Bula! That is Good Day or Hello in Fijian!
Today we arrived in Savusavu, Fiji! It is humid and HOT here! Type of weather that you can get hydrated by keeping your mouth open! Today is a tender port so I get to try the newer elevators that are on the Noordam that were NOT installed last time we sailed on this ship! First plan of action after taking the tender to the wharf? Andrew has the map of the village and we are going to the pharmacy (chemist) and to an ATM to get money! Then I though we would hang around until our tour time of 12:30 pm where we are going on an excursion to a “Traditional VIllage”. Many people from the ship are going to a nearby resort with a beach for the day but that is not my cup of tea – that is sitting on a beach and paying to do so! I like to check out the history and culture of the area and learn about where we are visiting!
Here we are arriving at Savusavu, with the first tender out to drop off the staff at the wharf to help the passengers out. Such a vantage point we get at the pointy end of the ship! Then we got onto the tender and went to town ourselves and walked around, shopped and while I was breathing in the 80% humidity, I still needed to patronize a store to get a cold Coke Zero!
After walking the main street which seemed to be about 4 blocks long on each side, we came back to the tender area where a band was playing and there were picnic tables set up and waited for our tour which was to start at 12:30 pm. Of course, I crocheted during that time and chatted with the people around me, one of whom was a husband and wife – where the wife was knitting on four needles a hat. I had sat near this lady when watching one of the Hawaiian talks on the Lido deck prior to arriving in Honolulu and tried to talk to her however it was evident she did not speak English. Now she was with her husband I tried to speak with him as I was curious as to what she was knitting. She knits hats for the sailors in their town. They live in a northern European country (I think it was Norway) and each year she knits hats for the fishermen! They were quite heavy looking hats so I let her husband know that I was Canadian and in Canada we call them a toque which is a French Canadian word for hat! He was pleased to learn a new word! Shortly after our chat, the green bus arrived for our tour! Holy COW was it a high bus to get up onto! Yikes!
Here are my pictures below of arriving at the village – the ride was about 30 minutes in the “green bus” which is also the public transportation busses used in Savusavu – so when we passed bus stops people popped out thinking we were going to pick them up only to be disappointed! It was a really interesting drive past some very nice homes and then some more industrial looking homes and then on the other side of the island to where the village, Nukubalavu was located. We were all given a lei when we got off the bus which was awesome and the children all sang for us on our arrival! I had a video of it but it did not turn out very well so you will just have to imagine their angelic voices singing in Fijian on how happy they were to see us!
We all gathered around the bus stop and it was explained to us that we were going on a tour of the village and if anyone did not want to go on the tour they would be helped to the community hall where the kava and dancing would take place in about an hour. Several people took that option, where Andrew and I went on the village tour with one little modification – I wanted to get to the beach as it was calling out LOUD! The first stop was the Primary School building, which Andrew went up the stairs into it while I walked around and took pictures through the windows. The ceiling of the building was very low, and there was artwork hanging from the rafters – a very colourful display! There was a classroom area, napping area, computer area and then an office area. With 30 people in the space it was hard to get some good pictures…glad I was not in there with my walker too! While they were listening to the teacher I took off to the beach along with another lady from the cruise ship who really wanted to get into the water – wearing her clothes as is! I took some pictures (and of her in the bottom left) while some kids frolicked next to a boat. The whole light brown colour area of the water was only waist deep for an adult. What amazed me was the colour of the water just beyond that – it turned a beautiful turquoise blue and then dark blue! Quite a contrast in water colours from the beach! Here was my vantage point below in a panorama picture – the two white masses on the ground are fishing nets – looked to be tangled to me – however one never knows until one starts to unwind them!
Now that the tour from the Primary School house has caught up with us at the beach, we continue along the path beside some of the beach front properties – which are all on stilts as they are prone to flooding. Next we came to the Village Church, which had some lovely long stairs out front and was cooled inside by some lovely ceiling fans! It at this point in time was only about 32 degrees C out and 78% humidity… Next we walked along past some tables that the ladies had set out from the village and into the Village Community Hall, where the Kava Ceremony was to take place.
On the bus ride into the village, the tour guide had asked people to volunteer for the Kava ceremony, and no one was volunteering so I decided to volunteer. I know that traditionally it is a male only ceremony, however the tour guide told me that this village has no problems with females participating. So there I am on the right side of the line of 4 people for the ceremony – 2 from my bus and 2 from the other bus!
The Kava Ceremony – this was NOT the first time I have had Kava. Here is the story on how I was introduced to Kava!
I had the pleasure of getting to know a co-worker of mine when I worked at Class Software, named Puranji, PJ for short, who was a software tester. PJ was a VERY inquisitive person and was always determined to test the software to its fullest capabilities and wanted to ensure that it was not going to product problems (also called bugs) for the customers. When I, as a Product Manager, designed new features to be put into the software, the programmers would make it work and the testers would ensure that it worked. PJ always took an extra interest in ensuring that all facets of the “features” were correct and sometimes found things that I had forgotten to think about or document. I was amazed by the way he though – sort of like my dad – the engineer!
Anyway, PJ told me in December, 1999 that he was so happy that he had saved up enough money to take his wife, Bhwana and himself back to India where Bhwana’s family lived. PJ was from Fiji and I believe they had met and gotten married in Fiji, however had wanted to go to India to visit her relatives. However an opportunity to move to Canada came up and PJ and Bhwana decided to immigrate to Canada instead in about 1998 and PJ then began working at Class Software. Now, in January, 2000, they were going to take that trip to India to visit his wife’s family. Now, unknown to anyone at Class Software, PJ had been experiencing headaches at work, which he thought were related to the computer usage. When they were flying from Vancouver to Hong Kong, PJ got sick and to make a very long story short, they ended up getting to Delhi, however PJ ended up in the hospital and was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Bhwana’s family came to Delhi to visit them and once PJ was stable, they returned to Canada. This was at the end of February, 2000.
In the meantime, I had been in my accident in January, 2000 and I was off work. I heard that PJ was also off sick so we started emailing each other and eventually, I visited PJ at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster where he was undergoing testing after returning to Canada to try and figure out the best treatment for his tumour. PJ’s dad flew in from Fiji and after PJ was discharged from the hospital, my dad I think, took me to visit PJ at his and Bhwana’s basement apartment in Surrey. It was there that I met PJ’s dad and we talked a lot about Fiji, PJ’s upbringing and then out came the Kava! Now, I was told at that point in time that Kava was a man’s drink. PJ’s dad would have some of the community over and they would drink Kava while PJ and I would chat about software and things like that. However at one point, PJ’s dad asked me if I wanted to try it. I was hesitant at first, however I eventually tried it. It looks like brown dirty water! However before I tried it, PJ’s dad, whose name is Sattvik, told me about the ceremony, the Kava root and its properties (medicinal, analgesic and hallucinogenic) and I took a very LITTLE sip only. It did numb my tongue a little bit. PJ would not take part due to the medications he was on at the time.
I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with PJ and his dad, along with his mother, when she also came from Fiji to visit. Their cooking was phenomenal! One of PJ’s parents made me curry Dungeness Crab, and for you who know me, Dungeness Crab is my favourite food and it was a wonderful meal! PJ’s dad is also quite a well known musician in Fiji and he played various musical instruments – if I remember correctly, one was more of an accordion type instrument. It was hard for both PJ and myself to be off sick from Class Software, a company we both enjoyed working for and I was appreciative that I was able to visit PJ the times I was able to, at their place in Surrey. I will never forgot my introduction to Kava, and PJ’s parents or, most importantly the joy PJ brought to my life after my accident. As a person born in Canada, it was an honour to see PJ and Bhwana become Canadian citizens (which was fast-tracked due to PJ’s aggressive brain tumour diagnosis) and to attend, with PJ’s dad, their Citizenship ceremony and hear the retired judge talk about what it is to be a citizen of Canada. It was a very moving experience! After PJ and Bhwana got their citizenship, and PJ’s brain cancer was in remission, they went on a trip to Fiji and Australia (where PJ had gone to school), to visit friends and family and then returned to Canada. Unfortunately, PJ passed away due to his brain cancer, however I will never forget such a smart, dedicated person, who I later found out was an Aeronautical Engineer, and his family and the gift of friendship they shared with me while they were in Canada.
Now, back in Suvasuva, there is a Kava ceremony to attend, and PJ and his dad are on my mind. I remembered that the Kava plant is a root type plant that is pounded and then water is added to create the drink, however as Kava is not allowed to be imported into Canada, PJ’s dad used powdered Kava I think to create his drinks. We were about to see the “real thing” and oh, were we in for a show and I was up close to see it!
For this Kava ceremony, the Chief is sitting at the Kava bowl. A young warrior brings in “pure” water in a bamboo tree and pours it into the Kava bowl. Then the Kava root, which are in strips, are put into the bowl and kneaded or squished and then the Chief passes the Kava root mass behind him to the right to a warrior sitting behind him who I am not sure what he does with it, however he then hands it back on the left side of the Chief and this happens 2 more times – squeeze, pass back and then forward. At that time, the water bearer warrior comes forward again and receives the Kava in a cup (coconut shell) and then does a chat to the father and walks ahead to me and bows down in front of me. I then need to clap once to receive the Kava cup. I then (thinking back to my experience with PJ and his dad) take a little SIP and hand it back. The warrior then tells me to drink it ALL – holy cow – that is like a cup of Kava! Down it goes!
Then he claps 3 times while I do that and I clap 3 times after I am done and then the process is repeated for the next 3 Kava drinkers in the line. I thought we were done then and my tongue, as expected was now numb. Oh no! We started all over again! This time it was to honour our mothers which makes sense! Thank goodness this time the Kava cup was only half full! Down it went and onward the ceremony proceeded. What an experience! While I completely honour the fact that it is supposed to be a male ceremony, I was really happy that due to my past knowledge and experience with PJ and his dad, that I was able to participate in the full Kava ceremony myself. As the video is just over 3 minutes long, I had to break it into 2 parts due to uploading time on the ship’s wifi…
Next we watched a some traditional dancing which was quite fun, including one of the warriors continuing to stick his tongue out at me! I do not think I captured it on a photo but it was quite funny – reminded me of when the All Blacks did the Huka for me at their practice field where I was working in Christchurch, New Zealand – a bit intimidating!
Here are some pictures of the men dancing (2 videos), then the women dancing and then the band with audience participation!
Time for audience participation! Nope, I was not participating this time…. the kids all came and got someone and had fun!
After the dancing we were entertained with two different processes – basket weaving one woman’s basket and one man’s fishing basket and then coconut presentation. It was hard to document these simultaneous processes! I did my best 🙂
Here is the coconut shucking process that took place in front of me – several coconuts were brought in and various implements – both historic and modern day were used to show how the coconut husk is removed and then the “nut” is cut to release the water and then the coconut “mean” is harvested. They also mentioned that a lot of people think drinking coconut milk has a “milky” look like cows milk, however it is actually quite watery! The addition of blended meat into the coconut water is what causes the milky presence in the coconut milk that is sold in stores today.
Then we walked back to the bus which took us to the Suvasuva town centre where we were dropped off (literally from the high rise bus) to catch the tender back to the ship. Here are some pictures that I took from the bus, as I was now on the “view” side going back into town.
Well, that was a pretty long and fun day on Savusavu for us! Now back on the ship, it is time to relax and move onto our next port which is Lautoka, Vili Levu, Fiji tomorrow! We will be in Lautoka overnight so we have two tours planned there – one easy one and one that will be a bit more “intensive”. More on that later!