tribewanted in Fiji

So we decided to break our journey to New Zealand with a few days in a South Pacific island and chose Fiji for no special reason. Fishing around online a week prior to departing California we came upon "tribewanted"

This internet community has been collecting over the past year and is centred around a kind of cultural exchange eco-tourist village on a remote island in Fiji. Started by two young English guys, the idea is to live sustainably, revitalize and integrate with the small Fijian village already there and leave without trace after three years if things don't work out.


Members who sign up pay a certain amount annually and get to stay, work or play and be fed for a week on the island. Without further ado we joined up and became visitors in the first opening weeks of the new settlement. A large "bure" (traditional Fijian thatch hall) had been constructed close to the beach and this was where we slept and were ritually welcomed by Tui Mali, the Fijian chief of that district. Later we visited the village school, shared songs, stories and games.

Other times were spent in the garden where vegetables and banana and papaya trees were nurtured and defended from feral goats.

As it happened our time on the island coincided with a BBC film making crew so if we don't end up on the cutting room floor we'll be on British TV next September! Corrina was interviewed sitting in the gently lapping waves while Yinka floated close by.

www.tribewanted.com

Post script: We left Fiji on November 24th headed to New Zealand, just as local newspapers aired stories of unrest and possible coup in Fiji. Breaking news now on New Zealand TV is that Fijian military presence in the captial, Suva. May not turn into anything as alarming as it seems as Fiji has a history of bloodless coups.

From a garden in Santa Cruz

Looking out at ripening golden Cherry tomatoes, gold-red leaves of a Persimmon tree falling away to reveal globular golden fruits, dazzling in clear gold sunlight. A pair of Hummingbirds fast friends in the garden, a visiting Mocking Bird. I sleep out on the deck and wake up each morning to this.

I've arrived in a house where Takashi, who lives deeper into the garden, is a wheelchair wizard mechanic who has designed and built an adjustable, tiltable basking wheelchair. He gets this out, dusts it off, tinkers a little and invites me to give it a try.

Ryan, Corrina Yinka and Corrina's grandson Freddie are strongly encouraged to don costumes and take to the streets of Santa Cruz on Halloween, where parades of ghouls check each other out in passing.