Tribewanted: Vorovoro

I can’t really find the words to explain what it felt like to spend five weeks on Vorovoro. I think it should be compulsory for everyone. I found a new family, many like-minded people, and a mysterious disease just to spice things up. Discovering new things everyday, and spending time with Save, Sosi, Mess, Te, every single person in camp…and especially Pupu! I have been away about 2 weeks now and still find myself thinking about Vorovoro every day and wishing I was there. I especially miss the incredible stories that Pupu would tell, sitting late into the night on the grog mat…building the Bure with just his eyes!

It’s an incredible feeling to experience something as life changing as the community that is Tribewanted. Not two days were the same, ever. I went chicken hunting, into the mangroves, got ‘lamb-chop’ to the point that Pupu said to me he thought I wouldn’t make it to my bed! Made a ladder to the tree house, shot a potato cannon (WOW, Peter you’re a legend!), and survived the cyclone, and that is by no means the end of the list! I kept thinking that a boring day must come along sometime, but it honestly never did. I don’t understand quite how it happens, but arriving on Vorovoro everything starts to make sense…noting is hard in the world as Pupu would say.

I think the central point on which this project survives is the idea of ‘community’. It’s something which I would have had no chance of understanding or ever even slightly comprehending, had I not experienced it first hand. Everybody lives together, there’s no confrontation and people obviously and unashamedly care for each other. You sit under the stars into the night and drink grog together, singing, chatting and just having a laugh…in my case trying to avoid as many high tides as possible!

During the day, working with the guys I never once stopped learning more about their culture…and one thing which I will try hard to keep with me is the amount of laughter there is around camp. Unbelievable! Watching Sosi laugh at me when he gave me the most disgusting medicinal root (which is given to children to stop them getting flu), I got my revenge…he had a whole bowl the next morning (unfortunately I had to drink one too!).

Spending the time I did in Fiji has changed the way I see the world. I no longer feel the need to live up to peoples expectations in the way I did before. I’m much happier to be my own person, and I saw a fair few people experiencing the same things during my time on the island. I won’t pretend that it’s easy to keep up these new ideas when coming back into the ‘real world’ – it’s not. But I fully intend to try my hardest to live by the same standards as the Fijians.

There’s no doubt that I’ll be coming back to the island, and a quick message to anyone thinking about going…Do it, and don’t look back.

Sota tale guys. xxx.