Yadra from Suva!!!

Hey friends! We have safely made it to Fiji! We touched down the day before yesterday in Nadi, Fiji, where we got on a long but beautiful bus ride over to the capital of Suva. The island is beautiful, even through the city grit, and I love it so far! If I think Suva is wonderful, I can't wait to see the relatively unspoiled beauty of Nayau! Speaking of that, we have good news. We no longer have to take the awful, hellish cargo ship for two days to Nayau. Sharyn managed to get a great price on a charter dive boat that can get us there in one night, and she described it as "palatial". :-) So we're all really excited about a much nicer boat ride.

We've actually done a lot since we've gotten here, but I don't want to overwhelm the blog, so I'll hit the highlights. Yesterday was probably the most eventful day. We went to the University of the South Pacific for a lecture, which was very interesting. It's one of the only universities for the region, so there are people from all over the surrounding islands, not just Fiji. Then we went to the market! It was even better than the markets in Spain! There was every conceivable vegetable and fruit and spice, and it went on forever! Then we went upstairs to the kava market to get some for our sevusevu in Nayau. Lauren and I tried our hand at finding and haggling kava...and failed miserably, lol. We ended up almost getting ripped off by a jerk of a kava vendor, but we managed to walk away before he demanded we pay him. We found Sharyn and she helped us find a good vendor for a good price. If I had to do it again, I think I could now!

Last night was probably the best. We met up with Paul, a university professor who has lived in Fiji for something like 20 years and who actually wrote the phrasebook we've been using! He took us to visit a traditional Lauan village right outside Suva. We got to partake in our first sevusevu, and Sharyn said we did pretty good. :-) There was lots of sitting quietly and drinking rounds of kava (not the same as rounds of alcohol, btw). The women showed us some of how they make masi (or barkcloth), and we got to try some cassava straight from an earth oven. The kava wasn't as bad as I expected. As Amanda said, it wasn't Kool-Aid delicious, but it was drinkable and not altogether unpleasant.

Then came my favorite part of the trip so far...we got to go on a boat ride in a traditional outrigger canoe! We hiked up our sulus and waded out to the boat. It seemed so fragile, but once they got the sails up and going, it actually moved really fast and gracefully! I absolutely loved it! Sitting up front with the waves and the reef ahead and the stars coming out, I felt more relaxed than I have since the first showers after all the plane rides! It's hard to describe it except to say that it was beautiful.

Today we're doing a bunch of shopping for Nayau and going to visit the Fiji Museum. I'm hoping I can do another update tomorrow (we leave for Nayau on Monday morning...it's Saturday morning here now), but no promises. If not, I hope you all have a great month, and I'll be sure to update on everything when I get back!

Moce mada!