April 14, 2010
Now that it is daytime we are able to view the Shangri La Resort in all its glory. Quite a beautiful place for a family holiday. Our busy schedule will only allow us to scratch the surface of everything it has to offer.
After a scrumptious breakfast on the terrace overlooking the lagoon we sat for a talk from Simon, an indigenous Fiji and representative of GCT. He gave us interesting insights into the history and culture of Fiji. His talk was spiced with humor as he explain the cannibalistic past of the people.
We headed off for a full day of ‘learning ‘ and ‘discovery’. Our first stop was at the town market where the locals bring their farm products and other goods to sell. Most of the market was filled with greens we didn’t recognize. Most of the plants we had heard of but being that they are tropical not something we are used to purchasing. Each of us was given a Fiji dollar (worth about 56 cents US) to see what we could haggle from the vendors. Our purchases were gifts we brought to the home hosted lunch we had later. The market was quite interesting and we were well received by all the people. They were friendly and really didn‘t mind having their pictures taken and their produce handled. In addition to the produce there were many stalls of spices, which we don’t really believe are grown here but our guide said they were, and freshly caught fresh water mussels (we did spot a bag of garlic from China).
Our shopping finished with a stop at a supermarket which had a lot of product we recognized, like Oreos, and lot we didn’t. Our goal was to get some bottled water, water here is not recommended for drinking except for the hotel, and to get ‘small bills and change’ to shop at the craft market later.
We were invited guests at a local Fijian village. This is one of the things that CGT does very well and is most proud of. We were welcomed into the village of 600 people, 75 residences, with a special Kava ceremony of song, dance and prayer. After our ‘chief’ and his gifts were accepted we all were invited to sample Kava, the national drink, and what else….shop from their local craftswomen. The Kava ceremony includes a hollow clap, saying bula, drinking the kava from a coconut shell, followed by three more hollow claps. It looked like dirty dishwater, not much flavor (a little like celery) and had a numbing affect on our throats. Deedee still prefers a captain and diet.
We were then invited into 4 different homes to partake of a special lunch. This was a very special treat as the food was prepared by the women hosting the lunch, our guide Mira, her mother, grandmother and her Aunt Julie, whose home we were in. It was quite humorous to see us old and decrepit Americans attempting to sit on the floor cross legged and eat. Our food was very representative of the food they regularly eat…vegetables, fish and fruit. Most enjoyed the experience. This author who doesn’t much like fish was feeling a bit challenged but the fried eggplant (aubergine) was much to her liking. A visit to their local Methodist Church rounded out the village experience.
CGT Foundation supports schools around the globe in locations they visit. Our visit today was to a school that has been the recipient of GCT funds for the last 2 years. We were WARMLY (not just temperature) by the students and teachers at the 300+ pupil school with recitation, song and dance. The children were turned loose to take the visitors to their classrooms. They were VERY attentive as they hauled us from one classroom to another and wanted their picture taken. No camera shy teens here! But the children really were delightful. Frankly it was hard not to think that they had been prompted by their teachers but we do think their enthusiasm was real. They wanted email addressed of us …for some unknown reason but we promised to send the pictures to their school instead.
A long, HOT day and back to the hotel. D2 partook of the pool, LOC worked on pix and the blog, and the Gazdziaks were hold up in their room.
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