Monthly Archives: February 2009

Watching the Oscars with a Fijian chief

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by Jim McNish

Monday was the big day – we were off to meet Ratu Apenisa, the gentleman most likely to  succeed as the next High Chief of all the islands. Everyone met for breakfast dressed in their finery. The shirts and dresses looked like an explosion in a flower shop. Craig and I practiced getting down, sitting cross legged and standing up in our formal sulus, which are akin to lightweight kilts and could lead to all sorts of embarrassment if not done correctly. Then we were into the boats once more, driven by Gordi and Davs with a representative from Moturiki island who had agreed to come with us to conduct the ritual of sevu sevu – the kava ceremony – we would be undertaking to give homage to the Chief.

On arrival in Bau Island we processed in single file from the dock, across the ‘village green’ towards a large ceremonial hall. On entry we crouched low, assumed our cross legged position and shuffled into line, creating a circle around the kava bowl, all of us facing Ratu Apenisa who sat below a photograph of his great-great-grandfather, who was the chief who accepted Christianity in the islands and ceded Fiji to Great Britain in the 1870s. The ritual and ceremony was conducted in Fijian, so of course none of us fully understood what was happening, but after Ratu Apenisa had drunk a coconut shell full of kava he casually tossed it back to the master of ceremonies. This was repeated by his right hand men and then each of us in turn was passed a shell full of the spicy liquid. We had, fortunately, been briefed on what do, so we followed the protocol by clapping once, saying “Bula” then drinking it down in one. After handing back the coconut shell we clapped three times before it was the next person’s turn. Kava is a very mild narcotic made from the roots of a particular pepper plant. It has been compared to drinking a muddy puddle, but I found the distinctive spiciness strangely pleasant, leaving the inside of mouth tingling gently. Finally, each of us went in turn and, shuffling on hands and knees we touched the kava bowl then went over to Ratu and shook his hand. He very graciously told each of us to stand up, rather than crawl, as he knew it was an unfamiliar action for us. Eventually the ceremony was drawn to a close by the kava master who drew a circle in the air three times around the bowl. Then Ratu spoke. “Right”, he said, “while these fellas mix us up some more grog does anybody have any questions?” and with that everyone visibly relaxed.

Ratu then told us a little of the history of Fiji and Bau island in particular. Bau was traditionally the home of the most fearsome cannibalistic warriors in Fiji and he recounted gruesome tales of beheadings and honour killings. The large tree in the middle of the village green, he said, was used as a larder – captured enemies would be killed and then hung by their feet from the branches until they were ready to eat. Of course, this was all long ago and as we followed Ratu around the island he showed us the killing stone where the ‘prizes’ had their heads smashed in and it now rests in the island’s Methodist church and is used as the baptismal font. We continued the tour (with everyone always walking behind Ratu and never entering or leaving a building before him) taking in the school, where the children were let out of class early to stare and giggle at the funny foreigners while we took their photos and laughed along with them. Finally we were taken back to Ratu’s house and introduced to his mother. “Come on in”, he said “Oh, and by the way, the Oscars are on telly if anyone wants to watch it”. That is possibly the most surreal thing that has ever happened to me – standing chatting to the future High Chief of all of Fiji while we watch Jessica Biel sashay down the red carpet in LA on his large flat- screen TV.

Everyone was in high spirits as we boarded the boats home with Davs in particular laughing loudly as he revved the boat engine to send us crashing through the swell and soaking everyone on board. “Is that the best you can do?” shouted Ny-Ann “Come on, give it more power!” and we laughed like happy idiots as another wave came over the transom.

Leleuvia, our new island home

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by Jim McNish

It is very difficult to describe the beauty of the island of Leleuvia as we approached. The water around it is fifty shades of blue, a fringe of white sand gives way to palms and fruit trees in the centre and as we got nearer we could look over the side to see multi-coloured corals and fish. Helen, the dive instructor and a marine biologist and Ruth, marine biologist and dive master, as well as the staff of the small backpacker hostel on the island were waiting on the beach to welcome us and garland our necks with flowers, while others strummed guitars and sang a welcoming song while we all stepped down from the boats chattering and jumping with excitement. Howard was clearly emotional at seeing two years of effort coalesce into this defining moment and was unable to speak due to the lump in his throat.

When he had recovered his composure we were given a guided tour of the facilities – it did not take long. There is a shower and toilet block, supplied by huge rainwater tanks. Rainwater is also filtered for drinking. At low tide there are reef flats that stretch half a mile or more and the accommodation is made up of wooden shacks or traditional thatched palm bures. People were divvied up and told who they would be bunking with for the next few weeks. Alex and Emily, the English gap year students are in with Breanna, an Australian backpacker. Alison, a retired Scottish teacher is sharing with Ny-Ann, a Filipino/Chinese/Spanish/American girl from San Francisco. Britt and Angus have a roommate called Scott, a Texan student who plans to study astrophysics when he gets home. Jo, a costume designer for films and TV is sharing with Jen who does something in marketing back in the real world, and I’m in with Craig. The team spent the afternoon and evening unpacking and exploring or getting a cold drink or two at the little bar, with most of the team heading off to bed fairly early as we had to be up at the crack of dawn.

The following morning began with a 400 metre swim before breakfast for everyone – one of the required tests for fitness to dive. I’m happy to say that everyone managed it with ease, although a number of folk had had misgivings about it – particularly the Americans in the party who are not familiar with metres as a unit of length. The PADI Open Water training began in earnest immediately after breakfast for the four non-qualified divers while some of us went with Tristan, resident expert on sea snakes, invertebrates and all sorts of creepy crawlies for a walk in the shallows around the island. Within five minutes we found our first sea snake, resting quietly on the foreshore. Craig the herpetologist was in raptures, stroking its strangely flattened tail (not recommended for non-professionals) while the snake languidly waved its head to taste us on the breeze. Mimic eels, morays, chitons, sea cucumbers and sponges were spotted as we completed a circuit of the island at a leisurely pace. Lectures on the ecosystem of coral reefs and classifications of marine invertebrates took place later on. Fascinating stuff. (No, really, it is!)

After a couple of days everyone is finding that time is playing tricks on us. In many ways it feels as though we have been here for weeks, and in others it feels like no time at all. I guess that is what is meant by “Fiji Time”.  The pace of life is slow – it has to be in this glorious heat.

Today is a rest day and I am currently sitting outside my bure on our home made armchair fashioned from scrap wood and plastic drain pipes, I am looking out past a couple of palm trees at the flat sea lapping the sand. Angus and Breanna have just paddled past in a couple of canoes and a coconut is bobbing gently in the surf. To my right a couple of hammocks (an essential study aid) are strung from trees. I can hear a hammer banging away on the other side of the island, where the new dive shop is being constructed and a couple of birds are squawking to each other in the bushes behind me. Other than that the only sound is the gentle surf and the tapping on my keyboard and the phrase that keeps running round my head is the first piece of Fijian I learned: Seqa na leqa. No worries.

Nadi to Leleuvia – our first days in Fiji

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by Jim McNish

A pod of spinner dolphins burst through the gin-clear water and as they leapt in front of the boat my heart leapt with them. It was our first full day on Leleuvia and there were eight volunteers plus Howard, Seru and Joni on the boat. We were on our way to the coral farm, a short 20 minute hop away from the island for a fun afternoon of snorkeling and fish spotting.

The twelve volunteers from three different countries had gathered together in drips and drabs over a couple of days in Nadi. Three of us had arrived via Seoul six days earlier and met up with three others who were already checked in to the Nadi Bay Resort Hotel. A couple of gap year students joined us the next morning and three more arrived singly over the course of the next 24 hours. Most people spent their free day chilling by the pool with a cocktail or a bottle of Fiji Bitter, recovering from the jet lag and getting to know each other. Howard, the brave and glorious leader of our adventure, (he emits a faint golden glow wherever he walks and is known and loved in every smoothie and cake shop in the islands. He arrived in the evening and eventually tracked us all down in the back of the hotel’s restaurant, where he gave us a brief run down on the activities planned for the next few days and an overview of island life and the aims of the project.

Day two began with exploration of Nadi town where several of us went shopping for vibrantly coloured Bula shirts and formal sulus, or Bula sundresses for the ladies, for we had been told that we were going to be honoured and privileged to meet Ratu Epenisa, the gentleman most likely to succeed as the next High Chief of all the islands – this was incredibly exciting news, comparable, perhaps, to arriving on a backpacking tour of the UK only to be informed that you had been invited to Buckingham Palace for tea with the Queen. Ratu Epenisa had learned about Blue Ventures activities on Leleuvia, which is only a 40 minute boat ride from his home island of Bau (pronounced Bao), and he had thrown his formidable weight and influence behind the project. This was not only big news for us, but was news for the whole of Fiji, as foreigners are almost never invited to Bau. We were to be accompanied by a reporter from the Fiji Times and a camera crew from Fiji One news as well as Professor Randy Thaman from the University of the South Pacific with some of his marine biology students and a representative of the Ministry of Fisheries. Before that, however, we needed to get to Suva on the other side of Viti Levu island, so the following morning we boarded an air conditioned coach for the four hour journey along the coast road. Two minutes before the coach pulled away Britt, the final member of the team arrived, straight off the plane and looking frazzled after a 24 hour flight delay in Los Angeles.

Every bend in the road revealed jaw dropping landscapes dotted with palm trees, sugar cane fields, jagged mountains veiled in mist and thick jungle on one side, and rocky outcrops and white sandy beaches leading to lapis coloured seas on the other. On arrival in Suva the scrubby mangroves gave way to cultivated gardens, docks and the local prison – possibly the least inviting place I have ever seen despite the gaily painted murals and bible quotations that adorned the outside walls.

The bus dropped us outside the Holiday Inn (slightly outside our price bracket) in the midday heat and we immediately transferred all our ridiculously heavy luggage into a pair of waiting minibuses that whisked us uphill for fifteen minutes to deposit us at the Rain tree Lodge, a small and comfortable hotel on the edge of the rainforest, with pools of brightly coloured giant water lilies, rich bird life and fish jumping to catch the (surprisingly few) mosquitoes. We were joined at lunch by Saras, the lady from the Department of Fisheries who would be joining us on Bau and representatives from the local Community Development Partnership who the BV team has been working with to get the project kicked off.

An afternoon of relaxing by the murky swimming pool gave way to evening so Craig, a professor of biology from Adrian College, Angus, a Scottish engineer and I, an Englishman who recently quit the rat race, donned our Bula shirts and sulus before heading to the bar to be met with a chorus of wolf whistles from the, it must be said, comparatively scruffy looking female members of our party. After dinner we had a short lecture followed by a Q and A session with Mr. Batibasaga, the Principle Fisheries Researcher, as jetlag caught up again with several of the crew. The ladies headed to bed shortly afterwards and the men folk retired to our verandah for a nightcap and much laughter as we listened to Craig’s stories of lizard hunting in Africa and Britt’s tales of life in Alabama. Good times.

The following day began with a trip into Suva to check out the fruit and fish market – an impromptu chance to practice fish identification skills, before we split into groups to help Howard gather the last few supplies, such as lubricant for the compressor, lifejackets and flares, first aid stuff and stationery supplies. After lunch some of the team went to the museum where they had a guided tour given by a local archeologist while others went to the flea market or headed back to the hotel.

Day three of the expedition proper saw Howard heading back into town for the very final bits and pieces that we needed to transport to the island while all the volunteers went for a walk in the rainforest. Overgrown jungle paths lead us towards a series of waterfalls and pools until eventually we got to a shallow and fairly murky swimming hole, where we washed off the sweat and splashed around and laughed some more. Of course, everyone was melting again by the time we had walked back uphill for an hour, but it was great fun.

That afternoon we loaded up the minibuses again and started the final leg of the trip to Leleuvia. The buses deposited people and bags in a big heap at Bau Landing – just a clearing in the mangroves with a small bus shelter to shade people from the sun while they await the arrival of the boats to the outer islands. Tristan, one of the four BV staff, met us at the dockside as he was on his way into Suva to buy a new dive boat. We divided up the kit and people between two small boats and were soon on our way, with the excitement building as we got closer and closer to our new island home.

Rain, rain go away…

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By Angela Walker

Greetings from Andava’s sun drenched beautiful beaches and turquoise waters!

Firstly, just to let you all know, we are all fine and well and are in a safe place here, away from any political troubles there have been recently in some towns and cities in Madagascar. Hopefully the issues will be resolved quickly.

So, news since the last blog….

After wishing for some rain and getting it, the cyclones came and went, and now we are scorchio once more!(and maybe not wishing so hard for rain) And able to continue with our expedition.

Us Vols’ are doing great, passing our benthic and fish tests (on land and underwater!) and really getting into the nitty-gritty of marine science. As we are a small group we have been able to do many double dives and I even did three dives one day! Using RDP of course! So after being a complete and total novice I am now an advanced PADI diver, perfecting hovering upside-down to do PIT surveys (still needs a bit of practice) and a really rewarding thing is actually knowing the names of fish and coral I see on the reefs. The coral reefs I have seen are so cool and the fish are totally amazing, moorish idols so beautiful and graceful, parrot fishes chomping away, a false eye sergeant following you and a crazy little jewel damsel telling you to get off his patch haha! And whoever invented trigger fish was really mad! Big swimming heads with crazy artwork and colours! Great!

So anyway, nitty-gritty not only involves diving and doing surveys, fish counts, biomasses etc, but also thanks to the lovely Amanda, wading around in exciting pongy sulphury Seagrass, fishing bits out (get the pun!) for species identification and more often than not, a brittle star (yucky squirmy starfish-ish thing) as well! But it was quite a laugh! Also, we have learnt about mangroves and their importance to the marine ecosystem and all went on a hike one afternoon in the baking hot sun to appreciate the sight (and smell!) of the mangroves. They drop germinated pods for new growth, have crazy roots that grow upwards to feed the plant with air when exposed at low tide and harbour pools of water that act as a nursery for the juvenile fishes. Excited by the little fishes and undeterred by warnings of mosquitoes Camilla decided to jump in and sit with them to get even closer!

Another fun project is the sea cucumber project that Georgi is running. It is a brilliant start at doing a project for alternative livelihoods to take some pressure off the reefs. A group of us went last week with the women’s association who are trialing out farming the sea cucumbers. We helped them catch the little blighters in their pen at low tide (they don’t run very fast it wasn’t much of a challenge!) count and weigh them and repair any damage on the net pens. When they have reached a suitable size they will be sold and a new batch of juveniles put into the pens. The project is going well and it was a fun afternoon with the ladies.

I have decided to try and do a garden project with the kids club here in Andavadoaka and went to visit Lamboara on Wednesday, a small village to the south, to have a look at a garden project they had already started. Well, it turned out to be quite the adventure! I went with James (BV staff) and we took a sailing pirogue. We loaded up the pirogue with a generator and DVD player so whilst we were down there we could show a movie to the kids from the other club. It took 1 1/2 to 2 hrs to get there, and when we arrived it was low tide so we had to wade through some sea grass (Amanda would have loved it!!) and the pirogue guys had to push the boat to shore. We went to the president of the villages’ house, said our hellos etc and caught up on local affairs (in Malagasy!?) It seems they had landed a catch in the morning and a dolphin was caught in the net, which they brought in too. After a quick tour of the village, we stopped by and saw the dolphin being cut up and weighed to share out between families. I must say it wasn’t a great sight as I really love dolphins but it seemed better that they use it for food rather than throw back a dead dolphin and it all seemed very organised and fair. So we headed back and lunch had been prepared, dolphin stew and rice! Its probably the only time in my life when I would be able to do so, so I tried it. To be honest I didn’t really like it, it tasted a lot like liver, so I managed to off load mine on a very happy James! After lunch I walked with the president to the garden and saw what they had achieved so far. It was really good, they had a fence of some rather scary looking cacti around to keep the pesky goats out and some good cultivated sand/soil with small plants that they had not long ago planted. They had sweet corn, watermelon and papaya from what I could gather in my GCSE French, and somehow tackled the spiny gate to get in and water it every night. I took some pictures and felt inspired to take the useful ideas back to base. I took a football with me which went down a storm with the kids, so we played a match for a while.

Later that evening we set up the generator and projector like an open air cinema and the whole village turned up to come and watch a Blue Planet DVD and I guess, the malgasy version of MTV with pop songs and a lot of bum shaking to the crowd’s amusement!

Our bed for the night was a concrete floor with just a thatched reed roof on, no walls, a foam mattress and a mosquito net. I slept surprisingly well and in the morning we had some bok-bok and tea and headed back to Andava in our own sweet time due to lack of wind!

It was a really great experience to stay in the village with a Malagasy family I really enjoyed it and the kids were so happy to see us too, I must have said ‘Salama’ a thousand times!

Now, how do I break it to the Vols’ and kids that we have to go and collect Zebu (cow) poo to fertilise the garden….?!!

Back soon!

Angie xx