By Ann

Okay, I know that yesterday was pretty special. We worked on the pictures today so that we could put together a one-page collage to give Mele, the canoe artist, and one to the chief of his village. Our friends on Maunie said goodbye to the village and specifically the chief and he was very happy to hear about the canoe launch and wished he could see some pictures. We pulled together some great shots (there were many) and Maunie printed the page so we could share them. Many thanks.

Looking through the pictures we realized that verbal description hardly describes the feat. Seeing the angles that were required to get to the canoe through the trees to the water were amazing. Some parts were steep and out of control with everyone warned to move aside; others flat but through lava rocks with crevasses that men stood in up to their hips. The “rollers” made a path through these tortuous areas. The log rollers creaked and cracked as the weight of the great canoe was dragged across them. The teamwork of dragging was great to watch too. The playfulness of Fulunga came through again. At one point one of the older men in the village hitched a ride, surfing along the canoe that 10 younger guys were tugging across the flatter areas. Everyone squealed and cheered.

And then the celebration afterwards! Kava flowed. Bob stepped into the kava party, I stayed back with the women who had no idea what an accomplishment this was. Women are not included. This is when I learned that it really was a male-event. So glad I didn’t know that in advance.

Walking back through the village to go back to Charisma a fun thing happened….like I said. We met two of the girls from the second village, 20 minutes down the trail. These are two of the girls who were our companions on every beach walk last year. We have not had time to go for a beach walk yet this year so have only seen them at school. They we so excited to see us, their pulangi friends, back again. Qali (age 12) and Taubale (age 11) -I made them spell their names so I would not forget – were on their way to the store. They carried two small kava bowls (without the final finishing work complete) and a tin container with them. When we asked them what they were up to they explained that they were going to the store to get food for dinner. Yes, they were going to trade in the two bowls, receive credit and then buy some rice and noodles. Not the normal grocery store run we know, but typical of Fulunga.

We promised a beach walk with the girls next week when they are out of school for two weeks on break.

That was yesterday’s fun thing.

Today was a calm, low wind day….perfect for paddle boards. Of course we had to pull ourselves away from watching the two turtles that were swimming about 30 yards off of Charisma. Run, hide turtles…don’t be dinner!

We finally pulled away and jumped on the boards and took off. We paddled for about three hours. We went back toward the sand spit anchorage and our private beach. It was beautiful. The tide was low so the beach was pristine…until we walked on it. Don’t you love being able to put the first marks on a pristine beach! We found some coconuts hanging low on a tree and grabbed them. And in best “Survivor” fashion we peeled back some of the green husk using a seashell as a knife and tied them to our paddle boards for a future treat!

On the way back Bob called out that he thought he saw a manta ray and turned to his left. I slowly and stealthily followed. We thought we were being very stealthy until we realized we had just snuck up on a big underwater rock! Oh well. Onward. We were in the shallows again, about 2 feet deep, so I was kind of holding my breath to make myself lighter. I always fear I will scrape some coral and pop my board. And sure enough there was some coral ahead. As I attempted to maneuver around it the coral moved! And a graceful, but startled 20″ turtle swam directly under my board and over to, the right underneath Bob’s board as well! SO cool!

From Bob: For dinner I dug deep into our refrigerator for a couple of vacuum packed steaks we bought six weeks ago in Savusavu. I didn’t really have much hope for them, but it’s very cold at the bottom of the fridge and lo and behold, they looked pretty good. Two rib eye steaks. There was a little darkened meat that I trimmed off, but most of it looked really good and they smelled fine (this is my final test – if it smells at all “off” it goes to the fishies). So tonight I BBQ’d these two steaks with some sweet potato that Tai gave us from his garden (sliced, coated with olive oil and salt and pepper).

I was a little worried that the steaks were going to taste more than well aged and asked Ann what she thought. She took a bite and swooned. I said: “They really taste OK?” Her response; “Remember, I’ve been eating chiton”.

Look it up and you’ll see what she means.