After our fun visit with Paoliosi, we returned to the main anchorage so we could spend our last few days with our village friends and family. We returned Saturday evening to be guests of honor at a kava drinking session and dinner hosted by the teachers of the school �- thanking us for the laptops, projectors, and other equipment we had brought for the school. Despite the kava (can you tell I�'m not much of a fan of kava!), it was a really nice evening of conversation and just hanging out with everyone. They presented us with some beautiful gifts �- one of which is a lovely priest�'s bowl carved just for us �- which we took to be quite an honor. It was also our first night in the village with all the lights in the houses turned on! They�'d been having new solar panels installed in most of the houses over the past few weeks, and had just celebrated with a big �'lighting of the village�' party just a few nights earlier. So as we left the teachers house at the far end of the village aft er dark, it felt quite strange to walk through the village with all the little houses lit up with two or three light bulbs each. We were used to it being completely dark in the village at night, with the exception of a few lanterns here and there. The solar only provides enough power for a few light bulbs, or to charge up a laptop, or run a TV for a short time. Not enough to power any appliances though, such as rice cookers or refrigerators. The times they are a changing. It will be interesting to visit again some years down the road to see how life continues to change in this remote part of the world.

Sunday was Father�'s Day in Fiji, and it is a big part of their church service. There are many more speakers during the service �- all of them fathers, and the service lasts about twice as long. It is also a traditional part of their service to have one of the villagers stand up in front and welcome the minister, the congregation, and any new visitors. Along with that, they like any departing yachts to say a few words if they expect this to be their last Sunday in church. So Bob, Ann, John and myself, each took our turn in front of the church to say a few words to everyone �- about how special they all were to us, and how much we were going to miss them. We each had a tough time getting through it, and we could see lots of tears in the crowd �- it was just the beginning of the difficult goodbye we were going to have to get through in these next two days. After we left in June, Charisma happened to arrive in Fulaga at just the time that Tau and Joe were in line to host the next ya cht. So we both have the same village family �- because upon our return here a few weeks ago we are rejoined with our original family Tau and Joe. So after church we all went back to Tau and Joe�'s for Sunday dinner. Joe and Tau had already put out a big spread of food, then during dinner, more and more food kept arriving at the door from the other villagers. Smoked fish, octopus cooked up specially by Mata, tender pork, more vegetables, and on and on the food kept coming. It seems they feel they can�'t share enough with us.

We went back to our boats later that afternoon and started planning for our Etutou (I know this is spelled wrong, but it is how it sounds to me). Etotou is a ceremony upon where we thank the chief and our village family for looking after us, and now we request to be released from their care. We already knew a big celebration was being planned for the four of us, so we thought we better come prepared. Bob and Ann had been working diligently on a slide show presentation of pictures of everyone in each of the three villages with beautiful music playing in the background. They were still working on it up until the last minute and it turned out great. The other thing we had been working on was a song for them. Using the first to verses of the Zac Brown Band�'s song called �"Island Time�", we added a third verse to it that talked about our time in Fulaga. We had been practicing it all week! And now we were getting down to the wire! John also had two more sewing machines to fix, I had a bunch of pictures that needed to be printed out, Ann and I had promised Jasmine we would help her sew a dress on Monday, etc. Our timeline was getting tight. We aren�'t used to these kind of timeline pressures anymore!

When Ann and I went into the village late Monday morning, we could tell there was a different feel to everything. People didn�'t seem to want to look us in the eye, and everyone was busy with something. Besides getting ready for the party that night, they were just having a hard time being around us without getting emotional. We were having the same problem, and thankfully we had Jasmine�'s dress to keep us busy. The guys came into the village later in the day to set up for the slide show, and we finished Jasmine�'s dress just in time for her to where it that evening. Ann can sew like nobody�'s business! Around 4 o�'clock we gathered at Joe and Tau�'s house and said our private goodbye�'s to them. Grandma (Tau�'s mother) was also there, in her bed in the corner of the room. And she wanted to say her goodbye to us as well. It was very touching to hear what she had to say �- and to listen to Tau translate it for us. When she was a child growing up in Fulaga �- they were afraid of pulangi s (us white folk), but now she is no longer afraid truly enjoys having us around. She was very sweet. We decided all together that it was not goodbye, but �"until we meet again�", as goodbye are too final. After a few tears and lots of hugs, we all walked over to chief Daniel�'s house together to do our Etutou with him and make one last departing offer of kava. As we were sitting in a circle with the chief, the four of us were presented with a huge pile of gifts from the village. Carvings that the men had done for us, and weavings from all the ladies �- baskets and fans, and mats and purses. And again, it just kept coming in through the door and the pile of gifts grew as we sat with the chief saying the last of our goodbyes. Unbelievable.

After our Etutou with the chief, we all moved next door (including the chief) to the community building where everyone was waiting for us. The place was packed, with even more people standing outside peaking in the windows and doors trying to see in. We all sat on the floor and Bob started the slideshow. It was so quiet as everyone watched, with a few giggles and outbursts of laughter at some of the funnier pictures. The show lasted about 15 minutes, and they enjoyed it so much they had to watch it again. Then we followed the slideshow with our Fulaga Island Song �- Bob and I on the ukes, John on his bongo drum, Ann holding the music, and all of us singing together. They loved it! The night continued with more music, dancing, lots of kava, terrific food (my favorite curry roti!), and crazy animal noises. They have this fun song that they sing �- not sure what the verses say, but just before a short break in the music they point to a yachty and shout out what animal they have to imitate at the break. They pointed to John and shouted CAT! So when the music stopped, John gave them his best Meeeooooowwww. Having to do it a couple more times when the music stopped. Next up, they pointed at Bob and shouted GOAT! When the music stopped, Bob, experiencing a temporary loss of goat sounds, shouted back GOAT! GOAT! He was so serious too! Everyone was rolling over laughing. He recovered nicely on goat sounds 2 and 3. Next up was Ann. They pointed her way and shouted KANGAROO!! What the heck does a kangaroo sound like?? So when the music stopped, up she stood and started bouncing up and down like a kangaroo. Mind you �- she had to do this three times in a row. Ann makes an awesome kangaroo. The village was roaring with laughter. Then came my turn �- they pointed and shouted HORSE! Horse??? I gave them my best NEIGHHHHHH I could muster, but it sounded like a terribly sick horse. And they roared again with laughter. I couldn�'t wait for the song to be over! And on went the night with more music, conga dancing and just a lot of silliness. We could feel things starting to wind down around 7:30 �- everyone anticipating the final goodbye. So John turned to Bob and said �"Did you talk to your wife about the bewitching hour?�" He said no, but they both decided then that it was probably time to get the dreaded goodbye over with and make our way back to the boats. So Bob asked for a final goodbye song. And man did they deliver. They sang their hearts out to us as we all sat on the floor together, with Tau sitting amongst us and translating each phrase as it was sung. I don�'t know how she got through it. It was beautiful. Before the song was over, most of the room was in tears, and when they were finished, they all held up their hands and waved us goodbye. I couldn�'t hold my emotions in. As I looked across at some of the village men sitting just across from me, they were sobbing into their shirts. These are huge men, and I so didn�'t expect such a reaction. It was heart-wrenching. Even Chief Daniel was crying. So the four of us made our way around the room, giving each person a big hug, and saying goodbye. Then they gathered up and walked us out through the village, the kids coming up to Ann and I asking for one last hug �- over and over. The older people were waving from their doorways and yelling �"sotitale�" (see you later). When we got to the edge of the village, they kept walking with us another 10 minutes. Then the sandy trail turned into a more rugged dirt path and it was time to really say goodbye. After another round of hugs and tears we finally parted ways. But as we parted, both us and the villagers started singing our �"theme�" song that we have sung each time we�'ve gotten together for a village celebration �- The Lion Sleeps Tonight. It was a pretty quiet walk back to the boat after that �- it was a lot to take in. We all came back to Orcinius for one last night cap and talked about the evening. Then it was ti me to call it a night.

Tau, Joe, and Jasmine had been missing when we started giving our hugs goodbye to everyone. They let John know that they would see us tomorrow at the anchorage to bring us our stack of gifts the village has given us, and to say our last goodbyes in private.

We met them at the beach the next morning. Ann of course, had to get the last words of her speech in that she was having a hard time expressing the day before. And it was perfect �- and kept us all laughing. So we said our goodbyes to Tau, Joe and Jasmine and we were all good knowing we would see each other again some day. We weighed anchor as they watched from shore. Waved one more time. Then made our way over to the other side of the lagoon where there is a pristine beach, and where we would now prepare our boats and wait for our weather window to Namuka. And that, I must say, is about as painful of a goodbye as I ever want to experience again.

Lisa