Visit to the Village on Gau (Ngau)

This was a few days ago but we now are at an internet cafe in Savusavu so will try to upload some pictures and the story of our visit to the small village on Gau, one day away from the big city of Suva. On previous blogs I mentioned the trip there and other details so this will just be about our trek and the village. It was very interesting but a long hot and muddy hike on a very small trail through the stifling jungle. The trail is small and obviously not well used. It must have been a road at some point but not for a while and is now just a single track .

This is us along the trail. Burrs were a major problem and covered our shoulders, arms and legs. The women had to wear long skirts and cover their shoulders, and us men had to wear long pants and cover our shoulders. No hats or bags on shoulders allowed. Violations are against the village culture and they may not allow you to stay if you are a violator!

First, we had to find someone in the village (a man only) to lead us to the Chief. Before that we are not allowed to really do anything else. Some women saw us from a house a few hundred feet away and said Bula (hello) but would not come over. She did call for a guy to come over, which he did. He welcomed us, asked a few polite questions, and slowly walked us farther in to the village. We were greeted by an older man who welcomed us on to the covered porch of a house there and asked us to sit on the hand-woven mats on the floor. We had brought our bundles of kava (yaqona in Fijian) to present to the Chief. A group of these Elders convened and sat across from the four of us: me, Cindy, Paul and Marie from Ranger. We thought the guy in the middle was the Chief but it was not obvious and we found out later he was just one of the Elders of the village. The Chief is head of day to day things, but the Elders are like the Town Council. The Chief was gone to another island for a meeting but was coming back that night.

We presented our kava to them, which the man in the middle accepted. We had some polite chit chat before and they asked us where we are from - we said America - they said "mighty America" and I answered "yes, may be too mighty" and they laughed. They then formally accepted the kava and the middle Elder went in to a sing song style speech in Fijian during which we could hear the word America but did not understand anything else. They bless you, bless your home and country, then welcome you to their village, land and waters and allow you to visit and stay. They asked us if we wanted to then make up some kava (at 10a.m.) but Paul said (a bit too quickly) that it was too early for us and we would decline. I am not sure if that was very polite, but they were polite about it. They offered to have someone guide us around the village and found a woman standing there and volunteered her.

Here are some of the houses, some nicer than others. Laundry is drying off the sides. Some younger men are preparing for the big feast (lovo) tonight when the Chief gets back (not in this picture). They were cutting up roots to put in the lovo pit in the ground where hot rocks would be added with pig meat and other veggies to steam. We were not invited but it would have been hard to go to any way and then get back to the boats in the dark.

This is our guide but all I caught of her name is it started with a V... She was actually coming back to her home village after 10 years on the big island next door of Vanua Levu. It is only 40 miles away but she had not been able to return for all that time. She is now working for the census bureau and is preparing to manage a census of Gau and neighboring islands. She was very nice and spent about 2 hours with us gringos (palangis in Fijian).

Here is the old stone church (Weslayan sp? Methodist), age unknown but certainl early last century. There is a big lawn around it. The village was very tidy and the grass was clipped and neat with coral concrete sidewalks around the houses.

Two cute little girls watched us go by and giggled and whispered to each other.

This point is near the village. We actually had to walk by the saddle to the main part of the island on the left to get to the village. Our boats are on the other side of this point. The tallest tree on the point (broad and reddish color - double click to enlarge) marks the burial ground for island chiefs. It is tabu for any one to visit there except men to bury the chiefs. The current chief is over 80 and may join his ancestors there in the coming years. A new chief will be selected then and may or may not be the current chief's son, who we met at the chief's house.