S 17\u00b0 34.266
\nE 178\u00b0 40.601<\/p>\n
Two days after our first visit we went back to the village. We wanted to see a bit more and talk a bit with people to learn more about the village and life on the island.<\/p>\n
Pretty soon after walking up the beach we met Sova, who seems to be always around when needed.<\/p>\n
Sova told us were to find the path to the former resort in the other side of the southern part of the Naigani Island. We took off. First we crossed an almost dry stream. While standing on the stone and concrete built dyke, harald a young guy came and we had small chat. As he had two halves of an open coconut in his hands, he offered us one. Because there are more coconuts on the islands than can be eaten, I took his offer.<\/p>\n
We continued on the trail which brought us into the jungle with plenty of light coming in along the trail. It’s to be seen that the trail is used often.<\/p>\n
Then we saw the first houses of the resort. Some where heavily battered by cyclone Wilson (2016), some went through the cyclone better. However all were abandoned.<\/p>\n
We met a man from the village. He and four colleagues from the village have the task to keep the surroundings between the house clean. They do a good job.<\/p>\n
It seems the owners are not really interested in reviving the resort for whatever reason so. 9 years no repairs etc, this doesn’t look as if someone wants to invests money.<\/p>\n
For the people of the village this means a hardship because there were quite some jobs for them. These are all gone. Jobs in the resort means cash in the village for things they need to buy.<\/p>\n
We walked to the sandy beach which is actually a nice one to relax. It was strange that there were 2 two boats in the water.<\/p>\n
One of them was aluminum built and designed for bringing divers to a spot. The other was a smaller one. Why are they in the water? Maybe the people from the village used them to go to Ovalau, or even Viti Levu. Shore access by boat was on this side easier than at the village side an also possible at low tide.<\/p>\n
Back in the village Joe and I strolled on separate ways through village to look at things which appeared interesting. After a while I saw her sitting under a tree talking with a nice couple, Reni & Vecu, and I walked over to them.<\/p>\n
The conversation continued for while. Sova also came by.<\/p>\n
Suddenly Reni invited us for lunch. We hesitated a bit but then took the invitation. But then we accepted. Crabs and fish in coconuts sauce as stable food of the day it was cassava (maniok).<\/p>\n
There were already 4 – 5 people sitting around the big table for a dozen people. It’s a coming and going the once with filled stomachs left and other came in. Days later I talked with Sova and it seems there are 2 – 3 houses in the village where food is cooked and shared with other. It’s a sharing community.<\/p>\n
I carefully watched how other were eating. When eating crabs, fingers are the main tools and the end of crab leg is a perfect tool to get the met out of legs etc.<\/p>\n
But fish was eaten with the fingers which is as easy as it looks. I never forget that a Filipina friend who taught me how to eat properly with fingers told me that it looks awkward… Thus, I was a bit afraid of eating with my fingers.<\/p>\n
Somehow I made it, and the meal was incredible delicious.<\/p>\n
At the end tea was served and ‘babakau, a kind of bread made of yeast dough and deep-fried in oil. Delicious as well.<\/p>\n
It turned out that Vecu, Reni’s husband, is the baker of this excellent bread.<\/p>\n
While watching a young guy during sitting across the table eating this bread, I got the idea to thank Reni and Vecu for their hospitality with two freshly baked breads the next day.<\/p>\n
When we needed to say goodbye it was for the day only, Reni gave me a big, warm hug and said, “You are now part of our family; we are your family here.” What a wonderful gesture.<\/p>\n
Then we really needed to leave the village before the tide was too low to cross the reef.<\/p>\n
We made it back to MaRe by going around the 2 other reefs on our way.<\/p>\n
What a wonderful day it was, filled with surprises I could not even dream about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
S 17\u00b0 34.266 E 178\u00b0 40.601 Two days after our first visit we went back to the village. We wanted to see a bit more and talk a bit with people to learn more about the village and life on the island. Pretty soon after walking up the beach we met Sova, who seems to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-16"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosx.de\/cat-mare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}