Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Bula!

Okay, this is my third attempt at getting down my trip to Vorovoro, so please forgive me for launching straight in.

I started at the dockside, heading out on the 45 minute trip north to Vorovoro, which translates into “pieces” & was given that name after harbouring passengers from a particularly destructive reef shipwreck, thus rendering the boat literally in pieces. As the boat sidled along the side of the island, looking vaguely reminiscent of a Swallows and Amazons type location, I kept an eye out for any swooping pterodactyls as we drew ever closer. Jerome was kind enough to point out the waterfall I’d been looking forward to showering under later on.

Our welcome onto the island was fairly brief, owing to the downpour which started, so dodging the larger raindrops, we made for cover under the biggest thatched barn type building, I was later to discover was called the Grand Bure, and is the focal point for all ceremonies and communal gatherings.

After the rain had eased off, I was shown to the Vale, a timber and plastic sheeting construction housing my bed which consisted of a crude wooden table wrapped under a mosquito net. Here, I met my other fellow tribe members, most of whom had extended their stays to soak up the atmos a little longer.

As the new arrivals, Laura, Toby and I were given the grand tour by the local sustainability manager Menussi, or Mess for short. We embarked on our tour staring out at the cyclone damaged treehouse, leaf strewn volleyball court and ‘Farm-acy’, a rockery preserving fledgling plants harbouring medicinal properties. We moved onto witness the ecotricity hut, which is used chiefly for charging ipods and camera batteries, and powered by the single solar panel, wind turbine and very much a work in progress Bio-Gas chamber. Probably one of the most important amenities to get acquainted with, next came the compost toilets, which have 6 chambers, 3 cubicles, and 2 seats to each cubicle. The idea is, once the second chamber is full, the contents of the first will be dehydrated enough to use as fertiliser on the veg patch. There were numerous fruit and veg patches, yielding all manner of produce, from beans, bananas and taro, to paw paw, cucumbers and even peanuts.

After briefly sighting the water tanks after scrambling up to higher ground, we came down slowly and weaved around pig pen who had just become proud parents of four shiny piglets. The chickens had been released from their coops prior to the cyclone hitting so they could be found skittering around the beach, kitchen and generally underfoot. Stopping to take in the tool shed, recycling stations, kitchen and dinner tables we were also shown the unofficial and official routes into the neighbouring locals village, meeting PuPu, the elder of the village, and Pouasa, the chief’s brother.

Our tour finally descended onto the beach, walking the length of it to find the waterfall shower. On the way back we drew straws to see who would be performing the Sevu-Sevu, or welcoming cermeony asking Chief Tui Mali’s permission to stay on Vorovoro and presenting the kava root for the grog which would be drunk by all. It was to be me :O

I spent the next few hours practising my speech and desperately trying to rememebr the correct order of the ceremony, also trying to retain the accompanying rules i.e. not to go behind or sit higher than the chief, raise my voice, or point my feet at him. While mulling over what to say, I met Frances, Puasa’s wife and our chef, who gave me a cup of tea and a piece of cake to calm my nerves.

On hearing the banging of the drum, to signify the impending arrival of the chief, I donned my sulu which must be worn by all in his presence, and watched the kava be prepared and drunk by Tui Mali, his wingman Mess, and the retiring Tribe chief, Sharon from the U.S. She had chosen to present him with the highly illegal yet highly sacred whale’s tooth and then came my bit, thankfully presenting the sevu-sevu without a hitch.

Following that we were all greatly honoured to be welcomed into Tuil Mali’s house for dinner, a veritable feast by all accounts. The length of the living room floor was bedecked with tablecoths stretching from one end to the other and covered with various dishes serving eight groups of four so that there was quite a commotion as you can imagine. Fresh fish, beef chow mein, potato and taro and rice were served and unlike the European custom Im used to, you have to leave a little food on your plate to signify you’re full, otherwise they replenish your plate as soon as you’ve cleaned it!

After dinner we all trooped back to the bure, stopping for a quick Meke lesson ( a Fijian tradtional dance which I can only describe as a sort of cross-legged hand jive set pieces) and suited up wearing palm leaves around our wrists and necks as we were to provide the evenings entertainment for the locals. After butchering the meke, the bowl was drained of kava 3 more times while we sat around chatting until the early hours to retreat to bed.

I woke up more than a little worse for wear after a rough nights sleep on what essentially was little more than a wooden shelf. Lottie was kind enough to point me in the direction of the remnants of breakfast. We then waved goodbye to Jerome, Kevin & Sharon, singing the Isa Lei, which is the farewell custom and the most heartbreaking song you could ever hope to hear.

Giles had planned a reef trip to go snorkelling, spear fishing and suiz at Survivor Island, but the weather turned a bit peaky so instead I assisted Lottie & Julia with the weeding and laid a new path round the farm-acy.

After lunch we got stuck into resurfacing the volleyball court, which by the time we had finished felt Olympic sized, but after the last wheelbarrow full of sand had been raked over and my muscles were straining to stand, I felt like we’d accomplished something big.

Api taught me how to machete my first coconut, and I was thankful when he took over as I was blatently rubbish and would have to spend a long time practising any kind of technique. I’ll never forget the taste of that first fresh coconut. It was a mouthful of heaven..

Mess pointed out some of the fruit bats I’d seen circling earlier, and we watched together as Maral attempted to stun it of its branch, lobbing a hefty stick in its general direction and narrowly missing. They make for a tasty snack, or so Im told.

Around 4ish we all congregated at the beach side dinner table and had the first island pow-wow about any ideas or improvements we wanted to see around the place, which would later be uploaded onto the forum and up for discussion from the rest of the tribe members online.

Following that I played a quick game of chess with Save, who was gracious enough to teach me a little strategy before taking marginally longer to beat me again :) We had Pizza and Mikko’s birthday cake for dinner – I should mention at this point we ate 5 meals a day and Frances appears to view cake as a condiment! What a legend!!! Sitting round the lanterns in the bure, we taught each other card tricks before I snuck off to bed listening to the sounds of Save strumming the guitar.

I let the ringing of the breakfast bell rouse me, tucking into a heart bowl of porridge (and cake) for breakfast and then set off for my first natural waterfall shower. Imagine, a strong gushing torrent of envigorating and welcome freezing cold water, a view of the Pacific Ocean and the sea breeze to dry you – it was immense! I fashioned a makeshift soap holderfrom a discarded husk and set off back to the camp chatting to Mess along the way.

Soon after, Lottie, Julia, Toby, Laura, Giles, Cap’n Johnny, Marau, Thale and I all set out in the boat for the reef trip. Thale and Toby had a bash at trawl fishing along the way but to no avail. Im most ashamed to admit I spent all of about 5 minutes in the water, as Lottie, Julia and I had the worst of the 3 snorkel masks and each swallowed great big mouthfuls of seawater in quick succession. I spent the next hour lolling in the bottom of the boat, dry retching and only came round after setting foot on dry land and having tea and cake pressed upon me by the lovely Frances.

Noting that the spear fishing had yielded little results, I resolved to get my hands dirty, well fingernails at the very least and assisted Jim with his grand plan for a 3Dish map of the island. After collecting a few of the right and wrong kind of shells along the beach, I was given the task of making a miniature version of what was to be the maps centre-piece, the Grand Bure. Using MDF, dried coconut husk, palm cane, sticks and lashings of glue it all came together quite nicely, if I do say so myself. Jim and I spent the afternoon compiling a short shopping list for more materials we wanted picking up in town the next day, while enjoying a crepe on the beach.

After witnessing my fair share of chess battles between Giles and Jim, I finally struck upon the idea of carving the missing chess pieces and grabbed an offcut of wood, the saw and my swiss army, spnding the rest of that evening carving away to fashion the rook. Sheltering from another downpour, we all played a few rounds of the ever popular spoons and I got talking to Jim about everything and nothing, carrying on our conversation in bed until approximately 1.30am :)

We had porridge and doughnuts for breakfast the next day, sheltering from the rain again and finishing off my rook. I spent the entirety of the day flitting between reading, chess games, chatting and grazing, even managing to fit in an afternoon nap. After dinner we all congregated to watch episode 2 of ‘Paradise or Bust.’ It was quite surreal to be sat watching PuPu and the earlier tribewanted members under the protection of the bure and snacking on squashed mars bars. Lottie and I had a very deep and meaningful before trotting off to bed at another late hour.

The day after the night before I grabbed another amazing shower and assisted with making fire roasted beans on toast due to the No-Gas Sunday rule. After scoffing I sat down to carve my first pawn, and had every intention of pausing to go to the Church service as Id heard from Jim and Lottie that the choir was worth witnessing alone, but unfortunately literally missed the boat.

Id also intended to swim out to the pontoon and sunbathe with Lottie and Julia, but freaked out when I realised my proximity to the coral while swimming at low tide, so turned back half way. While waiting for dinner and the sunset, I watched Lottie industriously light and feed the fire, while Kathi chucked our foil wrapped jacket potatoes in to cook in the embers and so after an hour we were all sat round eating and singing common or garden camp fire songs. Lottie also treated us to one of her family’s camping traditions, known as ‘twists’ which consist of dough wrapped round cleanly whittled sticks and held over the fire to brown – delicious!

The radiance of the sun on my pillow woke me up the next day, and being Monday all the locals came back to start the weeks work. I decided to help out Save with the palm frond weaving for the roofs of Mess’ sustainability hut which need replacing and managed to make 3 or 4 before the lunch bell rang. That night we learnt the different meke’s, in order to perform it in the presence of the chief who was to return on Tuesday.

On my last full day on the island I finished off the last of the replacement chess pieces required, another pawn and a bishop. The men of Mali are reknowned for being the best fishermen in Fiji so we weren’t surprised to find they’d caught a haul of 15kg of fish from the reef. The lali (drum) was beaten to signify Tui Mali’s entrance, so I skipped into my sulu and legged it to the Grand Bure to make sure to be sat in the correct position before he arrived. The new chief was sworn in and James presented his Sevu-Sevu before we stopped to fill up on hot tea and hot doughnuts and get dressed for the meke. This time we wore palm skirts in addition to the flower garlands and wrist bracelets. The locals were terribly kind, whooping and cheering after we’d finished and more kava was supped while Save and I compared notes on European and Fijian culture. Carol was good enough to give me the low-down and invaluable hints about her home town, Vancouver, and even mentioned the possibility of a film school I might be able to attend. I played my last game of chess with Save and slept soundly for my last time on Vorovoro.

I woke early at 6am and crept down the beach for my last opportunity of the World’s best shower and dodged the high tide on my way back down the beach. I was ecstatic to find doughnuts were on the menu for breakfast and handed out some of my stuff to the guys – I gave Mess the ipod I’d found in Sydney, PuPu my wind up head torch and Save the cowboy hat Id been holding onto since Airlie Beach.

Mess gave me his necklace which has a black wooden pendant with a white shell design, explaining that its symbolic of the light in the dark and by that point I may have got something stuck in my eye…

After that all that was left to do was my Isa Lei, which was practically a blur, hugging all the people who’d made my time on the island so special and finding that words had failed me by the time I got to Jim.

Carol, Lottie, Jim and the chief were all getting on the boat back to Labasa with me to do their bits and pieces in town, so the trip back was pretty sweet, with much mirth provided by Carol’s comedy sunglasses and a fitting way to end my time on the island.