More Kava and a trip to town (7/19)

This morning was the official welcoming Kava ceremony. Jim told us to be there at 9 am. I guess we forgot about “Fiji time” since he was still taking his bath when we got to his house. We sat around and waited for half and hour. When he was finally done, we walked over to the meeting hall. A hot, dirty, single room building which the women (or cleaning staff) obviously did not frequent. We sat on the floor and swatted the flies and mosquitoes while the men talked in Fijian about us for a while. Then the Kava was prepared and all the official rituals taken care of. It lasted for several hours. It would have only lasted for @45 minutes if not for Fiji time. We had to sit there and swat insects while waiting for the rest of the village men to show up. They would straggle in one at a time during the proceedings, but no Kava was served until they were all there, of course.

After the official proceedings, we caught a van to Sigatoka and Sam joined us. We decided to get on the Internet before lunch and shopping. That’s where the nightmare began. I was online at a Net Café for 45 minutes and was only able to read two emails. I was kicked offline 4 or more times during the short interval. I had worked all night to make changes to an important paper that I’m writing so I could send it to Terry for his comments. Of course, THAT didn’t happen, which sucks since the paper is due to the editor on August 1. I also needed to check my bank account and reply to a few important business emails, AND I’ve been working on this journal to post. I was so frustrated the last time I was kicked offline that I jumped up and said, “Alright! That’s it. I’ve been kicked off again and I’ve only really had 15 minutes online this whole time.” I thought I was gonna have to throw down with the skinny Indian lady about the price, but she took $6 off, so I was placated. I found another little Net Café around the corner, but the encryption level was too low for me to access Georgia Tech’s webmail server. C’est la vie, right?

A new couple Daryl (Australian) and Dominiti (French) moved into the lodge today. They seem really cool. Daryl was a first year law student and Dominiti a biochemical engineer until they quit their jobs and started on a journey around the world for an undetermined length of time. Fiji is their first stop for 3+ months then they’re off to some other Pacific islands. They’re just figuring things out as they go along. I admire them. I’d like to do something like that. I told them that in two years I plan on trekking through South America. They said they might make it over to that side of the world by then, and we’ll hook up if they do. It would be really cool if that plan worked out.