depended on your own aspect of clean I guess but it was inside and connected to the plumbing, somehow and the shower consists of a black tiled room with a shower head on the wall, needless to say they don't have hot water, for which they were most apologetic yet despite their obvious lack of money and the fact that they have so little they were more than happy to invite two white strangers into their home and share their lives with us for a short time. Their quality of life, in terms of happiness far exceeds anything i've come across before.They know that there is more to be had but they also know and genuinely accept that it is probably always going to be beyond their grasp and they don't wallow in selfpity or dwell on what they could have they enjoy what they have got and make the most of what they have now.There was no blame laid for how derprived their lives are in comparison with the developed world and i'm positive that when they have the opportunity to aid in Fiji's development in its own way they will grasp it with both hands and enjoy it whole heartedly but until then their lives are as full as they need be.

Sala, the youngest of the children wasn't quite old enough to go to school and was at home with her aunt Vinnie most of the time. I'm not sure whether she had any toys or anything to play with and it makes me sad to think that she probably didn't but she did have a pack of card which were her favourite source of entertainment and my afternoon was spent playing black jack with her and for a 4 year old she was pretty clever, I think of all the games we played she must have won 90% of them much to her amusement.

Vinnie and Salome sat with me all afternoon chatting about their lives and asking me questions about mine. Salome had been to university in New Zealand and had somehow managed to meet and marry a Fijian guy over there and return to Fiji with 2 children. I never met her husband and thought it impolite to ask his whereabouts but something told me he wasn't around anymore for one reason or anotherwhilst Vinnie informed me that her Husband had died and that was why she was back living with her parents. Vinnie cooked the most fantastic meal for us.I'm not sure how she managed it because they don't really have the stuff that we have in our kitchens which I think made it all the more wonderful. In Fijian culture the women are still treated as second class citizens and hence the children are fed first, then the men and then the women (who incidently do all the work) have whatever the men leave. Thankfully they didn't treat me like that (being a white european has some advantages in this country other than sticking out like sore thumb) and, at least whilst I was there, Vinnie and Salome weren't treated that way either.

   


Prior to dinner the usual cava ceremony took place with me, Manu, Manua, Sevalia, the Father (who was chief) and Vinnie (much to the annoyance of her brother and cousin) and the chief was telling us about life in Fiji before the Koo. I think, from what I could hear as he was talking mainly to Manu, that prior to the Koo he had a thriving business and travelled through the USA and Europe and when the Koo happened and because of the curfews he lost everything. Its quite sad really that he had spent most of his life building up a business just to lose it overnight but I guess that could happen to anyone yet he showed no bitterness becuase of this and he had carried on with his life tryin to rebuild things as best he could.

      



The next morning we were again treated to breakfast by Vinnie of sweet Fijian tea which tasted like it had about 20 sugars in although you drink it black and toast. At some point the previous day Sevalia had arranged for us to stay with their neighbours. An Indian Fijian family who lived at the back of their house ( I never even realised there were any other houses behind theirs but in fact there was like a whole little village) while they moved house back into the main town area of Navua. The Indian house was very different, it was a small bright white house (not really sure what it was made from but it looked like corrugated iron) with two bedrooms, a kitchen, living area and outside shower and toilet. All the walls inside were painted bright blue and it looked like a reinvention of the 80's with bright fake flowers everywhere and walls plastered with posters of bollywood movie stars. Sanja and Veena lived here with their two children. I must admit this house did seem much more like a home than the Fijian house (although I guess they were about to move) Sanja and Veena even had a tv and dvd player which their lives revolved totally around - bollywood movies were played from the time they got up until the time they went to sleep! which is okay but they seemed to watch the same movies over and over and one bollywood movies is pretty much the same as the rest, oh yeah and I almost forgot they also smoke majuana from the moment they wake until the moment they sleep too! No wonder they are all so laid back and do nothing all the time.

     

Veena cooked us a wonderful meal in the evening, Indian style this time which was great. They still have their very different ways of cooking but I was none the less amazed at how great the food tastes. The one thing I found difficult to deal with was that me and Manu had to eat first despite us asking the others to join us, as we were the guests we were to eat what we wanted and they would have whatever was left. I kinda felt a bit weird doing that, they had invited us into their home to stay with them and okay we had bought all the food but I didn't expect any special treatment because of that but its the Fijian way..



The outside toilet and shower I found quite difficult to deal with, not because I had to go outside to the toilet but because between the house and the toilet was a plank of wood precariouly laid across a nice area of sludgy marshy grass which you had to try and balance on to cross, they all had it down to a fine art but well......I didn't end up sitting in it but I did have nice wet feet and trousers!

After spending the whole day with the family I really was beginning to want to run away, the boredom was really getting to me but I thought that Manu was actually quite enjoying being with them. Thankfully under the cover of whispers when we went to bed he wanted to leave as much as I did and we planned our escpae for the next day under the illusion that we had to get to Pacific Harbour to say farewell to some friends that we had met and that we would return after that (Sevalia had firm plans that Manu was going to live with them until he left in November!) Our plan worked well and the next day Sevalia accompanied us to get the bus down to Pacific Harbour presuming that we would return the next day. I did have a huge guilt trip after we had left becuase they had been nothing but nice to us and had welcomed us with open arms but enough was enough. I had woken with my legs absolutely covered in Flea bites or from bed bugs and I couldn't risk morphing back into Shrek!