oh no! It's raining again.
The last full day of sunshine we had was Friday 22nd September. Eighteen days ago. I have been forced to keep track of the weather lately as I have had some visitors from Australia and of course coming to a tropical island they expected some sunshine. We have been reduced to hoping for even half an hour of sunshine in a day. Much of Suva is built on limestone and there are many parts of the city where you can see evidence of landslides and chunks of land breaking apart after excessive rain. Suva is not a flat city so there are many houses built into and on top of limestone. A poor motorist got his car flattened after a huge boulder came away from the cliff he was parked under in a well known city car park. We wait for the sun so we can put our mildewy-smelling cushions, pillows and mattresses out to dry and start scrubbing the walls which are sprouting grey blotches. I probably need to park my own fungi-sprouting body in the sun as well for a few hundred hours. I have big white blobs all over my body as well as the small white spots which are my skin cancers-waiting-to-happen. Fungi is hard to get rid of said my cheerful doctor necessitating two different lots of cream before and after a shower and some stomach-pain-inducing pills.
My cheerful doctor also advised me not to take filiarisis tablets. Also known as Elephantitis, deposited by a mosquito which causes this parasite of an intestinal worm to live in you and make your extremities and genitals swell up so that you look like an elephant. This might take 20-30 years to manifest itself but the end result is very ugly and painful and the Ministry of Health is doing a good job scaring me with its frightful photos of a supposed elephant in the newspapers everyday. The Ministry of Health is offering the tablets for free but my cheerful doctor has told me I don’t need to take them as I don’t wallow in rivers or mud and have not lived in Fiji for a long time.
Suva has been hosting the 4th Melanesian Arts and Cultural Festival for the last 10 days. The city is swelling with the delegations from Vanuatu, the Solomons, PNG and New Caledonia. I think its been interesting for us all comparing the Fijians with these other Melanesians. The people from the Solomons seem to have longer and straighter hair and the men have really long dreadlocks hanging down to their bums. The PNG people can be distinguished with their brightly coloured beanies and woven bags. It is harder to pick the people from Vanuatu and New Caledonia but I think the women wear brightly coloured mumus and of course with New Caledonia you can hear French being spoken and also see some fairer skins with the mix of French blood.
The highlight of the concerts which are held every night have been the women’s groups from PNG and the Solomons. This is because they bear their breasts wearing truly traditional costumes. It is also because they are older women and the Fijian crowds delight in the ‘sucu lili’ (hanging breasts) of older women. So all the way through the performance the crowd is full on laughing and whooping and even more so when a sucu lili sways or moves because of some energetic movement. The women take it very well I think. I don’t think I’d be too happy with people laughing at me because of my hanging breasts. I don’t even have an excuse like bearing 10 children.
The other thing that causes great mirth from the crowds is when someone gets up from the audience and goes on stage to dance with whoever is performing. They might wander in and out of the formation the group are in, mimic some of their movements or go up really close to one of the dancers and try and dance with them! Everyone is hooting with laughter. It’s kind of like a friendly ‘send up’ of the group.
The men from the Solomons have been impressive with their dancing and at the same time playing large bamboo flutes several strung together. The men are all dressed in traditional costume as well, bare thighs, laplaps, etc. However the leader of the group wears a bright blue Nike sweatband with the huge white tick sticking out on his head. – let’s not forget the Western world eh?
The Vanuatu delegation made a formal apology to the chiefs of Fiji yesterday. They wanted to say sorry for the past misdeeds of taking Fijian women and men for labour I think. Some 10 pigs, fine woven mats, taro and a kava plant were presented to the Vice President of Fiji which he accepted in the traditional way and all is forgiven.
Geographically Fiji is on the edge of Melanesia. The Fijians have all the features of Melanesian people with their skin and hair etc but seem to share many other features with Polynesia. The Eastern side of Fiji has very close ties with Tonga because of trading, intermarriage and migration in the past. There have been Fijian chiefly families who have married into the Tongan royal family. So when the King of Tonga died last month, it was quite strongly felt here. A very chiefly delegation went to Tonga for the funeral. You can play spot-the-Tongan in town as they are all wearing black for the next month to mourn. There is a house full of Tongan men next door to me. I don’t notice their rowdiness as I can’t hear it. They are big drinkers normally but the beer is gushing out at the moment perhaps due to their mourning?! My visitors tell me they get woken up by angelic singing at midnight which then progresses to loud talking for the next few hours or shouting. But people say thank goodness they are Tongan because they don’t fight and bash each other up like the Fijians do! Like with the laughing at the performances, it is such an un PC comment!
The noise of the Tongans is enhanced by the seven puppies next door on the other side of me. Another Australian volunteer has been doing some soul-work by feeding up the dogs that hang around his house – all five of them. As a result they are the only decent sized dogs in the street and we can no longer see their ribs or bald patches. It also means they have fallen for him and hang around the house perpetually waiting for food. It also means that the mother was able to give birth to seven gorgeous healthy puppies who make lots and lots of noise. The Australian is being very careful about who he gives the puppies to as he wants them to go to good homes not just a place that will discard them once they stop being gorgeous cute baby puppies.
Fijians love baby puppies and babies in general. A friend of mine came to visit with her 10 month old chubby pale skinned baby. Poor baby had to cope with not only lots of dark faces looming into her vision but also being pinched on both cheeks by all these strangers. Walking down the street in town, nearly every single person noticed her, smiled or cooed or pinched her cheeks. It was kind of overwhelming how much attention she got and this was from young, old, women and especially men. Poor little baby also got a few mosquito bites. Two in particular landed right smack bang in the middle of her cheek like spots of rouge. This again drew lots of attention from everyone. Little dark Fijian babies, don’t show up mosquito bites in quite the same way. If you want some attention, bring your babies to Fiji.
I am not really a clubber. When I was younger I would have found the attention from men a bit overwhelming. Living in Sydney, my friends and I always found other more interesting things to do. Suva has quite a happening club scene. There is not really much else to do at night besides the movies and going out for dinner. The men are also mostly happy just to dance and don’t try and chat you up.
Purple Haze – the Indian Bollywood night club. 95% of the population are men with about 40% of them cross dressing. The men from what it looked like to me just want to dance, they all sing the words to the latest hits from Bollywood and fling themselves around very energetically. If you get asked for a dance, they come and politely ask you, lead you onto the floor, dance and then say thank you and lead you off and then vanish into the heaving mass of flesh. Pretty easy and uncomplicated for a woman!
Birdland – the dingy, cheap looking favourite haunt of young Fijian men with their mates and often one of them is back in Fiji on holidays from the British Army so he is shouting everyone jugs and jugs and jugs of beer. A fight will break out, fists will thump through the dense air, mates will intervene, the tension dies down. Next minute you look over and the thumpers are bare chested swapping shirts with each other in the Fijian culture of kerekere (what belongs to me belongs to you).
Golden Dragon – lots of young Rotuman people here. You can get away with wearing shorts and thongs. The men were a tad more aggressive here. Just a tap on the shoulder to indicate you were wanted on the dance floor. Then before you knew it, you were mauled with the young man roughly rubbing himself up and down the length of your body in a cheap imitation of ‘dirty dancing’. A friend would save you by pulling you out of his clutches and into yours. I’m much happier doing ‘dirty dancing’ or tango imitations with a girlfriend than an unknown male.
Traps – for the groovy university crowd with techno music and the latest fashions.
Sirens – for the Chinese sailor who needs some distractions.
The Barn – for the single parent looking for someone older and who likes reggae mixed with country and western.
So Fiji can offer you rain, fungi, endless attention if you are white chubby baby and a varied club life. Come on over!
My cheerful doctor also advised me not to take filiarisis tablets. Also known as Elephantitis, deposited by a mosquito which causes this parasite of an intestinal worm to live in you and make your extremities and genitals swell up so that you look like an elephant. This might take 20-30 years to manifest itself but the end result is very ugly and painful and the Ministry of Health is doing a good job scaring me with its frightful photos of a supposed elephant in the newspapers everyday. The Ministry of Health is offering the tablets for free but my cheerful doctor has told me I don’t need to take them as I don’t wallow in rivers or mud and have not lived in Fiji for a long time.
Suva has been hosting the 4th Melanesian Arts and Cultural Festival for the last 10 days. The city is swelling with the delegations from Vanuatu, the Solomons, PNG and New Caledonia. I think its been interesting for us all comparing the Fijians with these other Melanesians. The people from the Solomons seem to have longer and straighter hair and the men have really long dreadlocks hanging down to their bums. The PNG people can be distinguished with their brightly coloured beanies and woven bags. It is harder to pick the people from Vanuatu and New Caledonia but I think the women wear brightly coloured mumus and of course with New Caledonia you can hear French being spoken and also see some fairer skins with the mix of French blood.
The highlight of the concerts which are held every night have been the women’s groups from PNG and the Solomons. This is because they bear their breasts wearing truly traditional costumes. It is also because they are older women and the Fijian crowds delight in the ‘sucu lili’ (hanging breasts) of older women. So all the way through the performance the crowd is full on laughing and whooping and even more so when a sucu lili sways or moves because of some energetic movement. The women take it very well I think. I don’t think I’d be too happy with people laughing at me because of my hanging breasts. I don’t even have an excuse like bearing 10 children.
The other thing that causes great mirth from the crowds is when someone gets up from the audience and goes on stage to dance with whoever is performing. They might wander in and out of the formation the group are in, mimic some of their movements or go up really close to one of the dancers and try and dance with them! Everyone is hooting with laughter. It’s kind of like a friendly ‘send up’ of the group.
The men from the Solomons have been impressive with their dancing and at the same time playing large bamboo flutes several strung together. The men are all dressed in traditional costume as well, bare thighs, laplaps, etc. However the leader of the group wears a bright blue Nike sweatband with the huge white tick sticking out on his head. – let’s not forget the Western world eh?
The Vanuatu delegation made a formal apology to the chiefs of Fiji yesterday. They wanted to say sorry for the past misdeeds of taking Fijian women and men for labour I think. Some 10 pigs, fine woven mats, taro and a kava plant were presented to the Vice President of Fiji which he accepted in the traditional way and all is forgiven.
Geographically Fiji is on the edge of Melanesia. The Fijians have all the features of Melanesian people with their skin and hair etc but seem to share many other features with Polynesia. The Eastern side of Fiji has very close ties with Tonga because of trading, intermarriage and migration in the past. There have been Fijian chiefly families who have married into the Tongan royal family. So when the King of Tonga died last month, it was quite strongly felt here. A very chiefly delegation went to Tonga for the funeral. You can play spot-the-Tongan in town as they are all wearing black for the next month to mourn. There is a house full of Tongan men next door to me. I don’t notice their rowdiness as I can’t hear it. They are big drinkers normally but the beer is gushing out at the moment perhaps due to their mourning?! My visitors tell me they get woken up by angelic singing at midnight which then progresses to loud talking for the next few hours or shouting. But people say thank goodness they are Tongan because they don’t fight and bash each other up like the Fijians do! Like with the laughing at the performances, it is such an un PC comment!
The noise of the Tongans is enhanced by the seven puppies next door on the other side of me. Another Australian volunteer has been doing some soul-work by feeding up the dogs that hang around his house – all five of them. As a result they are the only decent sized dogs in the street and we can no longer see their ribs or bald patches. It also means they have fallen for him and hang around the house perpetually waiting for food. It also means that the mother was able to give birth to seven gorgeous healthy puppies who make lots and lots of noise. The Australian is being very careful about who he gives the puppies to as he wants them to go to good homes not just a place that will discard them once they stop being gorgeous cute baby puppies.
Fijians love baby puppies and babies in general. A friend of mine came to visit with her 10 month old chubby pale skinned baby. Poor baby had to cope with not only lots of dark faces looming into her vision but also being pinched on both cheeks by all these strangers. Walking down the street in town, nearly every single person noticed her, smiled or cooed or pinched her cheeks. It was kind of overwhelming how much attention she got and this was from young, old, women and especially men. Poor little baby also got a few mosquito bites. Two in particular landed right smack bang in the middle of her cheek like spots of rouge. This again drew lots of attention from everyone. Little dark Fijian babies, don’t show up mosquito bites in quite the same way. If you want some attention, bring your babies to Fiji.
I am not really a clubber. When I was younger I would have found the attention from men a bit overwhelming. Living in Sydney, my friends and I always found other more interesting things to do. Suva has quite a happening club scene. There is not really much else to do at night besides the movies and going out for dinner. The men are also mostly happy just to dance and don’t try and chat you up.
Purple Haze – the Indian Bollywood night club. 95% of the population are men with about 40% of them cross dressing. The men from what it looked like to me just want to dance, they all sing the words to the latest hits from Bollywood and fling themselves around very energetically. If you get asked for a dance, they come and politely ask you, lead you onto the floor, dance and then say thank you and lead you off and then vanish into the heaving mass of flesh. Pretty easy and uncomplicated for a woman!
Birdland – the dingy, cheap looking favourite haunt of young Fijian men with their mates and often one of them is back in Fiji on holidays from the British Army so he is shouting everyone jugs and jugs and jugs of beer. A fight will break out, fists will thump through the dense air, mates will intervene, the tension dies down. Next minute you look over and the thumpers are bare chested swapping shirts with each other in the Fijian culture of kerekere (what belongs to me belongs to you).
Golden Dragon – lots of young Rotuman people here. You can get away with wearing shorts and thongs. The men were a tad more aggressive here. Just a tap on the shoulder to indicate you were wanted on the dance floor. Then before you knew it, you were mauled with the young man roughly rubbing himself up and down the length of your body in a cheap imitation of ‘dirty dancing’. A friend would save you by pulling you out of his clutches and into yours. I’m much happier doing ‘dirty dancing’ or tango imitations with a girlfriend than an unknown male.
Traps – for the groovy university crowd with techno music and the latest fashions.
Sirens – for the Chinese sailor who needs some distractions.
The Barn – for the single parent looking for someone older and who likes reggae mixed with country and western.
So Fiji can offer you rain, fungi, endless attention if you are white chubby baby and a varied club life. Come on over!
posted by kate at 8:32 pm
0 comments
