Still in Yanuca
Spindrift
David Hersey
Mon 28 Sep 2009 00:58
I unfairly maligned the 3G set-up. I put receiver up in the cockpit by the windscreen and was surprised to find it working. We can all connect except the boat PC which for some bloody PC reason doesn’t want to play. The connection is not very fast but it doesn’t drop out and we were able to download a 517 GB file of Sony Video Camera software which we have been trying to do for ages. It took about 4 hours.
Sunday was all grey again, very heavy cloud but no rain. Much to our surprise the sun popped into view for a few seconds just as it was setting on the horizon.
We walked up and over to the one village of 250 or so depending on who’s telling you.
When you visit a village in Fiji it is a requirement to participate in the ceremony of “sevusevu” in which you present the chief or the tribal spokesman with a supply of kava in return for asking to visit the village. As it was Sunday afternoon and on Sunday’s they won’t drink it before 6pm we were spared having to taste the muddy liquid which numbs your lips and tongue and eventually your whole body. It’s a bit like drinking novocaine for fun.
The village was surprisingly charming as were the people we met. They have very little but seem very happy. The children were especially curious about us.
They have a small skiff which goes to the mainland twice a week, weather permitting, otherwise they’re on their own.
Sunday evening we had a wonderful fish meal with the 4 surfers in the resort who are very obsessed with their hobby. They go 7 miles out to a break every morning around 9 and get back at 5ish exhausted. They talk surfer slang which is sometime quite hard to fathom.
The resort does a set meal each night and everything is presented beautifully and the food is excellent.
After dinner they all wanted to try kava. I watched from nearby as one by one they relaxed into a near stupor...no that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but they all went quiet.
Today the sun is back and I will try to send some pictures with this.
