Helen’s first few months in Fiji

Well, what shall I write about first…so many things to talk about and yet I don’t want to seem like I’m wittering on and possibly boring you the reader – oh well I can’t help it, it’s what I do best so here goes…

I have been on Leleuvia now for just over 3 ½ months; they seemed to have just flown by. There have been there ups and downs, a lot of laughs, a few tears, and tons of hard work; but because of these, it makes you really glad to have that cold beer in hand sitting on the sand at the end of the day, with new friends and old, looking up at the stars as you sit/lie thinking (through all the aches) how lucky I (in fact we) are to be in such an idyllic setting…I’m still finding that I have to pinch myself, even now and then, to make sure this isn’t all some cruel joke or dream which I have forgotten to wake up from.

So just to introduce myself- I’m the Dive Instructor on the island, and I love my job. I don’t think I have, nor will, dive anywhere in the world more visually stimulating than here in Fiji. Although I tend to choose sites to teach my courses that have more sand then coral cover (for obvious reasons) these sites, I have found, should not be dismissed as being boring – there are acres of garden eels, tons of little gobies that live in holes in a beneficial partnership with shrimps that are blind and use the goby as a signal for when threats are present; manta shrimp the size of my fist and fore arm (no joke on this one); such things can be found on sites that don’t look so much, so just imagine what it’s like when you go to dive sites such as those on the outer reef…fish soup, that’s what! I have never seen so many sharks, turtles, snappers (of all different species and of such substantial size either), barracudas, sweetlips…basically there are just too many to mention. And that’s just the fish! The benthic life i.e. coral and inverts blow your mind too. Lets for an example say you stop in a spot and were to put a 1m2 Quadrat down, you would still be down there noting all that occurs within that Quadrat long after your dive time would allow – stunning!

So that’s the diving, the people here in Fiji and on our island in particular, are the friendliest I have ever encountered, and I’ve travelled quite a bit. It has got to the stage now that the island staff are considered family by all us BV staff and any volunteer that comes to the island and vice-versa. They are sharp witted and very inviting, especially when it comes to learning traditional Fijian dances or their language, which we get 2/3 members of the staff to do once a week every week each volunteer group comes, and they love it…that is the local staff and the volunteers.

See I have started to witter already. Right I will close now, hopefully I have been able to portray in this little snippet of a blog how great, wonderful, special this place called Leleuvia really is…and maybe even tempt a few of you readers out there to come join the fun some day?

Moce – until next time,

Helen