Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Bula all,

Well I’m here, finally, after four flights, a taxi trip, and a rather damp boat ride. But, my goodness, was it worth it. This place is beautiful, above and beyond how I imagined it. As we approached the island, it was a bit like Lost, Shipwrecked, and Castaway in one, but once we reached shore and people on the beach took our bags and greeted us enthusiastically-this was Tribewanted.

When we arrived the Chief Tom made us a good cup of tea and gave us a tour of the island. There are signs everywhere, everywhere has a name, it’s fantastic. The people here are great, especially the Fijian’s, so friendly and really making an effort to make us feel welcome. Its so chilled out, I feel like I am finally uncoiling the tightly wound up spring I had built up over 5 years of studying, (I know that sounds a bit trite, but here you can say anything, and no one will look at you like you just announced you have joined a cult!)

Its day 4 now, and I have finally got over the jetlag and have started settling into island life. There are many people who I don’t think could imagine me getting to grips with compost toilets, insects, and sleeping on the floor, but I have embraced it all, and I love it. There is nothing like watching the sun rise lying in a hammock, followed by an early morning dip and a good bowl of porridge. I even have my own job to do, me and another girl have taken over watering the garden from some leavers, we even did some weeding (I bet some people at home never saw that coming!)

Yesterday we went to Mali District School, and presented the gifts we had brought for them. I brought some of my favourite books from when I was younger, a picture atlas, and some stamper felt tip pens. The latter went down particularly well, though I think more stamps ended up on faces than on paper! Some of us helped the children write letters to their pen pals in England, I looked on as Adi Eleona (an incredible perfectionist!) wrote to Tammie, telling her about life in Fiji, and swopping information abut pets. After we had finished I whipped the camera out, and suddenly it was like a celebrity party-posing galore! It was a fantastic experience, and I hope to go back next week with a couple of the photos developed to give them.

As for the wildlife, I so far (touch wood) have not interested the mozzies or the sandflies-probably due to my slightly over zealous head to toe covering and liberal use of repellant. I am told they are just lulling me into a false sense of security, and will attack me with gusto next week-we’ll see! I also glimpsed my first sea snake, down at the secret (or ‘naked’ beach) where we can sunbathe in bikini’s. It was much smaller than expected, but I still felt no urge to get up close and personal! (camera zoom did that for me!)

I chalked up another new experience yesterday-grog, essentially muddy water. Definitely an acquired taste, but I have 3 weeks to get used to it! I am off now to get some valuable tanning time in. I hope you are all well at home, and not missing me too much, will write again soon.

Moce xxx