It’s been a long, long time since I wrote here on this blog…eighteen months or more, even this post that I started in Bali three months ago is very late getting put up here. Fortunately Blogger, com waits patiently...
So many things have happened… a trip to Fiji for two months which deserves a whole book, but which will instead get barely a few words because it was so long ago now and so many other events have crowded it from my mind. Or maybe not – when I let my mind drift back there, the colours and sounds and above all, the people, are so vivid and real that I hardly need the photos that are hopefully safely ensconced on my external hard drive to bring them to you.
Everyone should go to Fiji – it has all the seductive elements of the south sea paradise we all long for! The sparkling seas that link over 300 islands, the smiling people and their lilting harmonies, the tropical fruits in abundance…But don’t go just after a cyclone like I did! Flattened coconut palms, absence of fresh fruit and veg, people suffering (but quietly, patiently, gently) the effects of having their gardens and livelihoods destroyed. It was major – I was so glad to be able to take some money collected from my generous friends and to be able to put it in the hands of people who really needed it. We met such amazingly lovely people! Brendan/Mook spent hours recording and editing the music of the little male bands who sing in exquisite harmonies, as well as one little nine-year-old angel who sang gospel and a church choir that brought tears to my eyes. All of these recordings we took to Suva where we spent 3 weeks trying to find a way to get them reliably and cheaply produced for sale. Despite some promising leads, nothing eventuated and we returned home to set up a “Fiji Aid” website to sell a compilation to raise funds for cyclone vicitims. That didn’t elicit much interest either, so now I am funding the church choir CD myself in an attempt to make something eventuate from the trip and to help the people of Kioa make some money for themselves.
Kioa! What a place, what a people! Kioa is a small island in Fiji bought by Polynesian people from Tuvalu after WW2, using US money they had earned during the war. Thinking ahead to the time when their small coral atolls could become overcrowded, a small contingent set off to populate a distant hilly islet in the midst of the Fijian cannibal culture. Unsurprisingly, they maintained their distance from the cannibals and kept their own culture strong and vibrant. We travelled by open boat to an idyllic scene, with handhewn canoes on the beach and stunningly beautiful Polynesian men and women dancing enthusiastically in their community hall, dressed and decorated in traditional style and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Magic! And such a gift to be there!
Though equally religious, despite the overwhelming presence of the Methodist church (bells to wake up at 5 and then again for evening prayers, church three times a week!) Kioa is far more egalitarian than the rest of Fiji. Men and women both serve on the local council and share decision-making – although the men, as ever, were the only musicians to play their local and traditional songs for us. We were there for Easter and were treated to an unreserved display of rant from the pulpit, interspersed with the most beautiful choir music I have ever heard. After the service, the choir assembled to do it all again for a recording.
I went back to Kioa by myself for a week and stayed with a new friend, Luisa and her family. Luisa took me to Savusavu to meet her mum Anna, a great lady who had been out at the height of the cyclone securing her boats - she is also the grand-daughter of a Samoan princess who came to Fiji with her English lover after her father chased him away from Samoa, bearing her first child on a small islet near Taveuni. Later, Brendan and I both went back to Savusavu to stay with Anna for a few days - she offered us space to build a house - what a dream that would be...
Well, that was a bit of the Fiji story! Photos yet to come…
