weddings, hogs and whipper snippers
An article from the “Fiji Islands Business” magazine:
“How weak is the flesh in Fiji?
An indication comes from the research of Dr Mili Kaitani, concerning the aspirations and expectations of the Fijian male. She reports that the more religious males become, the sexier they get. That’s to say they become involved in more and more affairs. Methodists are sexier adherents to Assemblies of God, Assemblies of God men are sexier than Seventh Day Adventists, and Catholics are less sexy than the first three, but more so are the followers of the 30 or so church denominations active in Fiji. What is it about religion that drives Fiji men to sex and why Methodist more so than other denominations?”
Anecdotal evidence certainly suggests the above might be true. Whenever I have had incidents where a man has tried to suggest a bit of “how’s-your-father” and in bewilderment I have gone to my colleagues and said “but he said he was married with children, vegetarian,does not drink, prays every day and religious”, the response has always been “they are the worse!”.
Maybe it’s due to the one of the powerful attractions of fundamentalism: it’s mixture of faith and sex. I quote from Hugh McKay who says that fundamentalism (which are lot of the churches here are), “ offers an emotionally charged, almost primitive experience of religion to those who abandon themselves to it. It’s often hard to tell whether the sence of ecstasy is sexual or religious or a complex blend of the two”.
Today I went to a Hindi wedding. It was the taxi driver that we use alot at work, his daughter’s wedding. I got dolled up in my Salwar Kameez and trotted off to a hall at 9.30 on a sunday morning. In the middle of the hall is a canopy set up where the ceremony mostly takes place. It is decorated on every surface with plastic flowers, crepe paper and flashing lights. After waiting some time in which I studied all the finery of the Indian women in their silk saries, the groom and the men of his family arrived. The groom arrived wearing a white suit, in a black Nightrider-looking car (no white horse or elephant!) decorated with balloons and streamers and best of all, colored cotton balls stuck to all the windows! A ceremony with the men of both families is done involving hibiscus flowers, fire, rice, incense and leaves. While this is happening the sister of the bride ‘steals’ his shoes and he then has to spend the rest of the ceremony in bare feet. At the end of the day, he has to pay money to the bride’s family to get the shoes back so he can leave. So he enters the hall and then all the women of the bride’s family do a purification rite where they line up, put money in his lap, wave a flame around his face, throw balls of dough in 4 directions and pour water into a bucket. Then finally the bride is allowed to come out of the room she has been waiting in. She is demure and keeps her eyes to the floor (a sign of respect I think). Gifts are given to them both by the elders of the family. Then lots of other things happen which I lost track of. Then they stand up, and linked by a ribbon they are asked 7 questions like “will you be together till you die?” and they walk around the canopy after each question one leading and the other following. Then they sit down and they are covered with a sheet so that privately the groom can put red dye in the part of the bride’s hair to symbolise her fertility (I think). They then leave and go into a small room to do other ceremonies more privately.
This has taken about 3 hours. In this time, I had a few bowls of yagona (kava), chatted with a few people. The women tend to stay in the hall and watch diligently while the men hang about outside, read the paper, chat, get the food ready and drink kava. They start feeding the crowds (children first) when the 7 questions are happening because people are starting to wilt. The men are responsible for cooking the food and serving it up. People sit in long trestle tables and the men walk down with the various bowls of curry, puri, tamarind chutney and pilau. They pour cordial (the only drink available) from a huge kettle which we drank out of styrofoam cups advertising Milo and Maggi noodles! Then everyone leaves, 4 hours later!
Lawn mowers are now extinct in Fiji. Grass has to be cut almost weekly because things grow so fast and because mosquitos can breed so easily. Every man here has a Whipper Snipper. You see them everywhere. They work very well as Suva is quite hilly and there is not a lot of flat land. You see men cutting great swaths through long tall grass all the time.
In Fiji, the Deaf have to be hunted down and found. It is very hard to find any older Deaf people as they would have been kept hidden in villages and not gone to school. Even now, people have to persuade family to give their deaf children up so they can go to a deaf school and get an education. Families here tend to be ashamed having deaf children and will be overly protective of them, so much so that they don’t learn to do anything much for themselves. The Deaf here even in the cities are still shy about using sign language in public for fear of ridicule. Almost every time I use sign language in public, I am laughed at. Grown men will point and laugh at me. A group of deaf from the church that they mostly go to here, have been to Savusavu for a few days of hunting and finding deaf children. They ‘found’ 4 deaf children ages ranging from 7 - 12 and have brought them back to be schooled here.
Public transport here is really good if not dangerous. Aside from the ancient buses which run pretty regular and which you can hail from anywhere and jump on at any time if you are nimble enough; there are also many taxis which are really cheap. Then you have the minivan. These are 10 seater vans which do longer trips from one side of the island to another, or one town to another. They are cheap, and don’t stop along the way so they are very fast. They are also known to be very dangerous and there have been numerous accidents where people have died in minivans. They run 24 hours and they leave once the van is full - no schedule. They play very very loud island music (to keep the driver awake) and all the seats are covered in plastic (so you stick to the seat should there be an accident - just kidding).
I got a minivan on Friday night with a few friends and we went around to Lautoka on the other side of the island, about a 4 hour drive. The driver was crazy and I had to focus on the huge Milky Way, the swaying coconut trees lining the beaches and the white line out to sea marking the waves breaking on the reef. The driver drove mostly on the other side of the road, got booked by police for speeding and nearly turned the van over when we swerved to miss a cow. However, coming back from Lautoka, the driver was faultless even when we had to swerve to miss a fat hog crossing the road.
People are really big on massive gearsticks for their cars and buses. They are not satisfied with the vehicle as it comes and they will add padding and decorations to the gearstick so that it is as big as the palm of your hand. Some drivers who are able bodied also have those driving knobs that are on the steering wheels that are used for less able bodied people in Australia. Anything that means less effort eh? I am going to start taking photos of these gearsticks as they fascinate me.
One of the members of the Deaf Association’s brother died on the weekend. He was a medical student who basically choked on his own vomit after a night of heavy drinking. The Deaf community got together and we made a reguregu. This is more important than the funeral itself and is held over a few days before the funeral at the home of the family and where the body is. You get together a gift (money and some yagona) and you present this to the men of the family with a speech saying sorry for the death and please accept this presentation. Then the women of the group leave the men to drink some yagona and go to the women’s section of the house where they make a presentation to the females in the family and give a woven mat which is used to wrap the body for the burial. They are then presented with tea and food to eat. The Deaf group got a hearing person to make the speech on their behalf and this person said something along the lines of “please accept this small gift because we are deaf”. Humpphhh! I tried to persuade the President of the Deaf Association to sign the presentation and have someone voice it for him but he was not confident enough to do this. Hopefully next time it will happen and the Deaf will feel strong enough to stand up and use their language of choice.
Let me try some Fijian:
Au wa sisili ni oti au qunu na tea. Au wa lako i cakacaka nimataka.
(I will shower after I drink of the tea. I will go to work tomorrow.)
I got to go and do some work. I am working from home because having to share a computer with another person while I am writing grant applications and be interrupted by various people dropping in to just hang out is too hard sometimes!
Sototale (till next time)
Kate
“How weak is the flesh in Fiji?
An indication comes from the research of Dr Mili Kaitani, concerning the aspirations and expectations of the Fijian male. She reports that the more religious males become, the sexier they get. That’s to say they become involved in more and more affairs. Methodists are sexier adherents to Assemblies of God, Assemblies of God men are sexier than Seventh Day Adventists, and Catholics are less sexy than the first three, but more so are the followers of the 30 or so church denominations active in Fiji. What is it about religion that drives Fiji men to sex and why Methodist more so than other denominations?”
Anecdotal evidence certainly suggests the above might be true. Whenever I have had incidents where a man has tried to suggest a bit of “how’s-your-father” and in bewilderment I have gone to my colleagues and said “but he said he was married with children, vegetarian,does not drink, prays every day and religious”, the response has always been “they are the worse!”.
Maybe it’s due to the one of the powerful attractions of fundamentalism: it’s mixture of faith and sex. I quote from Hugh McKay who says that fundamentalism (which are lot of the churches here are), “ offers an emotionally charged, almost primitive experience of religion to those who abandon themselves to it. It’s often hard to tell whether the sence of ecstasy is sexual or religious or a complex blend of the two”.
Today I went to a Hindi wedding. It was the taxi driver that we use alot at work, his daughter’s wedding. I got dolled up in my Salwar Kameez and trotted off to a hall at 9.30 on a sunday morning. In the middle of the hall is a canopy set up where the ceremony mostly takes place. It is decorated on every surface with plastic flowers, crepe paper and flashing lights. After waiting some time in which I studied all the finery of the Indian women in their silk saries, the groom and the men of his family arrived. The groom arrived wearing a white suit, in a black Nightrider-looking car (no white horse or elephant!) decorated with balloons and streamers and best of all, colored cotton balls stuck to all the windows! A ceremony with the men of both families is done involving hibiscus flowers, fire, rice, incense and leaves. While this is happening the sister of the bride ‘steals’ his shoes and he then has to spend the rest of the ceremony in bare feet. At the end of the day, he has to pay money to the bride’s family to get the shoes back so he can leave. So he enters the hall and then all the women of the bride’s family do a purification rite where they line up, put money in his lap, wave a flame around his face, throw balls of dough in 4 directions and pour water into a bucket. Then finally the bride is allowed to come out of the room she has been waiting in. She is demure and keeps her eyes to the floor (a sign of respect I think). Gifts are given to them both by the elders of the family. Then lots of other things happen which I lost track of. Then they stand up, and linked by a ribbon they are asked 7 questions like “will you be together till you die?” and they walk around the canopy after each question one leading and the other following. Then they sit down and they are covered with a sheet so that privately the groom can put red dye in the part of the bride’s hair to symbolise her fertility (I think). They then leave and go into a small room to do other ceremonies more privately.
This has taken about 3 hours. In this time, I had a few bowls of yagona (kava), chatted with a few people. The women tend to stay in the hall and watch diligently while the men hang about outside, read the paper, chat, get the food ready and drink kava. They start feeding the crowds (children first) when the 7 questions are happening because people are starting to wilt. The men are responsible for cooking the food and serving it up. People sit in long trestle tables and the men walk down with the various bowls of curry, puri, tamarind chutney and pilau. They pour cordial (the only drink available) from a huge kettle which we drank out of styrofoam cups advertising Milo and Maggi noodles! Then everyone leaves, 4 hours later!
Lawn mowers are now extinct in Fiji. Grass has to be cut almost weekly because things grow so fast and because mosquitos can breed so easily. Every man here has a Whipper Snipper. You see them everywhere. They work very well as Suva is quite hilly and there is not a lot of flat land. You see men cutting great swaths through long tall grass all the time.
In Fiji, the Deaf have to be hunted down and found. It is very hard to find any older Deaf people as they would have been kept hidden in villages and not gone to school. Even now, people have to persuade family to give their deaf children up so they can go to a deaf school and get an education. Families here tend to be ashamed having deaf children and will be overly protective of them, so much so that they don’t learn to do anything much for themselves. The Deaf here even in the cities are still shy about using sign language in public for fear of ridicule. Almost every time I use sign language in public, I am laughed at. Grown men will point and laugh at me. A group of deaf from the church that they mostly go to here, have been to Savusavu for a few days of hunting and finding deaf children. They ‘found’ 4 deaf children ages ranging from 7 - 12 and have brought them back to be schooled here.
Public transport here is really good if not dangerous. Aside from the ancient buses which run pretty regular and which you can hail from anywhere and jump on at any time if you are nimble enough; there are also many taxis which are really cheap. Then you have the minivan. These are 10 seater vans which do longer trips from one side of the island to another, or one town to another. They are cheap, and don’t stop along the way so they are very fast. They are also known to be very dangerous and there have been numerous accidents where people have died in minivans. They run 24 hours and they leave once the van is full - no schedule. They play very very loud island music (to keep the driver awake) and all the seats are covered in plastic (so you stick to the seat should there be an accident - just kidding).
I got a minivan on Friday night with a few friends and we went around to Lautoka on the other side of the island, about a 4 hour drive. The driver was crazy and I had to focus on the huge Milky Way, the swaying coconut trees lining the beaches and the white line out to sea marking the waves breaking on the reef. The driver drove mostly on the other side of the road, got booked by police for speeding and nearly turned the van over when we swerved to miss a cow. However, coming back from Lautoka, the driver was faultless even when we had to swerve to miss a fat hog crossing the road.
People are really big on massive gearsticks for their cars and buses. They are not satisfied with the vehicle as it comes and they will add padding and decorations to the gearstick so that it is as big as the palm of your hand. Some drivers who are able bodied also have those driving knobs that are on the steering wheels that are used for less able bodied people in Australia. Anything that means less effort eh? I am going to start taking photos of these gearsticks as they fascinate me.
One of the members of the Deaf Association’s brother died on the weekend. He was a medical student who basically choked on his own vomit after a night of heavy drinking. The Deaf community got together and we made a reguregu. This is more important than the funeral itself and is held over a few days before the funeral at the home of the family and where the body is. You get together a gift (money and some yagona) and you present this to the men of the family with a speech saying sorry for the death and please accept this presentation. Then the women of the group leave the men to drink some yagona and go to the women’s section of the house where they make a presentation to the females in the family and give a woven mat which is used to wrap the body for the burial. They are then presented with tea and food to eat. The Deaf group got a hearing person to make the speech on their behalf and this person said something along the lines of “please accept this small gift because we are deaf”. Humpphhh! I tried to persuade the President of the Deaf Association to sign the presentation and have someone voice it for him but he was not confident enough to do this. Hopefully next time it will happen and the Deaf will feel strong enough to stand up and use their language of choice.
Let me try some Fijian:
Au wa sisili ni oti au qunu na tea. Au wa lako i cakacaka nimataka.
(I will shower after I drink of the tea. I will go to work tomorrow.)
I got to go and do some work. I am working from home because having to share a computer with another person while I am writing grant applications and be interrupted by various people dropping in to just hang out is too hard sometimes!
Sototale (till next time)
Kate
posted by kate at 11:47 am
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