I’ve always felt lucky if we can find some small experience that gives us a sense of the spirit of the places we visit. Mostly it’s a challenge. When we left Taveuni, we stopped off at Treasure Island in the Mamanuca Islands for a couple days, an overpriced generic island resort overrun by vacationers with small kids, which was a perfect place for Kimberly to relax in a hammock strung between coconut palms to read a great book during an afternoon of strong breezes, but lacked in any sense of the real Fiji.
Today I feel blessed that we were taken by the hands of the schoolchildren of Ratu Naivulu Boarding School on Waya Island and shown their beautiful Fijian spirit. The children put together a performance for our small cruise ship group. They sat us in two rows and did some dance routines in front of the group, while an energetic group of kids off to our left sang and drummed the songs. It was fun to see the dances, but the kids to our left were the real show. I grabbed my camera and snuck down with them in the back, and it reminded me why I love to travel. Laughing, giggling, sticking out tongues, striking poses. I took a few pictures and turned the camera around to show them to the kids. That started a chain reaction that lasted all afternoon. The kids loved to pose, to play and to jump all over each other to get on film as they sung and clapped together.
When the performances were done, the kids took us by our hands to proudly show us around their boarding school. The two girls who were my models in the back of the choir quickly latched on to me to show me their classrooms, their dining hall and the girls and boys dorms. They showed us the girls dorms, which were an neat explosion of colorful green bunk beds and multicolored bedding topped by white mosquito nets, many with pink ribbons woven in. The girls were happy to point out the boys dorms were much dirtier, with beds on the floor only. They said that’s because the boys just want to play fight and not keep their dorms cleaned.
A very young boy of 5 or 6 grabbed Tanner’s hand firmly and marched around the school with purpose. Tanner had no choice but to follow. A little later, the kids noticed the binoculars around Tanner’s neck, which they hadn’t seen before. Tanner patiently showed them how they made things bigger by pointing at the large world map mural on a classroom wall, and a steady stream of children came by to look through his binoculars as we walked through the village.
Next to the school is the village of Yalobi, which we also toured. All of the land in the village is owned by the villagers. When a man and woman marry and start a family, they can pick any place in the village to build a home. Ocean front, middle village or mountain side is up to them. The villagers will come together and as one they build the new couple a home. They also give the new couple a start with things like a banana tree, other vegetable seeds/cuttings or chickens to make a home. Their sense of community was inspirational and helped me to mediate on what is important to us as a family as we start to miss our family and friends back home too.
As the Sun was setting behind the lush green mountain towering over the village, I took some photos of a family from Colorado playing patty cake with the kids and stopped for a moment to reflect on how lucky we were to have this day. I have found a little bit of Fiji today – laughter from the heart, good friends playing, children’s pride in their school. It was tucked into a small bay on Waya Island and it made me smile to be on the road once again. – Topher
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