Fiji Shark Studies
SS21 Update - Friday, July 27, 2012
Full Fiji Immersion
Waking up and rushing to clean up the whole house before quickly packing for what would be, in all our opinions, one of the best days of the entire trip. At 11 ’o’ clock we all hurried on board Predator, Beqa Adventure Diver’s dive boat, for a half hour trip to the nearby island of Beqa. When we arrived we were guided into the village by the senior shark diver Manasa, or Papa as he is known to us. We all congregated at Papa’s house for several minutes before heading off to our host family’s houses for a quick cup of tea and introductions.
Soon after meeting the incredibly generous Fijian families that would be having us over for two days we traded in our flip flops for something a little more supportive and began our trek into the forests of Beqa. After about twenty minutes of walking past towering palm trees, massive taro plants, incredible mangroves, and some of the prettiest, sandiest beaches we had ever seen, we stumbled upon a little break in the lush, green trees and saw something amazing. When all of us had made it through the opening in the trees we beheld a massive commune of schools, out of the towering palms and tropical vegetation was about half a dozen one or two-story buildings which seemed humbled by the untamed nature all around us.
When the shock of such modern, developed building in the middle of the forest began to fade, we saw the main attraction of our afternoon; rugby. We took our seats alongside an empty part the schoolyard that was marked with two thirty-foot, bamboo goal posts. Out of two of the corners emerged a seemingly endless stream of twelve year olds in brightly colored rugby uniforms.
After an hour of watching the energetic collisions of green, yellow, blue, and white and the middle schoolers running around we returned to our houses for some traditional Fijian dinners of fried Taro root, noodles, and many other delicious Fijian delicacies. We rounded out the day with a gleeful kava ceremony and some stories about the history and culture of Fiji.
Robert Hopenhajm
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