Tribewanted: Vorovoro

It has been my 3rd week as Chief on Vorovoro and I want to share the highlights and what has been achieved during that week.

As you probably know and how I wrote in my last blog the weather changed and we have sunny days whit rains at night (which is fantastic we don’t have to water our gardens;-). But all in one it’s been good week, really good week.

Monday morning – sunshine, sea is calm and light breeze and everyone in good spirit. So we started with big clean up around the villages/island after storm. Strom brought loads of rubbish from Labasa and wood (and all other stuff which I don’t want mention in the blog). Team Fiji and Tribe started with the beach in front of the Grand Bure. It was important to us because Tui Mali will return on Tuesday to Sevusevu after his holiday in Australia. So we worked as Team and loads has been done that day. Our 2nd boat has been taken to the sea back (after 2 weeks “rest” on the beach). All the area around the beach has been cleaned and now we have tons of firewood…

Meke class with Save for the final preparation for the performance on Tuesday to Tui Mali (he loves when we perform Meke after the Sevusevu). Meke classes are always great fun and change for the Tribe after work and we all love MEKE! So we learned hard and sweated a lot during the lessons (and it was worth).

On Tuesday we continued the clean up the villages. And prepared Grand Bure for big “welcome back” for Tui Mali. (see photo – sorry for bad quality) Tribe was excited to see Tui Mali again. Everyone had their finest sulus or sula chambers on. Banana cake ready, kettle boiled. When Tui Mali arrived in the village for the Sevusevu he looked a little bit tired but happy. He came straight from airport to Vorovoro to spend afternoon with us.

Tui Mali had plenty of stories to tell about his holiday in Australia and we all were exited to hear them. And you probably saw photos of Tui Mali in the newsletter (yes he wore trainers). I asked Tui Mali if he enjoyed his holiday – he said yes, but felt home sick after few days and that he is very happy to be back, back home.

And than Tui Mali asked if the storm passed Vorovoro because he can’t see any signs of “damages” or rubbish?! And we all smiled and said that storm hit the Island as well but we (Team Fiji and Tribe) did great job in the last couple of days cleaning up the villages. Tui Mali smiled and was even happier.

After the SevuSevu ceremony we performed Meke! It was amazing! All our hard work was worth – we did great. (and I think Save was proud of us). Tui Mali couldn’t stop clapping and smiling.
And because cake and tea was served as we started perform Meke, Jone (bless him) put in our mouths cake. Everyone was in such good mood and had fun. It was fantastic atmosphere on the grog mat that day and night!

On Wednesday Tribe helped Team Fiji to clean up the area for “new garden” (behind the Eremoni and Te’s bure). It looks amazing and ready to plant more vegetables and fruits.

Also that week couple Fijian boys from Mainland worked on Poasa’s roof (which was finished by the end of the week). The waterfall project is on hold at the moment because of the rain. But still sacks of gravel needed to be carried up to the waterfall, Poasa offered us to help. Boys carried about 20 sacks of gravel up to the waterfall. And it is hard work – very hard work! Not just that sacks are heavy, the path to the waterfall is very uneven and it goes up and down. (see photo) Some of the steps, which has been made for easy walk up, has been washed away. But anyway boys did amazing job! VINAKA VAKA LEVU boys!!!! And again it shows us that in Fiji is all about community and living, working and drinking grog together.

Also this week we had few language classes with Save. Tribe is asking for more language classes and is happy to learn Fijians Language (Vuli Vosa Vakaviti). Save is good teacher and very patient with us. Hopefully we all can speak Fijian by end of next week and can impress Tui Mali even more (ok ok we really have to work hard on it and learn even harder from now on…)

Friday – we haven’t had reef trip for about 4 weeks due to weather conditions. But last Friday weather was just right to go ahead with it. (And my 1st reef trip during my stay!) And it was awesome. Loads of fish and we even saw reef shark.

Another highlight this week was food. That week we tried few new recipes out. We combined “traditional” English meal with Fijians flavours and it was amazing! Really delicious meals! You might see some of new recipes online shortly.

Some of you (who been to the Island) are probably aware that Sundays we cook for ourselves. And it is always a kind of competition between each meal. This Sunday I have to say dinner was the “winner”. We had burritos wit beef. Yes you read it right – burritos with beef! And for vegetarian fried red peppers (yes!) with onions. Jerome and Kevin made this delicious dinner and we all were happy. And still are.

Next week is my last week as Chief and I can’t believe how quickly time has been gone by. I still remember as it has been yesterday moving into Chief’s Bure and now I have to start planning where I haven’t slept on the island (TreeHouse, but I don’t think it is an option at the moment) and my return to the UK ;-(

Vinaka vaka levu Team Fiji and Tribe for good week and hard work!

Moce
Marama Irina