We arrived here for Catherine’s Birthday to follow her wish to find Talia, a weaver we briefly met in Savusavu.

After having learned a few basic Fijian words since our arrival, we now met with a new culture and the Tuvaluan Language. Mr Taitai, the current head of Administration welcomed us at the beach under the TALOFA sign, our first word meaning WELCOME.

 

Our welcome was warm and very pleasant and was followed by our longest stay within one community, filled with numerous meetings, events, feasts and family time. Our visit to Talia grew to a lovely friendship with the whole family. 

 

             Food

 

                          Paul and I managed to capsize the canoe

 

 

 

For the first two weeks, we were the only yacht in the bay with a brief visit of the Captain Cook Cruise ship, which was anchored not longer than 3 hours in the bay and gave the guests time to see the show put on by the villagers in the longhouse, buy handicrafts, start a short conversations with some people, take photos until taken back to the ship.

It seemed all very rushed to us but even this brief encounter must have created plenty of joy to the holiday makers.

The funniest incident was a British dentist sitting on the floor in her Ralf Lauren Polo shirt trying to look into some of the children's mouth to do her bit of social contribution...she spoke in slow, broken English accompanied by many hand signs, advising the children not to drink too much Coca-Cola and soft drinks... Little did she know that the mothers spoke perfect English and that Soft Drinks are a Luxury and not on the daily menu? Did she know, that the School of Kioa won the teeth hygiene program of Fiji this year? That all the school children have to brush their teeth under supervision every Lunchtime? 

10 Minutes later she was back on the cruise ship and I would love to hear her accounts of this brief encounter.

 

Yes, we all have our views on the effects of sugar on our health and yes I saw a lot of sugar going into drinking water and tea, but how much advanced is the western society on this awareness? Food processing, fast food chains, Breakfast cereals, chocolate, sweets and Coca-Cola (The majorities of Soft drinks belong now to Coca-Cola).

It made me think, when I compare this to the 90% fresh, home grown, cooked food we experience here.

 

                 

 

Later Blackjack anchored in the Bay. After Sunday service Talia and Kautai extended their hospitality to them and did not hesitate to have 5 more guests. We all decided to stay for a local festival, which was prepared during our stay and had a fantastic time.

                        

 

 

 

During our time here, we also saw the local Tui Tai Adventure Cruises visiting twice and we can safely say that the villagers don’t put on a show, they truly love dancing and singing, they do it with the same enthusiasm, if not even more, between themselves. We filmed the dancing and didn’t get around capturing pictures.

 

             

 

We had a memorable time here, showered with kindness, joy, generosity and spirituality which we take with us on our voyage onwards.

 

                 TOFA, good bye until we meet again!