Tribewanted: Vorovoro

To leave Vorovoro is to leave behind a loved one, Vorovoro has a heart and soul. Departure is always hard, but you leave taking with you an armful of new knowledge and a new concept of the word sharing; and so,so many precious memories.

Vorovoro possesses a life of its own, something you have to experience to understand; Vorovoro is a living thing, and we are like one of the trees growing on it; we thrive on it’s rich soil, it’s deep rich heritage.

I think it would be safe to say that anyone who arrives with an open heart and an open mind will be swept off their feet by the encounter with the nature here and these wonderful Mali people who so readily give of themselves, their time, their whole way of life, to let us enjoy the pleasures of this unique culture, this simple way of life. God forgive us if it should ever die out. What the Mali people lack in material things, they possess beyond belief in the richness of their existence, and although they would love to have “what we have” they make themselves content with what little “creature comforts” they have. How many times I tried while I was there to express my thanks to them for sharing this ability to live simply, their willingness to enfold us in their culture.

The longer you stay, the longer you want to stay; you get into the easy rhythm of the days and nights, you stop worrying or wondering about tomorrow; Fijians live very much in “today” – so much so that planning ahead can sometimes be problematic for we “Europeans” who mainly live in the future, worrying how tomorrow will be planned and how we will live it. In Mali, they know. If something is not perfectly planned it does not really matter, one way or another they will get by and rarely anything has dire consequences. Tevita provides a prime example of how minimal planning can give maximum results. He loosely plans the events on such a day as Saturday, letting it all have a natural flow, and it flowed, very nicely. I had asked Tevita to let me say a few things about the Tribewanted project in order present to the teachers and guests a clear picture of what the Tribewanted project is, as opposed to the rumors around Fiji that there is a 5 star hotel on Vorovoro. In fact, the Fijian tax people had visited just last week and finally now also realized that what is on Vorovoro is a traditional Fijian village, enhanced by just a few modern things like the compost toilet! I focused on the progress in the 18 months of the Tribe’s existence, what our general plan is and how we exist online; I tried to explain as best I could to the guests present how important it has been to us to become part of the Mali “family” and just how easy they make it for us to exist among them. Tevita called on Giles to give a speech, and Giles gave a heart rendering talk about his personal feelings and experience here on Vorovoro, verging on becoming emotional (and bringing many present to the same state). What Giles felt, and is felt by so many of us, was conveyed very well and I was pleased that he had expressed for all of us the deep involvement we feel by being part of this Tribal experiment. Had I ventured towards expressing any such thing I think the emotion would have been overwhelming, I would not have made it through the speech without a great flow of tears. Here we are offered the opportunity to be part of the extended family of the Vorovoro Mali Tribe, just as they are genuinely a very large extended family. It is a rare thing to meet and live with such people who have no defenses, whose hearts are open to you; who work with joy, who ask little of life, give so much and who share daily in song and true communal living.

After one month working towards improving our village and the relations among those who share in making it all come together, I watch my month here coming to a close seeing that we have made significant progress in 18 months, especially considering that there was only a general plan as how to construct the village, how to run it, and what our involvement would be with the Mali people.
The first stage of just making the experiment work has been accomplished, now we have the challenge of polishing it and make it run more efficiently. I am well aware of the time and effort that has gone in so far, but with further efforts Tribewanted Vorovoro can be a nicer environment to work and live in, realistically sustainable and with less effort.

A simpler but more organized structure is slowly evolving, more changes have been made this month; providing specific outlines of the duties of the people who come to work, both on the part of the visiting tribe administration and the Mali personnel is needed and is in the works; further attempts to involve the various villages of Mali, buying produce or crafts from them has been discussed and could possibly happen soon; constant daily involvement such that I tried to provide, of the kitchen staff with one tribe administrator is needed to create the structure necessary to guarantee that we continue to prepare native food, provide more fresh fruit, and a link between the kitchen staff and what is grown and harvested from the gardens. As simple as this may seem, without daily supervision this does not happen, it takes time to change the ways of people who have been convinced that we would not like native food, nor know what we like or want. (they do closely observe what goes uneaten) It is also hard for them to conceive of the need for fresh fruit and vegetables in the quantities that most of us are accustomed to, when their diet is heavy in starches. Trying to change things too quickly without observing how things currently are done or perceived gets us nowhere, much less convince them to use non polluting soaps, the likes of which do not exist as far as I can see, in most of Fiji. We are working in a tropical environment, providing roughly for 30 people, on an isolated island, we have to keep this in mind.

For anyone who is going to Vorovoro to help with the administration especially where sustainability is concerned, I can see the need for each of us who arrive to work in any capacity to step back and possibly observe for a good couple of weeks before trying to introduce new procedures, and when they do, they need to carefully evaluate if what they are replacing merits the change; if what they are introducing can be continued.

We come with high ideals and not much awareness of this particular environment and of just how little the Mali people have (and are accustomed to) to live with and what is possible on a small isolated tropical island. Most people in Mali use wood burning stoves or fires for cooking; gas is too expensive or hard to transport; money is hard to come by, so you simply find the cheapest solution, not always the most ecological, although, if you look at the overall existence of the people of Mali, they use so little of consumer goods you can hardly call them un-ecological; they make do quite well with very, very little. We go there thinking we are bringing enlightenment, but maybe we should go first to learn, then to teach. You don’t go to Vorovoro thinking that we have all the solutions and all we have to do is teach it to the locals; they have been making do with what is grown locally, without bringing in foreign goods for…ever. They grow what grows well there, although some new (non hybrid) vegetable varieties that grow well in the tropics could be a good addition.
Often smaller less intrusive “improvements” will have more effect; take one step at a time. Because what is done on the island sometimes seems to be “simple” some people think that we have so much to teach them; there are often far reaching reasons why they do things a certain way, and we can learn from it. I don’t think any us arrive with an indepth knowledge of the Fijian Culture or way of surviving here.

I was asked while there if they are doing “sustainable” cutting of the wood used for the bures and buildings. Yes, they are and in fact have asked us to be careful of what plants are used for even making the costumes for the mekes. When we go into the bush belonging to PuPu Epeli to cut mangrove wood or bamboo, small amounts are carefully selected and you can hardly call it clear cutting. They do know a lot about preserving their own environment, and if what we consider “ecology” is not always practiced, you have to look at the whole picture. There are many trade-offs. The Mali people don’t use fuel to heat their homes or light them. If they use drift wood for fires, well they are not polluting many other ways. They collect rainwater. They go out spear and line fishing, they are not depleting the seas using huge nets. They are up at sunrise and use minimal lighting after dark. If they burn the debris from grounds clean-up there on the beach, there is a reason; if you leave refuse in piles this time of year, it breeds mosquitoes! If you leave it in the dry season, it becomes a fire hazard. Before we criticize, we need to observe. We have just as much if not more to learn from than we have to teach to, this unique culture. Before we start preaching sustainability to them, we have to appreciate how they have been able to exist for centuries on so little without destroying their environment; a lot of what we might perceive as wrong or wasteful is only our limited and “modern” way of seeing things. There is pollution, but not so much on Mali or Vorovoro. On Vauna Levu, littering and pollution are problems.

Consider the talent of our chefs who turn out three meals and two tea breaks with freshly baked cakes each day, for 20 or more on a wood burning stove and oven and a couple of gas burners. They do not use heaps of prepackaged wasteful products; they buy in bulk and cook from scratch.

I found it more satisfying to help just find short cuts to the work and clean up, using my knowledge of constructing with very little and that of providing for groups on board a sailing boat using little fresh water, than to convince them that they were being un-ecological at times and need to change their ways. I had significant exchanges both with Va in the kitchen and Marau doing the building of the Ecotricity Hut; the knowledge flowed both ways, and there was very rewarding cooperation.

Conscientious planning of vegetable gardens as well as structures is needed to not overwhelm the village. We only have so much “manpower” to go around, and there are not always enough tribe members present to get everything done.

We have to get our own structures and organization to a point where it all works efficiently and there is continuity and cooperation which take into account the turn-over of tribal guests and tribal administration.

We exist on a small budget and we can continue to do so improving on the existing structures using good taste and respecting the environment. We all perceive existence here on Vorovoro in different ways depending on the environment that we are familiar with, so we come with different ideas of what should or can be the final look or “organization” of Tribewanted on Vorovoro.

Personally, I would like to see the village continue to be improved respecting the essence of the native way of building which is esthetically pleasing and in tune with the environment, and using as little as possible.

A coat of minimally colored varnish did a lot to improve the exterior of the kitchen and the new Ecotricity Hut, the varnish will also help to preserve the wood. You don’t always need a fancy structure to make it nice to look at. The new look has been described as “shabby chic”
Te does wonders with the gardening, he “dresses up” everything. The current tin roofs can be shaded with thatching; Savee told me that he had seen how it was done on other islands. This would also make the tin roofed structures cooler.

I hope to have set somewhat of a precedent with the february facelift, showing that it is possible to make pretty significant improvements using inventiveness and not a lot of money or materials.

The sand is finally gone from between my toes, and the salt is no longer in my hair, I have come back to that “other” world in which we live. I am revising this as I sit in an internet café in northern California. No need to ask which I prefer.

Departing from Vorovoro I took my last ride into Labasa on the famous Malau Bus, it arrived shortly after Marau brought me in to “port” at Malau. We sat on the bench of the small general store, quiet Marau said little, as is his usual. He brought me to tears as I boarded the bus when he said, “we want people like you Marama, to come to Vorovoro, people who will be our brothers and sisters. My heart was breaking as I left, but I, like all those who have come here and opened their hearts and minds, have a family in Vorovoro and I know I can always come back.