Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Bula everyone! Well, it’s been a week or so back on our lovely little island for me. But let me begin with my arrival to Fiji itself. I was overwhelmed by how emotional I felt just entering the airport. I struggled to hold back tears when I rounded the corner into Nadi arrivals as I was hit by a wall of melodious harmonies. Once again I was experiencing Fiji’s way of welcoming visitors to its wonderful little country. Four beautiful, smiling fijian men, sporting loud flower print shirts, were singing traditional Fijian verse, playing guitar and yelling ‘Bula!’ to anyone who would listen. It’s the best welcome you will ever get at an airport! It certainly felt like some sort of homecoming.

Needless to say, I was first off the boat when we glided to the beach on Vorovoro and spent the next hour or so running about like an excited little kid hugging everyone in sight. It is a wonderful feeling to be welcomed back with such open arms. It was awesome to be re-united with old faces, and to be introduced to new. A weekend arrival meant it was quiet and I got the chance to get to know the new staff members since my last visit in May (Julia, Giles, Duncan and Carol.) and could familiarize myself with developments on the island and current projects.

CHANGES SINCE MAY

My first thought was how much more village like the whole place feels, with many more physical structures in place. There seems to be a higher degree of integration on the island as whole, with the space between the fijian village and the tribewanted village joined by sleeping and cooking quarters for the Fijian workers.

On closer inspection, it was the little differences that impressed me the most – subtle lighting for the kitchen, toilet and dinning areas; salt water hand wash in the toilets; beautifully carved chairs around the camp fire; tanks to collect rain water from various roofs; a more organized kitchen; a more structured week; blossoming gardens and almost an animal farm feel with all the chickens and pigs we now own! All things that I view as smoothing down the edges, streamlining practices, and ultimately helping us all work together to build a self-sustainable community environment.

PLANS FOR DECEMBER

December was always going to be a bit of a weird month. We have the Fijians working for us for the first two weeks only, before they break for Christmas holidays. School is out for six weeks (which I am slightly disappointed about as I planned to work on a cultural programme with the kids). It is the last full month before the BBC2 documentary graces british television screens. Moreover, the month included both Christmas and New Year and therefore much cause for celebration.

With all this in mind, we all decided that December would be a month of completion: finishing all outstanding projects and tying up loose ends so we could enter the new year with a clean slate. Namely, Ciaran’s water project – involving shifting tones of rocks up the hill to next to the water tank (Save, Sosi and I have already got very much stuck into this!); Duncan’s bio-gas project; building a flooring for the pig pen so we can collect piggy poo separate from mud to use for bio-gas (already done); general gardening, litter picking and tidying (one big difference I have noticed since may is that the village as a whole is perhaps more overgrown and disorderly – something I want to get on top of); the water heater project; finishing the forgotten about gym and ensuring the second two weeks of the month are as fun and action packed as possible!