Wed Oct 14 - Suva Fiji

Fiji is huge compared to the other islands we have visited. They said it is a four hour drive from Suva to the west coast where Vijay Singh, the golfer, is building a resort. It is also said to be dry over there.

It wasn't dry in Suva today. It rained all day long. That contributed to the accident that has struck our table mate Gen. She slipped in a puddle and fell and broke her hip. They were 45 minutes from the ship at the time. They took her to a local clinic and then back to the ship. She will be in the ship's hospital until we get to Auckland and there they will operate on her hip. Later she will be flown back home to Utah. This is a very sad (and scary) situation. Her husband Herman is, of course, distraught. So are we.

The tour today was to a village and a kava ceremony. We took a bus ride through the town and out through a typical tropical wetlands landscape to the village of Sawani. It consists of a cluster of cinder block and concrete houses with corrugated metal roofs. The community center is a concrete building that looks like a vacant store, but it is well suited to their needs. It can hold about 200 people comfortably for meetings and village socials. The entire village has colorful landscape plantings. I didn't see any pets. Maybe they had them all contained somewhere.

We were greeted by the local women singing and leading us into the community center. There the men were seated in a group around the kava bowl. They asked which of us tourists would like to drink the kava and nobody volunteered. It was getting embarrassing, so I raised my hand. Then another guy did too. By being the first to volunteer I became the “chief” of the visitors. The sub chief of the village made a long and flowery welcoming speech in Fijian. Since I don't speak Fijian, a local man was designated to be my sub chief to speak for me. He gave a long and flowery reply and then the kava was prepared. They took powdered pepper tree root and soaked it in water. The mix was strained through a cloth and it was ready to drink.

They served it in a coconut shell. Protocol is to drink the entire shell down. This wasn't difficult as the flavor was entirely bland. It has a vague kaolin flavor, maybe. After we two volunteers were served, several others also stepped up, including Libby. It leaves your mouth with a slight tingle but that seems to be the only effect. However I did notice that the singing got louder and more enthusiastic as they drank more of it.

The actual chief of the village sort of adopted me as the visiting chief and gave us a tour of the village. He was very interesting. He served in the Fiji Regiment with the United Nations peacekeeping forces in the Gaza Strip. He spent 5 Christmases in Bethlehem before coming back to Fiji.

We went back to Suva and rode through the town, seeing the President's Palace and the changing of the guard. There have been at least three coups here as the ethnic Fijians conflict with the ethnic Indians for political control. Violence doesn't seem to accompany these coups in any significant way.

When we got back to the ship the police band was putting on quite a show. It was boarding time and the ship's crew were telling people to get on the ship, but we all kept watching the band and taking pictures. Finally the crew sent out five staff officers who formed a cordon line and herded the passengers back to the boarding ramp. I've never seen anything like that on a cruise ship before.

It was a fascinating afternoon.

Two days at sea before we reach New Zealand.