Waya island - The Yasawa Islands - Western Fiji
CuriousOyster
Steve & Trish Brown
Wed 20 Oct 2010 05:11
Trish and I have come NW from Viti Levu to the Yasawa Group of Islands that
lie about 40nm west of the main island and stretch for about 50nm. The
islands are far less touristy than the Mamanucas and most islands have a few
small villages each with a "chief or Turagi ni Koro (mayor). Fijian custom
dictates that whenever you arrive close to a village you must go and pay
your respects to the chief and present a gift of Yaqona from which the local
drink Kava is made.
There is usually a small ceremony where the chief welcomes you to the island
and his village, you make a short speech explain why you are there, he then
explains a little about the village, blesses the Yaqona and then gives you
permission to roam freely around the island, the village and the reefs
around.
When we went in this morning to pay our respects and were met everywhere by
smiling, friendly people who asked where we had come from, what was it like
in Britain, and did we like Fiji. There were also lots of young children
although the older kids were in the local school that serves all four
villages on the island.
After our meeting with the chief we went along to the school to meet the
headmaster. He told us that there were 168 kids at present of which 106 were
boarders. He also said that the government gave F$12.5 per child per term
for food. About £5! The kids all wore uniform of black shorts and white
shirts, received a pretty good standard of education from the 8 teachers in
the school and many went on to higher school on the main island. Each
afternoon and evening we could hear the kids laughing and playing, obviously
well fed and happy.
By any standards, life on the island is pretty basic with most families
relying on what they grow or catch supplemented by purchases from the local
co-operative store. There is a small clinic on the island that serves all
four villages and we met a young couple with a one year old son that had
come down from the village in the north to visit the clinic to receive
treatment for some pretty sore looking boils under the husbands armpits.
Ally, husband Ben and their son Joseph were sat waiting under the shade of a
palm for a ride back by boat up the east coast to their village. Ben had
cracked open a ripe Papaya to quench their thirsts while they waited, no
Coca Cola for them!
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