At the feast the other night there was talk of (you guessed it) the weather. The gribs (weather maps and other information ranging from simple to intensive that we can receive using our boat's SSB radio and Pactor modem) were showing a possible pause in the strong south-easterly winds for a day maybe two...and maybe...just maybe shifting enough to the east for a sailboat to make it down to Fulanga - this year's 'Heaven on Earth'. Of the eight boats in the harbor three had just returned from Fulanga (sailing north is the easy part) so they were heading northeast, back to Taveuni to restock their provisions. I looked at the gribs and pretty much had already decided that this was not the weather window that 'Buena Vista' would be interested in. For one thing, the wind had been blowing at 20-25 knots, sometimes 30 for nearly two weeks. Do you have any idea how bumpy it would be out there? My report showed 3 meters + (at nine seconds!) from the south east with a sometimes cross-swell from the south west. It is only for 24 hours but hey, by then we've broken every glass in the galley and tried to break every bone in our body. Not to mention if we have learned one thing out here it is this: Going out in crappy conditions is super expensive...you ALWAYS break something. And boat stuff is not cheap! Best to just wait, or not go at all. So, we've decided not to go but as the other three say their goodbyes I'm trying not to kick myself for being such a wuss! Long story short, none of the three made it, one turned around and came back. One never left. And the third sailed to Totoya instead, an island 60 miles to the west of Fulanga. They'll sit there and wait for a chance to sail east which is very unlikely. Anyway, we heard on the VHF that the village here had invited anyone who was interested to come up on Sunday morning. At ten o'oclock they will be having their church service. At eleven o'clock they will all be watching the rugby finals on their little flatscreen tv. And around noon they would like us to join them for Sunday lunch. Don and I puttered around in the boat, taking our time with breakfast etc so we would not get up the steps and to the village before eleven (missing church but just in time for rugby ;) We picked up Dinah and Ian from 'Margarita' on the way in. When the four of us finally got there, we stepped up into the meeting room, removed our shoes and looked inside. The television was silent...evidentally the tv recorder was broken so there would be no rugby today. There were only a few people there. One woman named Paulina from the sailboat 'Perla Alba' and of course...the Preacher. He was pretty obvious. Dressed in a dark blue suit over a white shirt with tie, and a dress sulu, the cloth wrap that men wear here for more formal occasions. Of course laid in front of him on the woven mat were two bibles. In a few minutes time more people came wandering in - once they saw that some guests had arrived. One of the fijian women directed a young man, maybe her son, to go around and rouse the others from the village. Over the course of thirty minutes or so, most of the villagers dragged themselves out of bed, got dressed in their Sunday best, some still rubbing their eyes as they made their way to 'church'. We guessed that maybe the kava session had not ended at the feast and had continued on for a few days...until all of the kava that the cruisers had brought in for the feast had been duly pounded and consumed. Can't leave good kava just laying around, now can we? Once the service got started it was really very nice. Our friend, Benny, stood up and in his very good english welcomed us all to his village and to his church. He lead us in prayer, also in english, and asked for God to look after us and keep us safe on our voyage. The preacher prayed. We all stood up and sang, well they sang and we tried to hum along. We sat back down and then the preacher did his sermon. We didn't understand the words but we understood the meaning. We got up again and sang; the pacific islanders are truly wonderful singers, that's for sure. We all sat back down. Lots of sitting on the floor, trying to cross your legs and stay comfortable, then once you found a good position it was time to stand up again for another song. At one point they all bowed their heads and in very hushed tones they said aloud The Lord's Prayer. It was also in fijian, but we all knew from the tone what they were saying. At the end it was an amen all around and the service was over. The preacher and several of the men excused themselves and went back to their little houses and changed into less formal clothing. During that time the women started bringing out pots full of food that had been cooked earlier in the day. They layed out a piece of colorful fabric in the middle of the woven mat on the floor and placed various dishes out in front of us. There was a lot of food there...I wished at that time that more than just five of us had attended. Anyway, we all were given an empty plate and we dug in. We did not have silverwear, they don't use it. Dinah had brought in some crackers and hummus so I used a cracker as a spoon for those things I couldn't grab with my fingers. Today I really enjoyed the yam which is one of their staple foods. I dipped it in a saucy dish and took smaller bites and that made all the difference. AND, happily, this time everyone ate together. The man across from me offered me various dishes to serve myself and then served himself. He also casually brushed his arm over the food to shoo away the few flies that were hanging around. There were attempts at simple conversation and smiles exchanged all around. At that point, someone went up and turned the tv on. I'm not sure if it was actually tv or a dvd but it was an old Steve Martin movie with Queen Latifah. So we all ate, talked a little bit, mostly about how good the food was, and watched and listened to Steve Martin do his stchick. And the food was indeed really good...Don and I agreed that it was for sure better than the 'feast' the other night. After eating, several of the young men left and presumably went back to bed. We said our goodbyes and gave thanks to the preacher for the lovely service, to the women for the wonderful food, and to 'Bui' their leader for having us.