Hello friends and family of Carpe Diem Hongi group. Sad to say it but it’s time to leave the hot weather of Fiji and on to our next adventure, Australia! Nananu village really became our home away from home. Even though it was a sad goodbye to our nau’s and mongu’s (mom and dad in Fijian) and all of our siblings or all of the little kids we became friends within the village, we definitely have lots of memories together.
During the first week our sixteen year old fijian friend, Kit, took us to a beautiful, blue, waterfall. It was a steep, tricky hike, but the outcome was very worth it! Some of us even took the chance to swim in the pool of water right where the waterfall hits. On our way back to the village, the hot sunny Fiji weather that we all were trying to get used to took a turn for the worst. A wall of rain soaked us all, making the hike even harder, the ground soon turned to mud and after an intense 30 minutes getting back into the village, we were all soaked and covered in mud.
That’s only the beginning of all the adventures we had with our new Fijian friends. During our second week in the village we were all surpised to find out that we were going to the beach for a day. Even though it was a pretty long bus ride because it was a public bus and made lots of stops, we soon found our way to the beach with some villagers. There was lots of laughter, swimming, tanning and rugby. We can all agree it was a great day. We were lucky enough that a woman named Taiwai provided us with a packed lunch on the beach so we really got to enjoy the day there. After spending most of the day there we met up with some of the nau’s for an ambered cooked fish snack.
I think we all enjoyed watching our friends and even some of our brothers play in a rugby game. This was on of our last days in the village. Cheering for them and seeing how talented they were at their sport was a really cool thing to see.
To wrap up the two weeks they had a kava/dance party for us. We drank kava in the traditional Fijian way where when they hand it to you, you clap once then the person providing it to you claps back three more times. It was a bonding expierence. We danced all night, ate great food, shared memories and enjoyed our time together one last time. None of us will ever forget our home for two weeks, the friendships we have made and the personal challenges we overcame as well. We will all deeply miss Nananu village and Fiji as a whole.
But with that, it’s time to enjoy my last few moments on this island.
Moda Fiji, BULA AUSTRALIA.