Today we had "the best day yet" say the girls as we travelled by taxi out to the village of Arovudi, Silana and the hospitality of Seru, Sala and their family. The village is located on the northern tip of Ovalau and about 80 people live there. We have to remember our village etiquette - and Tiegan, Rowan and Nicole have to wear sarongs and dress modestly, no hats or sunglasses and bags carried not over the shoulder. No touching of heads as Fijians regard the head as sacred - and should we meet the chief we have to remember to keep our head lower than his.
We are shown around the church built from stone and baked coral mixed with water (instead of cement)
the meeting house
and also the collection of ramshackle houses which are spread around the village.
Everyone welcomes us with a smile and a handshake. Some income is generated from vegetable and fruit growing and also from the sale of mats woven from pandanus leaves and we sit awhile and watch two ladies show us how.
We sit in the shade in an open sided area, under a thatched roof with palm leaves covering the pillars. It has an earth floor which Seru covers with a large woven leaf mat. He then shows us how to play Vidi Vidi, a version of Caroum which is popular here - a cross between subbeteo, snooker and shove ha'penny.
We turn out to be "not very good"!
Sala teaches the girls how to make coconut lolly - a bit like coconut ice fudge. She shows them how to husk the coconut, then break it open and the how to grate the inside using a purpose built tool with a rasp at one end and a paddle at the other which one sits on.
Tiegan is in charge of the cooking as she is older and Rowan (much to her annoyance) mashes the banana! Sugar is the only other ingredient - it is still a relative luxury here and these sweets are only cooked on a Sunday - we are privelleged to be shown this.
The inside of the house is eye watering!
The cooking facilities no more than a glorified camping stove open flame at knee height and the tiny area is sweltering!
There is a Fijian flag on the wall and a picture of the Queen as well as various bible verses and words and phrases of wisdom pinned up.
We head back outside with the finished plate of sweets and the shade.
A delicious traditional, but basic, Fijian lunch of Rou-Rou (boiled dalo leaf parcels in coconut cream stuffed with casava and tuna) and boiled casava is consumed with gusto. Sadly I didnt have my camera with me to photograph it. But it looked a bit like this!
Migrating humpback whales are spotted in the far distance and we are invited to stand on the table to get a better look. Sadly we can only see the occasional water spout and the flick of a tail. The afternoon draws to a close, we sit together on the woven mat and talk, tell stories and laugh A LOT!
The time to say goodbye comes only too quickly! It is with real sadness that we leave the simplicity of Silana and this lovely family. We pledge to spread the word about this "resort" as they have very few bookings for overnight guests or day tours and they are struggling financially to support themselves.They currently are having to use a local agent for bookings and paying 20% commission and while they are building a website progress is slow. Access to e-mail, internet and computers is in Levuka and patchy at best. There is no electricity in the village as it is too far out - but there is talk this may come soon, maybe by the end of the year.
We board the carrier to make the return journey to Levuka. It is much cheaper than the $30 FD we paid for the taxi - $2FD each - but not quite as comfortable.
In essence it is an empty truck with bench seating on 2 sides under a tarpaulin. This is the local transport as the roads are not passable by anything other than 4 wheel drives and heavy duty vehicles. Buses dont run that far to the north of Levuka.
We eat (again) at Kim Paaks Kum Loong as we have done every night and receive local size portions tonight!
