Carl's update

I know, I know! Its probably been about 2 solid months since anyone has heard boo from me, but I cant get my head around writing on the computer. Its partly the fact that at the end of each day I am exhausted and busy with the kids, but I think mostly its I don’t like to use technology whilst I am here. I really like the idea that we are so cut off here, from all the modern convenience of our life in Oz and I like also like to keep things really simple here. I love the fact that my days and weeks are governed by the  sun and the cycles of the moon.  

Enough of the pathetic excuses for being slack. Where are we up to in the building? Well if you look at the property there is no visible change as we have been waiting for the tip truck to be finished its repairs, which finally happened last week. This means that yesterday we were able to bring the last loads of rocks from the piggery, and hopefully finally finish the retaining wall. The sand which will be backfilled into the new area, has also been delayed for the last 6 weeks as the government truck thats meant to bring it has been to busy. This is an island in the Pacific, nothing happens quickly and no one dies of stress related heart disease. Although I often think it would be nice to see a little bit of stress or worry over something. Despite the delays we have been busier than ever with cutting up the 40 plus trees we knocked over in the past 2 months. We have cut up the bulk of the trees with just the mahogany and the hefau tree remaining, which also happened to be the 2 biggest trees that we cut down. The hefau tree was massive, it would require 3-4 of us to join arms to go around its circumference. It smashed everything in its path when It came down. By the way standing right next to the trunk when it came down, chainsaw in hand, caused a little tightening in the back passage. I must say that with about 60+ trees under my belt now, I feel quite confident when it comes to felling most trees. Where I think it will land is pretty much well where it ends up, which is gratifying to see. We have been using 2 methods  to cut the trees up into slabs. The main method has been manually sawing the tree into slabs with the chainsaw and the other method is the original idea with the chainsaw mill. The mill is very slow and takes a little while to set up for the first cut, as we have to use a set of rails so that the mill and saw have something to run across. Once the first cut is achieved, the rails are removed and the mill and saw run on the smooth surface of the first cut.  The advantage to the mill is that it is very accurate. So with that in mind I have decided to use the mill only for the floorboards and the walls of the house. These will be only 25mm thick which is difficult to get an accurate cut if done manually. The manual method requires us to do a first cut perpendicular to the ground, then we roll the log over so that the first cut is on top and parallel to the ground, and then with our chalk line we mark out the size of the slabs we are to cut and start sawing. Not quite as easy as it sounds as the saw weighs a tonne and has to be kept perfectly in line with the mark on the wood. I must say we have become surprisingly accurate with our cuts. In the front yard of the house we now have a shite load of 25,50 and 80mm slabs of beautiful tropical hardwood timber, waiting to be cut up into dimensioned lumber on the tablesaw. When the camera arrives on the next boat I will start taking photos of everything I have described.

As you probably already know, Nadine and the kids have gone back to Oz for a break, not for the kids sake, but Nadines. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about it at the beginning{ major understatement}, but it has actually worked out really well. I now no longer have the stress of having to worry about how Nadine is coping with the day and also am actually getting a full nights rest, as I no longer have Saulei  needing to be nursed in the middle of the night. It was tough going there for awhile when I was working very hard physically and then getting up several times a night to see to Saulei. The other major advantage has been I get to go to the sea at will. This meant last week I went fishing 6 times, on Saturday I went twice. The disadvantage is that I miss the them all a lot. The house seems empty without the kids running amok and making noise. Every one here really misses the kids, and cant wait for them all to get back.

As for the fishing. As I have been staying at my uncles place in hapmak, another village, and his house is on the oceanfront not the bay, like our place. So the routine has been work until about 3pm, down tools and clean the chainsaw, and then get changed into fishing outfit and head out for a couple of hours of spearfishing out the front of his place. We have met with success every time we have gone out and have managed to eat fish for dinner every night. One of the afternoons I saw a massive fish that I was little scared to spear as it was so big, also I didn’t know whether it was edible or not and don’t like to kill things unless we plan on eating it. This thing was like a small car. I screamed for my uncle and cousin to come over and identify it for me, they also happened to be towing the rope with the buoy on the end of it, handy if you come across a big fish as you clip the rope to the gun and hang onto the buoy after you shoot the fish. They looked at the fish and were a little taken aback by the size of it, but both said shoot it. I clipped the rope to my gun and dived down. By this stage the fish had decided to slowly make its way to underneath a large coral outcrop. I could see its tail and its mouth but couldn’t get a good shot at its head, which is vital with a fish this big, to try to kill it with one shot. I dived down 3 more times and decided to leave it be as I would almost certainly have trouble extracting the thing from under the rock, even if I was lucky enough to kill it with one shot and not just piss it off. Now every time we go fishing there I go back to the same spot to check if it has returned, no luck so far. The other bit of sea life that we have encountered quite a bit has been 2 large manta rays, that are very curious. They usually come within a couple of meters and spend quite a bit of time just hanging out, following us around. It was a little disconcerting at first as they are forkin huge, 2-3 metres across. But as I have got used to them they have become beautiful accompaniments to the afternoon expeditions.

My cousin Jione and I will be going back to hapmak for the next 2 weeks as the slabbing of the mahogany is taking a little longer than expected. The timber even in its rough form is starting to look beautiful. Amazingly it starts out white and then as it seasons it changes to a deep red. We have probably got about 6-7 more trees to cut down and then we will have all the timber we need for the house. When slabbed manually we can have a tree down, limbed and slabbed in about 3-4 days, which is pretty good going as none of us previous to starting had ever touched a chainsaw or slabbed a tree before.

I sometimes look around and take a mental note of what we are doing and still am amazed that its all happening. This was just an idea in my head[ not a very good one originally] 4 years ago. Most people that I mentioned it to thought it was a crazy idea especially considering you can get very good timber in Fiji and have it shipped over to Rotuma. Also the fact that I had never used a chainsaw before and also have never built a thing in my life, made the idea not just crazy but a little on the stupid side. We are nowhere near finished yet but looking at what we have achieved so far, makes me believe what my parents told me and my siblings when we were young. Put your mind to anything and you will achieve whatever  you want, or something to that effect. All these years I thought that they were pissing in my pocket, but in fact they were right. As I mentioned this maybe a little premature as all we have is a pile of hardwood slabs and nothing quite resembling a house yet, but we have made it this far...

On a bit of a crap note Ben a mate who is in Fiji awaiting a boat to here, cant wait any longer and has to go back to Oz. The shipping company oversold tickets to the tune of about 150. The boat left on time, and amazingly arrived on time but no Ben. As my Pa used to say, “you wouldn’t feed these people”. They sold Ben a ticket so he organised all his flights around the itinerary of the ship, but at the wharf on the day of departure they said they couldn’t take him and 149 other pre-paid passengers. Useless bastards!! Welcome to the 3^rd world. Its ironic really, as it has taken Ben3 weeks to unsuccessfully make it to Rotuma, yet Nadine and the kids were able to book a flight one  day before leaving and arrive in Australia on the same day they left Rotuma, which Is unheard of. You would be lucky to arrive in Fiji on the same day you left Rotuma, let alone Oz.

Thats enough from me. If history is anything to go by you probably wont here from me again until about xmas , hopefully this year.

Take it easy and much lOve..

Carlos..

p.s. We have started planeing and sanding the mahogany slabs. All the hard work of felling the trees and cutting them up into slabs, now seems all worthwhile. The timber is absolutely beautiful! I cant wait to walk on these floors.   

Latte's, lush bed and loving friends and fam!

Ok dear faithfull readers, this might come as a great surprise, and I still cant believe it myself, but here I am, in Sydney, sipping on Latte's, sleeping in a lush comfy bumfy bed with my 2 boys, hanging with my dear friends and family and LOVING it!
A miracle occured and we managed to hop onto a return chartered flight that came to Rotuma last Saturday to bring a body over to be burried, Carl's Cousin Mangel asked the family if there are any seats available on the return flight, and there were! So there we were waiting on the landing strip, not knowing until the last minute if we were definitely on the flight, the next minute we're riding this noisy 18 seater plane back to Fiji. It was supposed to fly to Suva, but for some reason it landed in Nadi, and when we got off, i went to the counter to find out if by chance there were any available seats on the next flight to Sydney, and magically- 2 hours later we were on a flight back to Sydney!!! I think we broke a world record- Rotuma in the morning and Sydney at night!!!!! Thats unheard of!

I desperately needed a break, and Im glad i took it, we will be returning to Rotuma on the October boat, hopefully accompanied by some family, but untill then, Carl will be the blog writer, if he has time to write in his busy island life. We have another friend braving it coming over to Rotuma, if he manages to get there, as the boat he was supposed to go on last Monday, decided to reduce the capacity of passengers to half, thats after his ticket was bought, and he wasnt allowed on the boat, so we're hoping he will manage to get on the next boat in September. Good luck Ben!!!

If you're in Sydney and wanna catch up- call me on my Australian number.
Otherwise, you can find me cafe hopping on an extreme Caffeine buzz tagged by 2 babyccino mustache faced kids...
xxx

Tropical tales...

Another Sunday arvo, but this one is slightly different, as we are spending the weekend at our “holiday house” in another village... I’d like to think of it as our house, but really, its Carls uncles place in the village of Hapmak, about 3km away from where we are at in Itumuta. Varomue lives here with his youngest son, in a house he built about 4 years ago, and to me it feels like luxury... Its up on a hill with cracker views of the bay and the other small surrounding islands, it is big and spacious with intact screens’ on all the doors and windows, therefore no pests penetrating the house and my blood, there is electricity power 18 hours a day, which means ceiling fans, an electric kettle to boil water for tea in 2.5 minutes rather than waiting about 30 minutes for a huge kettle of water to boil for one cuppa, there’s breeze from every direction, a great open plan kitchen, a real and clean bathroom with the best showerhead, Cable TV (Cartoon network for kids), rooms with doors that actually close, and a decent washing machine... It all feels a bit familiar, as if I have lived a life like this somewhere in my past...
There is an abundance of pawpaw trees surrounding the house, pineapples growing down the hill, a Soursap tree – has anyone ever tasted those things? OMG!!!! SO delicious! I think its part of the custard apple family, as they look similar and taste similar, (I tried to google it, but the internet is so slow that I couldn’t bother waiting for Wikipedia...)and yesterdays dinner was the most “instant” one we have had yet... One minute we were sitting on the veranda spying on a bunch of wild chooks walking into a trap to munch on coconut husks, then next thing the trap was shut, uncle Varomue was inside pulling out 4 chooks, next he chopped their heads off, next him and Rob went down to the water to pluck them and chop them up, and next thing I knew I had a bucketful of chook to make a chicken curry. So fresh, so yum!

 

One rare moment of relaxation

 

 "Holiday house" snack with uncle Varomue

 

Dinner, just before they were beheaded

Its nice to have a bit of space from the rest of the household in Itumuta, am thinking of coming here every weekend... Varomue would be delighted, as his wife is in Fiji and he needs the company and a bit of woman in the house...
So a few stories to tell since my last post, first being a “Grog party” we were invited to by our friend Fay... he called early Friday evening and invited Rob to come and I just dragged along, partly to just get out of the house for a night, partly to look after Robby, and partly out of curiosity. People here love their “grog parties”, a bit like how we love our nights out back home... only these are so much more boring...
So Fay came by to pick us up wearing red tracky pants, a red over the shoulder T-shirt and sparkly earings, and took us to what used to be the old Catholic Church’s Nuns convent, now just someone’s home, and he explained that this is where he has a Grog party every Friday night. He said that he is always the only one that gets dressed up, and I thought his Little red riding hood outfit was good enough, but as soon as we got there and sat in a circle with a bunch of strangers, he disappeared, only to emerge wearing the skimpiest shortest open back glitzy turquoise mini dress, dressed with pearls and makeup, and gave us the full drag spin-around. Robby and I couldn’t believe our eyes... it was so surreal. The Nun’s convent, the silent strangers, and then Fay looking like a Rotuman Kylie Minogue... and we hadn’t even started drinking...
The Grog drinking, refers to Cava, the local root they harvest and dry, grind it into a fine powder with a man-size metal mortal and pestle, then mix with water in a wooden bowl, scoop out a cupful and pass it around in a circle. Every time you receive a cup, you clap 3 times and down it. It tastes very bitter, and all we felt was a mild numbness in our mouth, but when one drinks allot of it over hours of sitting in a circle, it has a muscle relaxant effect, so you’d feel like a big blob of jellyfish or something. And would be quite as interesting a conversation as a big blob of Jellyfish.
Being in a roomful of Rotumans is the most boring thing for me, (and for Robby too- as he soon discovered...), as they speak only Rotuman, don’t bother involving you in a conversation, never ask you anything about your life and where you come from, and if you ask them a question, if you even get an answer at all, it is usually a grunt or the traditional lifting of one eyebrow... which to this day I still haven’t figured out what it means (Yes? NO? I don’t know? Oh wow that is so interesting and how did it make you feel???). So at this Grog party, there were a few silent Rotumans, but also a few Fijian nurses, who didn’t speak Rotuman, so luckily alot of the little conversation there was, was in English. Rob and I just sat together and giggled and took the piss out of the situation, laughing at Fay’s stories of his massive thighs and faraway lovers...
At some stage, the “Hot stuff” came out, which was a big bucket of iced instant coffee with a couple of bottles of Rum poured in. I might just mention that most the people in the circle were about half our age, and Rob and I really started feeling it... we had a couple of sips of their “Cocktail”, and when everyone else just started to get a little too excited, we thought its a good time to leave, and strolled home in the full moon light, giggling our heads off...

 

Fay Minogue, robby and moi at Grog party

Another little story, one late afternoon, everyone was hanging out on the veranda, playing chess, lying down, when suddenly Litisia, an auntie who lives 2 houses away came running to me with a blank look on a very pale face, holding onto her wrist asking if I can help her. I looked at her wrist and it was pouring out blood like a fountain, I took one look at the cut and saw her veins and tendons and freaked out. She had accidently cut it on a piece of glass that broke off from one of the louvers in her bedroom, she came running to me, as I have become the village bandage lady, and I took one look at it and saw it definitely needed to be stitched up. We grabbed some tea towels to tie it up, and I grabbed my phone to call the hospital to send the Ambulance, but no one knew the number for the hospital!!!!!! What tha??? Whoever was sitting around on the veranda, just sat there and continued doing their thing, men playing chess, kids playing ball, Litisia sitting there bleeding away and only Rob and I were running around trying to figure out what to do while Carl was holding the tea-towel tightly on her wrist. The only one who freaked out besides me was Saulei, who probably sensed my distress and stood on the side crying... we sent one of the kids down the road to call Uncle Alexiyu who has a car to come take her to the hospital, luckily he was there, as the hospital is about a 30 minute walk away. They took her to the hospital and she managed to ask us to clean the mess in her house, as she was expecting some people to come stay that night, and she lives with her husband who is recovering from a stroke and cant walk properly, and her little grand-daughter Shannon- Noah’s best mate here. The poor girl saw it all, and was hardly fazed. Rob and I went back to the house and cleaned the drops of blood from around everywhere, changed the bloody bedding and removed the broken glass.
We brought her family some dinner, and a couple of hours later she came back from the hospital with her wrist bandaged up. She said they put a few stitches in and wanted her to stay overnight, but she didn’t want to as she was worried about these people coming to stay the night without her being there... so I got her settled back at home and punched my phone number on speed dial in her phone and showed her how to use it (she only knows how to answer the phone, nothing else...) and told her to call me if she needs anything during the night. Luckily I did that, because at around midnight I was woken by a phone call from her telling me she has been bleeding all night and her bed is covered in blood, I told her Carl and I will be there right away. In my half sleep I grabbed my first aid gear thinking I can help, but when we got there and saw she was covered in blood, Carl ran over to wake Alexiyu to come take her to the hospital. This time I went with her, driving in a very dodgy ute in pouring rain on really bad roads, which in itself freaked me out. As I do, I started imagining these terrible things that can happen, half asleep. Not good.
We got to the hospital, it was very dark, and a sleepy nurse came out to see who it was that’s disturbing her sleep. We took Litisia inside, at this time she was feeling weak and dizzy, and the nurse very slowly, very sleepishly removed her bandage. I took one look at what was underneath and had to sit down and resume the Brace position, otherwise I would’ve probably passed out myself. Her cut was like a gaping L-shaped slit in her wrist, with about 3 stitches barely holding it closed, her veins and tendons still exposed...
The nurse called the doctor, who came over looking just as pissed off by being woken, took one tiny look at her through his sleepy eyes and mumbled “observation” before he marched off back to bed. I guess “observation” meant “keep her here and watch her through the night”. So the nurse bandaged her up again, gave her some pain relief, and I went back home with Alexiyu who was waiting outside.
When I got back home around 1am, I couldn’t fall asleep. I was having the worst thoughts go through my mind, all the “what if” thoughts I fear about being here, and try to push out of my mind. I had to do a bit of breathing exercises to calm me down and put me to sleep...
The next morning Rob and I rode up to the hospital to take her some fresh clothes, but she was ready to come home and was driven home in the ambulance. Since then she has been recovering, the poor thing is hating not being able to do anything, as she is the kind of person who values herself by the work she does. Luckily, the people who came to stay at her house ended up being a blessing, as they are doing all the work for her. Feeding the pigs, working in the plantation, bringing the food, fishing, cooking and cleaning. It turns out that she probably should have had surgery done on her wrist, as she cant move her fingers and they are really swollen and sore. Maybe some nerve damage, I don’t know, but over here nothing is descriptive. If someone has terminal cancer, they just say he is “sick”, if someone has been vomiting, they are the same “sick” as terminal cancer or heart disease. Its very basic.

And what else has been going on? We went on a big walk up to the top of a mountain to check out the views of the island from above. With kids on shoulders (not mine of course – Carl, Robby and cousin Johnny took turns) climbing up steep slippery mud and rocks, swinging off vines, with me having my usual fear of heights panic attack refusing to go any further, tears in my eyes and shaking, the kids just charging along with no fear what so ever. Needless to say I didn’t enjoy it, not one little bit, even when we reached the top and sat on this massive rock hanging over a big drop into the ocean with views all the way to the tip of the island, I just wanted to be back on the ground, on the beach, drinking coconuts. Which is what we did next.
What else? Lots of baking and cooking with Robby, who is equally into food as I am. Lots of Green Pawpaw Chutney, Cumquat and Ginger Jam, Banana and Cumquat Jam, Gnocchi made from Tapioca, Gnocchi made from Pumpkin. Its good to have Robby’s enthusiasm to inspire me to cook a bit more interesting. Not that it has any value tor anyone else besides me and him...

 

View from the top of the rock

  

Tree monkey fetching coconuts

The other night Carl and his cousins went out to sea to get Lobsters, they came back with a sack full of about 8 lobsters and a couple of Balmain bug type thing. The kids were still awake and were screaming with fear when they saw the things, who were still alive when brought home. I had to sooth them to sleep, then proceed to the kitchen to share the freshest Lobster tails one can eat with Robby. He ate about 4 of them, feeling very guilty, not realising that they were caught especially for him. What a treat.

 

Robby with pre cooked dinner

Next week is the Doom day, Robby will be leaving to go back to his life in Bondi. Same life I had there. I am quite jealous. I hate the thought of him sipping on a quality latte, eating beautiful fresh bread, cheeses and the variety of fruit and veg I cant get here, which I miss so much. But most of all I hate the thought of missing his company, his humour, his cynicism, swims with him and the kids, endless chats over cups of tea and sneaky biscuits. Back to being the only white person around for miles. The only one who sort of understands my head. Till our next guest Lauren comes here in October hopefully.
Loads of Love to all of you out there!!!!!!! xxxxxx

Island times with Rob

Long time no blog!!!!! Thats probably because I’ve been too busy having a good time with my dearest Robby here, who has been living our life for the past 2 weeks.  He made the long journey on the same dodgy old boat that we came on, and we met him at the warf at Oinafa village, fed him local goodies and sweet fresh coconut juice on arrival, and took him to our home. His first day was a bit of a shock, as expected, but also the house was full of people who were hanging around helping to prepare his “Mamasa” welcoming ceremony. It’s always interesting to see the reaction of other people to the whole process, it could be quite overwhelming with all the preparation and all the strange people who arrive to eat coz there is such an abundance of food.

 

Welcome Robby!!!

Its been an absolute pleasure having him here, in every way. We have been laughing so much, talking so much, going for long walks and bike rides, we rode all around the island the other day, stopping for little swims and munch breaks in the islands most beautiful spots. It took us about 4 hours to ride around the island and my legs at the end of it were KILLING!!!! Its the longest distance I have ever ridden a bike!!! I think I have seen more of the island since he has been here, than I ever have in the 3 times I have been here.

It’s been amazing having him here as our “fresh eyes” jumping in and fixing and renovating and doing things that I have been wanting to get done since I arrived but haven’t had the chance to and Carl been too busy to.  He removed some corrugated iron and unnecessary louvers from a window in the kitchen which has allowed allot more light and airflow into my tiny cooking cave, he has helped me plant seedlings and will be preparing a vegie patch outside the kitchen, as the one that Carl and the boys prepared and planted in the bush didn’t quite take off, he’s helped Carl with the tree cutting and slabbing, and he is like an angel in the house, helping with the cleaning and preparation of food, the washing and the kids. We don’t quite know when the next boat is arriving in Rotuma to take him back to Fiji and home, but I am secretly planning not to tell him about it so that he misses it and will have to stay longer... (Sorry Michelle...)

 

Planting vegie seeds

  

Lobsters for breaky

The best part of him being here is the fact that I have someone to talk to!!!!! I think I have had verbal diarrhoea since he has arrived, spilling out all I have not been able to talk in the past 3 months, the poor guy, but its been great!!! And in the moments that I have been loosing it and wanting to slit the throats of everyone around me, he always comes in and cracks the silliest joke to make me laugh my head off and calm me down. I haven’t laughed this much in so long!

Robby is also a bit of a foodie like me, so we have been improvising different dishes we can make with what we’ve got here, (did I mention we had Lobster for breakfast today? And Octopus for dinner last night?), as we speak he is busy cooking up some Cumquat jam, we’ve been making Tapioca, Banana and Coconut puddings, and secretly snacking on bags of really bad ‘Made in Indonesia’ biscuits bought from the local shop while drinking cups of my Israeli coffee. When he arrived he brought with him some delicious treats from Oz, bags of M&Ms that I had been craving, which I hide and munch on in moments of need and greed, with not even the kids or Carl knowing about it (oops, now you do Carl.... the things we do for the promotion of mental stability...). in a culture where NOTHING is only yours, everything is everyone’s, this woman needs to keep her sweet treats private... is that a major sin?????? I hope that one day when my kids are old enough to read this, they will forgive me for not sharing my M&Ms with them...

One great thing that has happened since he arrived is that we have started a little campaign on teaching the locals about rubbish management. Every time I come here I am, shocked but mostly saddened to see how much rubbish is thrown on the beaches, in the ocean, in the forest and on the roads. It is really sad, because since the introduction of western processed foods into the island, they have no education or resources to deal with the rubbish it produces, so they either dispose it on the beaches or in the water thinking that the tides will take it away from them (it doesn’t occur to them what might happen with the rubbish once the tides take it away...), or they burn it (plastic and all) or burry it. There is an unbelievable amount of broken glass,  rusting roofing iron, cans and tins lying around everywhere, and people and kids are constantly cutting themselves on it, as well as loads of plastic bottles, bags  and rubbish to be found everywhere. On one particularly blue day I was having a couple of weeks ago, I went for a bike ride to one of the closest beaches to have some quiet time, and almost cried when I saw the amount of rubbish on this one particularly beautiful beach. It was COVERED in plastic rubbish, old shoes, household goods and even an old fridge. Carl recons it came from Australia and New Zealand, but to me it didn’t matter where it came from. It was there and it was awful. So I proceeded to walk to the further end spot on the beach, blast Madonna’s “Like a prayer” in my ipod (yeah I know Im a dag, whatever...) and dance like a madwoman on this beach with no one else to be seen (or if they saw me, they knew they’re best not to come too close...).

So after seeing that, and after conversations with some locals and understanding how ignorant and indifferent not only the children but especially the adults are, I felt like while I am here, I really have to try do something to help and educate these people in how to manage their rubbish. When Robby arrived he was equally shocked and saddened by it all and just wanted to start cleaning up. I watched him do it and realized that I have become as apathetic to it as the locals have, which made me sad too, so with the help of Robs enthusiasm we decided to do something about it.

Incidentally, there is the local Queen called Fay, who is a part of an initiative called Laje Rotuma, which is a NGO that aims to educate the kids about environmental issues. They organize Eco camps in which the kids do different activities such as bird watching, Sea grass monitoring, beach auditing and forest management to learn about the environment they live in and to understand that all are connected to each other. I thought Fay would be a good person to talk regarding how we can reach the community to teach them a bit about rubbish management. He was super excited, fluttering his eye lashes and waving his long colourful nailed hands, that finally he has found someone else “on his side” and was very keen for Rob and I to come and do a presentation at schools he was visiting to talk about the eco camps. So after some hilarious talks and planning what we were going to say to these kids, off we went last Friday to 3 different schools, 2 primary and one high school. We received the warmest welcome from all the kids and the staff, the kids were the cutest in the primary schools, and too cool for us at the high school. Robby and I had to try so hard to keep a straight face when Fay,  with his bleached hair, groomed eyebrows, painted nails and a G-string poking out of his pants, stood in front of a hall full of giggling teenagers trying to get them interested in environmental issues. It was hard enough for Rob and I to take him seriously, not to mention the kids...

We talked to them about preserving the beauty of the island so that future generations could enjoy it, we talked about the dangers of battery acid containing Lead leaking out of old batteries in their back yards and into the ocean, feeding the fish and then them. We talked about plastic, rusting tins and iron and glass disposal, which was a bit of a difficult topic, as there is no recycling facilities on the island and their only options are to burn or bury the rubbish. We encouraged them to teach their elders and younger siblings not to throw rubbish into the ocean, told them the consequences of plastic breaking down in the sea and killing fish and other marine life. We had to keep it very simple, information and language so as not to overwhelm them. We also encouraged them to write letters to the Government asking for assistance in rubbish removal from the island, to keep their island beautiful.

 

Kids performing the traditional Rotuman dance at the primary school we visited

To be honest, we didn’t feel we really got through to the kids, but if we know that one or two kids got something from it, then we’re happy. What was good though, was that the school staff- teachers and Principal seemed very keen and enthused to do something.

We had a meeting with the high school Principal who seemed quite progressive and onto things. He told us that they have glass and plastic recycling bins at the school, but what is done with it once full, I am not sure. Apparently Coca-Cola has provided a couple of large plastic recycling bags (which I have seen only 2 of on the whole island), so we might see if we can approach them to sponsor more of them, as well as the freight of rubbish back to Fiji, in the hope that it could be recycled there. We also thought of approaching the battery companies to supply Battery recycling bins and again, pay for the freight out of the island, as Battery disposal is a big problem here.  You see old rusting batteries everywhere, and with that kids playing with them and throwing them around...

Lots of work and research to do about how we can get things done here, and with such little spare time on my hands, and internet connection which is as slow as a crippled snail, it might be quite challenging...

If any of you have any ideas, connections with other NGO’s that might be interested in helping or sponsoring, any way of raising funds to help Laje Rotuma  with their work, or any ideas of how we can help deal with all this rubbish collected on this tiny little island, I would love to hear from you.

We had such a fun day going to the schools, after our meeting with the high school principal, all the staff had a morning tea spread which they invited us to be their guests, as well as a crew of Fijian electricians working on connecting the high school to the government electricity grid. As usual, before having a meal or a gathering, the host stands up and introduces everyone and thanks us for coming, they introduced everyone by name, and mentioned if they were married or not... (we all were, besides Robby...). we had a lovely morning tea of fruits and coconut juice, coconut cake, Indian pakoras, puddings and more.... very yummy and unexpected, which made our day extra sweet...

The last school we went to was a tiny little school on the north end of the island, with only 32 kids in the whole school. They had been waiting for us for a while as we were running late, so when we arrived, they gathered all the 32 barefooted kids in ages ranging from 6 to 11,  in a room which I think was a library, sat them all on the floor and we did our little presentation. At the end their teacher asked if anyone had any questions, they all went silent and hid their eyes, besides one tiny little cutie girl who put her hand up and asked her teacher what I had in my bag.... it was so funny. They then proceeded to do a dance performance for us, lining up and dancing the traditional Rotuman dances while singing along (one song was different words to “By the Rivers of Babylon”, to which Robby and I cracked up laughing...) It was SO cute, all these children of different ages, singing in harmony, the acoustics in the room were great and it sounded like little angels singing. All of the schools sang songs for us, but this last one was our favourite because they did the traditional dance to go along with it... another hilarious detail was that while we were visiting that last school and sitting in front of the kids with one of the 3 teachers in the school, the other 2 emerged at some stage and they were each more camp than the next, one was even a Dame Edna look alike...  we questioned Fay about it and he said that all the school teachers were gay. Who would’ve thought that  even on this tiny island, where everyone seems so Asexual,  there was a gay community... Good on them!

Upon our departure, each school prepared a gift for us, they were told they were having guests so they had to bring something for us so we were given baskets of coconuts to drink and some fruit from each school. Really sweet.

So I don’t know what will come of it all, hopefully we can get a bit of interest and support, maybe even some publicity in the Fijian newspapers, but I would really like to see some changes here.

And on the building front, a short update coz Carl is too busy to breath, he has cut down all the trees he needs to use for the building, and is now in the process of slabbing them. He has asked for the help of a Fijian guy living here who mills tree’s as a profession, as he realised that it will take him way too long to do it himself, as he doesn’t have enough experience to do them fast enough, so hopefully by the end of this week they will all be slabbed, and he could start cutting them to size and dry them. Once that is done, we hope we can get the retaining wall completed and the sand delivered to fill the site to the level he wants to build on, and then he can start digging for the foundations. Not before they build an outdoor kitchen for me.

 

Carl in action with his man-tool

 

Carl's first cut of 80x250x2500ml timber

Carl is working harder than I have ever seen him work, and those who know him, know what a hard worker he is at the best of times. He is looking very skeletal, as he doesn’t eat enough to sustain his hard work, and I am sounding more like a Jewish mother pushing him to eat than I do with my kids...

Im hoping to get Robby to write a few lines, so you get another person’s experience of the life here besides mine. I think he is being a bit shy. I will put the pressure on him....

Loads of loving to you all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Carl's accomplishments!

 

Native Rotuman Monkey (Sauleiphyllus Humanous)

Hey people! Its been awhile since I have put fingers to pad, but I have a decent excuse of being a tad on the busy side.
I have had a query about the lack of surf stories. Well the bad news is that I am actually, you guessed it, too busy. I never thought that those few words would ever cross my sun kissed lips, but alas it is true. I went and had a look at the point break that is closest to our village, and just happened to turn up at the right time to see it firing. OUCH! The only reason I went to have a look at it was because it just happened to be near a stand of trees that I am going to fell next week.
Talking about trees, I have now cut down a shite load of trees, none of which are for the house, but for people who have asked as a favour. Its not all one way they also happen to own the land that the trees that I want are on. People have such a different attitude to trees than what we do. Everyone that I have approached that owns land with trees on it that I want, have all said go for your life, in regards to cutting them down. People are very kind and have not asked for any payment or anything at all in return for their assets. Even the guy who owns the Mahogany tree didn’t want anything, I had to convince him that it was a good idea that I pay him. By the way this tree is huge! I am now waiting for the moon to be in its dark cycle, which should be at the end of next week and then I will cut down a heap of trees for the building. A Fijian guy who cuts trees down for a living told me to cut the tropical trees down at this time as the insects that go for the trees are dormant at this time of the moon cycle. I will cut down about a dozen trees, one of which is about 1.5 metre in diameter. This one is a hefau tree {Callophylum inophyllum}, which apparently is worth a fortune overseas, especially in Hawaii.
The work has been going very well. We are very close to finishing the retaining wall, but unfortunately have to go back to the bush to get more rocks {very hard work}. I have finished the workshop and next week will start slabbing my first tree, which conveniently is right next door, literally and so therefore all my tools are close at hand if I need to make any adjustments to the chainsaw mill. My 2 other cousins arrived on the boat about 2 weeks ago. This now fills out our work crew to myself, Rigamoto {73 yr old work horse, hard as nails], Gagaj Veu[same school, similar age], Romana[his son, who is my age], Jione [big and strong], Mangel[even bigger and stronger], and finally Fernando[young, smart arse but works hard with a bit of physical cajoling]. There will be photos. Every Sunday we have a little meeting and plan out what will be done in the following week. We have 5 months to finish the lot and I am feeling quite confident that it will all be achieved on time.

 

The workshop

 

Building site, only retaining wall in view by the water, the rusty sheds to the right are going

 

Retaining wall in progress

 

Retaining wall close to being finished

The fishing has been going great. It now serves 2 purposes for me. The first is to provide food for all of us, and usually several of the surrounding families, and also its become my replacement for surfing. I usually go twice a week. Saturdays I go with my cousin Rupeni and Joe and we usually go net fishing. We are gone for most of the day and usually come back with around 150 fish. In the middle of the week I go spearfishing off the edge of the reef. This is my favourite as it is a little bit more challenging and I also am floating out in the middle of the sea, beautiful. Last time I went I was followed by 2 small reef sharks, saw a huge Manta ray and 2 massive parrot fish about the size of a motorbike. Last time I was here, Shane and I went spearfishing at night with other guys and caught 3 of them. I could only just pick one of them up.
I will take more photos, I promise. Photos of some of the trees before I cut them down, the finished workshop, and the retaining wall. Robbie arrives next week , should be a massive shock to his system. Gay man from the Eastern suburbs arrives in the 3rd world. Good luck!! I will try to be a bit more proactive with my blog entries from here on in. Take it easy and I hope people are surfing for me in this time of drought.
Carlos...

Lobster, Loosing it and Lamb sausages

 

The sky was orange and a slight rainbow in view (not the best pic)

Oh I am so full! Just had my first Lobster lunch this time around.  It would’ve been much more enjoyable if I didn’t have to kung-fu fight the flies away while trying to scrape the flesh out of the tails and eat at the same time.

Rule number one in Rotuma- better not to eat fish or Lobster in the day time, as you would have to share your meal with a million other black flying buggers...

Carl went last night with his cousins to fish and came back with a bag full’o’fish and about 6 Lobsters. They had to pre cook it all when they got home so it won’t go bad, so today I made green Curry fish and Lobsters in Coconut cream and lime. If I were to cook them fresh out of the sea, I would’ve put the tails on the BBQ, made up some Garlic butter and dipped. Oh well, next time. And I’m sure there will be one soon.

So the days are rolling by into weeks and months, and we have been here for about a month and a half now, and I am just starting to feel like this is my life right now. On the one hand, It feels like we’ve been here for so much longer, but on the other hand, it’s like time doesn’t exist at all, I don’t know what day it is most of the time, and Sundays come along so fast. Sunday is the only day I know, because everyone here gets all dressed up for church and no one does any work, it is the day of rest. I know it is 6pm when the electricity comes on and I know it is 9pm when it goes off. I know it is morning when I see an orange sky emerging on the horizon when I look out of my window, and that’s pretty much all I know about time over here...

Since my last post, our cargo load on the ship finally arrived, a big crate of stuff we sent from Australia before we left and only received it a week ago, together with a package from Carls family containing some goodies I have been craving. I was speaking to Selina, Carls sister on the phone after I received it, telling her how excited I was about receiving it all, and she laughed at me saying “Nadine, that is so sad, being so excited about receiving some first aid gear and nice soaps...” I laughed so much at how true that was. How sad...

But with that load came our nice clean sheets, and bikes and books and toys, I was so excited, like receiving a huge load of Xmas presents, the first thing I did was pulled out my sheets and flew them in the air like Mary Poppins and lay them on my bed and was so happy to have nice crisp white cotton sheets to sleep on (however, that night, Saulei was a bit sick, and spewed all over them... )

It’s great to have our bikes here, it gives me the opportunity to see a bit of the island, rather than stay at home all day, I’ve been having to escape the kids (literally- with them running after me screaming... they don’t like seeing their mummy go...), going for little rides to get a bit of a break and space. It’s really helpful. We’ve got little seats for the kids on the bikes, but I must say, I don’t know if I will be using mine much, as riding on sand is hard enough, but having a passenger on the back too, makes it a bit too dodgy for my comfort. Especially when my passenger is Saulei.

I must admit, I haven’t felt very inspired to write lately, been having a bit of a downer and feeling a bit over it all. I feel like I am a slave here. Who would have thought that living on a tropical island could feel like slavery?  I feel like all I do all day is slave in the boiling hot kitchen  to cook for the masses, I’m hardly enjoying myself, and there isn’t much I can do about it. We need to eat. These big hungry men need to eat to be able to work, and I am the one responsible for it.  Carls cousin Mua came and went with the last boat, and she was supposed to come back on the next boat leaving next week, but she isn’t. I’m guttered. She is a huge help, takes half the load of work off me, she manages the household and all the inhabitants in a way that I could never, and she is another woman to have in the house with me.  Luckily, I have the gorgeous Rechelli, a little aunt about my mums age and my size, who lives next door, and pretty much does everything here with me. She is the most patient person I have ever met, she can sit for a whole day, literally, getting up only for eating and toilet, and work on something, if it is making the “Tefui”- the flower lay, for a particular occasion, or cutting up coconut flesh to tiny pieces to make the “taroro”- a fermented coconut mush they use for cooking. She helps me with all the kitchen work, she is as strong as a bull, as graceful as a butterfly, she does everything with so much gratitude (we feed her and her elderly father and grandson), she sings and dances and is very creative. Always with a smile on her face. Never complains about anything.  She even reads books! I dunno what I would do without her.

 

Rechelli, little Shannon and I peeling "Vee" fruit to make jam

So I’m trying to keep sane, trying hard to focus on the positives, and mainly on the fact that Robby, our dear friend, is coming next week. I could really do with the company, the silliness we share, the laughs and cuddles, a bit of my tribe with me in this foreign land... AND, he’s bringing with him a bunch of goodies too, little mad cravings I’ve had like M&M’s and Muesli...

I mentioned before that Mua manages the household in a way that I could never do, I’d like to explain that.

Over here, you are judged and valued by how hard you work. Life here is very hard, to be able to eat, you have to work very hard. To have clean clothes, you have to work very hard. Same goes with a clean house, or anything else for that matter. If one doesn’t work hard, beyond their comfortable ability, the work load falls on others, those who do work hard, and they might happen to be old men or women. If someone doesn’t work hard they are put down and disrespected, and constantly picked on, in ways that I personally have a hard time with. When Mua is here, she is like a very vocal hen, constantly bossing everyone around, yelling at the ones who are lazy and don’t work hard, threatening them with no food or being kicked out, designating “bosses” and making it clear to whoever is in the house they are under the “command” of those “Bosses”... Funnily enough, I was designated as one of them. Everyone has to do what I tell them to, and follow my instructions. A bit of a weird job that I feel quite uncomfortable in, I’m not really the type to boss people around (especially when they’re three times my size), and I don’t enjoy putting people down and threatening them, but it seems like that is the only language they understand... I don’t want to become that kind of person. If when I get back home Im sounding bossy rude and condescending, please let me know, send me to “Kind school” to relearn how to be it...

One “exciting” thing that has happened is that I have become a business manager... HA HA!!!!  When Mua came back on the last boat, she brought with her a freezer, kindly sponsored by Carls mum. Now you’re probably asking what would we do with a freezer in a place that has only 3 hours of electricity a day? Well- exactly that... only 3 hours of power a day keeps the thing semi cool, and in it, we store packets and packets of Sausages, which we sell for $15 dollars per 1.5kg pack. Every now and then a random person arrives at my bedroom door to buy sausages, and I sell them the half soggy things that defrost and partially refreeze every day. It can’t be good for the poor Lamb Sausages (that’s what they’re labelled as, they don’t taste anything like lamb, or anything else for that matter...), but that’s what y you get here. Mua brought 2 cartons of them to sell, I have already sold one carton, we make $3 profit on each pack. I have to write down in a little exercise book every sale I make. We are expanding our stock with the next boat arriving from Suva, and will be selling butter and  what they call “Mutton”, which I think are lambs necks. I don’t want to think of the food miles on them, and the amount of freezing and defrosting they have been through, probably coming from New Zealand or Australia. Yet people here will still eat it happily...  I’m quite glad about the butter being sold here, as it means that I have a constant supply of it, rather than having to find someone going to another villages faraway to get some for me and pay a ridiculous price for it. Of course I have to pay for it coming from my business, am still not sure if I will get mates rates or not...

 

Mua and I with our new business- the freezer!

On the building side of things, Im sure Carl would like to tell about it, but he is so damn busy all the time, that he hasn’t got time to sit and write.

He has been frolicking in the bush with men who know, looking for trees to use for timber to build with, he has been practicing cutting down loads of coconut trees with his chainsaw and getting quite good at it, he goes fishing twice a week to feed us all, he manages all the rest of the men in what needs to be done and how, he has been building his workshop  for all his power man-tools, digging holes, building a bench top, playing with all his man-toys.  The retainer wall they built to extend the land into the sea is almost complete, this was a very hard process for all these hard men here, having to lug big rocks around for days and build a perfectly balanced wall, photos attached. Apparently next week he is going to cut down the trees he will use for building.

He has already cut down 3 coconut trees in front of the house, and every time I see one of them go down within 25 seconds, I feel really bad, thinking that it must’ve taken years to grow, and here we come, these western destroyers, and within seconds destroy it all. Carl explained that coconut trees in particular, have such a high turnover, they grow really fast, and when they don’t produce fruit anymore, it’s better to clear them to allow sunshine for younger shoots to grow better. Also, people here don’t have the same value on tree’s as we do in the “west”. Carl bought a whole huge Mahogany tree from one of the locals, and payed him $400 fijian dollars for the whole tree. Anywhere else, Im sure that would cost thousands, or maybe not. It doesn’t really matter. Each to their own I guess.

So I’m gonna sign off now, as I have to go prepare dinner, not before I let you in on a funny story about Saulei, who at not yet 2 years old, on an isolated island in the middle of nowhere, has become a fashion victim, and is very fussy about what he wears. Several times a day he pulls out different pants he wants to wear and comes begging “Mummy Peeeeeesh” wanting to wear them, and if I pull them away and try to put them back in the clothes box, he LOOSES IT... I think to myself, how on earth, in a place like this, where other little boys wear pink and floral clothes because that’s what their elder sister wore, and other kids wear rags and aren’t even aware of it, MY SON decides he has to take control over what he wears...???

And on that note, ADIOS till next time

Loads of Love to you all xxxx

Jesus in the background...

I write this with the blokes of the house sitting outside doing their singing practice of their really cheezy Jesus songs... "... Its all about you, its all about you Jesus..."

A few days ago, on the 16^th of June, was mine and Carls 8^th year anniversary since our first date. That night, over a bottle of red and a picnic basket up on Mount Cootha in Brisbane, was the very first time I ever heard about this place called Rotuma. I remember Carl telling me all about his family and ancestors, the culture, the food, the language, it all seemed like such a faraway reality. Who would have imagined back then that one day that will be my reality. And here I am.

I’ve been wanting to write for a few days now but I couldn’t, as the computer power has been dead as  there has been no generator power for 3 nights because some people haven’t payed for their diesel. They take it in turns to pay for the diesel to run the generator, once a fortnight we buy 5 Litres of Diesel. If someone doesn’t pay, everyone else loses out too. I was able to send my phone to other villages to be charged a couple of times, but not the computer. It made me realize how, even in a place where life is so simple, we live off the land, in tune with the elements, how dependent we are on fuel. I felt a bit lost and disconnected not having my laptop and phone at hand for 3-4 days... not to mention the washing... I do the laundry at night when the generator is on, but the past few days was all hard labour. Scrubbing the filthy clothes with a brush on a piece of wood, and when I say scrubbing... every r ub made me think of most of the women here who don’t have washing machines, who have to hand scrub their huge family’s clothes every day. 6 children, 10 adults, whatever- its bloody hard work!!! At least I got the clothes really clean, a much better job than what the prehistoric washing machine does. When I get back to my world, the first thing I will do is run and kiss my supersonic washing machine really hard, and tell it how much I appreciate it!!!

I’ve got to say, I am working so damn hard here!!!! You’d think I am living a life of bliss and relaxation on a tropical island.... NOT!!! Between cooking massive amounts of food for loads of huge hungry Rotuman men, cleaning up after them, massive pots in a tiny kitchen with no air in it, trying to keep it as clean as it can be, when it will NEVER be clean, always have sand on the floors, grease on everything, constantly sweeping, chasing the kids making sure they’re not playing with anything dodgy, constantly chasing Saulei to do wee’s and poo’s, as I am trying to get him out of nappies, to save me the work of washing nappies, but in the process still having to wash soiled undies and pants all day..., washing and more washing... by the end of the day, after feeding the kids, bathing them and putting them to sleep, I am absolutely F****D!!! And I thought I worked hard at home. When all I did was press bottons to make things work, buy things from the shop all ready to cook, how easy. Over here, with the added heat, humidity, constant fly swatting and mosquito slapping, it really takes it out of me! Most days I don’t even leave the house, either too busy or too tired. I make a point of taking a long walk up to the government station once a week, there is a little stall there where ladies from around the island come there to sell their goods, usually vegetables, coconut oil, Roti and curry parcels, coconuts to drink, or cooked food they sell to the people that work at the government station. That is my weekly exercise. Not much, but its nice to get out of the house and go off on my own for a bit.

The kids are having such a great time! What an experience for them! Noah is talking to me in Rotuman these days, and I have to make him translate to English or Hebrew, as I don’t always understand him. He is also my translator when other kids talk to me in Rotuman, especially little Shannon (or “Shemen” as Noah calls her), a gorgeous little girl from a couple of houses down the road, who blabbles away to me in Rotuman, giggling her head off telling me stories, and I have no idea what she is saying to me, but cant help but giggle along at her cuteness! Saulei is talking Rotuman too, copying everything Noah says and does, its really cute.

They are learning a bit of foul language here too, there’s this thing here that all the adults and kids are calling my boys “Poofta” and teaching them to say it to others... Anywhere else in the world, especially my world, that would be very un-P.C, but over here it is very amusing. Amusing to see how the locals are so amused by my kids calling them Poofta’s...  There’s nothing I can do about it here, its too deeply ingrained in them already. I will just need to make sure they un-learn it when we get back home...

Every few days I do “ABC School” with Noah, we sit and sing the Alphabet and learn each letter and what words start with that letter. He loves it, and is really keen. He is the one nagging me to do it with him, rather than the other way around... He practices writing his name in the sand (as well as drawing love hearts and funny faces), at the moment he is really good at “H” and the “O” part of his name, usually writing them one after the other... is that a bit weird that the first word he has ever written is “HO”???

Another favourite activity is music and dancing. I bring out the ipod and speakers and play music for the kids and they go nuts dancing and singing. Noah has become quite a performer, his dance moves have improved dramatically from the spastic look to the uber-cool moves, with facial expressions, pole dancing, Capoera moves and even a few Ballet moves I taught him. I am so proud!!!! His favourite song in the whole wide world is Queens “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and his second favourite is “the girls with the fat bums that rock’n’roll all night” (Queen’s “Fat bottomed girls”...). sometimes other kids join in, other times its just me and the kids dancing and singing away, we love it!!!

 Carl is getting really good at his fishing skills, and the other day he came home with a load of fish and a huge Octopus!!! i must say, it was very decadent and really delish, i cooked half of it in coconut cream, and the other half in loads of lemon, garlic, Thyme and Oregano. So fresh! SO delish!!!

 

My Octopus hunter

Tommorow, FINALLY, the Government boat that has been holding all our cargo we sent from Australia, should be arriving here, and I cant wait, because in it, are loads of little things that I am dying to have... my own clean sheets, decent knives, wound healing creams, batteries for Noahs little computer game, Essential Oils and incense, and a big parcel my mother and sister in laws sent with  vitamins and supplements, nice soap,  and lots more! I cant wait!!! Also, Mua, my lady of the house who went back to Suva a few weeks ago is coming with loads of groceries and a FREEZER!!! The whole freezer thing here is a bit dodgy, as the generator power is only on for 3 hours a day, which means the freezer might freeze in those 3 hours, but then for the rest of the 21hrs a day, everything defrosts. Its really bad for whatever is stored in there, in terms as defrosting and refreezing everyday, but for some things its ok, like cold bottles of water, butter and leftover foods. It should be nice to have.

Another REALLY EXCITING thing is that my gorgeous and brave neighbour Robby is coming over here!!!! The first of so many friends that have threatened to make the journey over to have booked his flights and I am SOOOOOO Happy! The whole boat departure thing is a bit dodgy, no one knows when the thing will leave, so he might be waiting around a bit in Fiji, but he will get here eventually, and I will have someone to talk to! Someone who understands my language, my humour, my heart, someone to hang out with, go for walks with and share my whole experience with. I am super excited!

I keep meaning to mention, that I really really appreciate any emails and stories coming back from you. Life is pretty lonely for me here, and when I get emails telling me about what’s  going on in your lives, really makes me feel connected, and if you know me well, you know how important that is to me. So PLEASE write to me, tell me anything – gossip, dreams, work life, the weather- anything!!!

Oh and some of you have been asking for my address here, to send me care packages, which I would always be happy for, its simple, (and a bit funny)-

Nadine and Carl (Gilsenan)

Itumuta

Rotuma

Fiji Islands

So thats all for now, Carl will probably write and update about the building process, hope youre all well and happy wherever you are, enjoy, live simply, its so simple...

xxx

Carls words, posted a bit late, sorry...

Alright! Its been 2 and a bit weeks since we got off of that damn boat and I think the only muscle in my body that doesn’t ache constantly is my arsehole. Every morning I get up and realise what it must be like to be 80! Talk about a baptism of fire. I am only just now starting to accustom to the heavy work and the heat that it has to be done in.
My cousins ceremony, to mark the end of 1 year of mourning is over. Preparations had been going on all week but the night before was the big one. Its lovely to see how people all come together when there is an occasion that requires a lot of a work, to see how they can help. We made the underground oven the day before and waited till midnight before we lit it. At about 3am we killed the cow and the 3 pigs, wrapped all the meat up in coconut fronds and put it in the oven at about 5am. 3 women then went to the shallows in the sea and cleaned the intestines, which were then put into there own separate underground oven. The main meal was served at about 10am,after the placing of the headstone and the presentation of the ceremonial mats. Coconut fronds are placed on the ground in rows with banana leaves placed on top of them. People then sit down and the food is placed directly onto the banana leaves and everyone goes for it. These people can eat a shitload food at any time of the day. Everyone finished eating packed a doggy bag in a coconut frond basket, and hit the road. Its amazing to see the speed at which the food is devoured and then people get up and go!
The ceremony took place on Monday and every day since has been jam packed with work. We have finally finished the garden for the vegetables that will be planted. What would seem like an easy process takes a lot of work. First we needed to cut back the jungle, then rip out all the roots and weed the area, and then finally turn over the soil and make plots to plant the vegetables. When you see the photos of pre garden and then post garden it will become clear, the work involved. Now I am not scared of a bit of hard work, but the last 3 years working at the bridge have made me, lets say a little soft. They say that hard work, never killed anybody. The last 2 weeks lead me to seriously doubt this.
The work for the house has started. Like everything else here, you don’t just order what you want from the shop and they deliver it to you all nicely prepared for one to install. I wish!! For example, we are building retaining walls out into the ocean and then backfilling with sand, so as to enlarge our block of land. This requires us to go to the piggery which is a large area in the bush, carry the rocks to the side road. We then get a truck, which we then hand load the rocks into and then unload them again at our house( you guessed it, by hand), and then we can start using these rocks to build our wall. By the way these are not small rocks. About the only relief in this process is that there is a truck, otherwise it would be done by wheelbarrow. We have done 2 days of stacking rocks on the side of the road, and I am a broken man. My cousins wake up every morning with dread at the prospect of carrying rocks for the day. We have only managed 2 days this week, but will probably have all the rocks we need on the side of the road, by the end of next week.
No work gets done on Sunday. So this week has looked like this: Monday- ceremony for cousin, Tuesday carrying rocks and work in the plantation, Wednesday- went spearfishing and then work in the plantation, Thursday- work in the plantation and carrying rocks, Friday-spearfishing, came back exhausted, rested for the rest of the afternoon, Saturday- plantation to finish off vege plot, too exhausted to carry rocks. Tonight we will be going spearfishing again. Tomorrow day of rest! The first few goes at spearfishing were a bit of a joke. The first night the rubbers that I had on my speargun were way to large for me to be able pull, so the gun sat on the beach whilst I held the bag full of fish. Needless to say the rubbers were changed promptly the next day, to something more befitting my strength and ability. The second night I didn’t see one fish worth pulling the rubbers for. For those of you who haven’t seen my speargun, it looks like something you would take down a whale with. So it would be a little bit embarrassing coming back with fish only a little bigger than my hand. The third attempt was during the day, and this seemed to bring a bit more success. 5 decent sized fish. Yesterday was the best so far. I caught 9 decent sized fish and bagged my first largeish parrot fish. This combined with the haul that James who I went with caught, which meant that the neighbours ate fish as well. Those of you who enjoy spearfishing, would wet yourselves at coming here to fish. The fishing that we have done so far has been on the edge of the reef. We swim in the deep and then dive down ,along the edge of the reef, looking for or chasing fish.
Its been a week now since I started this entry and quite a bit has happened. An old woman in the village died on Tuesday, so the village has spent the last 5 days in preparation for the 5th day, which is today. Same sort of deal as my cousins Placing of the gravestone, in that we have been busy doing work for her funeral arrangements rather than do work towards the house. So although we have been busy not much has been achieved, although we have managed to build the workshop out the back in preparation for the arrival of the last of my tools on the government boat. This boat also brings 2 more cousins to help with the house.
The other activity that has been taking up time has been gathering food. This mainly involves going spear fishing for up to 4-6hrs. I must be getting better at it, as my last attempt of a few days ago came up with over 20 good sized fish. The guy I went with is very good! He bagged over 50 fish. His wire was full of fish. The wire is usually a length of wire tied around the waist and the fish are then threaded onto the wire. I am still not completely comfortable with this way of holding fish, as you can imagine I am always on the lookout for sharks. So far I have seen 4 sharks, but they have only been small reef sharks , more scared of me than I of them. Last trip to the sea I saw 4 turtles. I refuse to eat or kill turtles, so the big one that I saw sleeping on the bottom under a coral outcrop I scared away as I knew that Ieli would come along and shoot him. Apparently it is very nice to eat. Its about the only thing that I refuse to try. I am trying to get one of the chiefs in the village to teach me how to catch octopus, hopefully now that all the work for the funeral is over we will have time to go onto the reef and get some. Its beautiful cooked in coconut cream. The coconut cream is so fresh that it is actually sweet. Once you have it freshly squeezed you can never have it out of a can. As a matter of fact that goes for most of the fruit that we get here. The bananas are super sweet and the pineapples are so huge and sweet that they would kill a diabetic.
I am hoping that next week will be the start of a more productive week. Until then take it easy and I hope that my writing gets more interesting as I get more practice at this whole blog thing.
Later carl..

 

Vegie Patch to be

 

                                                               Building the shelter