Hi there,
Madrona and crew have been for the last four days happily at anchor at Port Resolution on the island of Tanna, in Vanuatu. We had a slow overnight sail from Anatom, and as we approached Tanna the plume of steam and ash from Mt. Yasser drifted downwind above the island. We anchored and went into the village to see the lay of the land.
After doing some trading to make up some needed cash (the Vatu), we arranged to have a 4-wheel drive vehicle bring us up to the volcano on the evening of the 30th. It was mostly clear and with SE winds. The landscape here in Vanuatu is verdant and beautiful. Along the way the trees grew shorter and more windswept as we gained altitude. Steam rushed out of the soil along the road cuts.
Then the cone of the volcano revealed itself as the vegetation fell away, and the surrounding ocean stretched off in all directions. We parked and climbed up a steep pat to the rim of the crater. Actually the mountain has twin craters. A few other folks and ourselves (including Dennis and Nikki from S/Y Nauti Lady), stood transfixed as deep booms and rumbles punctuated by sharp exhalations of steam heralded a rush of lava high into the sky of the near crater.
In short, the experience was amazing. Dennis, Nikki, and I walked a half mile along the rim of the far crater and looked down into a boiling lava lake that constantly heaved and belched incandescent ropes and filaments high into the air. We were transfixed, despite chocking sulfur fumes and fine ash the got under our eyelids and penetrated clothing. Then one especially large blast sent lava arcing over our heads. Somewhat like a mouse must feel when an owl is swooping down for a kill, we watched the twisting and spinning red streaks and tried to determine which way to run. Lava landed where we have just walked and behind us. We decided then to rejoin the others at the westernmost crater.
As night fell lava shot high into the sky in violent fountains which fell back onto the crater's concave sides and gradually cooled to black. We had Tamsyn and Griffyn sit once darkness fell, and we were only a couple feet from the edge, and anyone that fell would roll all the way into the molten mouth of the volcanic pipe.
Needless to say we took lots of pictures and video. When we got back to the boat late that night we were tired and quite happy with the day. Each morning here outrigger canoes come out to the boat to see if we would like to trade anything for fruit of vegetables. We have made friends with many people in the village, ad Tamsyn and Griffyn especially love the baby fruit bat that one family is raising until it can fend for itself.
So all is well and we are starting to think about moving on northward. I will get some weather info tonight, and see where we are at with that. Everybody says hi.
Owen
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This is the blog for SV Madrona and her crew Griffyn, Tamsyn and their parents Carrie and Owen, as we navigate new waters for our family.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Madrona at anchor in Anatom, Vanuatu
So we got into Vanuatu just fine, though for a day we had very light winds, as low as 4 knots for a twelve hour stretch. We are happy to be here, and have cleared customs. Now for the exploring part.
Not sure how long we will be here, as the winds are from north at the moment, and the forecast is for very light winds for a few days. I hope to get updated weather this morning and get a better idea when we head to Tanna.
Owen
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radio email processed by SailMail
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Not sure how long we will be here, as the winds are from north at the moment, and the forecast is for very light winds for a few days. I hope to get updated weather this morning and get a better idea when we head to Tanna.
Owen
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Sunday, October 21, 2012
Madrona approaching Vanuatu in light winds
Hi,
Just a quick message to say hi. We've had a good sail so far. The wind lightened during the night. We are now only 80 miles from Anatom, Vanuatu, and making 3 to 3.5 knots in 8 to 9 knots of wind and a 2 m swell out of the SW.
I will pull down a GRIB file to see when we might get wind again. Clear sky and humid. All is well here. Lots of reading happening on board. Tamsyn reading Narnia again. Griffyn reading his readers. Carrie has started The Song of Ice and Fire. And I'm reading Thuvia, maid of Mars.
S 20 28.608
E 171 13.146
at 20:11 UTZ
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radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Just a quick message to say hi. We've had a good sail so far. The wind lightened during the night. We are now only 80 miles from Anatom, Vanuatu, and making 3 to 3.5 knots in 8 to 9 knots of wind and a 2 m swell out of the SW.
I will pull down a GRIB file to see when we might get wind again. Clear sky and humid. All is well here. Lots of reading happening on board. Tamsyn reading Narnia again. Griffyn reading his readers. Carrie has started The Song of Ice and Fire. And I'm reading Thuvia, maid of Mars.
S 20 28.608
E 171 13.146
at 20:11 UTZ
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Truth, Friends and Strange Food
There is a great children's book about travel entitled, "Parcel Perkins Notebook Presents: The Search for the Giant Stone Monkeyhead" by Dan Graves. Dan grew up in the Midwest like us but must have spent time in Ecuador because that is where the book is set. The heroine is a young girl who sees a giant stone monkey head (which hasn't been seen by her village for a long time.) It disappears so she decides to go on a quest searching for the meaning of the visit by the giant stone monkey head. Her grandmother tells her that, "the legend is that the gods gave it to our ancient ancestors to show them truth." Parcel's father says, "legend has it that our ancestors made it welcome new friends and scare away enemies." Her older brother and sister tell her that, "The legend is that space aliens left it there to protect us from caiman (crocodiles) and to teach people how to cook strange food."
I have decided meaningful travel, like a quest, is about all three - finding truth, making friends and trying strange foods. We find out about ourselves and others as we encounter new cultures, new ways of doing things. We make friends along the way or remain a tourist, a sight seer staying within his or her own comfort zone. And we try strange food - because we have to - hopefully.
Provisioning
After our stay in the house, after being introduced to Fijian cooking and local tropical foods, we came back to the boat and began looking around at the markets to see what we could find. Sisi ate off the land around her house, she purchased very little. There aren't seasons here the way they are in the midwest. Tropical fruits and veges grow year round. Things on trees like mangos and breadfruit have a season, but papaya seem to grow continuously. Pineapples become ripe in November and last through Christmas. Sisi had a simple garden plot where she would put in a couple egg plants, a pumpkin patch (winter squash, not pumpkin), a patch of taro for leaves and another patch for the taro roots. There were banana trees in her dad's yard. She had a coffee bean bush. And coconuts dropped everywhere. She made coconut cream daily which she used in everything. She even made her own cooking oil (coconut oil). She or a close neighbor grew everything she ate except garlic and onions. She thought spending $2.50 was a lot. She didn't have a chicken so she didn't cook with eggs much. The staple protein in her diet is tuna or mackerel - which is inexpensive since it is fished and canned in Fiji.
Then we met Tanya and Oran from Israel (S/V Renatta - also a Tayana 37). They didn't have a working frig either. They canned all their meals themselves in used jars (not canning jars). They purchased items just for the jar for canning. When they were hungry they opened a jar and poured it over rice or worked a meal around fresh produce. They said if I canned my own meals it would change my life. They told me how to keep cheese un-refrigerated, they showed me the drying rack they made for drying fruit, they used ghee instead of butter. They made their own jam. They dried bread instead of buying crackers. They ate tons of fresh produce. They had so many great ideas. They are truly an inspiration. So I made the decision that until we could really afford to modernize our frig (so that it ran on a lot less power, was completely re-insulated and had a drain installed), I would use it as dry storage. Now that huge space in my kitchen would be used again, rather than having a large space that simply grew mold. I cleaned it out and filled it with large canisters of flour, pancake mix, dry milk, oatmeal, rice, sugar, coffee beans and bulk herbs and spices.
Then I met Eshwini, an Indo-Fijian. Eshwini makes traditional Indian food (we became very good friends - more on her later). All the grocery stores are owned by Indo-Fijians thus they stock traditional Indian foods. Eshwini went shopping with me at her favorite store. They were well stocked in spices, ghee, tinned meat as well as everything else for sale in Savusavu. Eshwini showed me her favorite brand for Haldi powder (tumeric - used in dahl), Masala (graham masala - used in curries), Gheera (whole cumin seeds - used in dahl), ground coriander (used with masala in curries, especially with meat). She picked out a ghee and gave me a recipe for halva - an Indian pudding made from fine couscous, ghee, cardimon, sultanas, milk, and sugar. She introduced me to many delicious new foods like Sisi had. Tanya introduced me to many new methods of food storage that worked well on a boat.
After that, for a week or so, I simply felt overwhelmed for a while. I couldn't cook anything. I baked a lot of bread. We ate a lot of sandwiches.
On the boat we had eaten through most of the provisions I bought in New Zealand. Fiji is supposed to be one of the best places in the South Pacific to provision. It is much cheaper than either Australia or New Zealand and has more well stocked stores than Tonga, the Solomon's, Vanuatu, or many other South Pacific islands. We had decided to travel north for our next hurricane season rather than south to Australia or trying to get all the way (8,000 blue water miles) to South Africa. So we needed to stock up here. So I pulled out the lists of meals I had compiled in Mexico. Then I made an inventory of what I found in the stores. There is one large produce market and about 6 grocery stores in Savusavu, 3 of which are larger, well stocked. I spent two days going through every item I thought we might purchase at each of the six stores. I made thorough lists.
As I looked through my previous lists of meals and thought about what I had found in the stores I just hit a wall. Of the 25 dinner meal ideas we had on our list from Mexico we could make about 3 for a reasonable price here in Fiji. As we travel farther from the U.S. and the 'western world' fewer and fewer foods that we are used to are available. And the things we used to call staples (olive oil, tomato paste, pasta, mayonnaise, peanut butter, dry beans or canned beans, fresh meat, cheese, yogurt) have become so expensive that we must ration them or not buy them at all. In New Zealand we could get most everything we were used to eating, but in Tonga and Fiji all those things are imported and the locals don't eat them. I didn't get enough molasses before we left New Zealand and even though there are sugar cane plantations here which produce molasses as a by product - it all gets sold for use in making rum and none is available here to purchase. The locals don't eat it.
Another issue is that we no longer use our refrigerator or freezer. We have been living without a refer since New Zealand, but in NZ we could leave things in the cockpit and it was cold enough at night to chill them. In Fiji's warm tropical climate, we couldn't stock fresh meat or fresh produce or fresh dairy. If we bought meat, yogurt or cheese we ate it that night. If we bought produce we had to eat it with in a couple days (some things lasted longer - but precious few.) We had to shop very often just to make regular meals. And what would those meals be?
I knew that local foods were very cheape. I had to learn to cook with tropical foods - Fijian and Indian. I needed more than 3 meals up my sleeve. I needed to decide what to provision. We were going to winter in the northern Solomons and Papua New Guinea staying mostly remote. It had to be on board or we wouldn't get it.
It took a number of experiments and consults with my local expert friends before I mastered anything. I poisoned us with taro leaves more than once (we didn't get sick just irritated mouths). After a month or so I managed to expand our repertoire to include dahl (made from yellow split peas), beef curry (made with canned corned beef), lots of fresh juice drinks and smoothies (from every tropical sweet or citrus fruit available) and we no longer care if what we eat is a "breakfast food", or "dinner food". We ate fried green plantains for breakfast for the last couple days simple because we were given a ton of plantains. They taste just like french fries and are great with ketchup (you can purchase Heinz Ketchup here). As the plantains ripen like bananas we made smoothies or boiled them in water (they tasted like canned peaches). We began to eat anything someone gave us and try to remain open to new tastes. We tried everything inexpensive if I could figure out how to prepare it. There is very little canned fruit available and almost no canned veges. Everyone eats fresh.
We did know that in the remote Solomon Islands, the locals would be happy to trade produce for trade goods. So we began to relax a little with provisioning. We added a number of very inexpensive meals (dahl, curries made with anything, fried rice from left overs, etc.) to our routine and kept a few old ones (spaghetti with marinara sauce and beans and rice.) We bought lots of trade items instead of stocking up on canned produce. And we gave up a number of things that are just too hard to keep alive or purchase (yogurt). We bought lots of dry milk.
And so we'll let you know how it all works out as we leave our beloved Fiji behind.
Carrie
I have decided meaningful travel, like a quest, is about all three - finding truth, making friends and trying strange foods. We find out about ourselves and others as we encounter new cultures, new ways of doing things. We make friends along the way or remain a tourist, a sight seer staying within his or her own comfort zone. And we try strange food - because we have to - hopefully.
Provisioning
After our stay in the house, after being introduced to Fijian cooking and local tropical foods, we came back to the boat and began looking around at the markets to see what we could find. Sisi ate off the land around her house, she purchased very little. There aren't seasons here the way they are in the midwest. Tropical fruits and veges grow year round. Things on trees like mangos and breadfruit have a season, but papaya seem to grow continuously. Pineapples become ripe in November and last through Christmas. Sisi had a simple garden plot where she would put in a couple egg plants, a pumpkin patch (winter squash, not pumpkin), a patch of taro for leaves and another patch for the taro roots. There were banana trees in her dad's yard. She had a coffee bean bush. And coconuts dropped everywhere. She made coconut cream daily which she used in everything. She even made her own cooking oil (coconut oil). She or a close neighbor grew everything she ate except garlic and onions. She thought spending $2.50 was a lot. She didn't have a chicken so she didn't cook with eggs much. The staple protein in her diet is tuna or mackerel - which is inexpensive since it is fished and canned in Fiji.
Then we met Tanya and Oran from Israel (S/V Renatta - also a Tayana 37). They didn't have a working frig either. They canned all their meals themselves in used jars (not canning jars). They purchased items just for the jar for canning. When they were hungry they opened a jar and poured it over rice or worked a meal around fresh produce. They said if I canned my own meals it would change my life. They told me how to keep cheese un-refrigerated, they showed me the drying rack they made for drying fruit, they used ghee instead of butter. They made their own jam. They dried bread instead of buying crackers. They ate tons of fresh produce. They had so many great ideas. They are truly an inspiration. So I made the decision that until we could really afford to modernize our frig (so that it ran on a lot less power, was completely re-insulated and had a drain installed), I would use it as dry storage. Now that huge space in my kitchen would be used again, rather than having a large space that simply grew mold. I cleaned it out and filled it with large canisters of flour, pancake mix, dry milk, oatmeal, rice, sugar, coffee beans and bulk herbs and spices.
Then I met Eshwini, an Indo-Fijian. Eshwini makes traditional Indian food (we became very good friends - more on her later). All the grocery stores are owned by Indo-Fijians thus they stock traditional Indian foods. Eshwini went shopping with me at her favorite store. They were well stocked in spices, ghee, tinned meat as well as everything else for sale in Savusavu. Eshwini showed me her favorite brand for Haldi powder (tumeric - used in dahl), Masala (graham masala - used in curries), Gheera (whole cumin seeds - used in dahl), ground coriander (used with masala in curries, especially with meat). She picked out a ghee and gave me a recipe for halva - an Indian pudding made from fine couscous, ghee, cardimon, sultanas, milk, and sugar. She introduced me to many delicious new foods like Sisi had. Tanya introduced me to many new methods of food storage that worked well on a boat.
After that, for a week or so, I simply felt overwhelmed for a while. I couldn't cook anything. I baked a lot of bread. We ate a lot of sandwiches.
On the boat we had eaten through most of the provisions I bought in New Zealand. Fiji is supposed to be one of the best places in the South Pacific to provision. It is much cheaper than either Australia or New Zealand and has more well stocked stores than Tonga, the Solomon's, Vanuatu, or many other South Pacific islands. We had decided to travel north for our next hurricane season rather than south to Australia or trying to get all the way (8,000 blue water miles) to South Africa. So we needed to stock up here. So I pulled out the lists of meals I had compiled in Mexico. Then I made an inventory of what I found in the stores. There is one large produce market and about 6 grocery stores in Savusavu, 3 of which are larger, well stocked. I spent two days going through every item I thought we might purchase at each of the six stores. I made thorough lists.
As I looked through my previous lists of meals and thought about what I had found in the stores I just hit a wall. Of the 25 dinner meal ideas we had on our list from Mexico we could make about 3 for a reasonable price here in Fiji. As we travel farther from the U.S. and the 'western world' fewer and fewer foods that we are used to are available. And the things we used to call staples (olive oil, tomato paste, pasta, mayonnaise, peanut butter, dry beans or canned beans, fresh meat, cheese, yogurt) have become so expensive that we must ration them or not buy them at all. In New Zealand we could get most everything we were used to eating, but in Tonga and Fiji all those things are imported and the locals don't eat them. I didn't get enough molasses before we left New Zealand and even though there are sugar cane plantations here which produce molasses as a by product - it all gets sold for use in making rum and none is available here to purchase. The locals don't eat it.
Another issue is that we no longer use our refrigerator or freezer. We have been living without a refer since New Zealand, but in NZ we could leave things in the cockpit and it was cold enough at night to chill them. In Fiji's warm tropical climate, we couldn't stock fresh meat or fresh produce or fresh dairy. If we bought meat, yogurt or cheese we ate it that night. If we bought produce we had to eat it with in a couple days (some things lasted longer - but precious few.) We had to shop very often just to make regular meals. And what would those meals be?
I knew that local foods were very cheape. I had to learn to cook with tropical foods - Fijian and Indian. I needed more than 3 meals up my sleeve. I needed to decide what to provision. We were going to winter in the northern Solomons and Papua New Guinea staying mostly remote. It had to be on board or we wouldn't get it.
It took a number of experiments and consults with my local expert friends before I mastered anything. I poisoned us with taro leaves more than once (we didn't get sick just irritated mouths). After a month or so I managed to expand our repertoire to include dahl (made from yellow split peas), beef curry (made with canned corned beef), lots of fresh juice drinks and smoothies (from every tropical sweet or citrus fruit available) and we no longer care if what we eat is a "breakfast food", or "dinner food". We ate fried green plantains for breakfast for the last couple days simple because we were given a ton of plantains. They taste just like french fries and are great with ketchup (you can purchase Heinz Ketchup here). As the plantains ripen like bananas we made smoothies or boiled them in water (they tasted like canned peaches). We began to eat anything someone gave us and try to remain open to new tastes. We tried everything inexpensive if I could figure out how to prepare it. There is very little canned fruit available and almost no canned veges. Everyone eats fresh.
 |
| Pictured - breadfruit, taro root, plantains, green tangerines, coconut, egg plant and lemon grass. Foods we have tried Not Pictured = taro leaves, tropical spinach, bok choy, cassava, papaya, kumquats, pineapple, soup sop, mango, jackfruit, passion fruit, lemons, limes, okra, long beans, and others unremembered. |
And so we'll let you know how it all works out as we leave our beloved Fiji behind.
Carrie
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Jumping in the morning
Here's the latest forecast from Fiji MET, along with a satellite view of the area with our route marked out. We brought more fresh veg and some goodies, and the last items on our list.
Some sort of official approached us on the street in town today saying we needed to have a drug inspection. When we told him that Customs, Immigrating and the Port Captain mentioned no such thing. He said he'd be in touch later. Seemed like a shakedown to us.
It poured in the last couple hours so three of us bathed in the cockpit using water collected in the downpour. Hot and still this evening.
Marine Weather Bulletin Issued from the National Weather Forecasting Centre Nadi at 7:30pm on Wednesday the 17th of October 2012
Situation: A trough of low pressure with associated cloud and rain lies over the eastern parts of Fiji is slowly moving eastwards. It is expected to affect the group till later today. Meanwhile, another trough of low pressure to the north of Fiji is expected to affect the group on Friday.
Forecast to midnight tomorrow for Fiji waters: East to northeast winds 15 to 20 knots. Moderate to rough seas. Moderate southerly swells. Poor visibility in areas of heavy rain. Further outlook: Easterly winds 15 to 20 knots. Moderate to rough seas. Moderate southerly swells.
P.S. And if you get hungry before you jump, these Micky clones gone wrong will put you off your feed.
Life in the house beyond food and eating - wayback
July 23 - 31, 2012
When it rained for two days, we all felt such a luxury to have lots of space to move around in while it poured outside. Owen was reminded of his cabin in Uganda. He took naps every afternoon in the house and then went over to an American friend's house for a whiskey around 4:30PM. He said it was the first time he totally relaxed since the trip began. He wasn't constantly worrying about what to fix (how to fix it), where to go next (how to get there), the weather, the crew, and everything else a captain is responsible for. Towards the end of the week, he was running around the large circular living room with Tamsyn and Griffyn playing rousing games of ball or tag or what have you. Every night after the kids were in bed, Owen and I laid on the big bed and watched an episode or two of "Game of Thrones".
I had never been in a building with a metal roof when it was raining. I loved listening to it - despite how loud it was. It is so hot and humid in the tropics - I loved the large airy shower and enjoyed slow warm showers twice a day. I loved the house, all it's windows and ceiling fans. I loved the spaces, the dressers from Japan, the art everywhere. I had brought my paints and worked on a painting all week. I loved having the space and time to paint. I could paint outside on the veranda or inside on my own desk away from everyone. I could let a painting sit - I didn't have to put it away after each painting session.
And as my friendship with Sisi grew, I began to feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I was grateful for how much she had shared of her life, her traditional ways, views into homes, and the village. I began the painting "Vinaka" for her which shows the yellow orchids Andrea showed me, the red hibiscus and small purple flowers around the yard. I gave it to her as a parting gift when we left the big house.
Griffyn and Tamsyn enjoyed having their own shower. They each took showers (with out being asked) the first morning at the house. "Mom, I washed my hair five times, so now I won't have to wash it for three weeks," Griffyn exclaimed after his first shower. Then Tamsyn would make french toast for breakfast (before Owen and I got up.) And they both loved their bedrooms. Griffyn had brought Jraffy's things which he set out along the headboard of his bed. [Jraffy is a tiny stuffed Giraffe who has a complete miniature house hold set in a couple nooks on the boat. He is a king I believe, very powerful. He is usually involved in Griffyn's schemes and often oversees the battles which take place on the settee below his house.] There was an old ornate chest in Griffyn's room sitting in a corner on the floor. He filled it with clothes, school supplies and a soccer ball. They both love to arrange their things just so. Griffyn especially loved having his own space since he doesn't really have one on the boat. (He has had to learn to make do with little nooks to define himself.) Tamsyn spent days sitting on her bed sewing clothes or making sleeping bags for her stuffed animals and reading. She is a voracious reader. It is hard to keep her in books. We do have many she can read on the kindle when she can wrestle it away from Owen.
We did have home school at the house. Owen did a lecture on the human body and all it's systems. They both made drawings and Tamsyn wrote about the functions of each system. There was an inverter in the house (converts 220 to 110) so we had endless power for watching movies on our computer. I never saw a TV on in a house in Fiji except to watch a movie. I don't know if there is local television.
On Thursday (July 26) Owen and Tamsyn took the bus into Savusavu to check on the boat. The rains had been very heavy and we wanted to make sure there were no nasty surprises when we returned a couple days hence. I really wanted to take advantage of the washer and dryer we had access to in the house. There was a huge pile of dirty bedding sitting on the boat. When they got to the boat, Owen found that the patch he had put on the dinghy in Tonga had let go - one quadrant was deflated. He spent the majority of his time there removing, cleaning and re-gluing the patch while Tamsyn piled our dirty laundry into a garbage bag. Otherwise the boat was dry and secure. Asseri, from Waitui Marina, ferried them back to the marina and they rushed back to town to catch the 1PM bus.
As our week came to an end, we took one last walk to the village of Nukumbalavu to go swimming at the beach. We walked along the road on the way there and along the beach on the way back. Many little tributaries meet the ocean along the beach coming back from the village. Tamsyn decided to see if one of the streams was fresh water or salt water - so she tasted it. I must have been looking out to sea when she did it, I didn't know. During the walk, she complained of having a stomach ache. She hadn't gone swimming earlier that day either so I figured she was a little under the weather. That night, Saturday night, she vomited and developed a fever. She told us she had tasted the river near Nukumbalavu. She was very ill the next day and we asked Andrea if we could stay another day until she her fever subsided. He said yes. Tamsyn had dysentery. It took her three days to recover enough to leave the house. We let her watch movies all day, she was very weak. As she was able to keep liquids down, I squeezed all the kumquats, limes and lemons to make cool refreshing drinks, slightly salted and sweetened with sugar to replenish our dehydrated daughter. While she recovered, we packed up and said moce (pronounced 'mothay') - Fijian for goodbye, to our new friends. As we piled our stuff into a cab, Andrea said we could come back and get more fresh food when ever we wanted.
When it rained for two days, we all felt such a luxury to have lots of space to move around in while it poured outside. Owen was reminded of his cabin in Uganda. He took naps every afternoon in the house and then went over to an American friend's house for a whiskey around 4:30PM. He said it was the first time he totally relaxed since the trip began. He wasn't constantly worrying about what to fix (how to fix it), where to go next (how to get there), the weather, the crew, and everything else a captain is responsible for. Towards the end of the week, he was running around the large circular living room with Tamsyn and Griffyn playing rousing games of ball or tag or what have you. Every night after the kids were in bed, Owen and I laid on the big bed and watched an episode or two of "Game of Thrones".
I had never been in a building with a metal roof when it was raining. I loved listening to it - despite how loud it was. It is so hot and humid in the tropics - I loved the large airy shower and enjoyed slow warm showers twice a day. I loved the house, all it's windows and ceiling fans. I loved the spaces, the dressers from Japan, the art everywhere. I had brought my paints and worked on a painting all week. I loved having the space and time to paint. I could paint outside on the veranda or inside on my own desk away from everyone. I could let a painting sit - I didn't have to put it away after each painting session.
 |
| Painted at the house |
And as my friendship with Sisi grew, I began to feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I was grateful for how much she had shared of her life, her traditional ways, views into homes, and the village. I began the painting "Vinaka" for her which shows the yellow orchids Andrea showed me, the red hibiscus and small purple flowers around the yard. I gave it to her as a parting gift when we left the big house.
Griffyn and Tamsyn enjoyed having their own shower. They each took showers (with out being asked) the first morning at the house. "Mom, I washed my hair five times, so now I won't have to wash it for three weeks," Griffyn exclaimed after his first shower. Then Tamsyn would make french toast for breakfast (before Owen and I got up.) And they both loved their bedrooms. Griffyn had brought Jraffy's things which he set out along the headboard of his bed. [Jraffy is a tiny stuffed Giraffe who has a complete miniature house hold set in a couple nooks on the boat. He is a king I believe, very powerful. He is usually involved in Griffyn's schemes and often oversees the battles which take place on the settee below his house.] There was an old ornate chest in Griffyn's room sitting in a corner on the floor. He filled it with clothes, school supplies and a soccer ball. They both love to arrange their things just so. Griffyn especially loved having his own space since he doesn't really have one on the boat. (He has had to learn to make do with little nooks to define himself.) Tamsyn spent days sitting on her bed sewing clothes or making sleeping bags for her stuffed animals and reading. She is a voracious reader. It is hard to keep her in books. We do have many she can read on the kindle when she can wrestle it away from Owen.
We did have home school at the house. Owen did a lecture on the human body and all it's systems. They both made drawings and Tamsyn wrote about the functions of each system. There was an inverter in the house (converts 220 to 110) so we had endless power for watching movies on our computer. I never saw a TV on in a house in Fiji except to watch a movie. I don't know if there is local television.
On Thursday (July 26) Owen and Tamsyn took the bus into Savusavu to check on the boat. The rains had been very heavy and we wanted to make sure there were no nasty surprises when we returned a couple days hence. I really wanted to take advantage of the washer and dryer we had access to in the house. There was a huge pile of dirty bedding sitting on the boat. When they got to the boat, Owen found that the patch he had put on the dinghy in Tonga had let go - one quadrant was deflated. He spent the majority of his time there removing, cleaning and re-gluing the patch while Tamsyn piled our dirty laundry into a garbage bag. Otherwise the boat was dry and secure. Asseri, from Waitui Marina, ferried them back to the marina and they rushed back to town to catch the 1PM bus.
As our week came to an end, we took one last walk to the village of Nukumbalavu to go swimming at the beach. We walked along the road on the way there and along the beach on the way back. Many little tributaries meet the ocean along the beach coming back from the village. Tamsyn decided to see if one of the streams was fresh water or salt water - so she tasted it. I must have been looking out to sea when she did it, I didn't know. During the walk, she complained of having a stomach ache. She hadn't gone swimming earlier that day either so I figured she was a little under the weather. That night, Saturday night, she vomited and developed a fever. She told us she had tasted the river near Nukumbalavu. She was very ill the next day and we asked Andrea if we could stay another day until she her fever subsided. He said yes. Tamsyn had dysentery. It took her three days to recover enough to leave the house. We let her watch movies all day, she was very weak. As she was able to keep liquids down, I squeezed all the kumquats, limes and lemons to make cool refreshing drinks, slightly salted and sweetened with sugar to replenish our dehydrated daughter. While she recovered, we packed up and said moce (pronounced 'mothay') - Fijian for goodbye, to our new friends. As we piled our stuff into a cab, Andrea said we could come back and get more fresh food when ever we wanted.
Baking with Sisi and bread recipe - wayback post
August 8th, 10th and 13th
During the time the kids were in school, I went back to visit Sisi and Andrea at her home. My first visit was short and formal - I brought some food to share and we all sat down in her living room on a mat around a cloth she had laid out. She made black tea and brought out some cooked taro root. A friend of hers, Tina, was visiting also. Tina had been to Minnesota and Wisconsin years ago - through her church. Her father is a pastor. I really enjoyed talking with Tina about where I grew up (Minnesota and Wisconsin). Andrea offered to put a seat on the coconut scraper I had just bought. He spent much of the time outside carving a local pine board. Towards the end of that visit we planned the next one. Sisi wanted to make bread and I offered to show her how to bake cinnamon rolls as well. We would meet at the big house. Sisi does not have an oven.
For the second visit (August 10th), again I came on the 9:30 a.m. bus. The buses do not have glass in the windows, the seats are like school bus seats in the U.S., the driver cranks on a huge stick shift while the engine strains to scale steep dirt roads full of pot holes. He knows the road - swerving confidently around sharp corners while avoiding on coming cars. The wind whips pleasantly through the bus. On a hot day, it can be the only cool place in Savusavu. The cost of a one way ticket is 70 cents (about 37 cents U.S.) I loved riding the bus. I felt such a deep up welling of feeling, like I was finally answering some deeply buried passion. I was out exploring by myself (and everyone I generally feel responsible for was taken care of elsewhere). It's been a while since I felt moved in this way. I do get out alone at times, but seldom do I feel such a profound sense of joy. I didn't feel like a tourist. I was visiting a friend, on a local bus, sitting next to Fijians heading to work in their uniforms cut from cloth made to look like tapas. I loved everything, the bright colors people wear, the tropical mountainous countryside, the soft-spoken Fijian voices, the beautiful children with elaborate braids and smart uniforms, the bumpy ride, the fresh air.
When I arrived, I walked through that wonderful yard again, this time looking at the mangos hanging, the passion fruit vine creeping, the papayas clumped together, the flower beds, everything I missed. Andrea met me and showed me a lime tree and other plants I hadn't known about. We walked up to the house again and he brought out some lemon grass and my new coconut scraper. It is beautiful, a large seat attached to the small sharp circular scraper. I went in to make tea. Sisi had brought flour, sugar, yeast, butter and salt. I brought the rolling pin, cinnamon, brown sugar, sultanas, wholemeal flour (whole wheat) and baking pans. The water was off that morning, so Sisi ran home to gather liters of bottled water for us to drink and bake with. I put the kettle on and asked Andrea to find a coconut. Then we set about making bread. Tina was there again so she wrote the recipe down as I demonstrated each part. My favorite bread recipe is:
1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp. yeast
1 tsp. sugar
The water should be "baby bath water" warm. This is the most reliable description I have heard for the correct temperature for proofing the yeast. (I don't have a thermometer). Dissolve the yeast, let sit 10 minutes. If there is a nice foam on top after 10 minutes use it, otherwise toss it and begin again.
Add:
1 3/4 c. warm water
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1/4 c. dry milk powder
2 Tbsp. melted butter (or 1 Tbsp. oil or ghee)
Stir until well mixed then Add:
2 1/2 c. unbleached white flour
1/2 c. Atta flour (or rye flour, or other interesting heavy flour)
Stir very well. Atta flour is local and used for roti. It adds body to the whole-meal flour available here which is quite light for a whole grain flour.
Next add 3 3/4 c. whole-meal flour (or whole wheat but not stone ground whole wheat).
Stir well. Then add about another 1/2 c. of white flour until it isn't sticky as you knead it. Knead until it feels like a baby's butt, smooth and elastic. Pour a little oil in the bowl and roll it around. Then cover it with a cloth and let it rise until double. I use a large wide basin to make bread in. It makes the stirring very quick and you can knead right in the bowl. It is keeps everything contained and very easy to clean up.
After it rises (about an hour in the tropics), punch it down, turn on the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease two loaf pans and sprinkle the bottoms with corn meal. Then knead out the large air bubbles and cut the dough half. Shape each piece into a ball by pulling it continuously away from the center and then gently rolling the dough in your hands while holding it up so that it lengthens to fit a loaf pan. Put the dough in the pan, sprinkle flour along the top and make three diagonal slits (expansion cuts) so that the dough rises where you want it to. (Otherwise it may split along the side where it rises above the pan - and it will break too easily when sliced.) Cover with cloth and let rise until the oven is heated (about 30 minutes). It will almost double in volume. Bake for 35 minutes or until is sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom. Let cool in a breezy cockpit.
As soon as the bread is rising for the first time, you can begin the dough for the cinnamon rolls. It is the same recipe except without the wholemeal and atta flour. I use only white flour. After it rises the first time, roll it out into a large rectangle. Spread it liberally with soft butter. Make a mixture of one part cinnamon to two parts brown sugar and sprinkle this generously on the buttered dough. Then roll it up like a jelly roll, starting at the longest edge. Slice the dough about every 1 1/2 inches and place pieces upright in a sheet cake pan. I use two pans, one is 9 by 13 inches and the other one is 9 by 10 inches. Once the dough has risen a second time (in the pan), pour melted butter over each roll and bake for 35 minutes at 375 degrees F. Let the cinnamon rolls cool. Make an icing of sifted powdered sugar and water. Only add enough water to make the icing barely dribble. Dribble icing all over mostly cooled cinnamon rolls. Eat. These never last in long on the boat.
Sisi made a delicious lunch for us that day while the bread rose. We ate on the veranda with Andrea and Tina. By the time the cinnamon rolls were finished it was nearing 4 PM and pouring cats and dogs. I decided to wait for the rain to let up. We had already cleaned up so headed over to Sisi's house to have a cup of tea. Sisi shared a couple cinnamon rolls and some fresh bread. I brought my new coconut scraper home along with a loaf of bread and a small pan of cinnamon rolls. My family was grateful. Sisi was having dinner that night with her large extended family at her father's house.
I visited Sisi again the following Tuesday (August 13).
Sisi also wanted to learn to make pumpkin pie and my chocolate cake recipe. As soon as I arrived that morning, we set to making the crust and put then dough into the freezer to chill. Then we cut the pumpkin (from her yard) in half, scooped out the seeds put it into the oven to cook. While the pumpkin roasted, we made two chocolate layer cakes. It is a simple recipe (previously published in the blog). As soon as the pumpkin was done, we put the cakes in the oven. Then we carved the flesh out of the skin and pureed it. It measured out to two cups, perfect. We made the famous Libby's pumpkin pie recipe (on the side of the can of pumpkin). For those of you who don't have canned pumpkin available:
Mix together:
2 c. baked, pureed pumpkin
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 can of evaporated milk (about 15 oz.)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger (dry powder)
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
Pour into a fluted pie crust and bake at 400 F for 10 minutes and then reduce heat to 325 F and bake for 50 minutes (or until a butter knife inserted in the center comes out clean - the center should be solid). Cool, chill and serve with whipped cream (if it is unavailable.) Sisi had prepared another delicious lunch (cassava, sauteed eggplant with onions, tomato and carrot and I had brought some chicken basil sausages) which we ate with Andrea and Tina on the veranda while the pie baked. We pulled the pie out of the oven at 1 PM, just before we left for the village. I wanted to see the traditional dancing presented every Tuesday afternoon at 2 PM (for tourists).
I decided to bring Tamsyn with me that day (out of school) so she could also see the dancing and kava ceremony. She spent most of the day in the big house with us. She doesn't like the mosquitos and they are quite thick once away from the sea breezes and salt water. The chief of Savusavu lives in Nukumbalavu and there is an arrangement with the large resort, "Cousteau's" to bring tourists to his village on Tuesday afternoons to sight see. (I have heard from a local physician that the residents of Cousteau Resort pay up to $4,000 (Fijian) a night.) It is a good arrangement for the village of Nukumbalavu as there are tons of trinkets for sale and the resort guests can have things charged to their rooms, plus there is a $5 fee per tourist. We were greeted with a pretty lei and told to sit on one side of the hall, while the locals sat on the opposite side with a large kava bowl in the middle.
The kava ceremony was very brief - 4 men were offered a drink twice each. [At the wedding we attended August 31st, all the men present including the Minister, Pastor and Priest (an interfaith wedding) drank kava for 6 hours straight - going through some 40 bowls of kava. Each bowl was about 3 gallons.] The traditional dancing was conservative compared to what we had seen in French Polynesia. The women wore the taka (a full-length sulu skirt with a matching blouse). Theirs were all made from a pattern based on tapas cloth. Sisi danced but I could tell she'd done it a few too many times. The men wore grass skirts and costumes similar to what we had seen in Marquesean dancing. The men dance separately from the women. Their dancing was much more spirited and seemed to tell a story. Men and women sang during the dancing, some very old traditional tribal songs. Sisi made sure we had some of the cookies and juice (for the participants) before our walk back. Tamsyn wanted to walk along the beach again.
By the time we reached the big house, the pie was cooled and it was nearing 5 PM. We packed up the cakes, cut the pie in half and locked up the house. Sisi walked Tamsyn and myself out to the road to wait for a taxi. Return trips (back to Savusavu) cost the same as a bus ride (70 cents per adult and 35 cents per child). Ram drove by some time later. He is a regular out this way because he understands the dialect well. We said good bye to Sisi and got in the taxi.
This was my second trip back from Sisi's in Ram's taxi. The first trip with him, I showed his wife, Eshwini, whom he picks up after work every day at 5:30PM, the bread and cinnamon rolls I made with Sisi. She was very interested. I told her I would come by her bakery. I wanted to learn how to make roti. Eshwini and Ram are Indo-Fijians. They make Indian food. Eshwini works at Lee's bakery in Savusavu. The second time I rode back to Savusavu with Ram, I shared some pumpkin pie with them.
During the time the kids were in school, I went back to visit Sisi and Andrea at her home. My first visit was short and formal - I brought some food to share and we all sat down in her living room on a mat around a cloth she had laid out. She made black tea and brought out some cooked taro root. A friend of hers, Tina, was visiting also. Tina had been to Minnesota and Wisconsin years ago - through her church. Her father is a pastor. I really enjoyed talking with Tina about where I grew up (Minnesota and Wisconsin). Andrea offered to put a seat on the coconut scraper I had just bought. He spent much of the time outside carving a local pine board. Towards the end of that visit we planned the next one. Sisi wanted to make bread and I offered to show her how to bake cinnamon rolls as well. We would meet at the big house. Sisi does not have an oven.
For the second visit (August 10th), again I came on the 9:30 a.m. bus. The buses do not have glass in the windows, the seats are like school bus seats in the U.S., the driver cranks on a huge stick shift while the engine strains to scale steep dirt roads full of pot holes. He knows the road - swerving confidently around sharp corners while avoiding on coming cars. The wind whips pleasantly through the bus. On a hot day, it can be the only cool place in Savusavu. The cost of a one way ticket is 70 cents (about 37 cents U.S.) I loved riding the bus. I felt such a deep up welling of feeling, like I was finally answering some deeply buried passion. I was out exploring by myself (and everyone I generally feel responsible for was taken care of elsewhere). It's been a while since I felt moved in this way. I do get out alone at times, but seldom do I feel such a profound sense of joy. I didn't feel like a tourist. I was visiting a friend, on a local bus, sitting next to Fijians heading to work in their uniforms cut from cloth made to look like tapas. I loved everything, the bright colors people wear, the tropical mountainous countryside, the soft-spoken Fijian voices, the beautiful children with elaborate braids and smart uniforms, the bumpy ride, the fresh air.
When I arrived, I walked through that wonderful yard again, this time looking at the mangos hanging, the passion fruit vine creeping, the papayas clumped together, the flower beds, everything I missed. Andrea met me and showed me a lime tree and other plants I hadn't known about. We walked up to the house again and he brought out some lemon grass and my new coconut scraper. It is beautiful, a large seat attached to the small sharp circular scraper. I went in to make tea. Sisi had brought flour, sugar, yeast, butter and salt. I brought the rolling pin, cinnamon, brown sugar, sultanas, wholemeal flour (whole wheat) and baking pans. The water was off that morning, so Sisi ran home to gather liters of bottled water for us to drink and bake with. I put the kettle on and asked Andrea to find a coconut. Then we set about making bread. Tina was there again so she wrote the recipe down as I demonstrated each part. My favorite bread recipe is:
1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp. yeast
1 tsp. sugar
The water should be "baby bath water" warm. This is the most reliable description I have heard for the correct temperature for proofing the yeast. (I don't have a thermometer). Dissolve the yeast, let sit 10 minutes. If there is a nice foam on top after 10 minutes use it, otherwise toss it and begin again.
Add:
1 3/4 c. warm water
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1/4 c. dry milk powder
2 Tbsp. melted butter (or 1 Tbsp. oil or ghee)
Stir until well mixed then Add:
2 1/2 c. unbleached white flour
1/2 c. Atta flour (or rye flour, or other interesting heavy flour)
Stir very well. Atta flour is local and used for roti. It adds body to the whole-meal flour available here which is quite light for a whole grain flour.
Next add 3 3/4 c. whole-meal flour (or whole wheat but not stone ground whole wheat).
Stir well. Then add about another 1/2 c. of white flour until it isn't sticky as you knead it. Knead until it feels like a baby's butt, smooth and elastic. Pour a little oil in the bowl and roll it around. Then cover it with a cloth and let it rise until double. I use a large wide basin to make bread in. It makes the stirring very quick and you can knead right in the bowl. It is keeps everything contained and very easy to clean up.
After it rises (about an hour in the tropics), punch it down, turn on the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease two loaf pans and sprinkle the bottoms with corn meal. Then knead out the large air bubbles and cut the dough half. Shape each piece into a ball by pulling it continuously away from the center and then gently rolling the dough in your hands while holding it up so that it lengthens to fit a loaf pan. Put the dough in the pan, sprinkle flour along the top and make three diagonal slits (expansion cuts) so that the dough rises where you want it to. (Otherwise it may split along the side where it rises above the pan - and it will break too easily when sliced.) Cover with cloth and let rise until the oven is heated (about 30 minutes). It will almost double in volume. Bake for 35 minutes or until is sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom. Let cool in a breezy cockpit.
As soon as the bread is rising for the first time, you can begin the dough for the cinnamon rolls. It is the same recipe except without the wholemeal and atta flour. I use only white flour. After it rises the first time, roll it out into a large rectangle. Spread it liberally with soft butter. Make a mixture of one part cinnamon to two parts brown sugar and sprinkle this generously on the buttered dough. Then roll it up like a jelly roll, starting at the longest edge. Slice the dough about every 1 1/2 inches and place pieces upright in a sheet cake pan. I use two pans, one is 9 by 13 inches and the other one is 9 by 10 inches. Once the dough has risen a second time (in the pan), pour melted butter over each roll and bake for 35 minutes at 375 degrees F. Let the cinnamon rolls cool. Make an icing of sifted powdered sugar and water. Only add enough water to make the icing barely dribble. Dribble icing all over mostly cooled cinnamon rolls. Eat. These never last in long on the boat.
Sisi made a delicious lunch for us that day while the bread rose. We ate on the veranda with Andrea and Tina. By the time the cinnamon rolls were finished it was nearing 4 PM and pouring cats and dogs. I decided to wait for the rain to let up. We had already cleaned up so headed over to Sisi's house to have a cup of tea. Sisi shared a couple cinnamon rolls and some fresh bread. I brought my new coconut scraper home along with a loaf of bread and a small pan of cinnamon rolls. My family was grateful. Sisi was having dinner that night with her large extended family at her father's house.
I visited Sisi again the following Tuesday (August 13).
Sisi also wanted to learn to make pumpkin pie and my chocolate cake recipe. As soon as I arrived that morning, we set to making the crust and put then dough into the freezer to chill. Then we cut the pumpkin (from her yard) in half, scooped out the seeds put it into the oven to cook. While the pumpkin roasted, we made two chocolate layer cakes. It is a simple recipe (previously published in the blog). As soon as the pumpkin was done, we put the cakes in the oven. Then we carved the flesh out of the skin and pureed it. It measured out to two cups, perfect. We made the famous Libby's pumpkin pie recipe (on the side of the can of pumpkin). For those of you who don't have canned pumpkin available:
Mix together:
2 c. baked, pureed pumpkin
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 can of evaporated milk (about 15 oz.)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger (dry powder)
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
Pour into a fluted pie crust and bake at 400 F for 10 minutes and then reduce heat to 325 F and bake for 50 minutes (or until a butter knife inserted in the center comes out clean - the center should be solid). Cool, chill and serve with whipped cream (if it is unavailable.) Sisi had prepared another delicious lunch (cassava, sauteed eggplant with onions, tomato and carrot and I had brought some chicken basil sausages) which we ate with Andrea and Tina on the veranda while the pie baked. We pulled the pie out of the oven at 1 PM, just before we left for the village. I wanted to see the traditional dancing presented every Tuesday afternoon at 2 PM (for tourists).
I decided to bring Tamsyn with me that day (out of school) so she could also see the dancing and kava ceremony. She spent most of the day in the big house with us. She doesn't like the mosquitos and they are quite thick once away from the sea breezes and salt water. The chief of Savusavu lives in Nukumbalavu and there is an arrangement with the large resort, "Cousteau's" to bring tourists to his village on Tuesday afternoons to sight see. (I have heard from a local physician that the residents of Cousteau Resort pay up to $4,000 (Fijian) a night.) It is a good arrangement for the village of Nukumbalavu as there are tons of trinkets for sale and the resort guests can have things charged to their rooms, plus there is a $5 fee per tourist. We were greeted with a pretty lei and told to sit on one side of the hall, while the locals sat on the opposite side with a large kava bowl in the middle.
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| The kindergarten |
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| View coming back from the village |
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| Waiting for the bus |
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| The bus |
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| Sisi's mother's grave - she died three months ago |
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| Sidewalk in the village, the only one |
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| Tamsyn with a lei |
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| The community hall, much like a grange hall |
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| Shopkeepers home |
The kava ceremony was very brief - 4 men were offered a drink twice each. [At the wedding we attended August 31st, all the men present including the Minister, Pastor and Priest (an interfaith wedding) drank kava for 6 hours straight - going through some 40 bowls of kava. Each bowl was about 3 gallons.] The traditional dancing was conservative compared to what we had seen in French Polynesia. The women wore the taka (a full-length sulu skirt with a matching blouse). Theirs were all made from a pattern based on tapas cloth. Sisi danced but I could tell she'd done it a few too many times. The men wore grass skirts and costumes similar to what we had seen in Marquesean dancing. The men dance separately from the women. Their dancing was much more spirited and seemed to tell a story. Men and women sang during the dancing, some very old traditional tribal songs. Sisi made sure we had some of the cookies and juice (for the participants) before our walk back. Tamsyn wanted to walk along the beach again.
By the time we reached the big house, the pie was cooled and it was nearing 5 PM. We packed up the cakes, cut the pie in half and locked up the house. Sisi walked Tamsyn and myself out to the road to wait for a taxi. Return trips (back to Savusavu) cost the same as a bus ride (70 cents per adult and 35 cents per child). Ram drove by some time later. He is a regular out this way because he understands the dialect well. We said good bye to Sisi and got in the taxi.
This was my second trip back from Sisi's in Ram's taxi. The first trip with him, I showed his wife, Eshwini, whom he picks up after work every day at 5:30PM, the bread and cinnamon rolls I made with Sisi. She was very interested. I told her I would come by her bakery. I wanted to learn how to make roti. Eshwini and Ram are Indo-Fijians. They make Indian food. Eshwini works at Lee's bakery in Savusavu. The second time I rode back to Savusavu with Ram, I shared some pumpkin pie with them.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Waiting for weather window in Levuka
Hi all,
We haven't jumped yet. We are still in Levuka harbor waiting for a strong trough of thunderstorms to move on by. We hope to leave as soon as it goes by and the trades reestablish themselves a bit. In fact there are five boats stacked up in the harbor, and all of them are doing the same thing as ourselves.
We took on forty gallons of water today. Carrie made a double batch of banana muffins. They are gone now. Griffyn still is coughing a bit but seems to be mending, and we watched an afternoon movie.
So things are good at this end.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
A Fijian Wedding, a picture post
Here are some pictures of a traditional Fijian wedding that we attended on August 31st. The groom was Sisi's uncle. It was a lot of fun and we felt honored to be guests.
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| The Bride and Grooms house decorated by friends and family |
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| Sisi's brother, Owen, Carrie, the Groom, Sisi, and the kids |
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| Sisi's father, Andrea, is in the middle |
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| Making the church ready |
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| The wedding party |
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| The Bride and Groom |
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| Hour three of five hours of Kava drinking |
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| What Carrie didn't know was that every time she came over to me to get the camera the whole kava ceremony would stop, with the men looking off into space or at the ground until she left. No women allowed. |
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| Women prepare the food, cassava and taro root here. |
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| The wedding party place setting |
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| The women made up individual plates for all who attended |
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| Kids are fed first |
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| For the reception all those in Andrea's family, including the new bride, changed into newly sewn shirts and dresses cut from the same fabric |
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| The glowing bride |
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| An honored guest |
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| Our wedding gift, painted by Carrie |
That's it for now. We are thinking of jumping for Vanuatu tomorrow around lunch time.
Making a coffin at Waitui Marina
September 18, 2012 - We've been here two months now.
A local Fijian is sawing and hammering the wood for his grandmother's coffin tonight at Waitui Marina. He is not a young man, so I asked Owen, how old his grandmother was. "She was 97," he said. The carver, that is how he spends most of his days, is just one of the gang at the marina where locals are as common as yachties. It's a little like Cheers, if you need to do something, it's OK to do it at Waitui Marina. The decaying building owned by 4 people who hate one another and won't speak to each other houses a laundry, a meat market (frozen meats), a bar, a bistro, a DHL courier, Bebi Electronics (who sell LED lights world wide), and a dive shop where you can organize a tour, rent a kayak, or take diving lessons. And of-course there is the marina staff who watch the boats, maintain the moorings and help the yachties.
There are showers which generally have hot water. They are decrepit, the building is falling apart, not sure if it is the ants making the most inroads or the mushrooms. (There is a shelf mushroom in the shower stall.) It's not exactly clean in there. But the competing marina, Copra Shed, with well maintained buildings / docks and higher prices doesn't have a Cheers atmosphere, doesn't attract locals (unless they need a job) and doesn't dive it's mooring balls regularly. Most yachties moor with Copra Shed with it's cleaner facilities, art gallery and restaurants. If you come from NZ or OZ it will feel most like what you are used to. When you hook up to a Waitui marina mooring ball, Asseri, a tall friendly neatly dressed Fijian, will welcome you to Fiji while you wait for customs. He will hand you a sheet with the Waitui Marina Rules:
1. Life is short, relax.
2. If you need something, please ask. If we don't know the answer, we'll try to find someone who does.
3. If someone does you a favor, pass one along.
4. Try not to get drunk and fall off the dock.
5. If you fall off the dock, please try to float face up.
6. If you see someone floating in the water, please fish them out. Their family may thank you.
7. Smile and laugh as much as possible.
At Waitui Marina your first experience in Fiji will be not only positive but humorous and you will begin to relax. (The officials here took nothing off the boat. I was worried after our New Zealand encounter, that they might strip the boat of food stores.) We have used the dock at Waitui Marina for haircuts, washing clothes and grocery carts. We have only one dinghy (a one car family) and often find ourselves trapped on the boat while the other adult is off visiting other yachties or getting supplies. Thank God for Asseri, he happily taxis Griffyn to shore when his local friend Bligh calls for him (with the assistance of Casa, Waitui Marina staff and their VHF radio.)
It's been two days now of hammering and sawing and tonight when I went to take a shower, the coffin was finished. It was sitting there next to 20 or so adults sitting on chairs and benches in a circle drinking kava from a kava bowl. At the sink, near the showers, a woman I didn't recognize asked after Griffyn, "He is asleep," I said. Then she offered me a cup of kava. I declined, I was tired and remembered how sick Owen got after the wedding from drinking kava. The coffin is small, she was apparently very thin and only 5 feet 3 inches tall, like me. The entire thing was bordered with lace both black and white. There was a little window on the lid near where her head would be. And the cross, the carver has been working on for the past two weeks, was varnished and attached to the lid just below the window. The cross was raised, it sat at an angle to the lid so that you could see it plainly standing near the coffin. There was such care in all the details. He said the coffin was ready for tomorrow (the funeral).
Once I was back on the boat, I could hear the whoops of laughter coming from Waitui Marina as the kava drinkers finished another bowl. They would all leave around 10PM as the building and grounds will be locked up. I feel a sense of gratitude to have seen one more aspect of Fijian culture up close. I will miss these gentle people.
Carrie
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| Waitui Marina |
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| Owen walking in front of Copra shed |
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| Local transport |
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| Indigo from S/Y Blue Lotus on a sleepover |
Sisilia of Nukumbalavu - picture post
July 23 - 31, 2012
Our stay in the house introduced us to Sisilia (Sisi), Talei (Sisi's daughter) and Sisi's father, Andrea. Sisi and Talei live in a small house on the land owned by Kavin (who built the house we stayed in as well as Sisi's). Sisi is soft spoken in the Fijian way. Her gentle voice is full of warmth. Her smile radiant and genuine. She would come by the house daily as her father did to see if we needed anything. I remember liking her the minute we met and feeling akin because she was as interested in food as I was. I wanted to know everything about her traditional way of life. She was the first Fijian I became friends with. She invited us to dinner at her house the 3rd day we were there (Tuesday July 24).
Our stay in the house introduced us to Sisilia (Sisi), Talei (Sisi's daughter) and Sisi's father, Andrea. Sisi and Talei live in a small house on the land owned by Kavin (who built the house we stayed in as well as Sisi's). Sisi is soft spoken in the Fijian way. Her gentle voice is full of warmth. Her smile radiant and genuine. She would come by the house daily as her father did to see if we needed anything. I remember liking her the minute we met and feeling akin because she was as interested in food as I was. I wanted to know everything about her traditional way of life. She was the first Fijian I became friends with. She invited us to dinner at her house the 3rd day we were there (Tuesday July 24).
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| Sisi's yard |
I was in seventh heaven, I was dying to see a Fijian home and share a meal. We all felt honored and pleased. Sisi owns only one chair, so we didn't sit on chairs at dinner. Fijians sit down on large woven grass mats. If they need back support they sit against a wall. I brought a soup I'd been cooking all day. Sisi made dahl, cassava, and a typical Fijian noodle dish (with greens, chillies, tuna and ramen like noodles in a spicy brown sauce). We ate the main meal at her house and came back to the big house for desert. I had baked one of my favorite traditional American deserts, apple crisp. Sisi like it very much later asking for the recipe.
The next day when Sisi came by she asked me if I wanted to go and collect seaweed with her later that day and make it for dinner. I was very keen to join her. We set out around 4PM (low tide was around 5:30PM and that was when you could find the seaweed. We walked along the road toward the village of Nukubalavu.
Sisi showed me around and introduced us to her nieces and nephews, her aunt and sisters. Andrea built this house 20 years ago, before that he lived in the house next door where his sister still lives.
His son and daughter-in-law live next door also. And the houses behind Andrea's are all relatives as well. After taking pictures and making introductions, I stowed the camera before we walked back to the beach and into the water, now at very low tide. We waded out quite a ways as Sisi collected seaweed in a couple plastic bags. She moved very fast through the water collecting seaweeds. I couldn't keep up with her, so followed at my own pace far behind her. I saw a black and white sea snake, many bright blue star fish, dark purple sea urchins and lots of tub worms all stretched out looking like strange striped silk hoses. Tamsyn and Griffyn had great time wading in the water, picking up creatures, shells and rocks. When Sisi was satisfied with her plunder, we waded back to the house and then walked along the beach all the way back to the big house (Kavin's place).
Back home we washed the 1st of two seaweeds that we collected. It is actually a form of egg nest, not seaweed at all and tasted like cold noodles. I was amazed at how much work it was to make this meal. We ate dinner some time after 8PM. We let the second seaweed sit until tomorrow.
The next day Sisi brought over a green papaya to prepare for a salad. She did everything out doors on the veranda. She brought out a huge mat, the kind her aunt wove out of grass, laid it down on the veranda and sat down on it. (Just like when we ate dinner at her house.) She peel, seeded and chopped up the green papaya very quickly and brought it into the house. Then she sent Solo, her nephew along with Griffyn to collect clean salt water to be used to pickle the papaya. She grated it and soaked it in salt water for several hours. Eventually she drained it and added tuna, coconut cream, salt, fresh green beans cut very small, and fresh tomatoes, chopped. Then she spent the rest of the day cleaning the seaweed of tiny seashells, eel grass, twigs, and other detritus. Again I was amazed at how much time Sisi spent preparing food. She always seemed to have something cooking in her out door cooking area (generally it was casava). That night we were invited to an American ex-pat's house for lobster linguini. This American has been living in Fiji for 12 years and is good friends with Kavin (the owner of the home we rented). We brought both the green papaya salad and the seaweed dish. The salad was good but we couldn't eat the seaweed dish. It was too fishy and salty.
Tamsyn and Griffyn had made friends with Katherine, the neighbor's daughter, Talei, Sisi's daughter and another girl who came around. Griffyn played with Sisi's nephew, Solo or one of the three dogs that became regulars on the veranda. Friday night we shared another meal. Sisi made a simple eggplant dish that was amazing. I made beans and rice which her daughter loved. and Saturday night we invited Sisi, Talei and Katherine over for movies. We watched "Star Dust" and "Second Hand Lions" and ate popcorn. Popcorn is an expensive luxury in Fiji. Sisi loved it and enjoyed the movies.
Carrie
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