Sailing with a greater purpose

Meghan on Amelie July 2016

Bula once again from Amelie IV from down here in Fiji. We spent this entire month down in the Lau Group where we have been helping out the villages in need after Cyclone Winston that hit Fiji in February.  As I said in my last blog, we are here with a disaster relief program called Sea Mercy. Sea Mercy is simply just a group of volunteering cruisers like us who are sailing to disaster-struck areas and don't mind helping out villages where we can and "sailing with a greater purpose" as Sea Mercy's motto says.

We and seven other boats in the Sea Mercy organization headed directly to the Lau Group which are Fiji's most remote islands that are located in the eastern part of Fiji.  We have been all going off to different islands to do needs assessments in all the villages. 

In other words, we visit lots of towns, explain to them what Sea Mercy is, ask them what was damaged and what they need, report back to the Sea Mercy organizer, and then talk as a group and decide what should be done.  

We have been given some supplies by Sea Mercy to distribute out like clothes, water purification tablets, food, machetes, and school supplies but if they require bigger things like water tanks, longboats, outboard engines or large building materials we can only report this back to Sea Mercy who will then pass the information on to Fiji's main town, Suva, who can send what is needed out on the next barge or plane that comes to the Lau Group.  Sea Mercy has also provided us with lots of tools and chainsaws so we can help repair damaged things or cut trees down trees that are dead and in the way of a road or path.

Mark and Norm investigating a crack in the school’s cement water tank. Only one our of these four school water tanks has water in it ! 

Unloading goods at the dock

School visits, Mark and Matt repair school desks

A grief-relief program working with the people of Boitaci who lost 4 lives during Cyclone Winston
(and it's a very small village)

One of Mualevu's roofless classrooms under a tent 

Nayau as we passed it at sunset

In the Turaga Koro’s hut (The chief is the man in the blue undershirt at the back)

The first town we stopped at was Loma Loma on the main island of the Lau Group: Vanua Balavu.  We stopped at Vanua Balavu last year but it was on the other side at a village called Daleconi.  Vanua Balavu was one of the hardest hit islands during the cyclone.  It shows because when you look up on the hills, almost all the trees are either gone or they are just sticks standing with no palms or leaves on top!  Loma Loma suffered five deaths but are actually doing okay now.  I could tell that pretty much every building had lost its roof but clearly, they have had lots of help in the last few months because most roofs have been replaced and the houses that don't still have a big tent beside the home or foundation of the home (if the home is no longer there) as a temporary shelter before they can re-build. 

 The town is also doing better because of the optimistic villagers who are able to live with the situation at hand and try to repair damage that is done.

The next island we went to was called Nayau.  There was a reef surrounding the island meaning we could not get in with Amelie so my mom and Matthew stayed on the boat and drove it around (because it was too deep to anchor outside) and my dad and I, as well as a couple of the people from the boat Dreamcatcher (who was our buddy boat for that day), were picked up by some of the villagers in their longboat and they took us into town.

When we got to the village of Salia, we were welcomed into the Turaga Ni Koro's hut, that is the village headman, where we offered him a kava root, which is what we are supposed to give him as a gift for letting us stay in his waters and walk around his village.  We actually met the chief instead because the headman was out fishing.  When we gave him a solar powered blow up light, which we were given loads of by Sea Mercy to distribute out, he was so overjoyed and was awed by it as if it were a technology brought back from the future!

Nayau hadn't suffered too badly from the cyclone as far as the land and houses go but they did have a water shortage (only about 25% of their water tanks had water in them) because the underground water had turned brackish (salty), it hadn't really rained since the cyclone (they collect rain water), and a few of their tanks were actually cracked.

The school mistress (kind of like the principal or head of the school) told us that she was pretty sure we were the first boats to stop here and come on land in a year!  We explained to her that it was probably because no boats as big as us could actually anchor there and so that makes it very difficult to stop.  It does make me want to help this island even more now that I know they almost never get help and so we have reported their shortage of water to Sea Mercy so hopefully they will be able to bring water to Nayau somehow in the near future.

After Nayau, we sailed off to another island called Cicia (pronounced thi-thia) where we joined up with SV The Southern Cross and our old buddies SV Perry.  Once again, Cicia had not suffered very hard from Cyclone Winston but still needed help at the school anyways so we stuck around for a few days to help.  The school desks seemed to all be around 60 years old so a lot of the hinges were broken and some even had nails sticking out the top so my Dad and Matt off of SV Perry decided they should help out with that.

The school had a beautiful location on top of the hill and also had some nice hibiscus trees growing in the yard.  The day where the men repaired the desks, the school had a short cricket match which was interesting to watch and also gave me a chance to talk with some of the school children, which I always love doing!  

At one point, I asked them to all get in a circle so I could take a picture of them.  They all gave me their lovely smiles and I will never forget when they all crowded around me afterwards to see the picture, oooh-ing and aaah-ing at the sight of the image on the digital screen.

Now that we have good Internet, we are all able to post all our blogs we have written in the past two months so if you are in the mood for doing a blog reading marathon, now is your chance!

But first, here is a quick guide to how Fijians pronounce some of their letters and what some Fijian words mean so that you know a bit more about the Fijian language and know how to pronounce the names in case you come here one day:

-"bula" is the best known Fijian word and means "hello" ("bula vinaka" is a more polite way of saying "hello")

-"vinaka" means "thank you"

-"moce" means "goodbye"

-"c" is pronounced "th" (eg. moce is pronounced "mo-thay")

-when a vowel comes before a consonant, there is an invisible "n" or "m" afterwards (eg. Nadi is pronounced "nandi" and Lakeba is pronounced "lakemba")

-"levu" means "big"

-"vanua" means "tall"

I hope that helped you all and now, stay tuned for my next blog all about more adventures with Sea Mercy in the Lau Group.

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Vanua Balavu
After we left the island of Cicia , we sailed back to Vanua Balavu where we heard they had lots of villages that needed the most help.  We and the seven other boats spent about 4 weeks all around this island helping out seven of the villages with various tasks.

Only in the South Pacific: our taxi service to the different villages
was either the back of the hospital truck (aka: ambulance), the back of the police truck
or the back of a truck where we were sitting with two goats and two pigs! (top
photo taken by M/V Domino)

Kids all around Vanua Balavu

We anchored near three villages, one of which we visited last year: Daleconi (pronounced da-leh-thoni).  We came here with our guest Nathalie in September last year and I remember the town was absolutely gorgeous.  Although it still has the wonderful people, it does not have many trees at all and the village and beach are now cluttered with debris swept there by the cyclone.  It was also quite sad to see the school yard.  The school had three longhouses last year and now the only one that is standing has no roof and is lopsided (in other words, unusable).  As I was looking at it, I realized that on the cracked and weak porch of that school house is where we did our puppet presentation last year when we came.  Now, the school houses have been replaced by tents (donated right after the cyclone by UNICEF and the Red Cross Society) which will be their classrooms until the houses can be rebuilt.

Damaged homes all around Vanua Balavu

Daleconi school yard

The school of Mavana town and Mualevu town are in pretty much the same state as well.  We walked through what once was the school library of Mavana but all that was left now in the roofless (and almost wall-less) house was one shelf and all the books strewn across the ground, most of which were either soaking or torn.  Mualevu still had most of their buildings standing but since they didn't have roofs but they had their walls, they put the UNICEF tents inside the building so they could still use the chalkboard and be on concrete flooring.  I was sad to hear though that Mualevu's school lost practically their entire library as well, including a big English Encyclopedia (which are probably very hard for them to get).

Mavana's school

Mavana's school library

Here is a list of all the aid we have given out and the tasks we have helped out with all around Vanua Balavu (I have put a *star* beside the ones that at least one of us 4Ms have taken part in):

• Needs assessments in six villages around the island *
• Put together a 64 GB file of digital school resources such as educational videos (for all the age groups) and Wikepedia offline for all the schools around the island (as well as some of the other islands as well)*
• Chain sawing work*
• Ordering building materials from Suva city*
• Built a pig fence around the garden in Boitaci to keep the greedy pigs out
• Repaired a damaged longboat in Mavana *
• Built a wooden rowboat from scratch for Boitaci (they had lost all their longboats in the cyclone)*
• Started a community garden (or helped out with it if the village already had one) in six villages around Vanua Balavu (Daleconi, Muamua, Malaka, Boitaci, Mualevu, and Mavana) *
• Set up a compost site with the locals in each village where all villagers can dump their food scraps everyday which will decompose and form richer garden soil *
•  Built a scarecrow in Mualevu because their crops were being eaten by birds *
• Taught the six gardening villages how to make their own natural pesticides to stop the local caterpillar infestation *
• Donated some children's clothes and games to Mualevu school *

Photo taken by S/V Arianna

Blow up Solar-Powered lights distributed around the Islands

 

Offloading aid from the ferry in Lomaloma and sorting
through it on S/V Chez Nous (top photo taken by
S/V Arianna)

Mavana villagers are starting the rebuilding stage

The two pictures on the left are the rowboat in Boitaci being built
The one on the right is the boat in Mavana being fixed

Everyone hard at work in Boitaci garden

Daleconi garden: first compost pile gets dumped, women are
selling the freshly picked cabbage to us, and I sit with a toddler who
can't speak English yet but liked to draw pictures in the dirt with me

 Marie off of M/V Domino and I teaching the women
of Daleconi and Muamua how to make their own natural pesticides

Top: Catherine from S/V The Southern Cross and Mark from S/V Perry
showing the kids from Mualevu school how to build a puzzle
Bottom: Me and Mark playing snakes and ladders with some of the school kids  

Avea
Avea has definitely been my favourite island in the Lau Group and I think one of my favourites in all of Fiji.  Just as far as people go, they've given me an amazing experience while I was there.  Everyone in Fiji is out-of-their-way friendly but Avea's people were even more than usual and, trust me, that is saying a lot.

First of all, the minute anyone landed their dinghy on the beach, there was a welcoming clan of a dozen children who came (unless it was school time) and pull the dinghy up on the beach.  There were so many of them that we don't even have to pull yourselves!  When we came on shore for the first time, they all want to know our names and they actually remembered them (I did not remember theirs!).  When we came back to Avea a second time a week later, they all started running down the beach yelling all of our names as the dinghies approached one by one!

They are all so outgoing and would always invite me to play sports with them after school.  When we played soccer, they all wanted to pass the ball to me.  I think they thought I had some magic move or something!  They also loved to answer my questions and answered them in very well spoken English too.  When I asked them if they liked school, not one of them said no or even hesitated to say yes.  When I asked them what their favourite school subjects were, most of them said math!  Fiji really is on the other side of the world from North America isn't it?!  All the kids had been to Suva, Fiji's capital city, but none had ever been outside of Fiji.  When I asked them if Suva was a big city, their eyes would grow very large and they would nod.  Just to give you perspective, Suva has a population approximately 2000 less than Red Deer, Alberta.

In the bottom right picture, you can just barely see me in the middle because all the kids are crowding around
me to see the pictures I took of them

A washed up TV and a broken chainsaw are the definition of fun for these kids!

We performed our "Oh Canada" puppet play here in Avea and, as you can see, the kids loved the puppets
(photos by Tessa Irvin)

Also, all the kids loved Matthew.  We told them to go up to Matthew and ask him for a high five and so every time they'd see him, they'd yell, "Matthew, Matthew!" and hold out their hand.  Matthew would smile and tap their hand making them all laugh.  When Matthew would run too far on the beach, I would run after him calling, "Matthew come back!".  Apparently, that caught on quick because before I knew it, all the kids were running after me yelling, "Matthew come back!".  For the youngest kids, that was one of the only sentences they knew how to say in English!  After a while, I didn't even need to run after Matthew myself because the kids would simply notice when he had gone too far, would bolt after him, and shepherd him back.  Matthew simply loved having a whole bunch of running partners!  Unlike many other kids, they never asked me why Matthew acted this way or what was 'wrong' with him.  They accepted him the way he was and embraced his uniqueness.

The kids wanted me to take a picture of them all with Matthew

There is a grown man who lives on the island who seems to have a disability similar to Matthew's.  Everyone in the village calls him Boy.  Boy was always smiling and was always the first to be helping the men carry heavy things or helping out with the chain sawing work.  Everyone in the village seems to love Boy and they are always passing him and calling, "Hey, Boy".  He would always come up to my dad and pat him on the shoulder saying, "Pulagi".  When we asked someone what pulagi meant, he told us it meant "white guy"! (I think it technically means "foreigner" though)

Boy watching our puppet show!

On our first day, I joined a few of the other ladies who had also been working on the gardening projects and we went to see Avea's garden.  The local women took us there by longboat.  There were about 13 of us in the boat and it was very choppy and there were often waves that broke over the bow and got us all wet.  Instead of screaming or moaning about it, the women decided to break into song.  The minute one woman started, all the others joined in forming harmonies as they went.  I didn't understand a word of it because it was in Fijian but it was, quite literally, music to my ears and filled my heart with joy.  Of course, no one thought of bringing their drum on a gardening trip but that can't stop the Fijian women from using instruments: some of them took sticks and started banging on some old, beat up pots or machetes they had in the boat to keep rhythm.  And did a rocky boat stop them from dancing?  Nope!  In fact, they got us all to dance!

When we were approaching the beach landing near the garden, we asked them if now, we had to all jump out of the boat and swim to shore from there.  We meant it as a joke but they said yes and some of them meant it!  A couple of women bailed out, fully clothed with sarongs down to their ankles, while we were still in 10 ft of water!  Once we got to waist deep water, the other women jumped out and started pulling the fiber ashore, trudging through the crashing waves and all.  We, the cruiser women, offered to come out and help but they told us to stay put.  I really admire the women of these islands and their strength and independence.  In all of these islands, most of the men have gone to the city of Suva to get special Visas from the government to pay for their damaged homes.  Because most are still not back, it is mostly women running the villages now.

Two pictures of women singing taken by Tessa Irvin

We have had several other experiences with Fijian singing during our time in Avea.  One evening, we were invited for after-church tea and biscuits and we were given a surprise song and dance entertainment from the children.

Avean priest making a speech at church

On Sunday, we are almost never allowed to go into the villages because they have church all day (no really: they start church at 5:30 in the morning) and it would be disrespectful.  However, they let us come in if we join them for a church session. The singing, of course, was phenomenal.  One thing I love about Polynesian singers is that they sing with all their heart as loudly as they can and they are able to form beautiful harmonies as they go.  We were able to record several of their songs and I think my mom is currently working on a slideshow with the recordings as the background music.

The cyclone tore away the last 20 metres of  beach on the end of the
island meaning that half of the school is now underwater at high tide!

The men testing the water maker we set up for Avea so that they can now
make fresh water from salt water

Susui
After the outgoing and dynamic people in Avea, it was a bit of a shock to meet the people of Susui.  It's not at all that they weren't nice, they were just a lot more humble and quiet.

Offloading 400 litres of water off of Amelie to give to the village

They gave us a wonderful Fijian feast one night and the men took part in a three hour kava ceremony where they drink the liquid form of the sacred kava root.  This is one thing I cherish about this time we got to spend in the Lau Group.  These kinds of activities like the traditional feast are not organized to simply entertain tourists; this is the everyday life of the villagers here which I am so grateful they let us be a part of.

The women and children had dinner while the men drank kava!

Susui school kids

So since school bus turns into longboat in Fiji, I guess school
bell turns into this log drum!

We are now back in Savu Savu since we are running low on supplies. However, we managed to go without stores or eating out at restaurants for 50 days! That is a new record for us.

We also came to Savu Savu for my mom to fly out of. She is going on a little well-deserved vacation back to Canada for a few weeks. During that time, my dad, Matthew, and I will stay on the boat and explore more of Fiji until she comes back.

It has been such a privilege to be able to be part of the Sea Mercy organization.  I got to meet incredible people and learn about a really great culture.  I also learned a lot about gardening and how to use only natural remedies for your garden.  I know that these people are so thankful to us for helping them but I am just as grateful to them for giving me all these amazing experiences and perspective.