Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Merry Christmas Tribe! Firstly, apologies for my lack of blogging – it’s been a crazy wee island of late. There have been a few events that were memorable. Let me break it down for you……

CHRISTMAS DAY

The best us tribies have ever had. Easily. Picture the scene: the weather was perfect; september chief Chris was transformed into an awesome grumpy santa by throwing on a hastily assembled fiji-style santa costume, complete with red sulu, and handed out all secret santa presents; we randomly got stuck into some hearty Christmas carol singing, that we later combined with a proper sing along with Tui Mali and his family; the grog flowed throughout the day, only to be broken by a massive lovo and a mad group dash into the clear blue sea to de-sweat. To top all this, I am sure you have all read about Duncan’s proposal to Julia – it was an honour to witness such a beautiful moment. The day ended with silly games, dressing up, cheesy Christmas music and general festive cheer. Sitting gazing at the stars as the night washed over us, I realized that as much as I missed my friends and family, there was nowhere I would rather be, and nothing else I would rather be doing, than spending Christmas here, with my Vorovoro family.

BOXING DAY

I don’t think many people can say that they spent boxing day assisting in the clear up and restoration of Fijian family graves. The graves (one on the headland, four near the water’s edge between peaks three and four) were barely discernable before work began, but, under Tevita’s direction and Pu Pu and the boys hard work in the baking heat, we had them looking stunning and totally unrecognizable from their original state by the end of the day. It is Fijian tradition to tend to graves in December, but these particular graves, belonging to Tui Mali’s family, had not been touched in 20 years. It was an honour to be involved.

A DAY OF TATOU’S

Friday was yet another lovo day and a chance for myself and all the staff members leaving in January to formally thank Tui Mali and the whole community for the time we have all spent working for tribewanted. I personally cant put into words how much this project and this island and these people mean to me, but I did my best, as did we all. It was a tough day. The melancholy mood was soon lifted, however, by copious amounts of meke-ing. Kimbo even got all the Fijian boys up doing our meke’s with us white folk singing. We jumped at the chance to cover them in talc, stick lollys in their mouths, and generally put them off. Priceless. I think they surprised themselves at how much they enjoyed it! This was followed by singing, dancing and the obligatory banter around the grog bowl. The sadness we all feel in leaving was replaced by gratefulness that we ever set foot on Vorovoro in the first place.

GENERAL ISLAND LIFE

And now, in the run up to Hogmany (that’s what we call New Year in Scotland) we have all thrown ourselves back into a slightly more ‘normal’ way of life in the island – 4 peak challenges; swimming round the island (very impressed that we did it in under 2 hours!); jokes round the campfire; party games for tribie Imogen’s 5th birthday; Sila’s 21st with the whole island crammed into the kitchen to sing ‘Happy Long Life’, followed by lots of cake eating; and always, always there has been a bit of grog on the side, to wind down at the end of another day in paradise.

Moce for now,

Marama ‘Lisi