Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Since leaving Vorovoro last Wednesday I have been feeling rather sad. I’m sure many of you can sympathise! It’s really tough to adequately describe my time on the Island as I loved it so much, but I thought I would share a few stories about my time anyway!

One of the best moments on the Island was when on Amy’s birthday she decided that she wanted to move a “big” (I only found out when I got there how massive it was!) log from the other side of the Island via the sea. Now, I am naturally a pessimist and so would have usually assumed no one was every going to swim any large logs around Vorovoro and left others to try and fail. As it was her Birthday however, I could not do anything but try to help! And I’m so glad I went. Amy, Jim, Nick, Eatimar and myself all worked hard to move the 50ft long log (anyone got a picture to prove it?) into the sea – and it took a little while. Once the huffing and heaving was over, the swimming began! Amy, Etimar and I took the larger log and Jim and Nick took another large log that was lying nearby. Carefully avoiding coral and jelly fish, we swam the log/tree around the headland at a surprisingly good pace. We took a break to do some Meke on our log as soon as we were in view of the camp and there was a group on the pontoon to cheer us in as well as the assembled tribe on the beach. I’m pretty proud of the log adventure and I hope it was a good birthday present for Amy! Sorry I ever doubted your log moving abilities Amy!!

So what else happened on my stay? Tom became Chief and I’m sure he will be a brilliant boss. He is a top bloke with a great sense of humour and a good set of aims. Let’s just hope some contact lenses arrive in time so that he can see again.

I think a group of us that included myself, Giles, Ben, Ram and Adam managed to bore the Island with constant chess games and “post-match discussions.” I’m determined to come back next year and return the various thrashings that Ben gave me! I promise to keep post-match talk private though next time :-)

Pizza on Sunday was incredible, but there is another blog devoted to that singular subject that I won’t try to beat, and the same can be said about the Meke performance to the high school. I did however, visit the high school a week earlier with Hannah and Sam. It was quite an interesting experience as Sam and I were supposed to be teaching A level standard Maths to students only one year younger than ourselves. As you can imagine, the lessons soon turned into Q & A sessions about life in England. Those questions were slightly easier than the maths ones, although some were still tricky! Funnily enough, none of them had ever heard of Queens Park Rangers…I should have just pretended to support Arsenal I guess. If you get a chance to go to the high school, don’t hesitate, just go.

Lastly, I will share with you about the greatest play Vorovoro has ever seen, put together by Gemma and Susie. I was honoured to get the chance to play the role of Young Tavita in the play of Vorovoro’s history, Tavita’s birth and the formation of Tribe wanted. It was great fun and hopefully you will all be able to watch some clips from the play online. AJ made a wonderful Old Tavita and Tui Mali was played by Tom, an ex tribe chief. I don’t think I will ever forget Alice’s role as grandma and the incredible old persons voice that she put on… I hope the Fijians enjoyed the play – and judging by the reception, they did!

I want to thank everyone on the Island for being such a fun group of people, a huge thankyou to Giles, Amy, Ben and Jim for helping to make the experience so exceptional and of course, a massive thankyou to Team Fiji for teaching us so much and for being such a great laugh too!

Moce Vorovoro! For this year at least.