July 22
We set our alarm this morning in Fiji. We were scheduled to meet Ali at 9:00 AM for our sightseeing excursion. It was hard to get up to speed after our lazy morning yesterday. We had pancakes for breakfast, with coconut cream and maple syrup. We postponed our departure to 9:30 AM and finished getting ready. Ali collected us on schedule and we were off to see Fiji. Razelle and Ali met for the first time and hit it off right away. We learned that Ali is a Muslim. He told us that 25% of Fijians are Muslim, 25% are Hindus and 50% are Christians. Among the various Christian groups there are some Seventh Day Adventists. Loata thought we might want to spend our Shabbat with them since they have the same Sabbath.
Ali kept up with me as I asked question after question. He said it made him happy to see I was taking such an interested in all the aspects of his country that I asked about. He was learning from me too because of the questions I asked. Ali has two children, a young daughter and an infant son. His marriage was a love match rather than a pre-arranged marriage. I taught Ali how to make a fish face to entertain his children (this involves sucking in the cheeks, puckering the lips and flapping hands gill-like beside the ears).
Ali, like everyone else we’ve met so far here, has never left Fiji his entire life. They all say they'd like to travel some day, to Australia or New Zealand, but that day has not come for them so far. They all knew of Israel because many Fijians have served with international forces in Sinai or Lebanon. Ali said it is only the ethnic Fijians who serve in these armed units because they are the ones who have the physical stamina.
Ali recognized most of the plants I pointed out and he identified cassava, taro, tamarind, breadfruit, papaya and mango plants for me as we drove along. From my description of the weasel-like creature I'd seen yesterday he told me it must have been a mongoose. "They are a problem for poultry farmers," Ali said. Speaking of poultry, we saw a sign along the road advertising Halal chickens. Razelle was pleased to see this. Ali and Razelle compared notes on Muslim and Jewish dietary laws. Ali was a good listener as well as a good conversationalist.
We came to a Hindu shrine and we posed next to it while he took our picture. We passed through Nadi town and several villages and saw how Fijians live. Several horses grazed by the road side and Ali explained that these were an important form of transportation for villagers in the interior. They are also important farm animals. We crossed railroad tracks many times, but these have fallen into disuse because they were for hauling sugarcane and the sugar industry is in decline because of the market value of this crop. Tourism is now Fiji's biggest industry (and Ali is an integral part of it).
We reached the Kula Eco Park after an hour of driving and had only covered one third of the distance to the capital city of Suva on the other side of the island. We passed very uneven terrain until we reached this area, where enough flat ground was available for vegetable crops. Rice is grown elsewhere in Fiji, so I saw no rice paddies. This part of Fiji had billboards advertising real estate for sale. We kidded Razelle about investing in land here, because she is so aware of real estate values in Beer Sheva from reading the local papers when we are there (half a world away).
The Eco Park impressed me very much. Ali confessed that this was the first time he'd been asked to bring anyone here so it was new and educational for him too. There were many explanatory signs all over the place. Many endangered endemic Fijian animals are being bred here, including rare frogs, iguanas and birds. I learned here that mongooses are a major ecological problem in Fiji. They were originally imported to control some other introduced pest, and they did it so well that that pest disappeared (I don't remember the details). So when that pest disappeared the mongooses started eating the Fijian creatures they were able to find.
The amount of information available to us as we walked the paths and traversed the bird cages (that gave this place its original name of "Kula Bird Park") was more than I could absorb in one visit. Another Zen moment for me in Fiji. I finished well after Ali and Razelle had, but it pleased Ali that I had enjoyed my visit here and gotten out of it what I'd come for.
Among the endangered species bred here are two types of iguana and a type of endemic boa constrictor. These are available for hands-on interaction. Razelle has a phobia for these creatures, so she says (perhaps it's actually a strong aversion instead of a phobia?). Yet, she was brave enough to volunteer to hold these in her hands and pose with them for a photo opportunity.
I told her that everyone who knows her will believe those photos were retouched to include the snakes and lizards in them. Let me assure you all, Razelle really did hold that constrictor and really held and wore those iguanas. Ali and I are witnesses.
We returned to Nadi, found a bank to draw Fiji dollars from to cover our next day's anticipated expenses and to pay Ali. Razelle went into a store called Jack's that sold items created by Fijian crafts people. Razelle found a lot of items there to buy. We were waited on by a wonderfully congenial server who Razelle bonded with easily. This Fijian beauty posed for my camera among carved wooden figures. She will always be one of the best ambassadors of Fiji in our minds.
A short distance away we came to a produce market where I had the opportunity to look for certain types of fruit I'd heard about from Susan, Razelle's mother's Filipina caregiver, but have never seen. When I first walked in I immediately drew attention to myself as the only tourist in there. A woman asked what I was looking for. I said I was looking for jackfruit and breadfruit. She had two breadfruits. I know nothing about selecting good ones so I thanked her for showing them to me but declined to buy them. Someone else pointed out some merchants who had shredded jackfruit pieces in a bowl for sale, plus one whole fruit. I looked at the whole fruit and then accepted a small sample from the shredded pieces in the bowl. These were dry and tasteless. They came from unripe fruit. I was then given a piece of curried breadfruit shreds, prepared by these young Indian ladies. Their concoction was too peppery hot for my taste and my reaction to it was very entertaining to them. Deeper into the market I saw cassava roots and dalo (taro) roots. An older woman let me taste a chip of raw cassava. "It needs to be cooked," she told me as I took the chewed chip out of my mouth. I told the venders, who were all watching me, that I was staying at a hotel so I had no way to cook these. I just wanted to see what they looked like because I'd never seen them before. They smiled understandingly. I felt welcome and comfortable among them.
Ali took us the remaining distance back to our hotel and we paid him. We walked through the lobby and were greeted by Loata. She was pleased to see us. I showed her our packages and said that we'd done a good job of spending money in Fiji. She has an infectious laugh. Later that evening we had another dinner at our hotel. I had fresh fruit and Razelle had the beer-battered fish again. She can't get enough of that fish. They call it wahu here. Ali said it is a large fish. I'll have to look it up when I can spend time on the Internet. I will use up the half hour connectivity time I purchased tomorrow to do what I can in that time span. Loata visited with us some more. She is on Facebook! We exchanged email addresses and will stay in touch. I took a photo of the entire serving staff and will send it to Loata via her email. We have friends in Fiji.
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