Tribewanted: Vorovoro

The last 5 days have given us more sun than rain, in fact I could say that this is about as good as it gets, it has been beautiful. The mornings calm with little wind, a breeze in the afternoon and some showers usually being clear in the evening allowing us a tanoa outside; a million stars and Orion just overhead, the most visible of the constellations here.

The waters are much more clear and the snorkeling gets better every day, this is VERY important to some of us!

We started out the week with Monday’s 9’o clock organizational meeting and all of the men. A boat was prepared to go to cut bamboo on PuPu Apelli’s land, about a half hour boat ride from here. Up the river near Malau (where all the tanks are) about a quarter mile we pulled up on a beach and walked in. This is in the “dryer” part of the mangrove, near where the large logs were cut down for the Gran Bure. I thought that Mangroves were short trees growing at the water’s edge, thriving on the mix of salt and fresh water, but that is because I had never been inside such an old one, there must be trees 40’ high there.

It was a sloppy walk in, in sticky ankle deep mud a good part of the time, I was thinking how much work it would be for the three who would be carrying the bamboo out. Luckily bamboo is light and it would be cut in to about 12’ lengths. While the wood was being cut Apelli led me into the bush to show me his ancestral land. Here cocoa had been planted during his lifetime, and a low cave in lava rock at that time served as their dwelling when they worked on the land. The cave dwelling once had been surrounded by decorative plants and orange trees, now only traces of this garden were there hardly visible. Apelli told me that at one time he had lived for three years straight here while farming the land. To see the area now you would think that nothing had been farmed there, the bush has reclaimed the land, the tall trees blocking the sun allowing nothing much to grow. An orange tree here, a cocoa there, but the rest has been swallowed up. Save explained that the cocoa can be eaten like a fruit, but it is the seeds that we use to make cocoa powder. The nature of the land here is to take over once cultivation has stopped; cultivated land gets reclaimed by nature quickly in a tropical rain forest. Something similar is happening where we have been overly ambitious in planting in the area between the tool shed and the pig style. Today it will be determined what will be manageable in the future with the help of Tavita and Apelli. We are trying to encourage them to tell us more about what we have failed to understand in the gardening area as things are not growing well. Most likely more sunny locations will need to be chosen, or a bit more of the bush cut back. The wet season drowns a lot of the plants but you have to provide for some shade during the dry season as well.

After three hours of cutting bamboo and a lunch for the guys made up of a half loaf of bread, a tin of corned beef (opened easily by Save with the point of his machetti, the corned beef and butter spread on the bread with an impromptu bamboo knife), there were 10 bundles of about 12 bamboo shafts, each measuring about 5” across. It took three trips to carry it out. To these men, time and effort are not really added in to the equation when doing a job; you simply get on with it. Here no one would go and buy bamboo if you have it on your land! In fact, it appears that they just go without whatever does not grow on their land.

We got a good rain shower on the way back and had to wait about an hour for the tide to rise to get out of the river. While waiting we ducked into a ditch that had been dug through the mangrove and Apelli pointed out where the large trees had been cut for the major jobs on Vorovoro. It is thanks to his land and resources that we have been able to gather materials at less expense. Tali walked off through a maze of trees (which would have had any of us lost in 5 minutes) for water. He came back with 3 people and two large bags of taro being farmed on Apelli’s land. Right now there are no other crops, planting will begin soon, near the end of the wet season, we will be starting planting on Vorovoro as well.

The squall that had hit us earlier had not touched Vorovoro, even though it was only about a mile away. The storms here move through like this a good part of the time, a dark cloud releases its content in a small area, leaving other areas completely untouched. For now the excessive rains have stopped and if we are lucky, we will just get regular showers to replenish the tanks now.

The bamboo will be split this week and treated using their normal methods (diesel) in order to keep the termites from destroying it in a short time. This bamboo will be used to renew the screens around the showers first which are disentrgrating and black with mold, and then if any is left over it will be used to screen off the compost area behind the kitchen which is not that great to look at.

Sunday three of the tribe began repainting the indoor kitchen; Va had inspired us by already starting on the outdoor cabinets that hold plates, supplies, etc. Va painted the names of everyone working on the cupboard doors and cabinet, she says this is what they do in the schools. (she is a retired teacher). James, Laura and I started in early morning and stopped at dark, finishing about three quarters of the inside, the results are satisfying! It is much brighter and cheerier and the ladies seem pleased. It will definitely be easier to see in there and hopefully easier to keep clean and tidy, not that the ladies are not, but unpainted wood is hard to keep nice in a cooking environment.

Tavita has added another path between the entrance and the outdoor kitchen area; hopefully this will help keep the grass growing in the dry season, if we try to use the paths more once the rains stop.
As we were to receive distinguished guests on Tuesday, TuiMali normal visiting day, the grounds in the Tribe village were trimmed and groomed while we were out cutting bamboo on Monday.

There were many preparations for Tuesday’s visit, the Mekes were rehearsed, and luckily Carol, Giles, and Lottie in particular know them so well that I can follow them. Most everyone had learned them well and we gave an impressive performance for the visitors, this always makes TuiMali proud. It may seem to anyone not here that we focus a lot on this, but there is a reason; Mekes are an important part of traditional Fiji culture and are preformed for many reasons. They are also their way of celebrating, along with singing which they all seem to do masterfully and without effort, often taking separate parts or harmonizing. There is hardly any other of the 300 islands in Fiji that is keeping up tradition.

Our “role” in helping to preserve the traditions is becoming more apparent. I spoke at length last night during the evening grog session with Tavita about this and asked him if he thought that this “model” could be followed elsewhere in Fiji; unfortunately his response was not too encouraging. It seems that not all chiefs in Fiji are so wise or forward thinking nor fair with their people, and there are not many tribes that will put this much effort in to preserving their traditions. We seem to have “landed” in quite a unique spot, with TuiMali being an extraordinary leader and his people being willing to work along with us. It seems to me that the original intentions of Tribewanted are now expanding and the whole project is becoming more far-reaching. People all over Fiji are now aware that the Tribe is here and functioning, good things are being said. This talk led to the Commissioner of Tourism for the current government being invited to yesterday’s visitor list. Both he and RocoTui, The Provincial FNPF (Fijian National Provident Fund) Manager gave speeches to us during the ceremonies, talking about their history and their hopes for better infrastructure in the northern provinces and for developing “good” tourism. They apologized for the lack of facilities for those touring here. The commissioner has traveled extensively, having served in the British Forces; he is able to do more comparison than most Fijians. I find it incredible how the Fijians cope with what they have, they seem to just take what we would consider obstacles to getting anywhere or accomplishing anything in stride and just get on with it, whatever “it” might be; transportation problems, lack of electricity or sanitary facilities, or running water. These people would however survive any world disasters better than most “developed” countries, they can still live off the land quite well. Hopefully, nothing like that will ever happen, but it is interesting to consider that their skills might be more important than all the things that we stuff into our heads in order to live in the modern world; no matter what, this “simple” way of life is to be respected and regarded as just as essential to the world as any technology. What have we to preserve with all of our knowledge and technology if the wisdom and beauty of these societies are swallowed up by progress? There is a lot more complexity to their society than what we perceive. Their “slowness” or what we see as lack of organization require future patience and understanding to see how their way of working, works for them.

The Tribewanted project seems to be evolving into a program to foster cultural understanding and to save Fijian culture, how would we ever have imagined that at its start nearly 15 months ago, it would have taken on such an important role in Fiji?

A word on building a dugout Canoe
I have spoken with PuPu Apelli about this. He explained how 60 years ago he watched his father dig out a canoe up on the mountain, having found the right tree for a canoe. He told me a philosophical story in which his father showed him to watch and learn before speaking (we have two ears and one mouth for a reason….when I said this to him, he was amused….) using the canoe construction as an example.
Unfortunately he says that the wood needed for a canoe is nothing that can be found around here now. Here in Fiji, it is a terrible thing, but a large amount of logging is still going on especially in the Northern provinces, these beautiful old growth trees are being exported, I hear, to Japan. The Tourism Commissioner mentioned that Fiji is working on relations with Japan, Australia and New Zealand in particular. Obviously, better tourism would be better than logging, even though it can be destructive as well.