Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Bula Sia,

I came to Vorovoro over 3 weeks ago, originally planning only a short stay of one week. However I instantly fell in love with the place, and here I am now writing this from inside the luxurious chief’s Bure. My time here already has been special but even more so since becoming chief.

Tuesday – sevu sevu
Tuesday marked the big day, when I officially handed over from Michelle, she left behind quite a legacy and for me some big boots to fill. I treated myself to a lie in and a late breakfast. I was really excited and looking forward to the afternoon’s sevu sevu.
The tribe was in a brilliant mood, and everyone got stuck in, helping out in any way possible. We all got dressed up in our bula shirts and dresses, as today was no ordinary sevu sevu, it marked an end of an era. Michelle had been chief for the month of April and had done a fantastic job, I only knew Michelle for 2 weeks but she helped me greatly and I know will be missed by everyone. Both herself and another long serving tribe member were leaving the following day on the Wednesday, making the day quite emotional. Adam Launder was one of the first people to greet me of the boat and over the following two weeks I got to know him very well indeed.

The ceremony went without as hitch I especially enjoyed the cake and lemon tea. Tui Mali asked if we could perform the meke, so we got into place and waited for the singing to start. Some of the tribe members have only practiced the routine a few times but they managed to remember it very well. Whereas I have been learning this for a while, but I still managed to mess up half way through, much to the delight of Tale and Tui Mali. Looking back now it was pretty hilarious.

We moved the grog session outside as it was a really hot day, and continued drinking until late that evening, rounding the night off with a great fire. I slept surprisingly well in my new bure, considering the volume of grog consumed (no crazy dreams) and the fact I was sleeping next to 3 of the biggest spiders I have seen in my life.

Wednesday
I woke up on my first day of being chief to rain, usually I would say this was a bad thing, but it was desperately needed due to the current shortage of water. A good start I thought to myself.
The mornings Isa lei was a very sad one, we sang goodbye to our friends and then waved them off into the distance. This was hard for me, but it’s something that I will have to come accustomed to, people coming and going.

The previous day the principal of Mali District School in Lingu Levu asked team Fiji if they could lend a hand in helping them to fix the leaking water tank on Wednesday. The tribe members were more than willing to help so we took over some cement and sand to make the concrete, which was needed to patch up the leaks. After a lot of lifting and a lot of sweating we managed to fix the tank and in the process get some great pictures for the Dream Foundation. The principle and family provided a brilliant lunch and in traditional fashion, some grog. All in all it was a successful day, now hopefully with the help of some rain the children can have water again for when they come back to school after their 2 week break.

We got back just in time for the evening’s fishing trip, the plan was to go slightly earlier than usual so we could watch the sunset, however it was very overcast so we couldn’t even see the sun. However this did not put as downer on our spirits as we had the most successful trip yet, with the team catching a combined effort of 10, myself contributing two. This is also where I would like to point out that Wavu is still yet to catch a fish here in Vorovoro, after 3 months and dozens of failed trips I think he has finally thrown the towel in. One of the tribe members, my good friend Steven dropped his hand line in the water, so in an action film style manner ripped off his clothes and jumped in after it. It was one of the funniest things I have seen in a while. The trip was great fun and provided us with a beautiful dinner the following day.

Thursday
After morning tea we had a culture class with leavi, today it was foraging. Tevita came along as well and they both showed the tribe through the gardens, what was growing there and how they use the plants in their cooking. This is where two of the tribe members, Georgie and Tom learnt that pineapples grow in the ground, you learn something new every day here on Vorovoro. They also took us for a walk around the other side of the island, to a cave and to a place called ‘Dog’s Rock’, as you can imagine it was a rock that resembled a dog, doesn’t sound too impressive but it was surprisingly life-like, so we all climbed on and took some great photos.

Friday
Unfortunately for me Jim decided the compost toilets needed to be emptied soon, just my luck I thought. So we decided today would be best, so myself, Jim, Tale and Jone grabbed some spades and a wheelbarrow and proceeded in emptying the toilets. I know this sounds like an awful job, but to my almost pleasant surprise it actually wasn’t that bad at all. I think it is a great testament to the design of the toilets as there was no smell and it provided the island with some useful compost, which we spread over the banana trees at the back of the volleyball court.

Today we went fishing again, this time with Tevita and Leavi. They were teaching us how to spear fish, this was great fun especially as it involved walking around half the island, something I have been meaning to do for a while but never got round to doing it. Although we didn’t catch anything we did see a sea-snake and loads of jellyfish, which was great.

After lunch Wavu took us up to see peaks 1 and 2 as well as the dam. Once again this was a first for me. It was a great walk and it rewarded us with some great photos. The dam itself was empty due to little rainfall in the last week, but it was still an impressive sight.

In the evening we had a big quiz which was a great way to end many people’s time here as a lot of them were leaving the following morning. I had a brilliant time with the tribe and was very sad to see them leave on Saturday, they provided me with much laughter and entertainment and for that I thank you all very much, Vinaka vaka levu.

Saturday
After another emotional Good-bye the day continued in a lazy, slow paced fashion. We welcomed 3 new tribe members into the group; Pat and her grandson kole and Chris from England. That evening we headed up to Tui Mali’s house as he was on the island in preparation for the big mother’s day celebration on Sunday. After some grog we sorted out the plan of action for the following day, this included a very early start, 5:00.

Sunday – Mothers Day
As you can imagine I struggled to get out of bed that early, after putting my alarm on snooze for the last time I finally managed to drag myself out of bed for around 5:30. The reason we were up so early was to prepare for the Lovo. We had to husk nearly 40 coconuts, this was extremely difficult and ended up with two of the tribe members blistering their hands, admittedly I was one of them. My hands aren’t quite as tough as the Fijians yet. While we were busy with the coconuts team Fiji were digging a hole for the Lovo. Tevita decorated the eating area with flowers and plants brightening up the whole village. After we had breakfast, ladies first of course, we started the preparation for lunch. This meant a lot of peeling and chopping, as well as lighting the fire and burying the food inside the underground oven. Just before lunch was to be eaten all the men headed up to the village to see Tui Mali, where he gave me and Jim a bunch of flowers to present to the ladies who were waiting back by the eating area. One bunch of flowers symbolized all the mothers who couldn’t make it here and the other symbolized all the mothers that had passed away. We walked down the path together and then I gave a quick speach to all the women before tucking into one of the best lunches of my life, the variety of foods on offer was excellent. Everyone enjoyed themselves, especially the ladies as the men had to do everything, so they got a well deserved rest. We finished the evening off with some grog up in the village, this topped off a brilliant day.

Monday
After a busy first week as chief it starts over again today. We welcome two more tribe members into the group and team Fiji are working on the pig pen all week again, they are masking fantastic progress, so hopefully it will be finished soon.

Vinaka and bye from me,
Mike