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.

The Bride and Grooms house decorated by friends and family

Sisi's brother, Owen, Carrie, the Groom, Sisi, and the kids

Sisi's father, Andrea, is in the middle

Making the church ready

The wedding party

The Bride and Groom

Hour three of five hours of Kava drinking

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.

Women prepare the food, cassava and taro root here.

The wedding party place setting

The women made up individual plates for all who attended

Kids are fed first

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

The glowing bride

An honored guest

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

Here are some pictures of Savusavu and the marina.

Waitui Marina

 

 

 

Owen walking in front of Copra shed

Local transport

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). 

    

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.

Then we followed a goat trail along the bay at the water line. It was a 30 minute walk - all glorious with huge palms set against the beach at low tide with low mountains as a back drop. Tamsyn and Griffyn came along. On the way to the seaweed grounds, Sisi brought me to her family home, Andrea's house, where she grew up.

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