CHURCH - FIJI ISLANDS--- This image was taken in a small village on one of the islands in Fiji, the church is of Methodist faith. That is the predominant religion there as they were the first missionaries to go to the islands and influenced the Fijians to give up cannibalism. I had just competed a Kava ceremony with the chief of the village and as I exited his bure (hut) I was greeted with this image. For those who do not know, kava is a root. The Fijians grind it to powder wrap some of the powder in a cloth and soak it in a ceremonial kava bowl carved from hardwood that grows on the islands. I forget the name of the wood but is dark like mahogany, very dense and heavy. Some of it also grows with blonde streaks in it so some carvings have the two colors. The kava bowls are generally carved from the dark wood only many having very intricate shell inlay. The Fijians do not do much of their own carving anymore and much of the stuff you can buy in the local markets is wood sent to the Solomon Islands for carving and then sent back to Fiji. The carvings done in the Solomon s are incredible. Most of the Fijian carved bowls are collectors items and are very expensive but far better quality than most of the stuff sold in the markets and Indian trade shops. The Fijians were at one time very fierce warriors and cannibals. They carved their war clubs from the same hardwoods. I have several of them. They would also carve small cannibal forks they would use the eat victims brain. It is customary as a visitor to a village to sit down with the chief in a kava ceremony. The kava is white and watery and is like drinking milk with sand in it. You sit in a circle on the floor cross-legged with the men only of the village. They dip a half coconut shell in the kava bowl and then pass it around the circle. You are supposed to take a sip and pass it to the next person. After doing so you are supposed to clap your hands three times and say something in Fijian. I forget what they say. Kava is not alcoholic or fermented but if you drink enough of the stuff you get a buzz like that from beer. Sometimes if I was doing a number of island tours in a day I would have to sit down and do these things five or six times in a day and would get pretty buzzed. I don t like the stuff much, but it is an insult to the chief to refuse his offer, especially if you wanted his blessing to dive on his reefs. It is always customary to make some monetary contribution to the village. It never amounted to much but made them very happy. Fiji is a wonderful place to travel and the Fijians are all very friendly, always greeting passing strangers with the traditional Fijian greeting of Bula. The diving is world class. The traditional dress for men and women is called a Sulu. It is a large square batik cloth wrapped around the waist and knotted in a special way in the front much like a skirt. Fiji was a British Colony till around 1959, so there are many Indians there as they followed the British to all their colonies as servants and trades people. The Fijians don t care for work or commerce much especially the men, they all just want to be chiefs. So the Indians pretty much put wheels on the country and make it run, being the business people, tradesman and farmers. Fiji gets a bad rap in the press about every ten years when they have a coup. This mostly consists of one guy with a handgun no bullets walking in and taking over the parliament. Firearms and the like are banned in the country and only the military has guns for the most part. I was there during one coup twenty years ago and there was no danger to tourists. As was the case in the last one some seven years ago. That one was isolated to the major city of Suva on Vana Levu the southern of the two largest islands in Fiji. The coups usually boil down to the fact the Fijians decide about every ten years that the Indians are getting to much control and say in the government so they hold a coup and install one of the prominent chieftains as head of the government. The whole thing is forgotten in a matter of months and everything goes back to normal with the Indians running things because the Fijians hate to work. geoff