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

My favourite place in the world...

My new favourite place in the whole wide universe is my bed... it is right next to the window which faces out to the bay, and is the only place in the house that gets the cool ocean breeze without (many)flies and mosquitoes buzzing about, as there is a (holy) fly screen on it. This is where I  have peace.

As I write this, a couple of the local ladies are in the water cleaning out the intestines of a cow. They had just killed a cow a bit further down the beach for a funeral do tomorrow, carl came home with a bloody fatty axe and knife, as he helped them chop the thing up, while Noah was watching curiously, Saulei was asleep, and I was happy to stay at home and pretend it wasn’t happening...

There have been a few of these big “do”s here since we arrived, it is the most amazing effort that the community comes together to organize. The first time I experienced it first hand was when we were here 3 years ago for Noah’s first birthday “do”. I couldn’t believe how much hard work and effort they put into these celebrations, I have never seen anything like it before.

For days in advance they start collecting the wood to burn for the earth oven, they build a shelter from corrugated iron and posts they chop off local trees. They harvest massive amounts of Taro, kill pigs and a cow, and work through the night to prepare the earth oven and cook the beasts through the night so they’re ready to eat immediately as they drag them out of the earth. 

 

Digging food out of the earth oven

They clean out the intestines and then cook them, apparently its one of the best parts of the beast. Not to me, thank you very much. The other day, when they killed a cow for Carls cousins anniversary of his death, I asked Carl, as they were cutting the thing up if he can sneak me an eye fillet or a juicy rib... he looked at me and laughed. All they do here is kill the beast, skin and gut it, chop of the limbs, cut it thru the middle and chuck the whole thing into the earth oven. So when they pull it out, several hours later, you just get big chunks of flesh to eat with nothing more than salt. So prehistoric. So Flinstones...

For these occasions they lay long rows of coconut tree leaves for people to sit on, and on top of them, banana leaves as the “table cloth”.  When its all ready the men come out with baskets filled with the cooked Taro and beasts and plonk massive chunks of it on the banana leaves in front of you,  chuck a few cans of “potcow” (tinned meat) in front of you, and then you eat. You eat until you’re full, and then you fill your doggy bags, which hopefully you have brought from home, or you’re given some Pandanas leaves to use as a doggy bag, and you take home what’s left on the “table”. A “successful” occasion is judged by the amount of food you have to serve and the amount people can take home with them.

Because there is no refrigeration, everything has to be eaten immediately, so for the next 24 hours all we eat is derivatives of cow or pig meat. Bone soup. Reheated meat. More soup. Luckily I brought some dry herbs to flavour things up a bit... the worst thing about these meat fests is that I live in a house full of grubby men, and for days after eating lots of meat, I have to bear the disgusting sounds and smells of their farty bums. No respect for the ladies, or should I say, LADY, in the house...GROSS!!!!!!

The whole process of preparation for these things takes days, and a bit like Israeli weddings, as soon as everyone is finished eating, they get up and go and its all over.  This takes about half an hour.

The men here work so hard, they hardly sleep through the nights, all I observe and understand of it all is that they enjoy it, they giggle and laugh and take the piss out of everything and everyone, then they eat massive amounts of food, and then crash.

Men here are REAL men, and women are like real men too. They work really hard, they never cry or show any emotion or difficulty or even dare not to talk about it. If something is painful or difficult, their coping mechanism is to laugh. The other day I was in the kitchen with Mua and another Auntie, when Mua suddenly told us that the old lady from across the road is very sick and they had called the Doctor to come over. To that, the Auntie let out a big laugh. Minutes later, someone came around and said that she died.

Within minutes, Rechelli, our neighbour started banging on the Rotuman version of a “gong”, which is a hollow carved piece of log, which they bang on with big sticks in a particular rhythm. They use this to call for prayer times at the church, a bit like the Muslim “Imam”(???), but as I just found out, they use it to announce that something has happened in the village. I watched Rechelli bang the thing with all her might for ages, and tears filled my eyes. She was going nuts on it, and I thought- what a great outlet of feelings. To bang the shit out of a big log. That is how she let the village know something had happen, and within minutes people started arriving at the deceased house.

It was the day that Mua was leaving to go back to Fiji, all morning she was preparing to leave, packing, organising loads of Taro and coconuts to take with, but as soon as the word of the old ladies death arrived, she dropped everything and went across the road to help organize the funeral arrangements.

The way it goes here, or perhaps I should say that this is my observation of the way it goes, I’m sure there are things I don’t know about or am missing out... When someone dies, they lay the body on a bed of mats, with the white ceremonial mat underneath them, and another one hanging on top of them. People come around to pay their respects and bring gifts, usually a mat, sarong, or money.  I went with Mua and other relatives and placed a mat next to the body. I haven’t seen a dead body in a while, and I was really curious. I kept trying to peep at it coz I wanted to see what it looked like. It seemed like such a natural and uneventful thing to the rest of the people there.

In the mean time the men go and dig the hole for the grave, I didn’t measure if it was 6ft deep, but it didn’t look very deep, the lazy buggers... (Carl helped doing that- when would any of us, unless we work in a cemetery, or are trying to hide a dead body-get the opportunity to dig a grave???...). They make a bottomless coffin and place it in the hole. Lined with some colourful silk fabric, in which they place the body, wrapped in a traditional woven mat.  They all hung out in the grave yard, laughing and taking the piss, the kids playing around in between the graves, and waited around till they brought the body. While the men did that, the women and the chiefs sat at the house and sang songs. I didn’t understand what they were about, but they sounded beautiful. Sounds I would like to rise to heaven with in the background...

I was really curious to see how they bring the body over to the grave yard and bury it, but unfortunately I fell asleep... so I missed it, but Carl said that they mucked around alot in trying to get the thing down the hole.

Because the death wasn’t anticipated, there wasn’t enough time to prepare the proper traditional “do” for the funeral, so they just fed everyone tinned meat and rice, and planned the proper “do” for 5 days later.

On the day of the “do”, the men were awake before light (obviously waking me and the kids too with all the noise they make!!!) and go do whatever it is they do, and the kids and I went over to the deceased house and had tea and bread for breaky. Then we waited a while, until the earth ovens were opened (one of which was right outside my bedroom window! The day before I came outside to find a dead pig lying feet up and tongue hanging out, ready to be gutted and chucked in the burning rocks. Obviously I was totally grossed out and tried to stay away until it was deep underground, but as usual, Noah was really curious and examined it from all directions...). And the feast begins...

 

Noah and dead pig

 

Meal time

 

The food fresh out of Earth oven

What an experience it is...

Another interesting story to tell is Noah’s rash story and its magical disappearance...

We have no idea what it was or why it happened, but he suddenly came up with this really weird rash all over his body, which within a couple of days got worse and spread and looked quite violent. If we were anywhere else in the world, we probably would’ve gone straight to the Doctors or hospital to get it checked out, but here, I asked the elderly ladies what it is and what to do, and all they said is that he mustn’t get wet, stay out of the sun and dirt, and go get massaged by the family who does the special massage for this condition. In Rotuman culture each family “owns” a massage for different ailments, so if you get sick with something, you go to the family who “owns” the massage and they massage you for a few days or however long is necessary. Carl’s family “owns” the massage for stomach problems. Very non descript, but if you have a sore tummy, you come over here and get it massaged.

So off we went for 5 days in a row to a lady in a different village for Noah to be “massaged” if you can call it that. It was very witchety-poo, if I might say so my self, and even I was very sceptical. All she did was wave her hands around him, not even touching him, then rubbed a bit of Johnson’s baby oil on him, then some oil on a special leaf and brushed the leaf down his body a few times, and that was it. About 10-15 minutes at the most. She said to keep him out of sun dirt and don’t wet him, so we had to “dry clean” him as they call it here.

I was a bit worried, coz it didn’t look good, and I was googling “rashes” to see if I can understand it more, but by the 2nd day, it had started to go away, and by the 4^th day it was gone!!! Weird but wonderful... I have to learn to trust the local medicine practices more...

I have been writing this over a few days and 3 days ago was Noah’s 4^th birthday!!!! My little baby is a big boy!!!! Celebrations included the birthday fairy delivering balloons to our room in the middle of the night, a birthday cake which I slaved over the night before, which was supposed to be a Spiderman cake, but looked more like a psychedelic version of the superhero, as I only had the colours blue, pink and yellow to use for the icing, He was very excited about the cake, even tho it tasted really bad. A swim at “Faniyuha” beach which Noah calls “Honeynoah” and for dinner a Chicken Pilaf with some of the relatives joining. I also made him a makeshift bubble blower out of a piece of metal wire I found and some dish soap... 

                                                           Noah and Psychodelic Spiderman cake

 

Rain showers!!!

 

Rambo

Lots more to tell, but that will be in my next instalment...

 XXX