First off, sorry I'm late in doing this blog. I have gotten home on late Tues. evening and have been readjusting to the material world and life in general in America. I have been catching up on my own journal and trying to read as many peoples' blogs as possible before I talk to them in class. I also have been catching up with friends who can't wait to see me.
Ok, so when I first got to taveuni in Fiji I thought of how great it would be to live there.
I met some travellers doing the "Round the World" airline ticket thing that I'm sure most informed college students know about. It's a chep ticket that allows you to go in one direction around the world travelling to mnay different countries and your flights are pretty flexible too. I thought that would be great, I want to do that next summer...
then around the 6th week I got homesick and thought that it would be tough to be far away from home for so long and at so many different places.
But by the same week, I had already met so many friends and family (I was really considered part of the family when staying in some homes) that cared for me and were very giving. They made it impossible NOT to love it there. Everyone asked if I would live on Taveuni some day. As far as living there, I had thought about it. Being subsistant and hard working on a farm, the kids are as happy as can be and not bored from playing too many game boy games. One traveller, April - originally from Australia, said this is where she is going to raise her kids. They are a third world country, many of the people in the below $6000 FJD ($3600 USD) range, making them officially in poverty. But the kids are always happy, usually not fussy, and well fed. Once, while having breakfast in a village, a small boy was walking outside, and the family asked him if he'd eaten yet. He didn't give a straight answer and so they were yelling at him to come and eat some breakfast. The boy ended up running away. There is always someone looking outside, ready to invite anybody that walks by to come and eat.
When people would ask me if I would be coming back to Taveuni, I told them if I can save up money after paying off the loan that I took to come here in the first place. The amount of money I spent on the plane ticket is an unfathomable amount of money for the Fijians that live here. Most of the islanders have maybe taken the ferry to other Fijian islands, but there are a small few who have been to Australia or New Zealand, and even smaller few anywhere else. The truth is, i may want to explore other places and not go back to the same place. But it would be interesting to follow Thurson Clark's lead and follow up on an island I have visited and see how it has changed since I had been there.
So with all the friends, family, beautiful scenery, beautiful weather, and still unexplored land since my island was a fairly big one, it was very difficult to know that I was gonna have to leave, and there was no extending my flight. Many of my friends asked if I could stay longer, but I told them I couldn't, as long as I wanted credits to graduate from college.
So I had very mixed feelings, happy to be going home but sad to be leaving everyone and everything that had helped make my first eight weeks farthest from home so homely. I left one family, my friend Joe's (who was the first person to invite me to drink kava and had been my teacher for much of the Fijian language and culture.) and his mother-in-law, the mother and main cook of the house, had tears in her eyes as I hugged her good bye. One uncle Paulo gave me three Fijian fans that he made. Another family I said goodbye to told me to write each of them individually and send them Reggae Cd's (they had a Cd player that actually worked. Many families HAD one, but the kids got a hold of it or something happened and things don't last long in Fiji, because what's yours is mine and it rarely changes with expensive equipment.) One woman, Fina, gave me the first mat she ever wove, from the panderas tree. It was only 4 square feet and it was an honor. She also gave me a beatiful shell.
My last day was kinda hectic. I had to go to the bank, go to a few stores for souveniers, stop by a village for something I forgot and catch a plane a 2:55 in the afternoon. Intead of trying to go to the bank, I just boorowed money from my friend, Richard, who is a Taro root buyer so has alot of money from the company he works for. I bought two cane knives, a bunch of shirts and sarongs (sulus) and 3 kg bag of kava to bring home, none of which is illegal to bring back into the US. We dorve to the bank, I paid him back, I bought more souveneirs. So here I am, this cheap ass tourist for 8 weeks, and then buying all this stuff and finally living up to the storeowners expectations. They were beginning to thinkI was a local, speaking Fijian and not buying any thing but the essentials. Ha, fooled them. Anyway, Richard gave me a ride as far as the village where I left my torch, accidentally. I said I'd write and got the torch said goodbye again and waited for about a 1/2 hour to an hour for a ride, taxi, anything that would get me to one more house I had left stuff at (the first house I had stayed at) and then the Airport in 2 hours. Finnally a taxi already filled with people came by and it turned out to be the smae taxi driver that brought me from the airport to the first place I stayed, the place I was on my way to before going to the airport. So Isikele (Petro, the name he tells tourists and me until I saw him more often and he started giving me free rides) dropped me off at the first accomidation I had stayed at and I told him I needed a ride in a 1/2 hour to the airport so he said he'd drop off his other passengers and come back for me. I gave final gifts to the family and said goodbye as Isikele came back and dropped me off at the airport. I paid him $2.00 for the total ride, when a tourist would normally pay around $12. It was a perfect end to my eight weeks on Taveuni. Isikele had shown me and taken me to my first place to stay and now took me back to the airport and saw me off. It was almost like Deja Vu, except my pack was 20 pounds heavier than it was when I came.
The rest is all regular stuff. Late airplanes, drinkin duty-free bailey's, sleeping sitting up, getting swollen feet, getting really stiff and jetlagged, missing your flight, re-scheduling, and running to your flight only to wait at security for them to hand check all your film. On my flight from LA to Seattle, I met I guy who oversees his Costco-like business called Cost You Less. There is one in Fiji and Guam and Hawaii and four in the carribean, so he gets to travel to this places a few times a year. He was on the same flight as me and knew all the regular flight times and "knew if [he] missed the 4:14 flight the next was the 5:12..." This guy was a pro. So anyway, I got to the airport to my Mommy and Daddy waiting for me. The hunter became hunted when they called my name and took a sneaky picture of me. We went and ate at the same diner we ate at right before my flight to Fiji, except my Grandparents were there that time. I had nice greasy, fried american food and it was quite different than the food I had eaten in Fiji: Stews with Taro; Fish with coconut cream; noodles, cocnut cream, bele (a leafy green veg.), tuna, and taro; curry and flatbread; curry and rice; stew and cassava; tea and biskets; pancakes made with coconut cream and more.
So that's it. I dropped off the 52 rolls of slide film at the Phot Center at Evergreen. I get waves of culture shock, I get waves of excitement to be home, where I get all giddy, and jump and I have a wave of energy. This is such a wierd experience, but I am glad to have experienced it, and I am glad to have experienced it with many others in my class. We were not alone, and we are not alone now as we can compare and contrast our experiences and teach each other about different island experiences. Thank you all for reading, and have a fantastic day.
Ni sa bula vinaka i vale! (Have a wonderful welcome back home!)
Love,
Jon Huey - Traveller and Photographer