27 July 2012 - Suva, Fiji

Today we went to visit the family we met in the Lau Group, who are now back in Suva. We took the bus into town & got some gifts for Cama & Millie at the market: cakes, pineapples, & an awesome bouquet of heliconia. We also brought bubbles for Buna & kava for Cama & Mille, since we have more kava than we need, & we're leaving Fiji.

We got a taxi to Nasinu. It was clear from his face that the driver was very confused as to why we were going there, since it's a part of Suva not frequented by kaivalangi (white foreigners), but he said nothing. We phoned Cama when we were close & he gave the driver instructions. Cama was waiting by the side of the road for us. We walked in the drizzle on a muddy path between houses very much like the homes we've seen in villages all over Fiji - tin shacks, basically, but clean & well-cared for, painted an array of colors with plantings around each house. We walked past Cama's house to Millie's daughter's house. The daughter is also named Millie. She had more furniture than most - 2 big china cabinets walling off the kitchen area. We later learned that her husband, Inoke, is a gambler & recently won FJD4000 at the horse races, thus the furniture.

We brought out our gifts of printed photos from our time in Fulaga, the pineapples, & the kava, all very well received. The photos went around & around the room while the kava was declared to be 'gold'. The pineapples were placed on a platter in the middle of the room. Buna wasn't around to receive the bubbles we brought for her, & when she later appeared with friends, she was painfully shy, so I just gave them to Millie.

We were served roti in coconut milk Millie had just made specially for us, & big cups of tea. No one else was given anything, & our offers to share were nodded away. Eventually, the two men, Cama & Inoke, were given a plate of roti, but without coconut milk. The tradition of serving the honored guests first is always so awkward for us....

We sat on the floor & talked until we ran out of conversation. We asked if Bera had confronted the chief at Fulaga about the FJD50 fee & were told that the elders had argued about it, so that's a start, at least.

For entertainment, I took some photos & passed the camera around - Fijians always love to be photographed & see the picture on the camera. The adults giggle & the kids point to themselves in wonder.

We had stayed long enough, so Cama, Millie & Buna walked us to their house, where we peeked in. They lock their doors here - surprising.

Cama walked us to the main road to catch the bus & I boldly asked him about his job, curious to find out how much he earns, since they seem to have so little. He works in a bakery from 7pm-3am & makes FJD35/nite (about $20 US), which seems like decent money, but they clearly are not as well off as Millie's daughter who has married a man as old as her mother. Cama is 32 & is married to Mille who is 54, while her daughter at 30 has married Inoke, who is 55. Odd.

On the bus, as we passed the National University of Suva, we noticed a dance event, a meke. We looked at each other & simultaneously jumped up to get off the bus. We've seen so little dancing in Fiji....

And we were surprised to discover it was Moce Day, Moce being the island right next to Komo, where we visited, & not far from Fulaga in the Lau Group. So this was clearly intended to be a Lau Cultural Day. It was drizzling off & on, which was too bad, since the dancing was held in a field that had turned to swamp with all the activity. Everyone was dressed in their best, & the dancers had beautiful costumes. When we first arrived, men were dancing in mats & we realized it was because the Lau used to belong to Tonga (where the woven mats are so common). We stood for a while until we were invited to sit with some guys drinking kava. They offered us a few cups of the vile stuff. They had clearly been drinking it all day & were pretty zonked out. Our effort at conversation was largely unappreciated & questions went mostly unanswered. So I concentrated on taking photos & just enjoying the event, glad to be under the tent as the drizzle continued.

The dancing was not as interesting as some we've seen. It was largely repetitive, & many of the dances were performed sitting down, which required placement of plywood so the costumes wouldn't get more sullied than they already were. However, the disruptions of the performance were hugely entertaining. While the dancers performed (accompanied by a separate group of singers), audience members took down the swaths of fabric decorating the tents & wrapped the performers in it! They also stuffed money in their costumes (usually in their cleavage), walked all around them to take photos, put talcum powder in their hair & on their faces, gave them things to eat, put scarves on them, & one man even gave a dancer the shirt off his own back. Sometimes the disrupters would completely steal the stage by doing some crazy dancing of their own to the delight of the hooting audience.

We stayed until the end, when a tabua - a sacred whale's tooth - was presented to the performers with much pomp. We've heard & read about the exchange of tabua, but this is the first time we've seen one.

We were so glad we had taken the bus instead of a cab so that we were high up enough to see the happenings in that field & were able to stop to enjoy the event.

When we got back into town we were surprised to see how late it was, so we found a restaurant, which was a challenge. Not much was open on Sat afternoon. Food was mediocre at the Chinese place we found, but BB was glad to not have to cook since we'd had a busy day.

says ADR