The hot and heavy humidity covers me like a blanket, as sweat drips down my for head, and falls towards the floor of the bus. I look to my left and see my friends sticking their heads out the window of our bus, driving from Nadi, Fiji, to Latoka, Fiji. An old Fijian man asks me where I’m from, and I tell him I’m from the states. He speaks fluent English, and we engage in a nice conversation about Fiji and the States. His grandson, sitting on his lap stares at me the whole time we talk. Finally we reach our destination, we say our good byes, and the group gets off the bus.
So far Fiji has been an amazing experience and I think everyone has had a little bit of a culture shock in their own way. Weather its from the bathrooms and showers in our home stay village, to the lighter sized cockroaches we have found in our rooms, everyone has something to be surprised about.
Our home stay Village, Nanunanu, is about 30 minutes outside the town of Tavua. The time it took for us to get from Nadi (where we flew into), to Tavua took about 5 hours. Nadi is only 87 km (54.3 miles) away, but there were so many stops on the way, and we had to catch another bus in Latoka to get to Tavua. Our travel day was definitely a long one, and a few of us felt the heat effect our energy.
We finally reached the village of Nanunanu, where we will be spending the rest of our time in Fiji. They lined us up outside of the ceremony house, and we waited for permission to enter. The 6 guys of the group had to say “Duwa Duwa” (Do-wAH Do-wAH). This is the Fijian way of asking permission to go inside of the ceremony house. The 7 ladies of our group had it a little bit rougher and had to say a longer verse to enter the house. Honestly I couldn’t tell you what that verse was, but all the ladies nailed it, and they sounded great.
I think everyone was a little nervous upon entry not to mess up, or to disrespect the villagers in any way. The opening ceremony proceeded and by the end of it I could tell that the stress and nervousness of the group calmed down, and it seemed that we were all getting more comfortable with what was in store for us. After the ceremony ended, we all headed over to the community center for our “Lovo”. A “Lovo” in the Fijian culture is a traditional way of cooking, and it entails a massive feast. They prepared so many different plates of food for us, and there was so much left over. It was almost overwhelming considering they want us eat as much as we can, yet there was so much left over that we couldn’t finish. After the Lovo, we got our home stay rooms mates and took our bags to the houses that we will be staying at for the rest of our time here in Nanunanu.
Breakfast is promptly at 7:30 am, while most of us are woken up well before that from the many roosters squawking at dawn. After breakfast we all get ready for a day of hard work, making concrete paths throughout the village. Using the wheel barrow to cart 50 kgs of powdered concrete to the work site, mixing concrete, and laying it down. The sweat pours off of everyone as we are all hard at work. Water has became our best friend, and something that become an important way of staying healthy.
Well, this internet cafe is pretty steamy, and I gotta meet up with the group at the bus stop soon. HONGI group sends all our love to our family and friends back at home, and will be seeing all of you December 9th.
Laters.
p.s photos will be coming soon.