Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Bula sia and welcome to my third week as Chief. As usual it has been a pretty hectic week with this that and everything happening. This was started off nicely though as Sunday was Poasa’s birthday which Jim found out in his hammock interviews. In Fiji traditionally birthdays aren’t really celebrated much and barely any of his family knew it was even his birthday. So Tribewanted brought a resent for him and a group of tribe members made 3 types of dessert, a sponge cake, polish cake and butterscotch tart. We all then got together to sing happy birthday and give Poasa his present. The evening then continued with grog as usual but tonight was a bit different. As some of you may know Mali district had been banned from drinking grog for 3 months by Tui Mali through the church but today was the day they could start drinking it again so Save and his dad were both able to join us with Save saying no to the normal bilo, the Malau bus bilo and the hospital bus bilo but instead drinking a full soup bowl instead.

Over the weekend we found out that a couple of guys from the Inland Revenue were visiting the island on Monday morning at 10.00. This then meant that we decided not to continue with any work on the showers but get ready for the visit. As Tui Mali would be coming with them it was decided that we would have sevu sevu today as well. So Tevita and Save nicely decorated the Grand Bure and set up for sevu sevu. After rushing to scrub up in time for 10 as per usual Fiji set in and they didn’t arrive until 1 in the afternoon after lunch had been had. When they did finally arrive we had the usual sevu sevu where the new arrivals Ed and Kris made it just in the nick of time. After the ceremony Giles and Myself gave them a tour around the island and then sat with them until Ben arrived back from Suva. This was a big success and the details of the outcome can be found in a blog by Ben Keene.

After another night on the grog Tuesday came around. Today work was starting on the new access to the showers. This involved a lot of rock pounding, heavy lifting and carving steps into solid rock. This is the day we usually have sevu sevu but due to having it the previous day we could have a full day of work. This means that the stairs were almost completed in one day. This is the day Marau also goes fishing for the tribe, Rich decided to go along and helped out by carrying all the fish caught back to the boat, over all a successful trip with lots of fish being caught.

Wednesday was an epic day. The morning was taken up by finishing the stairs which involved putting down sand so that tribe members were not walking on the rock. After this the new hand railing was put in for the steps which made them complete. Well done to team Fiji and tribe. The day continued with putting in a new hammock around the campfire. This extended the area and gave more room for tribe members to sit and enjoy the fire. The hammock was a gift to Jim in honour of him getting the role of Project Director. Needless to say Jim was very excited about this moment and proceeded to carve ‘Go Hammock’ down the pillar the hammock was attached to. Myself, Paul, Mary, Ann, Ed, Amy, Kris and Robbie also collected drift wood that day from the other side of the island. This is to be used for an added feature for the hand railings.

Today I was up at 6am to beat the lali drum.  This was a good start to the morning, with a stunning sunrise while sat on the water tank.  Lisa, Moya, Sue, Kris, Rich and I proceeded to bash some bamboo that was from the previous showers to make a new wall.  This was to be placed beside the compost toilets parallel to the tool shed.  So you now walk past the tool shed and up to the showers without having to walk past the shutters to the compost storage area, keeping it a more pleasant walk. Today we also tried to bend the corrugated roofing iron for the showers.  It was a trial and error process, which ended unsuccessfully.  However a new solution has been found and will be implemented this week.

Today, Friday we had to say goodbye to eight tribe members who were undertaking a three day trek, organized by Junior, Save’s brother. Can safely say they have all arrived back safe and sound and had having an awesome weekend away. For the rest of us unable to continue with the showers, we spent the remainder of the day doing a general clear of the area behind the kitchen. A group of us also bashed some Voivoi (The leaf used to make grog matting). This involves a log, a heavy implement and lots of elbow grease to soften. We then said Moce to team fiji after a weeks hard work and then spent the evening chilling. Looking forward to another busy week and meke competition, will ell you how this goes next week.

Moce from Tui Flapjack