Chief Comes to Condone Tabu Areas

On the morning of January 31^st, a special village meeting was called in which our chief, who lives in the next village over, came to give his official consent for our Tabu Fishing Areas. The meeting began with a traditional presentation of yaqona and welcoming, and then we got down to business.

Our chief spoke about how we are all part of the vanua – people, land, sea, animals – and how we must care for the things of which we are a part. He also said something along a more traditional line, about how we must also fear the vanua: “If you make the vanua cry and you don’t listen, you better watch out.” 

He thanked us for the actions we have taken and for calling him here. He said it is up to us, not the government or NGOs, to take care of that on which we depend. He said that he knew before he came that he would say yes and support our initiative. 

He gave a chance for the Yaubula (Environment) Committee to speak. One of our committee presented our basic mission: to sustainably manage that upon which we depend for food/income/supplies and to also seek alternative income generating activities compatible with this mission. And also the general management rules for the three marine managed areas and two water source protection areas. (See this post for details: Proposed Protected Areas Passed by Village Elders )

The chief then opened the session up for questions. It was a really good thing because it gave the chance for anyone to clarify things they were uncertain about. We clarified:  fishing from the shoreline into the protected area (not allowed), the exact boundaries (one buoy will be adjusted), and also about harvesting to sell within the ikanakana (nearshore reefflat – not allowed). The nearshore reefflat is only for harvesting food. If you have a fishing license to sell fish or invertebrates, you need to go off the reefflat to the offshore reefs. 

Our chief likes to run a tight ship and he’s very experienced leading meetings, so all in all it took less than an hour. He ended by saying we need to plan to invite all stakeholders from the government and NGOs to an official launch in which the Tabu Areas will be blessed by the church. The date chosen is Tuesday, February 25^th!

It may have taken a year for this meeting to happen, but in true Fijian fashion it was better to wait than to rush things. With the chief’s official approval witnessed by the village and the upcoming “launch” to be witnessed by local stakeholders, we’re on the right track for our Yaubula Management Plan to be respected and hopefully effective! (Dare I say funded? !)

Our chief and the elders listening to the presentation from the Yaubula Committee

Solo serving kava to our chief during his speech

Electrification and Oyster Update

ELECTRICITY

The official quotation to extend the electricity grid to our village arrived in my mailbox this week!

This is how it breaks down:

Total cost:                                                             $696,295.00
The government will cover 95% of the cost:       $661,480.00
The community contribution will be 5%:            $  34,815.00
Divide by 129 households:                                   $      266.00/house

This includes overhead power lines and internal wiring in 129 households.

The fundraising will be discussed in the February village meeting. It will be a major committment by community members to raise the money. The quotation expires at the end of the year. The quicker we can raise the money, the quicker the project can happen. (Especially crucial since there are elections for the first time in ages this year).


PEARL OYSTERS

We went out to check the pearl oyster lines this week. They are suspended about 5 meters below the surface. The lines were in good shape with no buoys missing. There was an awful lot of algae though, so we're waiting for feedback from Department of Fisheries as to whether or not we need to clean the line. Cleaning will either require the use of SCUBA or a lot of strong lunged free-divers.

We're Getting Hitched!

Solo courted me with coconuts, bananas, and play dates in the sea. He took the time to explain the intricacies of village tradition and helped me feel at home. He taught me the Fijian word for the Milky Way and that the moon has a wife. He told me a three hour bedtime story about the history of his clan, including the name of every single third cousin, and how they came to be here. He has a big heart and a certain disregard for the rules. A perfect combination! Together we just have so much damn fun!

It wasn’t until one day when we were riding bareback on his horse down the beach at low tide when I felt the butterflies deep in the pit of my stomach. I had begun to fall for this young man who I was supposed to call “brother”, this coconut cowboy who blatantly defied the tabu placed on my head. I tried so hard to suppress it because I knew there’d be trouble. Alas, I failed, and so we became partners in crime in a pseudo-incestuous, pseudo-secret affair.

Our decision to get married was one initially prompted by Solo looking over at me as we sat together months later on that same beach and him saying out of the blue like it wasn’t a big deal, "I don’t know about you, but I know I could spend my whole life with you."

Deep inside me I tangibly felt a changing of the tides. It was a really big deal! The wall built up around my heart was washing out to sea. I was letting love happen to me.

Later I told Solo that it didn’t feel official, that I wanted him to ask me to marry him. He said, "Like in the movies?!" So I hunted for a local pearl and a local jeweler, and the rest he planned… kinda like in the movies ;)

When we rented a house in Savusavu for Christmas, Solo worked with the caretaker to prepare a romantic dinner on the beach. He hid my ring in a bouquet of flowers he picked and wrapped in tin foil. He was so sweetly nervous as he told me how much he cared about me and asked me to marry him (in English).

Of course I said "Io"! (Yes!) And bawled like a baby.

After dinner I asked him what he'd say in Fijian, and it made it that much more special to hear it in his native tongue. 

I never thought I would get proposed to by a man in a skirt, but I couldn't be happier and can't wait for what's to come in 2014!

2013 Recap!

Life in "island time" can sometimes move a little slowly and as a Peace Corps Volunteer it is sometimes hard to see how all the little things we do add up. So here's a look back at 2013's highlights to help me gain some perspective.

From the work-related category:

• The Bua Yaubula Management and Support Team (BYMST), a newly formed provincial environmental management network, had a series of planning workshops to help build their capacity to support sustainable resource management in Bua. They also submitted a grant proposal in hopes to be able to implement their mission. The district representative is a man from our village.
• The village women  took full reins of their vegetable gardening project we started, and also built a chicken coop with support of the Ministry of Agriculture. They are now selling eggs and hope to expand their business.
• As a result of attending district-wide natural resource management planning workshops, members of the village took the initiative to form a village Yaubula, or environment, Committee. We working to build their capacity and confidence to successfully continue projects when I leave. They have been raising awareness about environmental issues in our village meetings and working with our traditional leaders to set up some local protected areas.
• We continued to plant mangroves and restock the nursery.
• We stocked a few giant clams and sea cucumbers in our tabu fishing area. We submitted requests to receive some breeding stock from the Department of Fisheries.
• We continued to try and get the support of Department of Forestry to train village members in setting up tree nurseries, especially focusing on sandalwood as an income generating species. (No luck yet!)
• A request for Good Leadership and Governance Training for traditional leaders and committee members was submitted to the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs and it looks like it might come through soon!
• We were able to report and stop some illegal sand extraction happening at the local beach. The sand was being used for the new Labasa-Nabouwalu highway.
• The team at Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) allowed me to team up with them for my Master's research. We will be doing social network analysis (SNA) as a way to better understand and hopefully improve collaboration and communication around natural resource management in our province. 
• Department of Fisheries came and set up two oyster spat collection lines in our Tabu Area. These lines will be left for one year to collect and grow baby oysters to sell to pearl farmers.
• We submitted a request for an extension of the electricity grid to our village and they came to survey. We have not yet received the quotation for the 5% we will have to contribute.
•  Water Authority Fiji helped build a new dam and water storage tank for the village's drinking water. It's experiencing a few glitches, but we're hoping to work them out soon.

I'm thankful for all the support from the community members and our stakeholder friends in helping make all these little and big things happen.

From the personal side of things:

• I extended my service for a 3rd year.
• I started giving my report at village meetings in Fijian. (Preparing it ahead of time, of course!)
• Two of my very best girlfriends visited and we had such a lovely time!
• I survived being assaulted on a run in Suva! 
• I ran my second half marathon and improved my time!
• I learned how to stove-top bake, make jam, and "brew" hooch. 
• I spent a month in the US and realized I miss my friends and family, but am so happy here in Fiji. 
• And the best thing of all: Solo and I decided to get married! 

When Worlds Collide, Embrace Them Both

It’s a week before Christmas and hotter than Hades in the village. It’s the time of year when everything comes to a standstill as folks are preparing for the holidays, cleaning houses and yards, and pounding enough grog to last a month.  Instead of being frustrated with the slow pace, I’m trying to embrace it; take time to reflect on the past year and return to doing the little things I love about living in the village. 

Solo was admonishing me for planting some mangrove seeds by myself the other day in the hot, hot sun. “Can’t you just stay at home and relax for once? It’s a week until Christmas! It is not the time to work. Read a bunch of books.” 

So here I am sitting in my kitchen/office with a fresh batch of roasted cacao beans cooling on the counter courtesy of the pods we picked yesterday when we went to swim in the creek, and I’m slowly picking apart my current thoughts on village life. 

Sometimes I get frustrated with it, even after over two years of acclimating. Sometimes I wish we could do more, or that things would move along more quickly. But it is useless to get frustrated, it’s wasted energy, and it’s better to just accept the pace of village life. It seems I periodically re-learn the lesson that there is beauty in slowing life down, in caring more about family and friends than work, in making food from scratch, in doing small things that make you happy, in taking time to notice how elegantly a banana leaf unfurls itself from the stalk and how the vivid passionfruit flower opens in the evening. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about how American and Fijian cultures compare and contrast, and also about the current state of traditional Fijian culture. In the words of a friend, the culture seems “confused”. How do you keep traditions alive but develop at the same time?

The other week Solo brought over a book, Bula Vakavanua by Semi B. Seruvakula. It is written in Fijian. As much as I can understand, it was an effort by the Ministry of iTaukei (Indigenous) Affairs and the University of the South Pacific, amongst others, to document Fijian traditions as they have begun to slowly be lost. This book is a gold mine for someone who wants to learn about Fijian culture. Solo nabbed it from one of the school kids. As he never took Fijian in school, and since he spent most of his life outside the village, he’s just now being properly educated in the “ways of the village”. While we might not be able to stop things from changing, the least we can do is remember where we’ve come from. 

We’ve been going through parts of the book together. It explains everything about the ways of the vanua, or the responsibilities of the different people and clans in the village, how to conduct ceremonies of all levels, and how the land/sea is to be regarded. It also talks about the changes Fijian culture has faced and is still facing since the time of colonization. Fijians are great story tellers, and I love hearing Solo’s explanations and asking questions about it all. 

Solo: Isa, it’s not like this anymore.

Buna: Why?

S: Where is your wallet?

B: What?... In my room.

S: (Returning with my wallet, pulls out two bills.) This is why it’s not like that anymore. (Points at the Queen on the old bill.) This changed everything. But it’s starting to change again, we’re taking Fiji back. (Points at the new bill where the Queen has been replaced with some endemic Fijian wildlife species.)

This simple explanation makes me smile. I ask about the church, because didn’t that change a lot of things too? What did Fijians believe before the church?

S: There were only two churches, Catholic and Methodist in the beginning.

B: No before that.

S: Huh?

B: Before the churches came, did people believe in the vanua or what?

S: Yes, they believed in the landlords. But everyone was warring, warring all the time. Eating each other. When they won a war, they won the land and their landlord stayed there.

B: Landlord?..... You mean like a spirit?

S: Yeah, I mean like a land spirit.

B: Like the vu?

S: (Very hushed) Yes…

He then told me quietly about the vu of our village, his name, where he lives, and how he looks after the village. How he comes to speak thru people at certain times when the village is not working well together. How he did this just last year. He said all this very quietly and I knew it was kind of a sacred topic. There are certain things us outsiders aren’t supposed to talk about or question, so I just listened, appreciating what he was willing to share. I think traditional knowledge is a beautiful and interesting thing. But it is not my place to share it here; it is a story that is not mine.

However, in my story I do find myself amidst the convergence of the traditional and the modern. This is the setting in which I live and work. I sit here typing on my laptop in my house with no electricity. Sometimes it is a very confused place indeed; but it is a privilege to experience another way of life and experience real challenges much of the world is facing.

I know that in the coming year I will have a lot of choices to make about what to do next and where to go. Maybe it isn’t about choosing one or the other, but embracing the best of both.