Tribewanted: Vorovoro

I’m currently in Fiji as part or a year long period of travel. I had planned to be here for two weeks on Vorovoro but since arriving have extended my stay to a month. By all accounts this is a common side effect of arriving here that people can’t help but want to extend their stay here.

An average day in Vorovoro starts pretty early with breakfast at 7:30am, then a shower at the waterfall on the beach. Throughout the day there are always a number or activities and projects going on, to be undertaken with the local Fijians employed from the local communities and other tribe members. Some of the projects going on during my time here have been the development of a BioGas system, building new chicken pens, strengthening buildings and shutters for possible cyclones, making coconut oils to keep the mosquitoes at bay and of course the ever popular job of monitoring the compost toilets! Other activities also include visits to the local villages – one of the definite highlights of the experience for me, the school and the nearby reef for fishing trips. The days are relaxed and friendly, with plenty of good food provided by the fabulous Fijian ladies from the villages on the neighbouring island of Mali. With no electric lights except for a couple of bulbs to light key areas, powered by solar panels and a wind turbine, eveingins find us congregating around a camp fire by the beach or else gathered around hurricane lamps in the communal grand bure.

Island life is certainly as relaxed paced as promised, although being here in the rainy season does sometimes mean that the weather is,’t quite what I expected! Big storms last night for example meant tyeing down anything that moved battening the hatches and sheltering the night together in the Bure (communal hall for the Tribewanted community).

Despite the little electricity and basic water facilities, there really is nothing that I miss here, you appreciate the little things so much like a beautiful sunset and listening to the local kids singing in the morning, that all the things that mattered so much t home don’t seem that important here,

Its an incredibly interesting project, from a cultural, social and environmental aspect.