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