After a late morning sleeping in, we took a boat to Beqa (pronounced Benga) Island, about 45 minutes away. Upon arrival, we were welcomed into Rakua, a 200-person village, the biggest village on the island, and were divded up into our homestay families: 2 or 3 students per household.

 

After a delicious first traditional lunch with our respective families, we went on a hike through the rainforest to arrive at two waterfalls, one of which had a pool at the bottom that was large enough to swim in. Aidan tested the depth (about 5 feet deep) and John immediately cannonballed in from above! Claudia, Broderick, and Jack immediately followed, and Lucie, Tawny, Lucia, and Morri joined in soon after. Though the water was freezing, it was really refreshing (not to mention the fact that it served as many of our showers in the limited accomodations of the homestays).

 

Walking back to the village after the hike, we stopped by at a resort to mooch off their nice pool. We had our dinner again with our families and further experienced Fijian culture. We noticed that the tradition is to eat with the door open so as to invite any bypassers in for a meal. If any of us were ever unhappy with the meal at their home, we could easily pass by another house and be welcomed in... They love how much we eat!

 

Everyone congregated after dinner at Mika's house, where Claudia, Erica, and Lauren were staying. There we experienced our first kava cermony in Rakua, where we stayed for a good five hours, many until pass midnight (super rare for us on this trip where we're asleep by like 9 every night). Though many hate the taste of kava (including most of the Fijians) it is a social drink that makes everyone relaxed and it was really fun to interact with the locals and hear all of their stories, as well as tell some of our own. The ground kava root is mixed with water in the main bowl and small coconut shells are filled and passed around. Everyone reacted differently- some were sick of it and refused to drink more than three bowls, but others like Claudia, Morri, and especially Aaron, aka Big Bear as the villagers nicknamed him because of his Canadain hockey t-shirt he was wearing.

 

The next morning at 4am the drumming and gospel singing of the church floated through the village. It almot sounded surreal. Soon after, the crowing of the roosters and the sounds of the village waking up got us all out of bed. After breakfast it became clear that Morri and Steph's host, Molly, made the best breakfast: some of the most delicious scones of your life. The secret is apparently coconut milk.

 

After breakfast we went over to the preschool to play with the young kids. We played blocks, colored, took pictures (they loved looking at themselves on the camera screen when you showed them the picture), read, sang, and spun around in circles outside. Katie and Aidan got dogpiled by 3 year olds after falling down from too much spinning! We then did community service: beach and land clean up. Because it was low tide, the snorkle team had some trouble picking up trash, but those picking up on land got bags-full, especially Broderick and John who probably got twice as much as everyone else.

 

Lunch with our families was again delicious, and telling them stories about city schools and snow was really fun. Then we helped prepare the lovo, or the traditional Fijian underground oven: they dig a big hole, put hot coals on the bottom, cover it with a layer of dirt, line it with palm leaves, and then put foods in, such as casava, taro, chicken and fish, and then cover up the hole again and leave it for a few hours. After the preparation, we went to watch the practice for the meke performance that would be happening the next day (that we would miss, along with the firewalking :( ) but it was really cool to watch the war dance that had been a part of Fijian culture for over a thousand years.

 

At free time, a group of us went outside to play soccer and lacrosse with the local kids, and Aaron unfortunately twisted his ankle pretty bad :( but otherwise it was fun! Then we dug up the food from the lovo and had a big feast! After we of course went to go drink more kava! The party this time was at Molly's (more scones!) and we got to interact with the teenagers of the village. It was cool to see how the locals could so feverently keep their own culture alive and still be so like us- they listen to the same music as us and are really up to date on technology and everything (Mika had the new iPhone 4!).

 

We went to bed for the last time at the village, and woke up for a goodbye breakfast. After taking pictures and thanking the locals a last time, we waved goodbye as our boat headed back towards the mainland. Back at home in the villa, we reflected on the success of the homestays and were grateful for all that we learned. We're so thankful for the opportunity to experience local culture here and hope that we can take their spirit of community and sharing back home with us.

 

Vinaka vakalevu!

 

--Jack, Erica and Claudia and some idea by Broderick