It's a Small World After All

Wouldn't you love to give them the world?

Thursday, June 2, 2011 - The weather for the last three days has been overcast and the lagoon has been an unwelcoming slate grey.  Last night we had quite a thunder and lightning storm with strong winds from the north that turned the boat on its anchor 180 degrees toward shore.  Fortunately, our anchor held well and we didn't drift beyond our safety perimeter.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 was a day of firsts for us.
We made our first dive without an instructor.  Basically, we descended down our anchor chain and explored the area around our boat.  We followed the chain to the anchor which was nestled deeply in white sand.  We dove to 14 meters for about 25 minutes.  We tested our new equipment, saw a few fish, examined the bottom of our boat, and felt pretty exhilirated by our first dive.


We experienced our first sevusevu.  Sevusevu is the ritualized greeting of visitors to a village.  Visitors present local village, in this case it is a family whose beach we are anchored off of a large bouquet of Kava root wrapped in newspaper.  We had purchased three bundles before leaving Latouka for occasions such as this.  We had purchased the highest grade of kava root which happily accepted with three claps of their hands.  Sevusevu is a respect gift brought to the village chief who in return upon acceptance offers his friendship and help to the visitor.  Sometimes, if the visit is late enough in the day, the kava drink is offered.    

Va preparing coconut leaves to make a floor mat.

Our new friends, the Naivalu family and their friend Bill welcomed us to their beach and for a small fee offered to bake us fresh bread, dispose of our garbage, serve us tea, do our laundry.  We were welcomed to walk on their beach and visit them any time.  We are the first yacht of the season to make sevusevu.  

From L to R:  Lai, 2 yr old Ane, Big Semi, Little Semi 5, Va, and Peter 6

Va, the matriarch of the family has books for every year since 2003.  She shared the books with us and asked if we would make a page to put in the book.  Since we were the first yacht this year, we offered to start a new book for 2011.  Va looks after her two grandsons Semi and Peter while they attend the school at Nosomo Levu, which is a catholic boarding school about a 30 minute boat ride down the bay.   Peter and Semi are in class 1 (equivalent to kindergarten).  They were excited to learn that we wanted to visit their school the following day.  We left with 2 coconuts, 4 limes, and leaves from their lemon tree which were to pour boiling water over and steep for tea.  It was delicious!

Wednesday,  June 1, 2011 -  School and Family Visits.
School
We had intended on visiting the school and the farm in Nosomo Bay, but spent so much time at the school that we postponed the farm for another day.  The Nosomo Levu school is a Catholic boarding school.  Children from several islands come and stay at the school or are boarded with friends and family in nearby villages.  Peter and Semi attend this school, but come home every night to their grandmother Va's home.  Russ and I arrived with a bag of school supplies (pencils, notepads, binder paper, stickers, shampoos, hand soap, nose tissues) at the school shortly after lunch and were able to visit several classrooms.

We started off in class 3 (grade 2) where the head teacher met us and invited us in.  The children were copying addition problems off of the chalk board for their homework. They were working on  adding columns of three digit numbers, very similar to what second graders would be doing at home. As usual our inflatable globe with our marked sail route from San Francisco to our current destination was a big hit!  The kids love that globe, and can't believe how little their "world" is in comparison to the rest of the land masses.          

                                                                                                                                                                              In one class room, we tossed the globe from one child to the next and they each told us their names.  In another class, Semi and Peter's class, I taught the children a song, "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands."

In every class, the children were excited to show us what they were working on whether it was adding sums, telling time, writing in their journals, or making arts and crafts.            

                                      

As the school wrapped up for the day, the children in all classes were busy cleaning and sweeping.     

Hanging on the Outhouse Door!

Outside of the school there were several outhouses.  The children had branches that they were batting against the walls.  We couldn't quite figure out what that was intended to accomplish, but outhouse cleaning looked like quite a sport!                                                                                                            

The school is better off than the ones we saw in Tonga, but not by much.  Makes me feel very appreciative for all that I had to work with as a teacher.  I admire the teaching that goes on in these little South Pacific schools with so few supplies.  We had an opportunity to visit the boarding village side of the school to see the church, dormitories, dining hall and kitchen.                                            

School Kitchen - Large wood stove accommodates 3 big pots

Dining Hall

Girls' Dorm with Mosquito Netting

Lovely Setting for a School

 he children eat a lot of rice and dahl, split peas.  The head master said they would really like more fish to serve, but depend on local people to donate fish.  Sometimes it happens, but most often it does not. When school was out, we followed the school boat back to Nanuya.  It was much faster than we were.  Just as we reached the anchorage, the rain came down in buckets.  Fortunately, we had taken our ponchos with us.

We arrived at the Naivalu Family's Bure where we were invited in for tea.

Lemon tea with sugar and crackers

We brought some color crayons and paper for the children and eyeglasses for Va. She was delighted to be able to read her Bible again.

 Before we left for the day, we took photos of their family so we could use these as the cover for the new book and fliers we were making for them. If the sun would just come out it would be perfect!  Maybe tomorrow.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind