Village Ceremony

Ahhhh sleeping in. We managed this despite our next door neighbours air conditioner running all night sounding like a mack truck idling....really, it isn’t that hot. We wandered down to have breakfast where we ate the beautiful Hawaiian Paw Paw, it is sooo much nicer than the ones we have in Oz. Our massages were not scheduled until 11.30am so we laid on the sun beds and read while we waited. Our massages were just great and laying with my face in the massage table hole cleared my sinuses nicely. The massage lady said that she got so hot that she needed to go and get a drink of water, I told her that it was because she poured all her healing into me. She was very grateful for the compliment. I knew Alvo would enjoy it because it ended with a head massage....she loves that. When we were finished there we needed to eat lunch on the double so that we could get to our transport for the Village. We ate the pineapple and oranges that I cut up earlier and we were on our way. When we arrived there we were greeted by Maraia and another lady from the restaurant on the roadside and they swiftly took us to their house (where her and 10 other people live) as they needed to get changed into their good dresses for the ceremony. When we got there, Maraia’s twin boys who are about 3yrs old were quick to grab onto anything shiny that we were carrying and wanted to look at our camera etc. The ladies were trying to shoo them off but they weren’t going anywhere...they were really cute. We watched from the house as the chiefly family were getting things in order for the ceremony. It has been one year since the last chief of the village and the president of Fiji died so this is a very important day for their community, he was also the longest reigning chief at 16 years. There have been ladies from each of the clans wearing black dresses for the past 12 months as a mark of respect and mourning for him. Today they will strip themselves of the black and start wearing colours again. The clothes they have been wearing for the past year will all be buried alongside the deceased chief. They also have some strict rules while undertaking this mourning period including not getting angry, not drinking wine and some others that I can’t recall at the moment. The ceremony went for a long time with the head men of the clans holding the whale tooth (this is very spiritual and they say that the energy in the air changes when they do this, almost like a higher force is speaking through them) and giving thanks to the other clans for allowing the chief to be buried on their land. They also presented the other clans with gifts of kerosene, kava, woven mats, cloth for sewing, salt made here from the sea, taro, pottery, cloth made from bark, a dead cow and a live pig. When they take all this back to the village they will share it amongst all of the people, no one will miss out. They call it trading. It was very hot in the village and we got a little kissed by the sun today. Alvo thinks she sweated from every pore in her body....lol. When the ceremony was over we went to look inside the church, they are Methodist denomination there. They have certain places where everybody sits and a special door for the chief to enter and a chair just for him. We then went and presented our Kava to the village men where they performed a ritual with the Kava which was inviting us to feel free to walk around the village as we liked and to join in a Kava ceremony with them. So.....we drank Kava again and it was a little better than yesterday I must say. We left them to the drinking and headed out for a look around. The ladies explained lots of things to us regarding clans and their responsibilities to the village. Some are responsible for keeping the chief grounds clean and manicured, some are responsible for protecting the chief....they all have a task depending what clan they are from. We went to see where the chief was buried, he is in a tomb in a special burial place. We were allowed to take photos all day so there will be some great memories of this occasion. We wandered around and all the children said Bula and were running around playing. I managed to get a few to stand still for a moment so I could take their photo. We got back to Maraia’s house and her children were cuddling Alvo and wanting to be picked up....they were very cute. We were shown the drum that is housed in a special hut and is used to communicate things to the village depending on what is happening. If the chief leaves or enters the village, the drum has a particular beat. It is made of wood and one clan has the task of beating the drum. We walked back up to the roadside as our day at the village was over. We caught the local bus for 70cents Fijian which is about 40cents Australian and headed back to the Anchorage. We then needed to grab a ute to get down to the resort which cost us $3 Fijian. We were in great need for a swim to cool off so to the pool it was. We then got back to our room just in time as the rain started to pour down. It was so nice sitting in the spa on the veranda watching the storm and sipping wine. Showers and then dinner. We are indulging in one of our free dinners tonight which is supposed to be lobster but because of the floods there is no lobster so a three course dinner will have to do. Mussels, prawns and salmon all round.....it was just beautiful. Now it is time for bed as we are a little tired from the sun today. Waiting now to see what tomorrow will bring.

Tanya