Amazing! We jumped off a waterfall today after spending half a day with a traditional Fijian village - we went up a pristine river much like the Li River in China - something out of a Viet Nam movie - in a "long boat" then docked and were met by the chief of the village. Women had to follow behind the men in traditional role - the village of 107 families and about 400 members had no electricity, grew all their food and was very happy for us to share Kava with them - check out the properties of this island drink - unbelievable! We were treated to traditional cannibal dances with neck-spitters carved from wood and men in grass skirts.
The little children stared and giggled at us.
We danced with the members as the adult males sang and played string instruments and primitive drums ( while drinking Kava) - such a happy relaxed society! They have so little material things and are soo very happy!
The waterfall is their source of water which is piped up to the village. The water is so clear and clean that no filttation is done - and after swimming in the waterfall pool and river - our skin is satin soft. It's hard to explain how this place grips your heart and how every Fijian goes out of their way to make visitors to their island feel like family. We get a friendly wave and big smiles everywhere - even when traveling in the bus down the road- the workers in the fields, the children, women doing laundry on the riverbed - all look stop to wave to us as if we were huge celebrities.
The village we visited only gets 10 delegations all year that come to visit - no other outside visitors besides P2P students. It is reachable only by boat, or a small one lane dirt road which the school bus uses to get the HS students (very few go that far) to class. Rugby is the sport of choice - and the village is build around their Rugby filed. The school library for the 80 students is two shelves of books - so pathetic it saddened us that think that if we all had just brought one book, it would have almost double in size! The children play a type of stick ball, only the "ball" is another stick which they hit and try to run to an imaginary base before getting tagged. They happily pose for pictures - and then thank us for taking them. This village, and expecially the school makes s desire to help in some way when we get back home. Surely we could collect books and ship them to such wonderful children.