Bula sia,

The salu salu has been passed on, I am now your new chief blogging from the island and keeping you all informed of life here in paradise.

It’s been a quiet start to year 4, but we’ve been busy on and off the island.

The chickens have a new luxurious home, created from recycled materials. It is a wooden slated affair and looks very chic, the chickens seem pretty impressed. On several occasions since their move we’ve had 6 or 7 eggs from the 5 plucky chickens. Good old Fatty Lumpkin (a larger chicken that I suspect is giving us these extra treats).

We have also dug and prepared three new vegetable beds so we can transplant the overcrowded egg plants and revitalize the gardens. We have a healthy crop of tomatoes and chilies, not to mention the coconuts, pawpaw, passion fruit and mangoes which are just coming into season.

Being a small tribe we have visited the villages on Mali Island several times recently for various events.

We went to Liga Levu to open their new oven, which is the same design as the one on Vorovoro. Jim cut the ribbon and made a speech. We were treated to the ladies meke, a beautiful hymn and salu salus (garland of flowers). We managed to stay grog free on that day, but we went home with a good covering of talcum powder in our hair.

We attended to a soli (fundraiser) in Nakawaqa to raise money for a water pump. We presented our sevu sevu to the chief and then joined the soli in the village hall where there was a cava ceremony, donating of money and lots of tea and what looked like a cake factory in one corner judging by the piled high plates that kept on coming.

Two nights ago we were back in Liga Levu, this time for a soli to raise money for the vicars house and the school. For the soli each woman born on Mali and married into a Mali household donated money and the men prepared all of the food. We had cassava vaka-lolo for morning tea, which is a really tasty sweet treat. It consists of cassava pounded into flour then cooked in coconut milk with sugar to make soft squidgy sticky balls of goodness. The total raised on that day was $2350.

It’s hot. The water in front of me is crystal clear with hardly a ripple; I’m itching to jump in. The bili bili (bamboo raft), made for the 3rd year celebrations, is tethered out at sea and looks particularly inviting.

Vinaka Tribe,

Marama Jessica