We packed our tiny bags, loaded up for the airport, and headed to Fiji. Dad, Doug, Boston, Haley, and London, we were off to the island of Viti Levu and the airport in Nadi. After our long, long flight smooshed into tiny seats, we landed, loaded up in our vehicle and drove to Suva.
While we were in Suva we came in contact with a local coffee roaster and being as Boston is a roaster we decided to check out his facilities. We met John at his coffee shop, Cuppa Bula, in the heart of Sigatoka where we sat and enjoyed the coffee and the company for a while. We learned he is a native New Zealander and came over to Fiji because he was given a farm and was working with a local church. After learning this, our first request was to go visit the farm so we finished our drinks, packed into our 4WD’s and headed into the mountains of Fiji.
We drove for about an hour when we came around a corner to a little dirt off shoot and turned down the mountain. We headed down for a few minutes until we came upon a little creek and a dead end in the road. We hopped out of our cars and our friends began to cross the creek. While they are native to and familiar with the area, we were not and definitely were not prepared. However, this was an experience we did not want to miss so we took our shoes off (well some of us, Haley somehow convinced me to give her a piggyback through the creek) and began to cross the water. The creek was surrounded by high walls of trees and bushes but as we began to cross we realized there was a small opening in the brush and our friends began to climb up into it. So of course, we followed. As our heads peeped through the brush, we saw with great astonishment a small little path cut into an endless forest of coffee plants.
Now if you know my brother, you know he had just entered heaven. We began to walk through the archway carved into the trees and walked along the muddy path surrounded by coffee. Everywhere we looked there were dark green bushes with bright red cherries. Having never been to a coffee farm like this one John began to explain to us how the coffee plants grow wild in this region and they had lucked into finding this. Now they cultivate it and help it to stay healthy, but this was a wild micro lot found in the jungles of Fiji.
The sun was beginning to set and we had a ways back to the cars and then a long drive out of the mountains so we reluctantly left this very special area. Back across the creek (Haley by piggyback of course) and London knee deep in water, into our cars and down the mountain back to Suva.
While we had a great time exploring and learning about the Fijian culture, our true intent for being in Fiji was for a leadership training session with The Rock Church of Fiji. We were in sessions for over 13 hours each day (needless to say we were tired and felt like we had learned all there was to learn by the end). On Sunday we went with our friends into the mountains to the village of Naivuthini. Naivuthini is a small village with about a hundred people. We drove to the middle of nowhere to happen upon this small village where right in the middle stood a large building on stilts, the church of Naivuthini. We made our way up the stairs and as we reached the top, we were greeted with a large pile of shoes. We quickly learned that it is customary to take your shoes of when indoors, it is actually quite offensive to wear your shoes indoors. So as foreign to our American minds as it was, we began to take off our shoes. I am not sure that I have ever been to church with bare feet, nor have I ever seen someone preach in sock feet. It was without doubt a new experience. As I said above, the building was on stilts so as it began to fill with people from all the neighboring villages and the 300+ people began to worship God, the frail building began to shake, while it was definitely a little scary, there was no doubt that God visited us there in that small village.
After service was over, we made our way down the stairs to a feast of roasted pig, boiled taro, and Kokoda(a milky fijian ceviche). Fijian culture is very patriarchal and holds the chiefs and leaders at a “kingly” status. As we were there to teach and considered leaders, they treated us with great respect. It was truly an honor to be seated at a table with the chiefs.
In the Fijian culture, it is normal to eat on the ground and for the chiefs or leaders to be seated at a table. Until this point, we had spent most of our time in the city (which is more progressive) and this was our first time to eat in a village. As we made our way to our table, Doug started cleaning his glasses and therefore his sight was a little blurry whilst walking. As he walked towards the table he saw that they had set out a purple carpet for us to walk along towards our table, “how regal” he thought, until he finished cleaning his glasses. He then quickly realized that this was definitely not a walkway but it was actually the table. He had been stepping over their silverware as he walked along their “table.” Luckily no one realized or was offended. Needless to say we laughed our heads off at him and have continued to make endless fun of him for this.
One of our friends in Fiji is both a Pastor and a Farmer so he took us a couple hours into the mountains to show us his land. We crossed creeks, climbed mountains, and made our way deep into the middle of nowhere. At last, we happened upon a clearing where we were introduced to the land. Dad had been discussing the potential of starting a farm to help some of the villagers and so we began to scope the land and develop a plan. A 2 acre Taro farm was quickly mapped out and now (a little while later) is fully developed and thriving.
Boston, being the coffee connoisseur he is, noticed across the creek there was a coffee plant peeking out from behind a large Coconut tree. So we made our way across the water and towards the coffee plant. Well, blonde that I am, in my sandals, somehow found the path that the cows take and wound up knee deep in mud and cow manure missing a shoe. We dug around and finally found my shoe and I quickly went to wash off in the creek as everyone else began to explore the wild coffee plants. How fortunate we were to not only find a place to grow Taro but also coffee!! We are still in the works for getting that coffee in with some of the Taro shipments!!
While we were at the conference in Suva, we stayed at a miserable AirBnB in Pacific Harbour which made us pay extra for air conditioning, housed many cockroaches and ran out of hot water every day. We left the Suva area and made our way to the Sheraton at Denarau Island (near the airport in Nadi) for our last night on the island. Even though our experience was bad, AirBnB did their best to help us in spite of a bad host.
The drive from Suva to Denarau should have been about 3 hours on a semi nice road however, our precious dad decided that we should take the other way around the island as we had come in the easy way. This way was supposed to be around 45 minutes extra but so beautiful it would be well worth the extra time. So off we went. What should have been a nice easy 3 hour drive soon turned into a 5 hour windy drive in the dark of night with no food or snacks and truly no idea where we were going. Needless to say, Dad received lots of heckling after this ‘adventure.’
After a long adventurous week, our time at the Sheraton Denarau Villas was very refreshing. We got in late at night (thanks to Dad’s adventuring) slept in and then rented a small sailboat. Now, this is a two person sailboat and there were 5 of us, also, Doug is familiar with sailing large boats and the other 4 of us are very unfamiliar with boats in general. Needless to say, we laughed a lot as we attempted to make this tiny boat cooperate. (We may or may not have capsized a couple times) We had a few more hours before we had to head to the airport so we decided to utilize their lovely spa facilities, surrounding a large pond filled with water lilies each guest gets their own private room overlooking the serene view. Massages, steam rooms, flower baths, outdoor showers, it was a luxurious experience.
We made our way to the airport and on to the plane for the ever so long flight home!!