What else can I say? It was like the end of summer camp. The bus leaves and all the kids start crying, then the counselors start crying and pretty soon everyone has broken down in tears. That was the end of this evening. What a feeling to be so loved by such wonderful, beautiful people.

The day started out with Ann and Lisa going in to the village to say “personal” goodbyes, give a couple special gifts and then help Jasmine finish sewing a dress that she ended up wearing to the evening event.

Jasmine's new dress

Bob and John stayed on their respective boats prepping. John was finishing working on the village’s sewing machines he’s been fixing and Bob was putting the final touches on the slide show/movie that we’ve been working on showing the beauty that is Fuluga. It ended up at about 15 minutes of really wonderful, emotional, photos of the villagers from the three villages.

Saying our goodbye’s started with the Eta Tau which is the formal goodbye to the village. It is our showing recognition that we have been well taken care of and releasing the village of responsibility for our welfare. We first did it with our host family and then walked over and did a second one with the chief.

At our host family there we needed a LOT of tissues. Very emotional. I can’t really convey the sense of how we (and Orcinius) have become attached to them and they to us except to offer two little vignettes of the ceremony. The first is that Ann and I were presented with a carved wooden plaque. It is about 12 inches by 16 inches. In the middle it says; “Charisma” and all around the outside is carved very intricate Fijian symbols. Joe made this for us since he is an excellent carver and of course was my mentor in the bowl carving we’ve talked about in past posts. On the back is a special message to us using our Fijian names. It’s still in the village so I’ll have to translate later. The second was a wonderful speech from Tau’s mother (who we now refer to as “Pu Ra”, meaning Grandma Ray). I her speech she mentioned her embarrassment that they still; “Walked on dirt” while we didn’t back in our home country. For us it was a heartfelt and humble way to say how she hoped that we enjoyed their hospitality even though we were used to much more grand surroundings. We assured her that who they are and how they live is what we find so delightful.

Ann gave Joe and Tau a special wall hanging/quilt called; “Home is where the heart is”. They were speechless and I thought they were going to have a breakdown on the spot. John and Lisa also gave some wonderful/thoughtful gifts that I’ll leave to the Orcinius blog to detail.

Then we moved to the Chief’s hut to do the Eta Tau with him. This was more formal. We presented the ceremonial kava offering and made some speeches about how wonderful our stay had been. This is where the village presented us (via the chief) with gifts. A “pile” of gifts were then placed on the mat in front of Orcinius and us. Carvings and weaved purses and the like piled a couple feet high were placed as gifts. There were so many we’re relying on someone to come down with a wheel-barrow tomorrow to bring them. It was really overwhelming.

Then the real event. We went to the “community center” which is a large corregated tin hut next to the chief’s residence. The recently got solar energy AND Orcinius bought and brought a computer projector to the village so we were able to show the slide show/movie in large format and living color. I’m happy to say that it brough the house down. Everyone was hooting and hollering at the pictures and loving seeing themselves on the “big screen”. One of the things we said (so very true) was that we stopped measuring our time at Fulunga by days and weeks and started measuring it by the friendships that we were making. The slide show carried this emotion.

After two showings of the slide show (they asked for an encore), John, Lisa, Ann and I sang a song we’ve been working on customized to Fulunga. Lisa and I played our Ukes, John drummed his bongo and Ann sang with us. Another big hit! They were howling at the lyrics Lisa customized to Fulunga.

I could go on and on but will instead use a quote from one of the other cruisers who were present to describe the emotion: “Wow, how will we ever top that!” How indeed.

At the end of the evening to signal that it was time to go I called out that we would like to hear a Fijian goodbye song. They were ready and very soon were singing a beautiful tune that halfway through had everyone (which at this point was most of the village) in tears. Well that started us as well and by the time the song was over everyone was crying. At the end of the song we got up and went round the room one by one giving a hug, handshake, kiss – sometimes all of the above – to each of our friends and a hearty: “Soto Tale” which means; “Until we meet again”. At that point the men continued to drink some final kava (tradition has it that they “drown out” our tracks out of town with kava, and the women literally followed us halfway back to the anchorage before one last set of goodbyes, hugs and kisses. There will be more tomorrow as they all know that there is stuff yet to be delivered down to the beach before we can leave. It’s the Fijian way.

Simoni playing Bob's Uke.

Joe on the Uke.

Some of the men at the party.

So, we’ve been here something like ten weeks. We’re moving on. We’ll leave this anchorage and move to the other side of the lagoon to prepare Charisma for sea and wait for a weather window. We may not actually leave for a few days, but we have definitely taken our leave from the village.

Summer camp is over. We’ve moving on to new adventures.

Our adventures with the hermit, Paolias, continued today. Of course, you may recall that due to the calm weather we have been experiencing recently Paoliasi had other guests too. His nephew and family spent the night and were up fishing very early this morning. They had spent the night on the beach, sleeping under the stars in the warm air. It reminded me of the summer nights as I grew up when a bunch of the neighborhood kids would sleep outside.

As promised Paoliasi and family took us clamming at low tide. Low tide was around 10:30. Life on Charisma and Orcinius was going early this morning too. By the time we went clamming not only had Bob and John gone across to an empty beach and burned the garbage but Lisa and I had gone for an hour long paddleboard/kayak trip circumnavigating “Bere’s Island” and wandering through the nearby motus. No turtle were seen but the lagoon was in its glory.

Ann shows her form digging clams on the beach.

The clamming expedition was quite successful. Bob, Lisa and John took to the water and looked for the “smile” that would indicate a clam. It is tougher than it sounds and takes a lot of practice to be able to identify and grab the clams before they bury themselves. Their harvest was greatly helped by both Paoliasi and Jimi. Meanwhile I was sitting on the sand digging at the “clam line” finding the small sightly green clams, with the help of Nailume, the 12-year old son. And we found plenty to add to the collection.

After harvest we took all of the clams back to the boats and Bob made his clam linguine which we brought back ashore for a lunchtime picnic. Ima added baked bread fruit and sliced coconut to the feast and a party was had! Using the fork proved too time-consuming for Paoliasi but the others worked through it and enjoyed a meal prepared for them.

Linguine and clams on a woven mat on the beach.

Testing our ukulele skills.

Ima was raised on Veti Levu, the main island, and has very good English so I was enjoying asking lots of questions about life in Fulunga. And of course she was teaching us new words. I was sharing my summer sleep out story with her when Paoliasi, from across the mat, announced, “Turn the TV off.” And then added hand motions to illustrate the request. You can imagine our laughter when we realized that he meant it was time for ME to stop talking and take a breath! Ouch. I guess when you are used to no voices you can get overwhelmed pretty easily. I told him that I was sure he would miss my voice when we left and he laughed and agreed, but did not rescind the request.

Lucky for me the attention of the guys quickly shifted to the sinking outrigger that Jimi, Ima and Nailumi had come to the island on. (Even though I am somewhat an expert in sinking outriggers I felt I should keep my mouth shut for a while so I offered no advice.) Bob offered some special adhesive (5200) in an attempt to seal the leak. More discussions ensued and John came up with some ideas and back and forth it went until suddenly John was headed back to Orcinius for supplies and Bob and the boys were working on getting the hole exposed by getting the outrigger further up the beach and emptied of water. Much easier said than done. But where there is a will there’s a way and these guys found it. By the time we left the island the outrigger had been flipped over, emptied, the first phase of the repair made and flipped back upright again. AND lifted out of the water and up onto supports to allow everything to dry out.

John and Bob spent quite a bit of time explaining the next steps necessary to complete the repair. (If only they had gotten Ima to translate we might be sure they were understood, but Ima was busy cleaning up the camp and the Fijians were indicating that they understood.) Quite an accomplishment given the 6 x 2″ gouge out of the bottom that was causing the problem. I am not sure how the family even got over to the island yesterday without sinking.

Fixing the canoe - first we have to refloat it.

Squaring the hole and shaping a plug.

With the repairs completed as much as possible and the family delivered by John, in his dinghy, back to the mainland we weighed anchor and returned to Maunicake – the main village.

Goodbye Pauliasi. We'll miss you!

Our presence at a Thank-you Event had been relayed to us via shortwave radio and we were asked to be there at 4:30. Wow, where does the time go! It was a rush back to the village anchorage and without time to shower, we all went ashore and were only 10 minutes late. Thank goodness for Fiji-time because our hosts were another 15 minutes later!

It felt like we had been gone for months, not just four days. We were happily greeted by everyone as we headed to the event at the far end of the village. And you guessed it, it was a kava party! This party was hosted by the teachers of the school to thank Orcinius for the donation of some computers and us for the encyclopedias. Actually the teachers were very appreciative of the encyclopedias that we brought from New Zealand and lots of people have been using them for reference. Lots of fun and beautiful carved thank you gifts were included. Oh, and yes, food.

The walk back to the boats in the dark was not so dark tonight. The new solar lights had been hooked up while we were gone and lights could be seen throughout the village. Folks were gathered on their porches enjoying conversation and kava, the kids were running around from house to house and of course escorting us through the village. Yep, reminded me of those warm summer nights that led to sleeping out under the stars.

These are the poetic words of Pauliasi Volau, the single inhabitant of the island called Yanuyanu Kalou. Directly translated the island name is “Island of the God” and we would have to agree.

Pauliasi has a poetic soul.

We kind of lucked into this spot. We saw it from our anchorage at Naividamu. It’s a little island about a mile from Naividamu with an inviting beach, so we decided we would anchor here. Imagine our surprise to find someone living here. You might call him a hermit, but that would diminish who he is. We have found Pauliasi to be a man of wisdom and inner strength. He is 72 years young. He has two dogs and a rooster.

Pauliasi's small hut...

...complete with newly made fishing spear (the last big fish swam away with his old spear)

He’s working on keeping hens but the rats on the island keep eating them. However, with fish (that he spears and/or nets) clams, coconuts, papaya, bananas and some gardening that produces cassava and eggplant he is not wanting except for water. That’s where we came in. There is a bit of a drought right now down here and Pauliasi, as with the other villagers on Fulanga, are short on water. Enter our buddies on Orcinius who are anchored with us in this lovely spot. They have a huge watermaker and they made a couple hundred gallons for Pauliasi today. As he put it, he now has water for daily use and more water “for Christmas”. Orcinius ran their watermaker and I ferried the water it produced into the island in 5 gallon jugs. Took a while but it was worth it to see his face knowing he had water to spare.

Once we met him we immediately took a liking to him and set up a sundowner session on his beach. We told him to meet us on the beach “when the sun is almost down”. The only worry was that just before sunset an outrigger canoe showed up with a women, man and young boy. Our first though was, “Darn, this is going to spoil our time with Pauliasi”. It turned out it that they were his nephew with his wife and son who had come out to bring him some food and company. They were delightful and we had quite a party on the beach.

Pauliasi's nephew and family.

Sundowners on the beach.

Ann and Lisa had gone out earlier and foraged for clams which John cooked and we brought to the beach. We had a hard time getting the clams away from Pauliasi who really liked them. In Fiji the elders have the respect and if they don’t share the food, the younger folks can’t ask them to share. We finally pulled “the Palangi card” and said he had to pass the clams. We gave him a big plate and then passed the rest on to the other family members. All the while sitting on one of the most beautiful beaches you’ll ever see in your life, looking out at our two boats with the sun setting behind them.

Sun setting over the canoe.

As Pauliasi said, “The sun sets and we rise and watch the night”. I couldn’t say it better. Magic.

Sniff, sniff…

We left Naividamu this afternoon and even though we’ve only spent a few days anchored there, it was tough. We’ve been there three times over the last couple months and made some solid friendships so it was really tough saying “moce” (pronounced “mothay” and means goodbye).

We had a lazy morning drinking coffee in the cockpit and watching some of the ladies out on the reef – not very far from Charisma since we were just off the reef – collecting mussels for dinner. We were waiting for the tide to come in to make it easier to get ashore in the dinghy and we were lingering, knowing that leaving would not be easy.

We also watched Chief Moses navigate an outrigger with a 50 gallon drum on it out across the reef to Orcinius, who was anchored right next to us in the tiny anchorage. He was getting water that Orcinius very kindly offered to the village. There is a bit of a drought here and they are very low on water. Orcinius has a high volume water maker and was able to transfer about 150 gallons that Moses rowed back and forth to the beach, about 30 gallons at a time, for his village. When we wandered through the village saying our goodbyes we could see that each house now had a fresh bucket of drinking water right outside its door.

Finally a little after lunch we went in and said our goodbyes. Lisa brought a Barrel Full of Monkeys game and jump rope in for the kids and John and I got roped into one last kava ceremony. So they taught the kids to play and we played with the guys. All in all it was a good leaving even though it lasted two hours instead of the planned ½ hour.

Playing "Barrel of Monkeys" on the beach.

We are now anchored about a mile or so NE of Naividamu on the south side of a little island in the middle of the lagoon that is Fulunga.

Anchored at "Bere's Island".

A hermit lives here named Bere. He came out to the beach to wave when we got here and we said we would come in tomorrow. As he walked back off the beach he wasn’t more than a step into the jungle before he completely disappeared from view. Tomorrow will no doubt be interesting.

Anyway, we’re anchored in about 18 feet over sand. Turquoise water right off a white sand beach that’s about 150 meters long. On either side of the beach are vertical basalt cliffs formed from volcanic action millennia ago. Each rises vertically 100 meters or so from the water and makes a dramatic end cap to the beach. The island itself is only about 300 hundred meters long and maybe 150 meters wide. We have a half moon lighting the white sand making for a stunning evening anchored here in our own little paradise.

Oh and did I mention the lobster dinner? The Naividamu fishing fiber came in where we were anchored late morning with fresh lobsters. Orcinius ponied up – $50 Fijian, or about $25 US for two of the biggest lobsters we have ever seen. John and Lisa had to use the pressure cooker and the BBQ to cook them both. Once cooked, they gave the heads of the lobsters to Chief Moses who was very appreciative. The four of us did our best this evening to consume them but our strongest effort could only account for about 3/4’s of the beasts. John was talking about either lobster omelets or lobster cheese spread for tomorrow night.

Lobster anyone? (Photo courtesy of Orcinius).

Oh yes, this is paradise.

It’s 0500, I’m somewhere between a dream and awake. I really don’t know where I am, but I hear angels. Huh?!

I shake my head and try to gather my wits. I realize I’m on my boat and then remember that yesterday we went a couple miles across the lagoon and are anchored at Naividamu – sometimes known as “The Third Village”. OK, but where are the angels? I get out of bed and head toward the sound – somewhere outside. Listening closely I hear it coming over the water from shore. Ahh, the church is lit (they have a generator) and the children’s choir is singing. Angelic. Beautiful. But 0500 in the morning!! Turns out this week is Fijian Father’s Day and all week the kids sing in the early morning hours. Wow.

Kids heading off to school over at the other village.

Anchored behind the Motu at Navidamu.

Navidamu from our anchorage.

This gives an indication of why we don't want to be here in rough/windy weather. The boats are very exposed to the reef

So…we’re here in Naividamu. We didn’t make it last year – the lagoon was too intimidating to cross – but we now are better and more comfortable at reading the color of the water to judge depth and see reefs so we came over. It’s a pretty cool anchorage. Only good in settled weather. You come over and there’s a big reef about 300 meters out from the village with a small motu (about 30 meters wide) that has a single coconut tree on it. You go toward the motu, but as you get to it, you go starboard (that would be to the right for you land-lubbers) about 80 meters around the reef and tuck in behind it. There’s a relatively small space over sand between this reef and the inner reef where you can drop anchor and be a little sheltered from the wind and waves. Orcinius (John and Lisa) came over too and dropped anchor right beside us. This spot is small and they are so close we can talk to each other without raising our voices.

As we got to the beach the ladies of the village were cleaning the day's catch.

The boys were helping too (sort of).

Yesterday Ann and Lisa kept the kids entertained with games, games, games while John and I did some village maintenance. John has been fixing the sewing machines in the villages here and Naividamu has been no exception. There are three here (they are all hand crank – two Indian brands and a Singer). He fixed two in the village and had to bring the third back to Orcinius for more serious work, but all are now fixed. I was tapped to fix one of the boats. I’m now three for three. Once boat repair in each village. Today’s repair was more fiberglassing of holes – this boat had two – and I screwed a long three inch wide board by ten foot long onto the outside bottom of the boat to protect it. They drag them up on the beach and it wears the bottom off. This should fix it for a while. I’m now completely done with fixing boats because this morning I used the last of the epoxy I was carrying.

Yesterday was also a great day because the Chief of the village, Moses, had finished the war club he was carving for us. It is beautiful. A real work of art; it is an exact replica of the ones they used 100 years ago. Turns out that he learned this from a master carver who used to make them and that master carver is the father of Tau, our host!. Moses has been making them for 35 years. He told fascinating stories about how he learned from the master carver and also talked of how after the warriors used the clubs they would come back and show their chief how the blood, tissue, hair etc. was embedded in the ornamental carving. This of course meant they had vanquished an enemy. An interesting bit of history.

The finished war club Moses carved for us.

Today we met Moses on the beach and he guided us on a tour across this part of the island to the west side and a beautiful white sand beach . Ann and Lisa decided it was the best beach we have seen all the way across the Pacific. Just stunning. It was so white it hurt our eyes to look, but when you did you could see fish swimming in the turquoise lagoon inside the barrier reef. A bonus on the trip was an encounter with a bright green iguana. This was the first we’ve seen in this area. As we came down the path, he scampered across it, jumped a rock and headed up a tree where he posed for some pictures. Then the strangest thing – as he climbed the tree a bit further there was a sudden tussle and the iguana fell 15 feet out of the tree and hit the ground, almost dropping on top of Ann. Turns out a bird swooped in and attacked him. Anyway quick as lightning the chief swung his machete and I expected to see two halves of an iguana, but what instead the chief had the iguana pinned against a rock with the machete. Unharmed. We got some close up photos and Moses released him to scamper off. You just don’t see stuff like this every day.

Mr Iguana just before the bird attacked him.

Path through the jungle to the beach.

Beach on the other side of the island.

If all that weren’t enough, Moses invited us to come back in as the special guests for a (what else!) kava party on the beach. He said to go back to our boats for the afternoon and rest, then come back around 1700 and we would party “until the grog runs out”. We thought we’d surprise them and we brought in our ukuleles and John’s bongo drum. We’re been practicing a song to sing for our leaving party from the island next week and this was a great way to test it out. They heard us last night practicing anyway and depending on who you talked to, it was either beautiful or noise. Anyway we broke out the ukes (Lisa in lead and Bob trying to keep up), Ann singing with us and John on the bongo. I have to say we were a big hit! They went nuts laughing (with us, not at us!) and everyone was pleased that we would sing for them. We did an encore as well, then handed over the ukes to real players. These guys are good! Our ukes never sounded as good and as a bonus John was invited to sit with the players (two guitars and our two ukes) and play his bongo. Priceless!

Quite a day.

…and jump rope.

Today was another “fix it” day. Joe, of Tara and Joe, has a hole in his fiber (that’s what they call the long boats here). Like the one I fixed the other day in Muanaira (the second village), Joe’s boat had a hole right in the bottom about 8 inches long and 1 ½ inches wide. He’s had some foam and other stuff stuck in the hole, but they need to bail continuously to keep it from sinking. I found out and asked him if he had any glass fiber mat and he said, “Yes”. I said I had the epoxy and there you go – a partnership is once again formed.

Yep, that's a hole all right...

I had him pull it up on the beach on Saturday, turn it over and we let it dry all through Sunday. This morning I met him at 0930 and we went to work. I mixed a couple batches of epoxy and we put three or four layers of mat on. When I was finished I asked him if he would like to use the left over resin before it “kicked” on any other sections of the boat and he showed me three other small holes that were plugged with a combination of what looked like chewing gum and closed cell foam. OK, we slapped some more mat on before the resin dried and called it a day. I came back to the beach around 1600 with my battery-powered angle grinder to smooth the patches.

He was back down on the beach half an hour later (how do they know??) and launched the boat to go set a net for the night. He came past and said thanks and headed off. Orcinius called on the radio and was kind enough to let us know that through their binoculars they could see Joe and the other two guys launch the boat with “the biggest smiles imaginable!” Nice. And I forgot to say Joe gave us four lovely papayas for the effort!!

Now they can fish without having to bail constantly.

Ann’s day was supposed to be weaving with the ladies, but they were busy gathering the raw materials to do the weaving so…jump rope with the kids. And some adults. Orcinius brought in a couple jump ropes that John made and they have been quite a hit. Ann and Lisa have been showing all the kids and many of the young adults lots of different ways to jump and the songs that go with them. Much silliness was had.

Jumprope anyone?

Paradise and jumprope…not a bad combination!.

The people of Fulunga love to have their picture taken. Well most of them do. Much like my dear Aunt Geri, our host Tau would rather not be photographed; but the rest of the villagers love it. And they especially love it when you show them their photo on your digital camera screen. We always show the kids their pictures because they remember to ask. When I remember to show the adults their pictures I am always rewarded with a bigger smile and a hearty, “Vinaka!” Thank goodness for digital cameras.

Seta is "slightly" photogenic. Scroll to the bottom to see "Through the eyes..."

One of my favorite targets to photograph is an adorable two-year old named Seta. Seta’s dad teaches at the school and so Seta is often found wandering from classroom to classroom, kid to kid. Everyone loves him. If you meet Seta on the path you will always get a soft, “Bula”. Very gentle yet so grown up. This is a step up from last year when Seta cried at the sight of us kaipailangis. Not only does he greet you but he offers his tiny hand to shake.

Seta loves to smile for pictures. When you show him the photos he names the people he sees. “Seta!, Johnny!” He is very smart and catches on quickly. The other day at the choir competition we visitors were all invited to a neighboring house to wait while the women of the village prepared lunch. Seta came into the room and proceeded to walk from person to person (we were all seated around a large mat) shaking their hand and greeting them with his sweet “Bula”. When he got to Bob he smiled and said, “Bula Bob!” Looked and me and again personalized his greeting, “Bula Ann!” When he finished greeting everyone around the mat he came back to me, plopped down in my lap, looked around and said, “Kaipalangis!”

And Seta in church is a delight to watch. He is not like the other two-year olds who roam restlessly around looking for the perfect nap. Seta wanders in, assesses the situation and finds a comfy women’s lap to rest in. Last week he plopped down next to my friend Mata (Octopus Woman). After snuggling up close he noticed her carryall and her glasses. Seta reached in and borrowed her glasses. He puts them gently over his ears and proceeds to just chill and look around. This was the Sunday that I sat with the ladies and so I could see that the glasses Seta was wearing two pews ahead of me were covered with fingerprints. “Sega na lega” as they say here – no worries. He just continued to look around. Until I came into his view. At which point he took a double take knowing that the kaipalangis sit on the other side of the church. And then he pulled the glasses down on his nose so he could see over the top and said, “Bula Ann!” Melt, melt.

Today at church I sat with Bob and our friends Bob and Linda off of Bright Angel. When Seta looked around from a comfy lap he noticed our pew and the cute little waves that Linda was doing. Seta slipped off of the comfy lap and came across the aisle to greet both Bob and Linda, “Bula!” Sweetly and softly because we were in church. And then he saw my Bob…”Bula Bob!” And then he wiggled past Bob and promptly climbed into my lap. Where he sat happily for 15 minutes. During which he added my glasses to the pair he was already wearing. Bob said he looked like he was hallucinating as he stared around the church looking at the world with two sets of glasses on. The view through a two-year old’s eyes…very entertaining and heartwarming.

Seta and Ann in Church.

That’s my new Fijian name. As you might have read, Ann is Kailavosa which roughly translated means; “noisy talker”. OK, so need to explain further.

Mocelili (prounounced “motheleelee”) roughly translated means; “sleeps in hammock”. OK, so I DO spend some time in the hammock set up on the foredeck. The villagers think these names are hysterical and there is much laughter about our new Fijian names. I have to say I’m honored to have one.

So, when one of our cruiser friends on the radio this evening noted that by now I probably had been at Fulunga long enough to have a “bone through his nose”, he was closer to being right than he knew.

By Ann

It finally happened! I have solved the mystery. We have been in Fulunga for 8 weeks now and I have been going out of my way to meet and enjoy the villagers. Of course this is complicated by the fact that there are three villages. Helping with the health screenings in the second and third villages (we consider the village closest to the anchorage, Maunicake, to be the first village) provided a great opportunity for us to meet the great people in the second and third villages. And we have made two additional trips to the third village (Naividamu) and really connected with those folks. The choir competition the other day in the second village refreshed our contacts with the villagers there.

I have really been working on the first village, Maunicake. Maunicake is the village up from the anchorage where we have spent so much time. And felt so very welcome. I love wandering through the village and being welcomed into their homes to have tea and share stories. I love trying to figure out all of the connections; who is related or married to whom. Maybe I should have been a sociologist.

We did not help with the health screenings in Maunicake but Batai, the nurse, was willing to let me see their records. I LOVE seeing names and birthdates. The rest of the information is just gravy. Add to this information, having access to the village census for January – June 2014 and I had a lot of information waiting to be addressed. It was calling to me. So I took the plunge and decided to see who I knew, who I didn’t know, and how each person was related to the others in the village.

It has taken a lot of work and some fun conversations with Tara – “Queen of all Knowledge About Fuluga”, as I like to call her. From her perspective Tara will tell you that she needed her husband Joe (fondly known by Bob and I as” Just -in-Time Joe” or “Cowboy Joe”) to respond accurately to my questions. This really all started when I talked the young girls of the village into make me a map. Next I needed to know about the people in the houses-that’s where Tara and Joe came in.

Part of Ann's notes showing the lineage of the village.

So armed with a village census, a health screening listing of those who came to be screened and my base knowledge of the village I started working on a family tree-starting with the chief. Just about everyone has some connection to the chief and I was determined to figure it out. In the process I have uncovered many interesting connections. I love it. So I found a big piece of paper and started to map it out. Boy did the questions arise. I have now had three sessions with Tara and Joe. Today’s list of questions was my smallest list and had 15 questions about people. My questions have been answered and I have to apply them to my Family Tree.

But the most exciting part about today was getting to fill in the blanks. There were four people that I just could not put my finger on because I had not met them! How did that happen? I have visited the village almost every day for most of the last eight weeks. Maybe I had their names wrong! A conversation with Tara, Joe and Tai (another very informed villager) yesterday uncovered the meanings of people’s names. And confirmed that there were four people I had not met (out of about 85) in Maunicake. Well today I met them!

After getting the answers from Tara on my 15 questions (can’t ever guarantee that is it) I asked to meet these last four folks. And my guide was Tara’s 8-year old grandson, Jone (pronounced Johnny). Jone’s English is not really strong so Tara explained the mission to him in Fijian. As Jone and I walked to the first house I discussed our route and he clearly named the four people and the order in which we were going to proceed. Things are going well! Our first stop was at the oldest man in the village, Tomu.

Tomu

Tomu was inside (of course, that’s why I’ve never seen him!) sitting in a comfortable chair enjoying the afternoon light. Jone’s English was not complete enough to introduce me so I just forged ahead saying hello. Fortunately another young woman, Uni, came in and provided translation. I had already taken some photos and shared them with Tomu. They love their pictures! Uni did a great job helping translate and Tomu was delighted to meet me. Tomu will be 98 on December 22nd. I asked Uni to tell Tomu that I also celebrate a December birthday and I received a big smile in return. I told him I would think of him on the 22nd. Wow, how do you live this long in such a primitive society. Other than lacking mobility he seemed pretty happy. Of course Uni’s 18 month old son was playing with a walker outside which may have played into Tomu’s housebound condition. How thrilling to meet the oldest man on the island. I am hoping to go back with more questions but Jone and I were on a mission.

Our next stop was at Koro’s. Koro is the wife of the chief’s right-hand man who is 72. Unfortunately there was no translator available to determine her true age. When Jone and I arrived Koro was making some pancakes. She was sitting in the kitchen house very near a hot fire, flipping pancakes. She did not seem pleased by the interruption that Jone represented and I don’t think she saw me. So I went around to the kitchen door and stepped in and introduced myself. Koro spoke no English so I went right into taking pictures. I wish you could see these people light up when you show them their picture on the back of your camera. Of course I know to say, “Dredre”, which means smile but not everyone believes me or follows the request. But Koro did. And when she saw her picture she was thrilled and smiled more. Two down, two to go.

Koro

Our next stop was Lagilagi. Lagilagi is the grandfather of one of the boys we met last year, Tua. Tua was in the yard cleaning up so I asked him to come with me to meet his grandfather —who he was named after. Lagilagi was sitting on the porch enjoying the lovely late afternoon light. Unfortunately he did not speak English but Tua has a little and I proceeded to take some cute pictures that again, thrilled a very old man. Smiles come easily sometimes. Especially when your grandson is at your side.

Lagilagi

And our final stop, Pu Leba. Pu actually means grandmother in Fijian, but Leba is Jone’s great-great aunt. And she also was somewhat confused by this silly Pailangi speaking English. But a quick photo snapped and shared brought many more smiles and “Vinakas”. Leba was sitting alone in a very clean house that she was actually sweeping as we arrived. At this point I had gained a friend, a little girl named Vuli who was happy to be part of the parade to Leba’s. So pictures here included Jone and Vuli and many smiles.

Pu Lemba (Pu is short for grandma)

So there you have it. I have now met all of the Maunicake residents that are currently on the island. I am hoping to take a translator back with me next week and find out more of the stories behind their beautiful faces and smiles!

We want to thank our loyal readers for the return posts telling us that someone out there is reading this. It really helps us keep up that daily posts when we know that someone is actually reading this stuff!

To Karen H. Yup, we can’t wait to post the pictures. They will tell so much yet I’m already begining to dread the process. There are so many to decide from and they are so beautiful. It will take a couple days of really dedicated time just to post them. Fortunately we’ve been “processing” them almost daily so at least they are on the computer in some kind of order and have been tweaked to adjust exposure, contrast and the like.

So…once again, many thanks to those who respond to this blog and tell us that it’s actually being read. It keeps US inspired to keep on writing on those nights when it’s late, we’re tired and just want to go to sleep…

Bob and Ann S/V Charisma From Paradise, Fiji