Lemon leaf in the morning: tea that surpasses all other attempts to comfort the soul. There's no better way to begin a new phase of life in Fiji. We awoke from our personal bedroom slumbers to a Fijian breakfast, sitting Indian style around a tablecloth near the kitchen. With all the logistics configured with the village authorities, we were free to begin finding our place among the rest of the community. The kids offered to take us swimming, relieving the discomfort of the hot, humid daytime, and along with this experience came our first hike through the clay-like mud, rock jumps, pebble skipping and the singeing of our first layers of skin.
The acceptance of The Nakavika Project: Day 6
It was 9pm in the Fijian highlands. The glow of candles and fluorescent lights shone through the windows and spaces between woven walls. Kamikaze frogs darted in and out of our path as Garrett, Abel and I lugged our huge bags toward Fane's house where half the village men and children were waiting, TV ablaze with violent American movies, and kava mixed for the ready.
The long road to the village: Day 4
I can't imagine a better way to enter a village than the way we did - in the bed of a truck with two laughing kids, standing and facing the glow of the headlights, singing into the wind while the last peak of sun rested onto the distant hills, rolling up to a sleepy village where our friend and contact, Abel, walked up to greet us as the government Land Cruiser rolled to a stop.
The first steps into Fiji: Day 3
First glimpse of Fiji
A blending of India's food and occasional putrid odors, Uganda's smoking fires and Hawaii's humid sweetness, spices and diesel exhaust, dust and flowers, fresh air infused with very specific whiffs of soap and oils - I can't explain Fiji's air any better than this. I wriggled in anticipation for Garrett's first smells of the island. After sitting/contorting in our seats for 11 hours across the blue Pacific, we stomped onto the tarmac . Garrett immediately cheered for his arrival to a country he instantly loved. The weather was uplifting, the people light-hearted, and all we had to do was pass through immigration to merge out of limbo into the South Pacific.
Even though we are planning some trips to scattered islands and are technically just visitors to Fiji, we decided, in our sleepless stupors, that we were teachers and should present ourselves as such to Fijian immigration. And so began a sweaty pursuit for an extension to our now limited visas.
Landing in Fiji
While Garrett ran downstairs to exchange some money for the visa payment, I worked with the officials and made a hand-written document explaining our intentions for volunteering and where we would be staying. I had no idea what wording was expected, so I pulled out a few lawyer phrases I learned from TV.
That simple letter with an address for Nakavika was apparently all we needed…that and a letter from the school we claimed to be helping, only to find out in a couple hours that we had planned to be in Fiji for the exact days of the big nationwide school break. All these things we had to hurdle were mere technicalities, which we eventually figured out thanks to our friend and contact in Lautoka and another immigration office in town. Though we could have sidestepped the initial troubles by saying we were just tourists, it seemed we were being more honest with our intentions, and it really wouldn't be too hard to get a letter clarifying our acceptance and intent from the village when we get there.
A half hour on the Queen's Road got us to Lautoka, and since Sugar City is the only city I know in Fiji, we came back to a familiar (cheap) hotel, shopped at a familiar (colorful) market and met up with Kimbo at a familiar volunteer house - to tap into the Fijian mentality and become better acquainted with the savvy of an expat.
Running around in the [near] equatorial sun after a day of flying gave us a beautifully rancid stench, and there seemed no better remedy than taking a dip in the hotel pool. December 4th, 2009 and we were swimming outside. We couldn't help but laugh and splash and entertain ourselves with challenges from childhood, all the while feeling the disbelief in our current location.
I couldn't believe we actually went through with it. We came to Fiji.
Wandering town yet again for our last meal of the day, we found some great Chinese and moseyed back with plans to watch Star Trek on my laptop and take an evening swim. We fell asleep immediately upon getting back from dinner. It was 7:30pm in Fiji.
Next came the long, long road to the village of Nakavika.
The birth of The Nakavika Project, part 2
I often have people ask how I fund my trips. Obviously, the internship wasn't on my dollar, but Garrett and I felt so strongly about this trip we used our own funds to purchase these flights. Garrett sold his car, and I am using the last of my earnings from working in the past year. When we return from Fiji, I will have virtually zero liquid dollars, and Garrett will live at home and work until he leaves for East Africa on the government's dime. For us, it's worth it.
The birth of The Nakavika Project, part 1
L: "I found an amazing flight deal I want to look further into. If the price is right, would you consider dropping the road trip idea and heading to Fiji to live in a village? We could do our own thing there, use our skills to start some effort from scratch, and I know we're already invited and welcome to be there. I talked to them a week ago."