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FIJI - FIELD UPDATES - APRIL WEEK 6
by Jon
Well, the past couple of weeks have been action packed and fairly intense. After the excitement of the arrival of our last team member Courtney and the relief that the tsunami (from the earthquake in Tonga) failed to materialise many of us hoped for a calm and relaxed period. What we got however included a Fijian funeral, a road trip to the village in Kubulau farthest from us and plenty of science on camp!
Monday through Wednesday of this last week was spent in Navatu for Sepu’s funeral. Sepu was a great friend of Greenforce and of all us – both staff and volunteers, he will be sadly missed. The time spent in the village was fascinating and even though the occasion was sad the experience was memorable. Fijian culture in such situations asks a lot of the women, mainly in the way of catering for the many visitors to the village. The girls from Greenforce were well and truly part of the village and peeled veg, gutted fish and washed mountains of plates with the best of them. Us guys were extremely impressed and more than a little guilty when we were told to go rest by the villagers when we tried to do any work. As a result, when we returned to camp the guys organized themselves and did the cooking and various other chores for a couple of days to give the ladies a break.
Back at camp we jumped straight back into our fish size estimations and science training. Due to the break from diving for the funeral the completion of science training is now of paramount importance and in a shorter period time. All the volunteers have now passed their fish tests and are starting to concentrate on invertabrates and coral.
When Saturday came it was time to make the trip to the village of Kilaka for a fundraiser and for church on Sunday morning. The village was only an hour’s truck ride away but the trip there was anything but smooth. To start with, due to road conditions after some pretty heavy rainfall, the truck was late. We were meant to leave at 9.30am but ended up going on our way at around 2pm. At the time though we didn’t know about the delay and spent about half an hour to 45 minutes sitting in the rain. When the truck did arrive we discovered it was not particularly passenger friendly – it was a flat-bed open-top design with no seats or handholds! We made it to the village alive and well though and that evening made the trip worthwhile. Kava was drunk, Fijian music blasted from the stereo and we were all asked to dance by the villagers. This could be one of the funniest sights I’ve ever seen – dancing sober in bula dress/shirt whilst the Fijian man or woman steadfastly avoids making eye contact with you.
After church on Sunday we were taken up into Kilaka Forest – a national park home to many rare and endangered indigenous animals. The rain of the previous day had turned much of the path into a mudslide and a swim in the river was needed to wash off. Kilaka was a lovely village and an enjoyable – if tiring – weekend was had.
That’s all for now, we’re all looking forward to passing our tests and cracking on with surveys. Got to dash though because the ladies from the village are coming over for tea and cakes and bit of a dance – bye!
