Fiji: Wayasewa Island (Angie)

Remote Village Life in the South Pacific

Dec. 12 - 16, 2023

Our travel adventure started in a place where the lifestyle and physical setting couldn't be more opposite than the Vancouver life we're used to. 

After traveling 28 hours (including a 10-hour layover in San Fran where Dave & Davie enjoyed the 49ers vs. Seahawks game, and Simone and I spent the day in the city), we landed in Nadi in the heat and humidity, made our way to the ferry terminal and caught the Yasawa Flyer ferry northbound about 2 hours. Unsure of what would happen when we arrived at Wayasewa Island, we were pleasantly surprised when a man and a bunch of boys (which we would learn later were our host and his sons/nephews), came to get us from the ferry in their own outboard-powered boat.

We spent the next five days in Namara village (population approx 100-125, depending on who you ask) with Ece (pron. "Ethe"), Josh, and their three sons (Moses, 12; Manna, 11; Jim, 10) in a "homestay" experience. We had our own "guest house" in the village a few doors down from their home, where we slept and ate most of our meals, except a few dinners where we were invited to join the family in their home. Ece cooked 3 meals a day for us, mostly consistenting of food from their land (coconut, mango, plantain, cassava) and sea (fish and crab); ingredients brought over from the "main land" (main Fiji island) to make other foods included rice, flour for pancackes and Fijian donuts, sugar, coffee, a few vegetables, Asian noodles and sausage. 

Activity Highlights:

• Boat ride, picnic in the shade and snorkeling at the edge of the reef on the other side of the island
• Snorkeling with reef sharks (where other boats from nearby resorts were also doing the same)
• Snorkeling while watching the boys catch fish with their spears and crabs with their bare hands! It was a little shocking at first to see them spear the colorful reef fish that we're used to just looking at -- but when you realize that this is how they feed themselves, we came to respect their way of life, and admire the skills of the boys. Some as young as 8 years old are out there with a very basic spear, diving down with their snorkel masks!
• Night dive: We were very fortunate to be the first guests invited to go out with Josh on the boat at night to watch them spear fish with flashlights in hand! In the darkness of the night, we saw puffer fish, turtle, reef shark, crabs -- then unfortunately, Simone got stung by a jelly fish on her cheek when it got caught up in her mask!  Unfortunately, we have very few photos of any of the snorkeling activities!
• Sunrise hike: It wasn't hard for most of us to get up at 4:15am when the roosters were already singing. Two young men from the village (Ben, the son of our AirBnB host Imeri, and Daniel, his rugby teammate) took us half way up the mountain to watch the sunrise and see the other islands from the viewpoint.

 

People, Lifestyle and Cultural Observations:

• Religion: I was surprised that they are all devout Christians, pausing 3x/day at 6am, 12 noon and 6pm when a villager beats the drums, to pray. Though we're not religious, we participated (sometimes in English, sometimes in Fijian), which I realized was actually a great practice as a moment of pause to express gratitude.
• Hierarchy of Family and Society: Traditional roles are alive and well where the men and boys hunt (fish) and farm (gather), while the women do most of the cooking and domestic care. Women (including myself, for respect for their culture), cover their legs (down below the knees) and shoulders and everyone must remove their hats when walking through the village.
• Floor eating and cooking: Even though kitchens have counters for prep, Ece did most of the cooking while sitting cross-legged on the floor, with a kerosene single-burner stove. When I helped her chop food, I still did it at the counter. We all struggled a bit with sitting cross-legged on the floor for the duration of a whole meal! 
• Rugby: Though I knew rugby was popular in Fiji, I was still surprised to see how strong of an impact it has on the culture. While we were there, the village rugby team was preparing for a big national tournament. Imagine a village of just about 100 people producing a strong team that placed 2nd the previous year! Not only did we watch them run drills on a tiny, uneven grassy/sandy field, but we listened in on their spiritual and mental preparation when they prayed and sang together in the local church and community hall. They eat, play, pray, sing and sleep together for a week before the tournament. When the team left on Friday, it felt like half the village (direct family members) went with them to the main land to cheer them on.
• Early risers!: One thing that was hard to get used to was the early morning cockle-doodle-doo'ing of the crows. Sometimes starting as early as 3:30am, I found it hard to sleep after they started!
• "Fiji Time": Leaving behind the hectic pace of our life back at home where days are filled with planned activities and long to-do lists, not having Wifi or any connectivity for five days was a great way to settle into "Fiji Time" where you slow down and live in the moment. The village kids were all on school summer holidays, and spent their time running around doing whatever came to mind in the moment (which included playing volleyball over the clothes line, tossing a rugby ball, harrassing the pigs, and picking fruit off the trees), or sitting around relaxing. Or in Jim's case -- walking around singing Christian songs with his beautiful voice! 
• Luxury and material goods: By our North American standards, their homes and clothing are very basic, and for the most part, they don't seem to care. Yet Ece took pride in the fact that they have a freezer and washing machine in their home. Several of them have nice new Samsung smartphones. And at one point, Moses brought out a giant JBL speaker that Josh had bought in New Zealand for $600 a few month ago when he was over there working (which we learned many Fijian men go over there for seasonal apple picking jobs). 

 

       

Environmental Observations:

• Solar energy: Each house has solar panels (provided by the gov't a few years ago). Though the inverter and battery in our guest house were unstable (couldn't power the fans consistently, much to the annoyance of Dave and Simone especially, who struggled with the heat and humidity at night), the ones in their house were strong enough to power light, a freezer and even a washing machine
• Reef: Coral reefs near the beach were all dead (the waters near the land are abnormally warm!), so we had to swim out closer to the edge where it was alive and colorful, and where we did our snorkeling and the boys did their spear fishing. 
• Garbage: I couldn't help but notice that the concept of garbage and litter aren't the same as our values. Food scraps are fed to the family's pigs, and other trash is supposed to be taken to the main land for disposal. Yet there's trash littered about in their village and on the edges of the beach, including plastic food wrap, bottles and larger items like old suitcases! I'm not sure whether it was my North American esthetic values or environmental concern that made me want to pick it up, but they seemed to not care about either one.
• Fish and Food: Josh told us that his father used to tell stories of large fish they used to catch, but these days the fish they see and catch are much smaller, ranging from foot-long parrot fish to 5" small reef fish. We saw a small-scale commercial fishing operation off their coast for two days, using commercial lines (and nets?) to catch fish and even two reef sharks (which were given to the village). During COVID, when Josh was trapped in NZ for almost a year, Moses (who was 10 years old at the time) had to fish and provide for his family! Though the boys seemed to love sausage and carbs (instant Maggie noodles and white rice), I worry that their supply of fish is dwindling and wonder how long their village lifestyle can sustain itself.

More Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C08Y3Q7xZkb