Hi All,
Wow…..Fulaga continues to be one of the highlights of our cruising times….as Andy on s/v Spruce put it….we have sailed a lot of the world, visited many countries and cultures, and the people of Fulaga are the friendliest, most hospitable, nicest people we have ever met. They make us feel so welcomed and like family…..there is something magical and I get a sense of how the explorers of the 1600 and 1700’s became so enchanted with these people and the beauty of these islands. I think maybe for this village it is a blend of their understanding of the western culture (so many of them have worked in Suva or at resorts on other islands) but have chosen to live the island life and embrace the communal way/love of the Fijian culture. They want to know all about us….our family, what we did, and we have had in depth conversations regarding kids, politics, sports, governments, boats, fishing, cooking and best of all….how to make ice cream 🙂 ))) We have now been in the village about 8 times and each visit gets longer and longer as people get to know you and us them, and people just want to sit, socialize and talk about anything/everything……we eventually had to escape to another more isolated anchorage just so we could assimilate all this and reduce the sensory overload!!!!
I last left off the blog as we were preparing for a hike….oh, wow, was this a hike or what…..not very long but very steep – hand over hand climbing on very sharp lava rock….yikes. All 4 of us…..Andy and Sue on s/v Spruce and Kathy and me….plus Tai and Soko our guides…..Soko did the hike in bare feet…..he used to work in Suva and said it took over a year to toughen up his feet.
The 1st hike had us climb to an overlook where on good days you can get a cell signal from Lakeba, >50 miles away. We had taken our Vodafone mifi and cell phone but alas no luck for us!!!! The views were spectacular…..when we get internet again we will post the pics!!! Coming down was very treacherous and hard on the quads….but we all made it down with no cuts or gouges…..yes!!!! We next took a climb to an overlook over the village and looking south over the barrier reef and the ocean. The swells were huge that day, >15′, and the view of the waves pounding the reef was breathtaking!!!
From there we went to a cave that had a pile of human bones and skulls…..whoa!!! Unfortunately the village has lost the history behind these bones. We speculated that in the 1800’s the missionaries, as we have seen in Central America and the pre-Columbian history, in their haste to save these “heathens” may have destroyed the Fijian history….all written history as well as forbid the use of the Fijian language thus preventing history to be passed from generation to generation orally. So, we all sat in the cave and speculated with Tai, Soko and Jasmine (a young woman had joined us as she had never been to the caves) what could have happened: 1)Maybe these were the bones of their enemies…..as we all know it was the custom of the victorious to eat the dead enemy warriors or 2) Bones of their ancestors that maybe someone had collected and placed in the caves or 3)Maybe some deadly disease that caused a mass killing.
Well, who really knows, but as soon as we get internet I’m sure we will do some research. Supposedly, there are many caves on this island as well as on other islands in the Lau group with a collection of bones. We did find some skulls that had cracks possibly from a blunt force as well as all sizes – males, females and small children. Some of the skulls still had the jaw bone attached and some teeth left. Fortunately, none of the skulls have chosen to talk to us in our dreams!!!!
The next day was Sunday and we attended church service and had lunch afterwards with Tara and Joe. My cousin is a Baptist minister in southwestern Missouri (retired now) and wrote us and asked what the service is like…..here is my response:
Church service: think 1800’s Methodist missionary’s. They have 4 services on Sunday plus a Sunday school class for the children. Most adults and all children attend all 4 services. They have their big meal between the 2nd and 3rd service and the men usually take a nap. It is indeed their day of rest and regard the other 6 days as working days. The service starts with a lot of singing…..their voices are marvelous and mostly without instruments….this church did use chimes….and they all harmonize….sopranos, altos, tenors and bass…..it is very uplifting and peaceful to listen to and I find myself humming the base part as the words are all in Fijian. In some of the churches the songs have been set to some of our old hymns but for the most part these are Fijian hymns. From there they have the offering and the children sing some songs…..their voices are just wonderful!!! Then there is a lot of bible reading and some audience participation. Usually someone will get up and in English welcome the visitors and ask for you to stand and introduce yourselves. Then the sermon….again all in Fijian…..but from the tone and hand motions you get the message and the emotion of sermon!!
After the service your host family provides Sunday lunch, which is their big meal for the week. Tara had made us 4 whole fish, one done in a white cream/coconut sauce, one was fried, one was smoked, and one done in coconut milk…..yummers but way too much…..I ate 2 while Kathy had maybe a half as they were good size fish. Tara also had cassava, breadfruit, and sweet yams (think starch – potatoes but w/o all the good stuff – you know, salt, pepper, butter and cheese) plus a cooked green leaf that tasted similar to spinach. Kathy had baked some brownies which were a big hit, especially with Tara and the kids. I had bought some Fijian tobacco in the Savusavu market and gave some to Joe…..the tobacco has several leaves rolled up about the size of a small cigar. I gave a roll to Joe and his eyes lit up…..all the men (and we have heard later, the women) all like to smoke when they drink kava…..but it’s more of a treat than a common practice…..I think similar to when I have a cigar every so often.
The next day we went back to the village with Andy and Sue for what we intended to be just a short while. We still were searching for Batai, the nurse on the island, to see if he had the letter ready. Here is the sidebar story: The clinic has oxygen bottles but they had run out…..so, Bruce and Laura on s/v Pacific Highway took back a bottle when they left to go back to Suva, but at the last minute Batai said he needed to give them a letter for the clinic. Batai, though, could not produce the letter before they left so Bruce asked us to get the letter and scan/email to them…ok, no problem. We had seen Batai on Friday and he said he would have the letter for us Sunday…..but there was no Batai on Sunday…..so we went back Monday am and finally found him after looking in many places. He apologized and said actually the clinic in Suva already had the letter but wanted the original….he said he might give us something next Thursday or he might just email his sister in Suva. We emailed Bruce in Suva and he emailed back that the clinic had picked up the bottle and all seemed to be ok. So, in the end, we are not pursuing the letter and Batai anymore, but the chase introduced us to even more villagers!!
We ended up at the wood carvers shop and had a long session with Mini, Bis and some other men watching them make a kava bowl, mask, and other objects. We were so impressed with some carvings made by Mini we asked him to make a duplicate which we will pick up later in the week!! Andy and Sue dropped off some laundry w/Jasmine which led to a discussion of a fair price as Jasmine really wanted to know how to price laundry as she was just starting to offer this service to the cruisers. We also stopped in the ladies weaving session and Kathy and Sue made arrangements to come in for a weaving session later in the week…..Koro had made this lovely mat that Kathy thought would look great on our stateroom wall…it turned out it was too big but Koro is now making a custom one just for us….whoa!!
That afternoon we did move to the “sand spit” anchorage with visions of some beachcombing, diving and snorkeling…..we were soooooo tired that the rest of the day was just quiet time on MM….no talking 🙂 ))) The next day we woke to some very strong winds…..looks like a “snow” day on Mystic, meaning we are not going anywhere as the waters were quite choppy. So, a good day for boat chores…..today was the GEN day. I changed the oil and filter, no problem, and then tackled changing the vibration/engine mounts. Steve, the mechanic in New Zealand, had noticed the 2 portside mounts had collapsed and one of them was installed upside down…..unfortunately we did not have spares, the Northern Lights dealer in NZ did not carry so Steve ordered some from the USA and sent them to us in Marsden Cove with instructions on how to install. I knew this was going to be a tough job and had kept delaying but the noise/vibration was getting too much so gritting my teeth I went in. Yep, it was difficult…..yes, a few choice words and a mini meltdown type of job….arghhhhhhh. I finally got the front mount on and tightened but could not get the GEN lifted enough to get the back one on. I was lifting the GEN with a crow bar levered under the oil pan and could not get enough leverage for the back mount. I tried many different options…..had to move a gazillion things….you get the pic…..got Kathy involved….we got close….just needed to lift another 1/2″ (a total of ~2″) but no go…..finally called Buffalo Nickel and Spruce asking for a larger crow bar. Andy knew exactly our issue as he had to change mounts in Tahiti and had borrowed Minnie B’s very long bar…..so Andy came up with a big bar….turned out to be too big, but with him kneeling on our wimpy crow bar and me laying over the get home engine and blindly trying to get the 2 bolts started, we were graced with the bolts finally threading in….oh what a relief!!!!
The GEN story does not stop there…..that night and again the next day, when I turned on the GEN and switched the electrical panel to GEN (2 switches, one for 120V and one for 240V) the Outback inverters did not switch (stayed in INV mode and not switching to GEN power). It normally takes ~10 sec for the Outbacks to sense the incoming power and switch to invert/charging. That night the Outbacks did not kick in for about 30 sec. I turned the electrical panel switches to off then back to GEN and the Outbacks switched after about 10 sec as normal. The next morning the same thing happened. Later that morning the GEN gauges went crazy……temp pegged high, low oil pressure and voltage fluctuated back and forth. So I started to look for a loose wire….found the bolt holding 4 ground wires on the GEN frame very loose and the wire harness had come off its bracket and the wire chafe-guard had lodged on this bolt and started to melt….2/4 wires were burnt/frayed badly. This bolt has come loose before but I had forgotten about it. Two hours later all was fixed…..changed the wire connectors no problem, but the bolt was badly damaged and would only go in a little bit so no way to tighten bolt and wires…..searched for a new bolt with no luck. There is a 2nd bolt that holds the bracket, so I just changed all 4 wires to this bolt and hung the bracket from a bolt on the j-box and then cable tied everything pretty tight. If that didn’t work then I was going to have to re-tap the bad bolt hole. I also used thread lock on the bolt…..I’ll check on this bolt more often….lesson learned the hard way….arghhhhhhh!!!!! I was very concerned/puckered it was the Outbacks which is not something we want to happen way out here with no internet!!!
Sooo….we were all set to enjoy a day of leisure on Wednesday when s/v Charisma called the anchorage and said the village was going to hold a church fundraiser and invited all the cruisers (about 12 boats) to come and enjoy a day of entertainment/food. Oh wow, can’t miss that, so we took Mystic back to the village anchorage (about 2.5 nm) and went in…..and wow, were we in for a treat!!!!! First Bis (a young man with excellent English, now a very good wood carver, was studying in Suva when he and his wife decided to live in the islands) met us and was our host/interpreter for the day…..at this time there was only 3 boats…..us, Spruce and Charisma. Orca eventually made it and then Tiger came in later and Jimmy and Carol on s/v Vision were continuing their eye exams (Jimmy is an opthomologist and had volunteered to do eye exams for everyone in the villages…..quite a task for sure so good on them!!!!). Bis took the 3 boats to see the Chief for a formal sevusevu…..we were the honored guests for the day of the Chief. We had a very nice conversation about Fulaga and the fundraiser and then we were taken to the community center where the men had gathered to drink some kava. Bob on Charisma was named the honorary Chief and we were all sat in the front next to the Chief. This was a very traditional Kava ceremony…..Joe, from our host family, said many toasts and prayers, and eventually we settled in for some nice chats and kava drinking.
Joe and another man got up and the fundraising began. The Chief’s basket was held first and this is the one we cruisers contributed, then baskets were held up for the 3 villages. In total they raised F$2800, with F$180 coming from the 4 boats….wow!!!! In discussions later we learned that this money is sent back to the church association in Suva to help pay for orphanages, old peoples homes, homeless people, and for the general running of all the churches in Fiji. The offerings taken in the Sunday services stay in the village churches. The villagers all take tithing seriously and gratefully give their 10%!!!!
Eventually the village women joined and 6 women in simple costumes performed a Meke…..this time they all sat and performed the dances with their arms and hands. All the cruiser women were eventually asked to join in and then many women came in with baby powder and anointed all the women…..queries later on the meaning of the baby powder produced that this was some form of saying thanks and one of jocularity!!! In the meantime, kava drinking continued 🙂 )))
The Chief then gave a very teary eyed talk. We were not sure what he was saying but he was very emotional. Bis later told us that the Chief was thanking us for coming and giving so generously. This was the first time they had invited cruisers to this type of fundraiser and he was so thankful that it brought him to tears. It was very moving and we were so grateful that 1)We came as many cruisers had decided not to participate and 2)We represented cruisers and our own countries/cultures the way one would want.
Lunch was served in the Chief’s dining area…..we had some fish and at the time they said squid but we later learned it was probably “beche de mar” or sea cucumber…..I really did not care for the taste as well as the jelly, soft texture…..it is a delicacy in Japan/China/Asia and unfortunately they are raping the various reefs in the South Pacific of all the sea cucumbers. Once they have done that, algae starts to dominate the reef and eventually the reef dies. There are many organizations trying to stop this pillage but so far it has not been effective. Of course, we had cassava, bread fruit and yams, but also a risotto with corned beef that was excellent!!!
There is still a lot more to write about but I’ll stop for now and get this blog posted!!!!!
Hope all is well and please drop us an email as while we are busy here, we long to hear news from our family and friends…remember, no internet/Face Book here 🙂 )))
John
Mystic Moon
Fulaga Fiji
