Off to Church!

After breakfast we get showered and appropriately dressed (ladies should have their shoulders and knees covered). Rich was given a sulu to wear (mens skirt) and very fetching he looked too!

We head out on a boat to a neighboring island - Motoriki - stopping at Caqeli en route to get fuel. This journey takes about an hour. When we arrive we have to walk through the shallow waters and mangrove, then through the 'junlge' to reach the village. Once there, we're seated in church. It's fathers day and so there was a special service. It was all in Fijian but about halfway through we had to stand up and introduce ourselves. They welcomed us into the church and thanked us for coming. Whilst it was in Fijian it looked like the stories being told were really interesting and the songs were beatifully sung by the men.

Afterwards, we were invited to join the fathers day feast. Set in one of the huts all the villagers bought a dish and it was a real community thing. All the men ate first (cos it was fathers day) and we sat with them to eat. The feast was laid out on the floor and we sat cross legged to dine. It was proper Fijian dishes. Octopus (Rich tried but I didn't), spinach and fish, noodles and meat, cassava, loads of whole fish, noodles and corned beef.....and a load more!! I did find it difficult to eat (being so funny about meat and stuff) and tried to eat mainly veg, but Rich got tucked right in!! He had a bit of a moment with the fish bones as they kept getting stuck in his throat which made him gag, that was a bit embarrasing for the poor lad!!

After lunch we were shown by another villager to a different part of the island, where recently a womans remains were discovered. Her bones were sent to New Zealand for analysis and it turns out they were from 3000BC, the oldest Fijian to be found. She was returned to the island to be laid to rest properly.

Later that night, another Cava session was in full flow, Rich and Randy made a very important discovery. Don't drink Cava with beer!!! They did and were in a right mess, not just drunk but a pair of dribbling idiots!!!