My Happy Spaces for Mothers Day
11 May 2020 | Fiji
Diane Brown | Sunny at last!
11 May 2020
My Happy Spaces
Sailing West and North along the main island with hints of blue sky to bless us. No motor all day just wind and swell and sunshine. A great space to be. Hope you are all staying safe and thinking of all our Mothers, soon to be Mothers and future Mom's of all genders that keep the earth a kinder gentler place.
We did get to play with some of the village kids on Beqa off the beach by our anchorage. They usually paddle over early afternoon about low tide on a beat up styrofoam board with short broken off kayak paddle or get towed over by the long boats. Three kids to a board and a bucket and knife to find mussels but mostly they just run and jump in the water. All the kids have been trained to take very good care of their battered boards and paddles and always first secure their equipment up high on the beach turned upside down and place whatever paddle on top before heading into the water to play..
It didn't take long for them to come over to Tabu Soro and hang onto the sides asking questions about the boat and requesting juice and chocolate. We always keep fruit juices like tang juices in empty soda bottles cool in the refrigerator so that one was easy. They guzzled the bottle all around in no time. No chocolate left on board (or I would have eaten it) so we gave them some store bought cookies and a small slinky toy. As the weather deteriorated an older girl from the village kayaked over and took back a couple children and their bucket. The others paddled back in the wind and rain shortly after her. The next afternoon they arrived and wanted to get on the boat and John just disappeared below behind the mosquito net. I let them get on a couple at a time and tried to keep up with all their questions. It was pretty tiring. A squall with lightening was coming so they paddled away saying see you tomorrow. We watched as the tide shot their foam board way north of the village and they tucked in safely along the mangroves making their way back against the tide and wind squalls. I told John it worried me a bit they had no supervision for 5-6 hours and he just laughed and said what did you do as kids?
Friday morning we hear a long boat arrive full of women and children all carrying 3 gallon sized plastic buckets mid morning. They all took off along the rocks the kids we had met waving back at us. They didn't return until the tide was come in again with buckets full of what they call "shells" but each shell had some type of mollusk inside. The tall, strong, young women we had met herding the children paddled over with an older woman and showed us their buckets. The village women decided they wanted a feast of seafood over hot rocks on Friday night knowing that the men would do a traditional Lolo on Sunday for Mother's Day. Meanwhile a storm with lightening looked imminent and all were still on the beach waiting with their full buckets. The young lady paddler started paddling 3 at a time back across the now choppy stretch to the village. She deposited the first group at the village dock and then returned with two large women. She got most of the way back when we heard yelling and laughing as they sent her back to the village with the two late ladies. Meanwhile one of the fishing ladies I had met the day before asked if we could help them get back to the village with our dinghy which was still on deck. John reluctantly agreed (last time he took Tongans to a rugby match the prop spun out) and began to launch the dinghy and put on the outboard. Fortunately we had the dinghy about on and heard a longboat headed into the resort pn the other side of the beach which then came over and picked up the 10-12 people still on the beach. This left it empty and quite for us to swim and shower once the squall passed. Just one of my special spaces!
We met a couple men that arrived early each morning and dropped off one or two men each day to work the "plantation" with farm crops. That Friday they finished work and came down to dive and play with the women and children on the beach prior to walking back through the jungle to another larger village East of us. They told us about their future project of sandalwood trees that are expensive to buy and take 10-14 years prior to harvest the sap for perfumes. They subsidize this project with the day to day vegetables for locals, resorts and main island markets. The laughter and loud giggles and teasing on the beach is a special memory.
We have to get back to Vuda as we no longer have a valid cruising permit so we moved to another village on the West side of Beqa staging ourselves to move back to the mainland which was approved by the Navy. We had been here on our way to Suva before getting locked down and knew the reefs and fish here are awesome. The water is cooler now that the rainy season arrived and lovely to see was new growth on what remains of the coral n front of the village. Another Happy Place!