Fulunga, Fiji

I am calling this blog Weaving 102 because I have to admit that during my senior year at St. Mary’s College I actually took a course called Weaving 101. So this being my second weaving course I am calling it 102. Wow. What a fun day!

Gonna learn some weaving...

Bob and I went ashore with the dinghy loaded down with many of the gifts we had brought to Fulunga – like some flour, some sandals, and some beach balls. By far the heaviest item was the set of 22 full size encyclopedias that we were able to secure in New Zealand for a mere $8. Okay, so it is missing two volumes but the remaining 22 are sure to be well-loved by the school children. We asked the 8th grade teacher last year what one thing he would like most for school and encyclopedias were the answer. Yay!

But they were heavy so we left them on the beach for the school boys to come carry back to the school. We went to the school to let the teachers know they were available for pick up and were mobbed by our “little friends”. The children from the other two villages had not seen us yet and were very excited to see if we remembered them. “Bob, do you remember me!?” Of course! These are the kids that always walked the beach with us. The kids had just finished lunch and were all running around with toothbrushes. Fiji has figured out how important it is to keep these beautiful smiles around! Love it. Good thing we left more toothbrushes and toothpaste with the nursing station.

After a visit to a few other friends we wandered over to the community weaving building. How great would it be to have a whole building to leave your projects spread out across. Someday I will have a quilting room like this. And my girlfriends will be there to play with me. Just like today. It was so delightful to be in the company of women who laughed and giggled and created together. I was under the tutelage of Jasmine, and guided by Koro. Koro is the master-weaver of the island. I wish you could see her fingers move as she weaves magic with pandanas leaves. Jasmine pretends not to know how to weave but she was able to tell me how…the sign of a great weaver…even if she won’t admit it. I worked, they supervised and every once in a while Koro would cluck and Jasmine would point out a mistake and help me correct it. I love this stuff!

Weaving 101

All the extremities have a part.

New Best Friends.

I left the community hall with a completed wall hanging. It is not perfect, but it is lovely. And I will always look at it and smile and laugh, remembering an afternoon of fellowship. Not that I understood any of the specific chatter in Fijian but the playful, loving tone was so obvious that I couldn’t help but feel at home. And miss my quilting friends and our great prolonged quilting sessions. We girls are the same everywhere!

Ann also gave a quilting lesson and the weavings were quickly covered with quilting.

Ann's first completed mat. It even has a tree bark fringe which is the sign of a "fine" mat.