The Village

If we thought Tovu Tovu was roughing it then the village was just abject poverty. But I can’t really complain considering the villagers were preparing for our arrival MONTHS in advance. They built new toilets, started working on the foundation we were supposed to be building, and even cleared several of their homes for us to stay in. In fact, now that I think of it, describing it as abject poverty is incorrect. I really should be describing ourselves to be so used the upper middle class lifestyle that anything less, no matter how hospitable, just seems poor. Anyways, upon our arrival we were greeted with a kava ceremony that was more traditional than the first one, but had essentially the same structure. After the ceremony we had amazing village food of chicken, chicken, and more chicken. Then we came back to the common area where the kava ceremony was held to have a dance party - Fijian style. It consisted of us forming a circle, leaning from side to side, and making unison whooping sounds. After that we all went to bed, or floor cause there wasn’t any beds, and Day 1 in the village began the next morning. The first day in the village was pretty calm. First we worked on the foundation for the building we were building in the village and then we just kinda walked around, explored, and took pictures of the village. At night we had dancing and a kava ceremony. We hit the floor once again after the dancing and woke up early the next day. The second day went something like this: eat breakfast, work on foundation, explore village, play volleyball, eat dinner, dance, sleep. Pretty simple. On the third day we went to a local school were we walked around and met some of the Fijian teachers and students. We ended up playing volleyball with them as well and after everyone went to the waterslide. I couldn’t go because of the appendix so I just went back to the village but apparently the waterslide was too dangerous to go on anyways so I don't think I missed much. On the next day we woke up early to do the farewell ceremony with the villagers which caused many to cry. Once that was over it was off to Mango Bay.

Exploring the Village

Kava Cermemony