Nawaka Village

Rugbyplaying


Nawaka Village


River by Nawaka


Grashoppa


The Chief's House


Clubbin' with Oni and her friends



Hey ya'll,

We spend 3 days in Oni's village Nawaka. It was quite an experience.. small stone houses, a shower made of a corrugated sheet (golfplaat) and concrete with one pipe with cold water and cockroaches that were up to 5 centimetres. We had traditional food, but we're not sure what they would have eaten if we weren't there. "Visitors eat first, that's the fiji-custom, our way of life" We slept in mbumbu's bed (that's fiji for grandmother) "Visitors sleep in the best bed in the house, that's our fiji way of life" We went to church on sunday. A lecture that lasted for 2 hours and right in the middle someone came to the front and thanked us for being there.
The people are not used to having tourists in there village (or as Api calls us "whiteskinpeople",.. he's Oni's son. Just two and a half years old, he reminds me so much of my nephew Roberto-Che) they are all so friendly and appreciate the fact that we want to live their lifestyle, instead of spending our days in a paradise-resort. Although they are very proud about the fact that their island is so popular for tourists. After church we packed our bags, said goodbye to everyone and took the minivan from the busstation in town to Natandola beach.

We wanted to stay in Sanasana, the closest village, but they charge 40 fiji dollars for us to sleep under the same circumstances as in Nawaka. We had a hard time admitting it, but sleeping without airconditioning in weather like this was becoming difficult for us. So we went back to the beach and arranged with one of the fancy resorts that we could put up our tent in their grass. Still no airconditioning, but atleast sleeping was free now. So we spend our money on a good meal in the restaurant of the other resort. There we met a bunch of European people who were working on a project and living in the resort. After a nice meal, some beers and some chats, we eventually ended up staying in the second bedroom of Nicolas' delux resort-hut : ) Awiight, a real bed, airconditioning and a shower!

I had my first surfboard-experience, watched madonna-dvd's, had some whiskey. Good food, nice people.