As a sign of respect when doing Sevusevu, you must wear a sulu. Here's Jon from Evergreen and I in our sulus getting ready to hike into the village.
Presenting the kava. It's on the ground next to one of our hosts named Tai. You always place it on the floor and never hand it to them.
These are two of the chiefs from the neighboring villages making speeches (in Fijian). Hopefully they will accept our offer and allow us to stay!
Offer accepted. Now some kava drinking will start. The bowl is on the left in this picture.
Whew! Now we know how to do that.
Sevusevu is the tradition of presenting kava to the village chief as a gift, and asking for permission to anchor in their waters, snorkel in their waters and enjoy their island. We had read about this ritual and heard about it. We were instructed to locate the “turango ni koro” (the head of the village) and ask to be presented to the chief to present our sevusevu – gift to the chief. So we arrived in Fulanga with our friends from Evergreen and Slip Away. We all went ashore and clumsily asked to meet the “turango ni koro”…only to find he’d gone fishing! Oh no! What do we do now?
We were fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of the grandson of the chief, Mattei, who agreed to be our go between. Mattei presented us to the village elders, which included the chiefs of the nearby villages – Moses and Moses. The chief of Muana-I-Cake was not feeling well so was not present. No worries. Both Moseses and a stand in for the chief were willing to take our gift/sevusevu.
Being sevusevu virgins we were not sure what to expect and were actually a little nervous. Silly cruisers. It was a delightful event. Mattei acted as our go between and presented our yagonga (kava root). The magic words…”we accept this gift…” were said and we were given permission to roam the islands and enjoy the beautiful lagoons. And we were offered a sip/bowl of kava. Bob and I had tasted Tongan kava but this was more “peppery”. The whole ceremony was relaxing, welcoming and fun! Why do we worry about these things? Because we can.
We sat with the men of the village sharing kava and talking about where we were from and who they were. We signed in as cruisers visiting this year. Apparently about 80 cruisers visit each year now that the Lao Group is open. We were about the 20th cruiser here. We paid our $50 fee to support the local government and were on our way.
All of our worry was for naught. The locals are very excited to see us arrive. We were a bit out-shined by Koshi and his wife on the Japanese yacht (there are not many Japanese yachts out here – in fact Yoshi is the only one we have seen!) but we Americans are very welcome here in Fulanga. We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the village and meeting many children who were anxious to meet us and practice their English and introduce themselves. This village is one of three in Fulanga. One of the other villages is only 10 minutes further down the path. The third village is a long dinghy ride away and just inside the pass to the right. Eventually we hope to visit that village too.
We came back to our boats thrilled that our sevusevu was such a wonderful event. It is culture greeting culture with the utmost of respect. We are honored. More about our time in the village tomorrow! Bula!