Great news, I had a fun filled Fijian life this weekend, which of course came with the a whole ton of Fiji time. Saturday, March 27 I woke at my normal go get them time of 7 am, but for a reason. I found out the night before that USP Rugby had a game at 9 am and the bus was leaving at 8. So, I downed my breakfast of champions, leftover curry and Fijian tea, which is nothing more than a lemon tree leaf from my yard powdered milk and sugar, yummy! As I approached the area which I figured would have been about the correct area to be meeting there seemed to be a lack of players around. I stopped and asked directions to where the bus would be meeting, and it turns out I was where I needed to be and it was 7:55. There were 3 of us all together at 8 going to a 15 man rugby match. The idea of needing me to play was brought up and I just acted like I didn’t understand them with the same half smirk and eyebrow raise I get from them after every sentence I say to a local. Turns out 10 people showed up by 8:45 and then we began to depart. Luckily we were able to pick up a number of guys on the way there on their way to the 8 am departure point. But no worries we were still a man short, but Fiji time will pull through in the end.
Before the game people began to arrive just randomly however they decided was proper, and we had 17 people at the beginning. I found pregame warm-ups quite interesting. Let’s just say it isn’t really on the level of organization that I’m accustomed to. The game begins and what do you know more and more players continue to appear out of nowhere just like that. Without a second thought the coach throws them into the game. “What just like that no punishment or at least a good yelling at?” I was baffled, but I suppose serves us right to lose for such a disregard for timeliness. After the grueling defeat we, being the big, burly, bruised, bloody, and beaten we are, busted out the vocals for a good hymn to calm the nerves and relax before the next game. “I know the Lord…” “Who makes a way.” Who knew such macho men could harmonize so well, but in their sweaty glory I too became very sweaty from being forced clung to with a chunky arm squeezing me much closer to that armpit than I needed to be.
And so began the never ending day of Fijian. Once we got back I was starving, but determined to be Fijian for the day I was going to wait for them. Well first came the pool, so we decided to play rugby in the shallow end, and even there somehow they find a way to ignore the little un athletic white kid who cannot play rugby to save his life. But in that time I dropped a number of hints towards food, but no one really seemed to consider food as being an option besides it had only been six hours or so between meals. The next bus was scheduled to leave at 1:30. 2:45 supposedly 15 minutes before the game we board and depart.
The next game was against the previous year’s champs the Army team. This was much more entertaining than earlier. Whenever one of the USP team just smoked the Army guys, no kidding, he would stand up and take a swing at our poor little collegiate athlete. Penalties awarded… not a chance. Later this was explained because people are afraid of the Army, because there is a military established government as of right now, but no big worries. Unfortunately we lost again, but it was very close and no one died. Again after the game there was a lot of man bonding moments even after such brutality on the field there was enough sportsmanship to hug it out.
After the game about 4:30 I feel hunger finally occurred to the others, YESSSSS, at a small convenience store we picked up the essentials: 2 loaves of bread, Chow spicy chicken noodles, eggs, rice, and butter. This all eaten at the same time would make a fantastic meal in about 2 hours for the pace back to Appeli’s flat, one of the rugby players place was much slower than adequate for me. I desired just under a sprint, but oh no. Mach -5 we broke the slow barrier. I could have fell on my face and rolled there faster, but I did not get sour for the feeling of hunger nearly left me and my body accepted the inevitable death by starvation. When we got there I sat cross legged on the floor, because that is the Fijian style of dining, at made a puddle of saliva under me as one of the other dinner guests breaded the butter, in other words he used a lot of butter. A stack of two full loaves of bread just sat in front of me, but I needed to wait because it wasn’t time yet. But with just a hint of patience I maintained composure, until dinner was served. Well I ate a loaf of bread, but I was satisfied.
I just sat there in silence as they slowly went along in a conversation in Fijian. There was a point where Mark said “Danny, say something.” And I responded “well if I spoke Fijian.” With that they realized and he concluded “Oh, maybe we should speak English.” After an entire day of this it was finally recognized why I am so silent most of the time. Unfortunately English conversation seems to be a little forced and it really never gets very far.
That night it was earth day and Fiji was having a little carnival deal downtown to count entertain and countdown the one hour of 1,000 cities across the globe shutting off unnecessary lights. Before hand I was so lucky to enjoy seeing the KFC mascot who is a giant chicken, I never knew he existed, local music talent, my favorite, and FREE Nescafe, whooooooo the caffeine blew me away because I haven’t touched much since I’ve been here. The best artist there was a duo, who didn’t sing together, called KC and Milkshake. KC, pure thug, his first song was about couch potatoes “T.V. is going to take over the world, and we’re all going to die.” Those words spoke deeply to me, and who can forget “in the summer you think your all hot… but your gross.” Fortunately there was Meke which always perks me up, but I was told by my entourage that apparently that style of dance wasn’t really traditionally meant for humor, so I don’t know how they felt about me enjoying it the way I did. I guess I knew I would run into this sometime. I always thought that there was going to be someone who didn’t like their culture being exploited for tourist’s entertainment.
The big moment arrived at 8:30 PM and we began the countdown from twenty. I imagined the illuminated city being shut down completely into its natural nightly beauty only having the moon and the lights powered by solar charged generators glowing dimly in the world as we come together attempting to create a better world. 20…2,1 dOooooooo the sound the Death Star makes before it blew up the planet Alderaan, and it was dark. When I opened my eyes I found I had made the noise and all the lights were still on…hhmm? Fortunately the person with the microphone told me because I couldn’t pick it up on my own they shut the lights off on the stage. I guess it’s a start, even though if we never had the gathering that light wouldn’t be on anyways, and they started a paper outline of a 60 on fire. Did you know that if you shut a 100 watt light bulb off for 10 hours a day you can save X kilowatts enough to power a four bedroom house for 5 months? Something like that.
Well we sat there and had some simple English conversation, but I learned some Fijian Poofta, Maca, tooloco, and much more. I won’t tell you what it means, but actually I only know one of them, but if I remember right one of them is right and it has a special meaning. Something I probably shouldn’t call Mr. burly likes to fight Fijian. The real reason we came downtown though was because at 10 the big US vs. Fiji Rugby game was on, and the good ol red white and blue was going to show her colors. Showed one. Red as in the blood spread all over the field as Fiji wiped the Field with our pride. Oh well probably better not to make anyone mad about something they really care about. The thing though during the game I was probably cheering the most. Everyone is so quiet during these games, which hurts me a little, but I try and conform as best I could. And so concluded my big Fijian adventure.
Sunday we went to another Anglican church which was probably the coolest church I’ve ever seen. It was eaten with vines and completely made with rocks. Tiny, and people were standing outside because it was so packed. It was children’s mass so they sang all the children’s sing along church song, which I proudly know everyone created, thanks mom! Most impressive the biggest man in the world goes there, fun thing is that he plays a mean guitar and has the lowest voice ever. The lowest key on a piano has nothing on him. Afterwards we had tea with the congregation and sang happy birthday to one of the kids, such a great community setting.
Tuesday morning. I went out in a fishing boat with Eli an Australearner and Daniel, an Aussie, to the closest swell capable of surfing, and watched as Eli got pummeled and Daniel killed. When it was my turn it was low tide and oh boy could you tell. When I fell off and clung to the board it threw me on the hardest sharpest coral ever. Luckily I wasn’t tossed on my back but sort of gently walked on it, and it still cut my foot. Owweee. What was really lame was when a wave would come and force me to hop up and down on the jagged surface tearing me up every time. Our driver has a pretty cool lifestyle, maybe if I did it once. Nearly at 3 he goes out and swims around with a spear gun and shoots fish. He does this all night until 8 am. Wow. Worst of all after shooting them he puts them on a stringer, but this is a little different than at home, because when fish bleed you get a friendly visitor, Mr. Shark. But no worries he just said they can sense fear, and he’s not afraid, so there’s nothing to worry about. I’m glad that is all the comfort he needs.
Later as I sat eating my fish cassava and brat I bought pre cooked at a little dive am man begins to talk to me and question about my life. After a short conversation he just shoots out “Do you know anyone who produces movies?” “Well no I’m really not from an area that that really happens.” Anyways he has a movie idea, about his life of course, and he guarantees me it is Grammy worthy for sure. Here goes the synopsis. Ahem… There’s a family with three kids. One daughter goes to Australia, one goes to the states, and the youngest attempts to try his luck in the professional boxing arena in New Zealand where he falls in love. “It can be shown in three parts, and it’s a beautiful story.” I suppose that is relative who says that, but he did try boxing and did fall in love. The problem was that both of them were married and it didn’t work out. He asked me what I thought and I wholeheartedly encouraged him. We concluded the conversation with him asking me if I knew anyone who could introduce him to someone who could direct his film “no.” “Then do you know how I would go about doing that.” Hmmm being the expert in producing movies I told him probably to go to LA, but that is only what I’ve seen on tv. He couldn’t express his gratitude and was really excited, but if you ever see that story somewhere just know I started that guy off. Someday the ex boxer turned self employed electrician will someday come to write the next greatest trilogy surpassing Star Wars, not a chance, and the Lord of the Rings, and Indiana Jones, because the 4th never happened. All of this thanks to the great adventurer Danny Dunn the hungry, making dreams come true one good citizen of Fiji at a time
And concludes another week of adventure, next week will probably be a bunch of boring cultural stuff because I’m going on a field trip with a graduate study’s class to the old capital to research early attempts at establishing government so look forward to a whole bunch of dry stuff.
By the way I would like to make a note that some people struggle spelling Fiji, and I would like to just in the most humble way possible point out the error that it is with a J. No names mentioned AAAMomChooo, sorry the room is getting quite dirty.
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