Download PDF - Oyster News 66 - Oyster Yachts

OWNER REPORT
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One Amazing Day continued
The local ladies were enormously proud
of their donations and danced with joy as
they returned from the Chief’s table,
some taking pleasure in getting David
dancing, to howls of laughter from all.
What a colourful and fun occasion.
All the while George, our guide, provided
a ‘David Dimbleby’ style commentary on
the proceedings, kindly leaving every two
hours to check and re-anchor our dinghy
as the tides were quite big. All of the
other elders were keen to talk to us and
swap stories of life and adventures.
We also toured the makeshift outdoor
kitchen, where whole pigs were being
cooked in a pit and huge pots of food
had been prepared. The barbecue
consisted of two railway line like steels,
with the logs burning underneath for a
length of 10 metres.
While all of the ceremony was in Fijian,
the Island chief welcomed us in English
and gave David about 15 seconds to think
of a suitable response to the assembled
audience, which, as such an experienced
public speaker, he managed flawlessly!
Then to lunch with the ladies and
honoured guests (us) heading into the
partly completed village hall for a feast of
all things Fijian. David was seated on the
head table, along with 25 of the female
village elders. Having sat crossed legged
on the floor for three hours, we were
grateful to be found some chairs and
invited to take food from the head table as
well as the buffet. Forget your hotel and
tourist events, this was a real feast,
complete with young men fanning our
food to keep away the flies!
What did lunch consist of? Yams, five
types of fish, pork, chicken in palm leaves
cooked in the earth oven, rice, curried
vegetables, local spaghetti with mixed
vegetables and limpets which were huge,
just to name a few, all piled high and
eaten with our fingers. We were served
fruit juice to drink.
And so back to the ceremony where it
was the turn of all the village men to pay
homage to the Chief. We moved to sit in
the shade with George, who was excused
from duties to look after us, and continued
to explain the proceedings as various gifts
from the village were presented to the
Chief. A mix of very serious tradition,
formal Kava offerings (unfiltered – ugh!)
and much hilarity at some of the local
war dancing as the women sought to
disrupt the men.
But it was great to hear that overall the
village had raised more than Fijian
$11,000, $6000 of which was donated
by the Chief! With the formal ceremonies
over, after a mere six hours of tribal
events, we returned briefly to George’s
house for late afternoon tea with his
family, where they presented us with
gifts of Kava cups for myself and David
and a traditional dress for Rosie.
Before heading back to the boat, as we
walked the beach with our guide, George
paid us an enormous compliment, telling
us we were “Very good tourists”. Meeting
the Chiefs of each village we visited
(along with presenting Kava root), asking
permission to snorkel and take
photographs, bringing gifts for the local
school and villagers of tee-shirts and
tinned food and donating money towards
the village hall. Apparently not all
yachtsmen are as considerate.
So forget the National Geographic - this is
real life Fijian culture, bought to you by
Oyster and the team on board Kealoha 8.
David Holliday and his crew are sailing
around the world as part of the
World ARC 2007/2008 on his Oyster
72, Kealoha 8. The fleet which includes
the Oyster 82 Tillymint and Oyster 56
Into the Blue are currently in Australia.
Further information about the World ARC
can be found at:
www.worldcruising.com/worldarc