Our New Home!

Sunday, June 21, 2009, midmorning

Ahhh, our new home!

Yesterday was the big day – the day we would finally arrive at our new home for the next 10 weeks.  It was another early morning – the time difference has made our early risers rise even earlier – as early as 3:30 am some mornings!   After a casual breakfast of cold leftover pizza from the dinner the night before and fresh pineapple and bananas, we all loaded all 10 pieces of luggage, our backpacks, our carry-ons, and our eager selves into the taxi van that would take us to the Nadi airport.  Checking in was easy – much easier than in the US – and we saved $130 when the airline employee that checked us in offered us a bribe to let us slide on some overweight luggage!

Like everything else here, the airlines run on Fiji time, so 3 hours later we were at last on the small propeller plane that would fly us to Labasa.  A beautiful flight over the ocean – we even spotted Vorovoro, our new home, from the air.   A nice woman with a bright, welcoming smile from Tribewanted (the organization we are staying with) met us and one other arrival at the tiny Labasa airport.  The airport was literally the size of a large living room!  We loaded our luggage into one van, piled ourselves into another, and were driven to the harbor where the boat waited to take us to the island.  There was only room enough room for our luggage on the small boat, so we went into town to buy kava root (our passport onto the island – it is a gift for the chief of the tribe that owns the island) at the market – sooooo busy on a Saturday!   Our fair skinned/fair haired children attracted more attention than ever.  After our market business was done, we stopped for a delicious Chinese lunch with our new friend Mirth from Holland. She is on gap year and has been backpacking through Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji these last several months.   Bellies full, we loaded once more into a minivan that would take us to a harbor closer to Vorovoro – the boat had dropped off our luggage and was headed back to meet us.

The yellow boat was small, but sturdy, and fit all of us and a few extra people comfortably but cozily.    Rain drizzled down and mixed with the sea spray as we sped across the sea – both Bethany and I were grateful we had our glasses to keep the water out of our eyes.   The air was cool and I was surprised to see goose bumps on my arms for the first time since we arrived.   I was immediately grateful that I had decided to pack a fleece after all!  Fifteen minutes on the sea and then we idled up to the shore – home at last!   Amy, the Tribewanted onsite manager that I’ve been corresponding with for the last several weeks, met us at the shore.   She welcomed us and announced that we had arrived just in time for afternoon tea – perfect!  We followed her through the tropical foliage to the Bounty Bar – the name for the community kitchen.    Afternoon tea was delicious rolled pancakes with lemon juice – aaaah!  As we ate, a few other project employees and members introduced themselves.   Currently on the island, there are members from California and Chicago, Scotland, London, Australia, Holland, New Zealand, and Ireland.   And now, Indiana!

Shortly after tea, we were shown to our bure and began to settle in.  The walls are made of woven reeds, the roof is made of dried palm fronds woven and tied to long wooden tree poles.  It is very shady inside, and because it was overcast and rainy outside, we had to use our headlamps to see to unpack.  The windows are open so a nice breeze blows through.  The floor is made of wood slats – the kids are having a lot of fun fishing out treasures from other inhabitants that have fallen through the slats.  So far a drivers license for woman from Israel, some Fijian money, and some shells have been fished out.    As we settled in, folks stopped in to help gather extra pillows from around the village, put up mosquito nets, and answer questions and offer tips.  We learned that all food must be kept in plastic containers or the rats would visit.  We learned that the roaches are big, plentiful, and harmless, but always keep bags zipped closed or we would likely find surprises.  The main pest control resource on the island are harmless but huge spiders – as large as a man’s hand, and hairy.  But perfectly harmless – the Fijian men let them crawl on their faces to make the women squeal.   They do not bite and they help control the bug population – this information helped calm the heebee jeebees that arose in me at the thought of encountering one of these fellas. 

After some unpacking and a walk along the shoreline to explore, the dinner bell rang and we joined everyone else for dinner.  Because it was raining, we ate in the Grand Bure (the central meeting place and the largest bure in all of Fiji) rather than at the picnic tables by the sea.  Dinner was delicious – lentils burgers, green beans, and potato wedges.  Over dinner, everyone introduced themselves – so many names, I know I will not be able to keep track!  Right now, there are 17 members on the island, but many leave on Wednesday.  I am not sure how many new arrivals we are getting yet.   The Fijians leave for the weekend, so it was more quiet and lazy around the village than usual.  I get the impression that with the Fijians here, village life is a lot more lively!  But a nice quiet arrival was just perfect for me – time to settle and take it all in. 

After dinner, Jimmy carried a sleeping Ollie off to bed while Lucas, Bethie and I taught our new friend Jim how to play Uno.    One game was all us tired travelers had in us, so off we went to the bure for some sleep.  The kids climbed in their beds, tucked their nets in around their mattresses to keep out the creepy crawlies, and settled down with books and flashlights to read.  Jimmy and I settled in our bed, net tucked in securely – no chance of one of those spiders getting in here!!!!.  Jimmy wrote in his journal, I read my book – then for some reason Jimmy had to get out of bed and while he was up he shined his light at the ceiling and dozens of eyes shined back at him.   Whether it was because it was raining outside, or if their visit indoors is a nightly occurrence still remains to be known – but the ceiling of our bure was dotted with dozens of the friendly large exterminating spiders, doing their nightly hunting, I suppose.  I am not a squeamish one about bugs, and I quite expected to encounter some large ones here in Fiji, but I have to say sharing my new home with so many of these large, furry spiders certainly stretched my comfort zone a bit.  But feeling secure in my net and in the knowledge that they were not interested in me or my children at all, I settled down to a peaceful sleep, lulled by sounds of the wind, rain, and sea. 

We slept pretty well – Ollie and Bethe were both up a bit in the night and we ended up playing musical beds a bit – but we all arose shortly after dawn feeling well rested.  Down to the sea to explore a bit, and then to breakfast.  Fresh fruit, Weetbix , French toast filled our bellies.   Both Jimmy and I have decided to give up coffee while on this trip, which isn’t going to be too hard because the coffee they have to offer is the instant stuff.  Jimmy says the loose leaf tea is good, so I plan to try that later today.  Four days now into our coffee withdrawal symptoms, we are frustrated that we are still experiencing headaches.  Hoping that will stop soon. 

Time to go now – the bell just rang for morning tea.  Today promises to be a day of exploration, nesting in the new bure, and resting.  Aaaah.  Feels good to be home.