Sevusevu!

Finally I get to sevusevu.  Nick and I changed clothes and hopped in the dinghy.  His kava looked different from mine; I thought I recognized it from someplace but my kava was tied up in a paper bundle so we couldn’t compare.  

We start toward shore and Nick sees this guy in a red shirt waving us over to the right.  Turns out there are a lot of rocks near shore and he was directing us to a bouyed path through the rocks.  Landed on sand, kids helped pull the dinghy up, and we met Jim.  Jim is the headman of the village.  He knew why we were coming in and led us to his hut.  We sat down in a room with no furniture whatsoever and he proceeded to do the sevusevu ceremony.  


After he got our names, he said a long prayer for us in Fijian.  I only recognized our names and countries of origin.  Then he clapped three times and started speaking English.  He said we were now welcome to stay as long as we liked, go anywhere we liked, he related the names of all his family (which of course I don’t remember any) and then went into a lengthy discourse on the importance of kava.  He picked up my bundle reverently and held it as he did.   Then he picked up Nick’s offering and said “Why do you bring cassava?”  Oh crap!  That’s what that stuff was!  I should have remembered it from Ellie’s cart in Econo.  (Go ahead, East Hancock - ask her sometime.)  Turns out Nick is very hard of hearing and when he went to the market in Lautoka for kava, he asked around and some vendor offered him cassava.  Thinking this was what he needed for sevusevu, Nick bought a bunch.  


So now Jim is looking a bit perplexed and suggests that perhaps Nick would like to take his cassava back to the boat.  Nick persists that Jim should keep it.  I’m trying my best not to laugh at the clash of cultures here.  In the end, Jim accepts it graciously, no doubt filing this story away for the next meeting of the Fijian elders - ‘Hey, let me tell you about this guy…’


I ask Jim if there were people in his village in need of reading glasses.  He brightened up and affirmed it.  I explained that I had brought prescription glasses from my village and would like to help out members of his who were in need of glasses.  He was quite enthused about this.  He then offered to cook Nick and I dinner the next night (tonight as I write this) for $30 FJD each.  Apparently it’s something that he does for cruisers to make a little money.  We both agreed.  So this afternoon I have an appointment at 4 pm in the community center to try out glasses on people and then at 5 we go to Jim’s for dinner.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Taveuni tour

Image
 Stardate October 9, 2023 Marina at the Dive Academy in Viani Bay had suggested we contact Jass for a tour of Taveuni.  So today we had the tour. We started with the waterfalls.  They are on the opposite side of the island from Paradise Resort.  Think of a reverse question mark with PR as the dot.  Or you can look at the map below.  The red arrow is not the boat - it's the position of my cell phone at the waterfalls.  Paradise Resort is at the lower left. Now this is not a big island; about 26 miles end to end.  Now the road...  Jass had a Prius and we were traveling on Press on Regardless roads.  The first ten miles was gravel, ruts and rocks.  Did I mention potholes?  I asked Jass if the road was ever graded.  He said "Once every six months."  You could tell. It took us two hours to reach the waterfalls, but we got the entire island history, which houses were owned by which rich foreigners.  (The guy who owns Red Bull owns an entire island.).   The road was paved a mile
Read more

And back to Volivoli...

Image
 Stardate October 14, 2023 A milk run until the last hour.  We had planned on stopping in Viti Levu Bay overnight.  We had made such good time that Nick suggested we push on to Volivoli point.  I think cold beer may have been the deciding factor.  I did point out that we would be passing up our last chance to do sevusevu and get rid of some kava.  Beer won out. The passage between the island and the reefs is not as fraught as it looks on the chart.  Plenty of room, good visibility, and the wind had dropped considerably from the crossing. Until here.  By now the wind had shifted to the east and was on the beam at about 35 knots.  The Navolau Passage is rather narrow and I had the main full up.  I wasn't worried about the narrow passage, but making that 90 degree turn to port did give me pause.  Especially in that wind.  I elected to keep the main up, thinking that I could use it further on (which was true).   So I come up to the turn and pulled the wheel over.  I had the preventer o
Read more

"Somebody has to do it."

Image
 A quote from Nick.  We're sitting on the bluff watching the sunset.  Taking pics of our sailboats.  Drinking cold beers.  He comes up with "Somebody's got to do it."  Meaning us being here.  Yep, Nick.  You nailed it. Fleur. Peregrine photobombed by catamaran. Look at that sky!
Read more