On Friday we went ashore at Naigani and walked to the village. A simple way of life. Some villagers were making coconut milk and coconut oil which starts by scraping the white flesh out by hand, using a rock fastened to a stick. One lady sat with a huge pile of long leaves from the pandanus plant. These leaves are used for making mats. But first she had to strip all the tiny thorns of both edges. A laborious task. Next the leaves have to be boiled, beaten, then left to dry in the sun. Once cured the weaving can begin, to make a mat for the floor. A huge process! Following the protocol required when entering a village, we asked to meet the "Turaga ni Koro" pronounced Tooranga nee koro. This is the spokesman for the village. We then asked him for an introduction to the chief so we could present our bundle of yaqona. Yaqona is the root of a pepper tree and the Fijians pound this and mix it with water to make Kava, their favourite drink. The ceremony, called "sevusevu" is an important pr otocol to observe and officially welcomes you to the village. Once welcomed in to the village we were free to explore and take photos of village life. The people were very friendly, all keen to talk to us. An interesting observation is that after exchanging names with a local, the first question they often ask is "How old are you?" then they tell you how old they are. This seems an important part of their introductions when they meet new people. Groups of women and children were casting nets out on the shallow reef areas and then in a circle, running and splashing to chase fish onto the net before picking up the edges and all walking towards each other to bring the net together, full of tiny fish. It was very nice to see the natural way of life here. Unlike Tonga, we did not see any rubbish, there were no pigs and no church bells. Unfortunately one of the elders of the village came to inform us that we would need to shift our boat. The bay we had anchored in was a sacred fishing ar ea for the village, where they keep their sacred trevally! We were invited to bring Aradonna around to the bay in front of the village, but the wind was blowing 25 - 30 knots and it was not a good spot to stay as Aradonna was being blown back, stern to the reef. The next bay around was on the E side and the wind was coming straight in, with big waves. It would have made a better surf beach than an anchorage! The kind man at the dive resort carried our dive cylinders from the village, through the bush track in a wheel barrow to fill up the cylinders for us. We shifted to the northern bay for the night, which is sheltered in the usual SE winds. The only problem was that we had strong E winds, which whipped around the tip of the bay causing waves to roll in over the reef. After enduring a night of rolling and pitching and very little sleep we were glad to pull up the anchor and venture away. Before we could leave we had to retrieve the dive cylinders, so it was back to the bay by the v illage to meet the dive resort man who had wheel-barrowed the 4 heavy cylinders back through the bush to the beach for us at 7am as promised. We got a nice early start for the next leg of our journey, the 34 N mile passage through the reefs of northern Viti Levu, to Nananau-i-ra Island. The wind is still blowing hard, but now we are in a very calm sheltered spot. Had a good walk around the island yesterday afternoon. This is a resort island with 3 or 4 resorts and some nice houses that look like holiday rentals. A pretty spot with several families on holiday. Kids giggling as they learn to kayak, wake boarders showing off and kite surfers defying gravity.
