Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Bula sia from Vorovoro and welcome to Fiji time.

After a good nights sleep in Nadi airport after meeting the “Newcastle girls” I flew to Labasa in a slightly smaller plane than usual. Was a strange feeling being able to see your pilot as you flying thousands of feet in the air. I was then met by Louis and the rest of the Monday arrivals in the so called airport in Labasa and taken to the grand eastern, the starting point of the TribeWanted experience. Here we popped into town to purchase our sulu’s and kava to make the wonderful grog. Api the boat captain then took me to my home for the next two weeks.

On arrival we were met what seemed like hundreds of people as it was just over whelming to be greeted my so many people at once. Chief Tom then told us a bit about the place and what was where, we were then given special treatment at afternoon tea to make sure we were all fed and watered as we were “the newbie’s”. After tea we could then set camp in the grand bure where the “Newcastle girls” where given the penthouse. Dinner came around pretty soon and then after a little exploring was dropped straight into the deep end on the grog mat, I was the chiefs wing man on my first night. It took a while to learn what you had to say and do as the wing man decides when people drink and when they relax.

After a late night drinking grog and getting to know people it was an early start with breakfast as today was sevusevu day which is where the main man Chief Tui Mali comes and you present your kava to him as a thanks for letting you stay on his island. This was then accompanied by a play on the beginning of Vorovoro by some of the tribe members. This then turns into your usual grog session with lots of singing and infectious laughter from the Fijians.

Friday came around too quick and it was off to Mali primary school. This was so much better than I expected, Lewis one of the tribe members brought along his guitar and sang them a song and then they sang several Fijian songs back for us. We then split up into groups as some of the children had to write replies to the letters they had received from schoolchildren in the UK. The rest of us went out side to play games. As soon as I brought my camera out they all wanted pictures and then they all wanted to play with then camera so they went off taking as many pictures as they could of each other which was amazing when I got the camera back as they had taken so many brilliant pictures. As they loved previewing the pictures and seeing themselves on the way back to Vorovoro I had the idea of printing some of the pictures and making a poster to present the following week. I then got talking to Emily who was with the children indoors who had a similar experience so we decided to both print pictures and make an M shape for Mali school out of plywood and stick them to that. This was a project we left for the following week after we had gathered materials and got the photos printed.

The weekend came and went with plenty of time on the pontoon where after falling asleep I managed to join the pontoon platoon and also turn red. This then meant that naked Sunday was spent in the shade as much as possible and plenty of aloe vera. I also tried to help as much as I could on the new bure by lashing some of the reeds to the roof and when all this is down Tevita showed me how trim the bottom to level it out with what they call a knife, this I really a foot long machete.

Monday arrived and this meant I had been here a week and I had fallen in love with the place. The main reason for this was team Fiji and the general way of life on the island It’s a no worries place or (sega na leqa in Fijian). No matter what any of them are doing they’re happy to help, show you what to do or just even have a laugh. You don’t have to worry about not doing anything if you don’t feel like it or if you want to do your own project nothing within reason is out of the question, you may even get the legendary Pupu to give you some of his elder knowledge. You also don’t have to worry about safety this safety that, as long a your careful your safe. So on this I decided to extend my stay by a further 4 and a half weeks so I would now be spending 6 and a half weeks in total on the island.

Tuesday was an even more eventful day than usual as not only did we have sevusevu we had the grand opening of the New Bure which the honour was given to Tui Mali and Giles’ mum Caroline and also entertainment from the Mali Choir who were fundraising. This was then followed by the usual Tuesday night of heavy grog and Fijian singing.

Wednesday was another eventful day as today I headed into town with Kesa to help with the shopping for a feast that was being held that night where all the TribeWanted members, team Fiji and everyone from the village ate dinner together which doesn’t happen often as numbers go above 50 people. The evening was a great success, the grand bure was all set out with grog mats and cloths to sit everyone and the kitchen crew and volunteers cooked up an amazing treat for everyone.

The week didn’t end too well, bad weather hit Vorovoro which meant much couldn’t be done but also means the water tanks filled up which is a blessing for dry season. However fun was still to be had as the “Newcastle girls” organized a game of blind date which was a great hit and everybody enjoyed the whole evening as they had put so much effort into making love heart question cards, location prizes and setting up the grand bure to host the event. Jason also made the weekend by cooking up a much need bangers and mash dinner.

Tuesday was the start of bamboo bashing, Tui Mali’s brother Poasa came from the village to show me how to cut, bash and weave bamboo into walls. This was a really good day as not only did I get to learn this traditional skill you get to spend time with a man of many stories. This is an experience you can’t have in Nadi, Suva, Labasa or anywhere else in Fiji. After a hard days work you then head for volleyball court and wind down with 2, 3 or 10 games of volleyball. They love playing even if like me your useless as again (sega na leqa in Fijian) they don’t care if they win or lose its all about enjoying it and having a laugh.

During the two weeks I also managed to fit in plenty more. Rain or shine time was spent on the pontoon to keep he pontoon platoon going strong. Hours of snorkeling around the amazing coral that’s just meters away from the beach and finishing of a little project I had for making Nemani a crucifix TribeWanted necklace. And of course fitting on the three meals and two snack times a day, the food is just amazing and everything is fresh, freshly baked bread and cakes a plenty with accompanying home made pawpaw jam, fish caught just hours before by the expert spear fisherman Marau. If you fancy it someone will be more than happy to find you a coconut that’s ready to just cut the top off to enjoy the fresh coconut juice to wash down your meal.

That’s my two and a half weeks so far and cant wait for the next month to unfold as every week, every day is different from one another.

Moce from Taniela

Bula sia again from Taniela

It has been busy on Vorovoro a usual, its also had lots of sad times recently with lots of long stay tribe members leaving. We’ve had a few groups that have made themselves very well known on the island and also lots of individuals, he list would be too long for great people ho have left this week but will tell you about a few of the largest loudest groups.

The first to leave was the ‘Newcastle girls’ who entertained the island for the entire time of their stay, they’ve certainly left their mark on the island with the game ‘Newcastle by the way’ which is still a big hit even in their absence especially with Sosi who is now the island champion. Most of us will also never forget the blind date game that they organized or just the infectious laughter that can be heard from dawn to dusk. They were greatly missed when they left but done it in good old Geordie style when they managed to get the Pilot to fly over Vorovoro as a last farewell.

After the emotional morning morale was picked up with a session of Tribewanted school of food and wine. This wasn’t really a school, loads of members gathered in the kitchen to experiment making a few homely naked Sunday meals. Some of this went to plan and with the help of Becks some didn’t. we started off making 2 cakes, one was going to be pineapple and the other chocolate, so 2 of us set about making the mixture. Once I had finished my mixture I went off to light the oven to bake the cakes leaving the mixture on the table where I thought it would be safe. Whilst lighting the fire Beck’s decided to finish of my cake mixture or this was what she thought she was doing by adding a few more cups of flour and found herself with a mass ball of solid mixture. To solve this problem lots of water was added so the cake mixture. Beck’s thought this was down to Charlie as he was stirring until she found out I had actually finished making the mixture. We thought it was ruined until Chief Tom saved the day, he jumped in and worked his magic on it to finally making some tasty cookie come cake things.

Pizza was then next on the list, Charlie rustled up a pizza dough as he does with precise measurements of a bit of this and a handful of that. A team of Charlie and the Essex girls who were the second major loss of the week set about making nearly 140 mini pizzas and some large garlic bread, this ended up the whole kitchen table covered in mini pizzas and flour which also meant people ended up rather floury themselves.

All of this was also accompanied by pasta which seemed to be a massive hit and fresh citrus juice. Sosi unfortunately didn’t manage to beat his previous record of 18 pizzas as we ran out of spare pizzas but better luck next time.

Sevusevu came around in a flash yet again. However this didn’t start of as smoothly as usual due to the fact that nobody was sure if Tui Mali was actually coming this week as he may have had to attend an important meeting but he sill managed to make t and have a fantastic Sevusevu as always. This week I managed to land myself the job of Tanoa guard. This is the large bowl in which the Cave which has been pounded down is mixed with water to make the grog. For this role you get to take of your sulu and put on a traditional one made from bark which has a lengthy process of soaking, beating and finally used for the ed product. You also get banana leaves tied around your arm and a few stripes of paint on you face and chest. This was also a great opportunity for the girls to get dressed up in some of the colourful Fijian clothing.

We then had to say goodbye to team Scotland on the Wednesday morning which was a real shame as they provided an extraordinary amount of entertainment on the island. Two of them, Lisa and Kim had their 21st birthdays on the island so a few party’s were to be had over the few weeks. The main one was the pirate party where everyone put in a lot of effort to use what they could find on the island to dress up. There was also competition between the Scotland girls and the Newcastle girls as to whom could dress a member of the staff the best. Team Scotland won with some amazing make up work on Chief Toms eyes, it was rather difficult o tell if his eyes were open or shut. They also held a family fortunes night with some rather interesting answers they may suggest 100 tribe members were not questioned! The morning of their departure along with the infamous pontoon platoon king Charlie and Bex we woke up early in morning to se the sunrise over sunset peak.

Tuesday was then sevusevi and also as it was the beginning of a new month it was also time for chief handover. Mariah was now our chief for the month of July. This was an end of an era for Vorovoro, Chief Tom achieved an amazing amount on the island and made every new tribe member feel at home. He will be sorely missed among everyone. As I’ve been on the island for the whole duration of Tom’s time as Chief I decided the night before he left to make him something as a little leaving present. My idea was just to write Chief Tom out of bamboo and present this to him in the leaving grog session in the morning. As I was staring blankly t the piece of wood I was going to use Jo another tribe member asked what I was doing and when I told her what I was doing she wanted to help. This made the gift so much better, her ideas were amazing and we worked into the night to combine lots of different materials from projects that Tom has worked on to produce a plaque that we then got everyone to sign and present in the goodbye morning grog session.

Thursday was an exhausting day with a failed attempt to swim around the island, at this time if the month the tide is incredible low at times and we could not actually swim all the way around as the water level was below the top of the coral. The current was also extremely strong and this mad it almost impossible to swim against. When we arrived back on the island we had lunch and then got stuck into helping to weave banana leaves to fix the roof on the boat captains house. The day was then finished off with a special grog session as it was crime stoppers birthday, he’s around the age of 53, he wasn’t quite sure.

Moce until next time Taniela