Hot stuff

I had a bit of an adventure this morning. You know that lukewarm shower of mine I’ve been raving about? Well, I was using it this morning when suddenly it burst into flames. No shit! My first thought was “Crap, it might be an electric fire and I’m in a shower, if I get water on it I’m gonna blow the school up”. Holding this thought I grabbed my towel and ran about like a madwoman going “Ahhh! Help me! Fire! In the shower! Nooo!”. One of the other GAP volunteers, Vivian, has been staying with me the past week, and on hearing my cries for help, awoke from her deep slumber, donned her fire-lady outfit and grabbed the hose. I ran back into the bathrooms with the headteacher behind me to find the fire was out and the school intact, which I guess means it wasn’t an electric fire after all.

And thusly the day was saved. Well done Viv!

The downside is, I’m back to having a freezing cold shower. It’s still winter. I’m used to it, though.

Holiday snaps

Hi guys. Time to share with you the photos from my holidays up north. Brace yourself.

My holidays started off by acting like a tourist in Suva:

Yes, you do get McDonald’s in Fiji

This is part of the University of the South Pacific campus. Wish Durham looked like that…

This is the cession stone in central Suva.

This is a street barbecue. It’s only $4 a serve and proper delicious. I reckon someone could make a fortune with these in university towns, as it’s gotta be the best drunk food ever.

After our street barbecue, we went to Tico’s Floating Restaurant for a drink. Tico’s is very posh. I had barely opened the wine list when I realised I felt drunk. “What ho!” I cried, “I have not yet taken a single sip of any intoxicating substance! What could possibly have caused this phenomenon!” Then I realised that, oh yeah, we’re on a boat, and it’s rocking in the waves. Oops. *facepalm*

The next day we took this teensy 12 seater plane up to Labasa, a 45 minute journey.

We checked into our hotel and I donned my tourist gear.

We crossed the Labasa river into town for lunch before getting a lift up to Nagigi to this Hindu temple.

This is Cobra Rock. Devotees swear that it’s growing and they have to keep raising the roof.

The next morning we went back into Labasa town and took a 3 hour bus ride down to Savusavu. The bus ride was incredibly scenic and I tried to take some pictures, but it’s hard when the roads are more potholes than flat.

Savusavu was beautiful, and we had a lorra fun taking pictures around the bay.

Love this picture ’cause you can look at it upside down and it’s still the same. We went kayaking around that island too.

We also went to the hot springs. You can cook vegetables in these. Steamin’.

The next day we went for a trek in the Waisali rainforest reserve:

There was a nice view from the top: 

And we had fun thwacking the spider’s webs out the way

This is Savusavu town, by the way.

Savusavu was our last chance to take cash out for the next week of our journey, so we got megabucks and felt like rich people. Also I had my hair cut by a transvestite, check the new hair-do.

The next part of our journey was Dolphin Bay.

It felt proper isolated.

And they sold lovely home brewed beer for the low low happy hour price of $1.50. Result!

All the guests ate and hung out together and we made some friends there.

Also me and Helen looked quite pretty

Once we were done at Dolphin Bay, we went on to Taveuni, and our first stop was the Waitovu Catholic Mission with this nice church.

Afterwards I went to straddle the date line, thus miraculously being in two days at once! Check it!

The next day we had a picnic up the top of Des Voeux peak, a big hill in the middle of Taveuni. It was kinda cloudy though and my pictures aren’t great so here’s a picture of the hill I took from the other side of the island a few days later:

The next day we went round the other side of the island to Bouma National Park to visit two of the three famous waterfalls. Here’s the biggest one:

There was a nice view on the way up too:

 

We stayed at the gorgeous Lavena lodge, and the next morning I witnessed the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. (No editing on the colours folks)

 

The next day we did this tour – kayaking, walking and swimming. During the walk we saw an Orange Dove. I’m no birdwatcher (shut up Chris) but I hear they’re pretty darn rare:

After that it was back to Suva for a night in the glorious Raintree Lodge, where we ate The Cheesecake that God Intended (with his sidekick Super Apple Pie):

 

and I went a bit mental with the lilypads waiting for the taxi:

The next day I did my shopping in town and then got the boat back to Ovalau, all fresh for school on Monday. Ta-da!

Well, thanks for tuning in folks. Hope it didn’t take too many years to load.

Fijian English

Fiji is essentially a bilingual nation. In fact, many people speak three, four, even five languages. Schools are taught in English, and all forms and signs are in English, so if you’re living in Fiji you kinda have to have a good grasp it. “Fijian” is a pretty broad term when you’re describing the language spoken here, as there are over 300 regional varieties, all of which developed fairly independantly and are significantly different. The Fijians had no written language until the European missionaries arrived in the mid-1800s, and at this point in time the most powerful chiefdom was that of the region of Bau, and so the Bauan dialect has been adopted as “Standard Fijian”, which is the form taught in schools and in any publications and so is the form that an outsider like myself will learn.

So, your average Fijian can speak English, Bauan and their own dialect of Fijian. Many also have a grasp of Hindi as well. (There are actually more Indians in Fiji than there are indigenous Fijians)

I have been trying to learn Fijian. I suspect it’s the only reason my brain hasn’t turned to mush already. It’s quite a challenge – I’ve never been the linguist type (five years of French lessons and all I know is how to say “I feel like chicken tonight”), plus I’ve never tried to learn a language that hasn’t developed along the same lines as English. The grammar in particular is very confusing, but I won’t bore you with the details.

Slightly easier has been getting used to the English that people speak over here. Obviously they have their own distinct accent, and occassionally we have trouble understanding each other (my Scottish accent has toned down considerably here, sorry guys). A few months ago I was looking to buy a mirror and I found I had to pronounce the word as a Fijian would say it  – “meerah” – before they could understand what I was looking for.

Some words are used more often back here, and others are used differently. The words “set” and “true” are used a lot, both as a question and an answer. Words such as “off” and “on” are used as verbs – eg, “Could you off the light please?”

As Fijian is structurally different to English, some words are used in situations that we would not use in English. Does that make sense? Don’t care. If you pass someone in the street that you know and it’s late afternoon, you would say to them “moce!” which literally means “sleep” and is used as “goodbye”. So, people will often say “Bye!” to you as you pass them, which I found a bit weird at first until I worked it out. Same applies with the question “O lako i vei?” – “where are you going?” – which is used as we say “How are you?”. Also, confusingly, the word for thanks in Fijian – “vinaka” – can also mean “No thanks”. So when you offer someone, oh I don’t know, a biscuit, and they wish to decline your invitation they will often just say “Thanks”. Now, to a Brit, that’s gonna mean “yes please”, right? Confusing until you get used to it.

And of course, body language is different too. Fijians are not a demonstrative people and their body language is often very subtle, for example a reply in the affirmative is often represently only by a meaningful blink. The more demonstrative types will show a “yes” not by nodding, but by jerking their head up in time with the forceful raising of their eyebrows, which on the whole is a highly alarming gesture and caused me some concern for the wellbeing of the person in question on my first experience.

Having been here for over 5 months now (!) I have picked up a lot of these habits, so please do not be alarmed if, on my return, I start saying “bye!” all the time and raising my eyebrows a lot.

I have found a super fast way to upload all my pictures, so expect massive photo posts coming your way soon.

Moce mada!