Goodness, I feel so relaxed today I almost forgot to write anything!
And there is quite a lot to write about. We went to the traditional Fijian Meke last night, and really enjoyed it. The staff dressed up, the men in long grass skirts, the women in patterned sulus and white blouses, with wreaths of leaves round wrists and ankles. They sang beautifully, lyrical and haunting melodies, some with hand movements.
The men played the drum, the ukelele and guitars, as well as singing. I hope you can see the verve and enthusiasm with which they all performed. The men also did some more exciting dances, with war clubs.
I'm afraid this picture is really too dark to see properly, but it may give an idea.
This morning I went to a demonstration of fan weaving. The fan is just made from palm fronds, and about an hour's work. I took a picture showing the partly finished fan.
Behind the very talented lady making the fan, you can see the sort of closed up frond she started with. There are a lot of ribs on a palm frond, and these are just plaited to make the handle, and then woven together to make the fan. The finished item is almost a foot square, with a really solid plaited handle.
After lunch, I went to watch the same lady make a basket. This was also made from palm fronds, but in a rather different way. First, the frond was cut so there were 4 pieces, each with 3 long leaves. Two of these pieces were interwoven, then the other two, then the interwoven pieces were interwoven.
Once the basket shape had appeared, there were sufficient long fronds left to plait a handle. I was lucky enough to be given the finished item, though I'm far from sure I'll be allowed to take it into USA or Canada.
A group of us went in the Bula Bus to see the Staff Village. This is the most terrible contrast to the way in which we live. We live in luxurious little bures, with polished wooden floors, nice furniture, charming bathrooms with outdoor showers, and air-conditioning. They live in squalor, as far as I can see. I felt quite ashamed to be living in such comfort, being taken care of by people who lived so differently.
This picture wouldn't post last night, but now I have a 3G signal. The houses are just little concrete boxes, in a row, with a corrugated iron roof. The clearing is very hot, and it seems to me the people must be overcrowded, since over 200 of them live in what doesn't seem to me enough houses for that many people.
They have their own church for the village. It is a nice building
but very simple inside.
It is a Methodist church, but the villagers are not all Methodists. Catholics use the same church for their services, but usually at a separate time.
After this visit, most people were very quiet. I went back to fetch Paul to see if he wanted to swim, or go for a walk. He said he wanted to go for a walk, but he just had one email to send, and would only be 5 minutes. So I waited over an hour!
We set off for Sunset Beach, but were diverted on the way by a sign to Tuilawa Lookout Point. It was quite a bush walk,
and took about 20 minutes of walking and climbing, not the best thing for somebody wearing a swimsuit, a sarong and flip-flops. I was also eaten alive by various insects on the way, as we had not planned for a bush walk and had no insect repellant.
There were some good views over the south beach from the lookout, though it wasn't a clear or sunny day.
After that, we did walk to Sunset Beach, where I lay in the sea to cool off, having got very hot and sweaty on the walk, and being very itchy from insect bites so that my arms and back felt as if they were burning. The view is over to other islands, rising rockily from the sea. There was no sunset though, because there was no sun.
The entertainment after dinner tonight was crab racing. The crabs were hermit crabs, and moved surprisingly fast. But there was an awful lot of time spent in bidding for crabs, and of the 50 minutes or so of 'entertainment', about 30 seconds was spent actually watching the crabs race. I went cane toad racing on Australia 12 years ago, and that was a lot more fun.
Tomorrow is our last day, we leave on the 1.30 boat for Nadi, and should be at the airport hours before we need to be. Paul was worried that something would happen to delay the boat, so we are leaving earlier than we need. The airport is air-conditioned though, and I hope to have a good enough signal to post the missing pictures.
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