By Alex
We anchored in front of the village Susui, and went into the village to do Sevusevu on Saturday. Sevusevu is a traditional ceremony of giving a gift to the village chief to show respect and request for permission to explore their village and surroundings. You must do sevusevu in every village you go to in Fiji. You give the village chief a small bag of Kava made from roots of a plant, a type of drug which makes you relaxed and your fingers and tongue numb according to Babi. They mix it with water and drink it. Because they don’t have alcohol, Kava is what they drink, though it is bad for you.
We went to the village with our parents’ friends from two other boats Freydis and Aventure. The village representative Jacob received us and escorted us to the Chief’s house, which was right by the beach. There are 83 people living in the village including 26 children.
We all wore sarongs to cover our knees and sat down on the floor mat. My parents gave the chief their portion of Kava. Jacob and the chief closed their eyes, so we all followed. They clapped and said prayers in Fijian and finally told us that permission was granted and we are welcomed in their village. Later on I started drawing the chief, many children surrounded me and watched me draw patiently.
In the afternoon, all of us followed Jacob and his children and their friends to go to the beach to have barbeque. We met this girl named Mei Mei who has the same name as Azania. What an unusual coincidence! We played games and dug each other up in the sand, it was very fun to have new friends to play with. A few of the adults and children went to the rocks to collect oysters for us. They came back with two huge sacks. They made a fire and barbeque the oysters and cassava. It was delicious!!! First time we had oysters in a long long time.
After the barbeque all the kids and adults came aboard our boat and jumped on the trampoline. Mama made chai tea, and everyone had a great time.
The next day we went to the school and dropped off gifts like a REALLY BIG set of art supplies because we have two, my Harry Potter books and other old books, etc. Then we went to the church for Sunday service. I felt fidgety. I did not like sitting still and I didn’t understand a single word the priest was saying. The children on the rows in front of me kept on looking at Arabella, Azania, Mama, and me. I felt uncomfortable and asked Mama if I could go. Mama said that we need to show respect since the chief was behind us and must stay still. Then the priest said something that scared me the most. He asked if one of the cruisers would come up and speak. I was worried that mama would ask me to go up, but in the end Babi’s friend went instead. From time to time, all the people in the church would stand up and start singing in Fijian.
When we left I felt relieved and embarrassed. We were giving out some candies to the kids and walked to the other side of the island where there is a long sandy beach. We learnt how to juggle and I had a lot of fun with the local kids. We built sand castles and had balls as cannonballs to break down each castle, and then laughed and built more. I was happy and very grateful that they included me. We found these balloon things that had water mixed with seaweed inside the water. We each chose a balloon thing and threw balls at it and whoever balloon stayed alive, WON!
On Monday it was time to go. We brought printed drone photos of the village and the book I wrote. We hopped in the dinghy and left to go to the school once again. We arrived when the children were singing a song. Once they ended Mama told me that I was going to speak about my book in front of them!
When I entered, I noticed some boys snickering and felt uncomfortable. Babi urged me to talk, but I couldn’t! I told him to speak instead, but Babi then told me to READ THE FIRST PAGE of my book!!! I panicked and wanted to run away.
‘Uh…Umm…’ I stuttered and many kids were holding their mouths while others giggled. I could not do it. So Babi said that we enjoyed our visit to the village, and he hoped that they liked the book and we left. Babi asked me why I was so shy when I was never shy. I was too flustered to say anything until we got back.
Coming to Susui, I learnt that you didn’t need to have everything to be happy. The people living in Susui had a very simplistic life and did not have everything, but they had everything they needed. I thought that the people were happy, kind and polite, though I wasn’t very grateful for the stares coming from the children.