A real Fijian Experience - Beqa Island, Fiji,
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Sat 28 Jun 2014 23:48
On the way, Ivan caught a huge mahi-mahi. He is managing to pull a fish out of the water every time he puts a line in at the moment. Once we had the fish safely on board, the line had to come in then, as the freezer is getting very full of mahi-mahi!
Beqa, is a small island south of the main Fiji island, Viti Levu and used to be the the home of the fire walkers. This tradition is now mostly seen as a tourist/cultural show in mainland hotels, rather than in the villages anymore.
When we arrived, we were unsure what we should take ashore as we are really very close to the mainland and there are 3 or 4 large resorts on the island. We asked the other boat in the anchorage but they hadn't left the boat. We decided to play it safe and took a bunch of dried kava, some school books and pens for the children and some tinned and dried food as well. As it turned out this was our opportunity to meet the village chief, something we thought we were going to miss out on. Just as we were about to get in the dinghy, the local fisherman brought their boat around selling fresh caught lobster, which was a lovely treat!
We were met, as we landed by Benny who, on our request, took us to the chiefs house. We were introduced to the chief, Jonny, who accepted our sevusevu gift of dried kava. We then met various members of his family who came to see who we were. Jonny's eldest son came and asked to see our cruising license and boat papers, we had fortunately taken a copy ashore, to check we had official permission to be there. We were then formally invited to stay in the anchorage and given protection for our stay. After that Benny gave us a short tour of the village, showing us the church and school and some of the houses as well. After about an hour, our tour was over. Whilst here, we had met the ladies who make tapa cloth and bought some as a souvenir, and also other people with goods to sell. We left some books and pens for the children and prepared to leave. We were invited to attend church the next day, Sunday, at 10am, and told to come ashore at 9.30am to meet with Benny.
The chief of the village, Jonny
Pounding the kava
When we arrived in the morning, we were taken to Benny's nephews home where we met Sai, his wife Alena, and 2 daughters Wanga and Sara, aged 4 and 8. John and Ivan had taken sarongs to wear over their shorts for church, but these were felt to be too informal so our host, Sai, went away and came back with a tailored sulu, a skirt for men in the wrap around style of a kilt, and a shirt each. Once they were properly attired, we were offered tea, which turned out to be hot chocolate, and homemade cake.
At 10am the 'bell' was sounded and after a short while we went to the church and the service started about 10.30am. Although the children are all taught in English at school, the church services are in Fijian, so apart from the small part in English, where we were welcomed by the minister and blessed, the rest went a bit over our heads. The service was about an hour and a half long, which wasn't too bad. The Fijians have to attend church 3 times on Sunday, 7am, 10.30am and 3pm. After the service we went back to Sai and Alena's house where it turned out we were to have lunch with the family.
The church 'bell'
Some photos of the village
We had donated a 5 litre can of petrol the day before for the village generator and had brought our other spare 10 litre can with us, so that was taken and decanted while lunch was prepared. Also, chatting to Alena, we found that mahi-mahi is a great delicacy on the island as it is very expensive to buy and swims too deep for the village fisherman to catch, we went back to our boat and brought all we had, a win-win situation as it means they get fish and Ivan can put his fishing line out again on the way to Musket Cove.
After a short while lunch was ready. The large woven mat was laid on the floor of the lounge and we all sat down to eat. We had boiled rock cod and trevally fish served with a sauce of coconut milk, tomatoes and onions poured over, a fern salad in a similar sauce and boiled taro. All of which was absolutely delicious.
Sitting down for Sunday lunch - Fijian style
This is the back garden of the house where some of the vegetables are grown for the family. The rest are grown up in the hills on a plantation. Each family has it's own plantation which is passed down from generation to generation. This families plantation is about an hour away by foot, and the men go each day to tend to the vegetables and collect the ripe ones.
Post lunch, we sat and chatted and took some photos of the family to print out and laminate back at the boat as they have no family photos as they are too expensive. Just before we left we were given a large bag of tomatoes, which we had found relatively expensive to buy in the market, 2 papayas and a bag of cassava, one of the local root vegetables. When we returned with the photos we had laminated we were given a large Fijian scone made with coconut milk which was delicious.
This is our host family who we spent the day with
John playing catch outside with Wanga
Ivan's new best mate!
The whole day was a really memorable experience, and we now all feel as though we have been to Fiji and seen real life there. Our plan is to return this way in 3 or 4 years time and it will certainly be interesting to visit the village again and see how things have changed, if at all, in that time.
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