Mosquitos and crashed computer
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Mon 22 Sep 2014 21:48
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Early morning, now we are anchored at the sandspit.
That took us 1 hour to get here between mutos and coral heads. But it is easier
to go to a place where you have been. A digital track can be followed on the
chartplotter but we still have to have eyes at the bow.
But let's pick up our thread before that. Sunday, a
very hot day with no wind, absolutely not a touch of wind. We dress in our
Fijian clothes to go to church, we are invited by our host family and then a
lunch with them.
We come ashore with the dinghy and before we know
it agressive mosquitos that do not even know that they should stay in the shade
attack us.
As Erika and Ellinor are always victims of nasty
insects they do have insects repellent with them and we start to spray ourselves
with that. We have to walk through the forest for 20 minutes followed by hungry
blood suckers that obvioulsy do not like wind but have no problem with sun and
repellent. As we reach the village on the other side there is a small breeze and
they keep the area open spaced with few big trees that give shadow, the flying
terror disappears, almost.
I sat with the men in the shadow as we were waiting
for the church drum to beat out the message that mass is going to
start.
As that happened women in the church started to
chant questions and answers in a rythm.
Rituals are strong, no matter what you and I
believe, they are made to bind people together and to regulate
lifes.
As a yachtee said; when the white missionaries got
here they were shocked to find people with almost no clothes so they taught
them to dress properly and now the Fijians are shocked by the white people
coming here not being properly dressed.
The singing in church is LOUD! All seem to practice
the primal scream and after an hour where our kids performed very well by
sitting on the same spot, it was over.
We went over to our host family and were served a
great sunday lunch. Sitting on the floor crosslegged you are served a soup and
kasava, yams and fresh baked bread, fish and a coconut with coconut water (yes
it is actually water in coconuts, but it has a taste of coconut). The coconut
water you drink with a straw made from a plant that has a hollow
stalk.
We had brought a newly baked chockolate cake and
that was popular. Especially since she got to keep the container (they really
need containers for food)
Fabulous, but for Andreas it was a hard test,
he is very picky with food and Selotte is on him all the time, do you eat
enought?
After lunch we went back to the boat and we had
company with Lucas and his daughters from the Brasilian boat
Santapaz.
Santapaz is a 39 fot Hallberg Rassy that they
bought in UK 12 years ago. Lucas wife Sandra is in Brazil taking care of her
father so Lucas is both a Father and Mother now. As our kids played on Santapaz,
Lucas wanted to move to the Sandspit area, it is perfect for children to play,
long sand beaches etc. He offered to take our kids and that they could sleep
over!
So suddenly Ellinor and I were on our own dining
and talking till late at night. Trying to sort out the future of the boat and
the future for us.
Next day we took off in the morning, I had made an
appointment with Mini that I could come and see (take pictures) when they
started to work on the big pieces of tree to create kava bowls.
It might be interesting to know that the monetary
cost of living on Fulaga is about 300 FDollars/year. 1FD=0,38 Euro =
4SEK
Now that might sound cheap but they are fishing,
snorkeling, harvesting food almost every day from 5 in the morning til lunch,
then they take a midday rest, work again from 2pm till 4-5 pm. It is not
stressful, when you look at it from our perspective but they have their
challenges. Right now the village is really short of water. They have no well,
they gather rain water and it has been dry for a long time by now.
They do not have other medical care then a nurse, a
young guy from Suva that is truly trying to do his best.
Medical care in Fiji is free.
As we aproached the village the nurse called
Ellinor for a second opinion, his little clinic was already full of waiting
patients and I continued on to see Mini in his workshop. Of course Ellinor got
stuck there working all morning til lunch.
Minis workshop is actually just a roof, under that
roof men sit cross legged and work with very simple tools. But never the less,
their skills are amazing. The only machine they have i a chainsaw, a big one
from Huskvarna (wich they pronounce Hass Kavarna).
It was impressing and it is good to sit and listen
and look whats going on.
When I was about to leave, Serlote came with lunch
in a bowl to take home! Curry with nudles, delicious.
Went back to the boat after being offered lunch at
the clinic were I found Ellinor and took off to the Sandspit.
We anchored next to Santapaz and collected our
children, invited Lucas and his daughters over for dinner and as I was going to
fix some pictures he wanted, my computer crashed, completely. Thank god I made a
backup recently but now I have no Mac to work on my pictures and to write my
books etc. Feels empty, I can assure you! We will see how I try to solve it.
Right now the watermaker is working hard to keep up
with our very spare consumption and the kids are in school with
Ellinor.
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