Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Not only had I already been lucky enough to meet Ben Keene during my visit here on Vorovoro, but his returning full of ideas and drive had prompted a lot of activity and energy amongst his TW team and the Fijians that work here and Tuesday the 10th July became a rather special day in the history of Vorovoro and the Tribewanted.com project.

After the customary breakfast, where everybody starts the day with a smile and an entertaining recap on the previous nights activities, a group of us donned our shoes (yes, enclosed shoes), applied some sunblock and boarded the boat for a landmark trip out to the mainland to go and help Leavi (one of the valuable and long standing members of Team Fiji) on his own farm. This had never happened before, and may not again, so it was great to be a part of it.

Leavi is a crucial part of the team and an infectious character to have around, always happy and smiling and he always has something to say to everybody, a great guy. So it was nice to go and see his home and his farm and lend a hand. We landed at the port in Malau on the mainland after about a twenty minute boat trip and went to the local store where a few food items were picked up for lunch. We then got on the Malau bus for a five minute ride up to Leavis village. I was quite surprised to see Tui Mali sat on the front row of the bus! Leavi’s home is built on the site of the old mainlands’ hospital, so he has a few nice features from that legacy like concrete water containers and nice foundations for his own buildings. He owns a huge amount of land here from his family ties, which is basically shared by everyone in the community to farm on, and then they all share the yield too. Fiji has such an incredible community spirit, they all pull together to survive.

We were going to help plant some yam today and after our welcome and meeting his family we went up to the fields which had been recently cleared of trees to dig holes. We split into digging and soil preparing/planting teams and got stuck in. It was quite nice to do some manual labour! We worked alongside the guys that work his farm on a daily basis, so it was good to meet those guys and learn a bit more from them. The yam is normally cut into small pieces and then planted, which produces a decent sized yam in a few months, but I got to plant a full grown yam this afternoon after digging a BIG hole for it, which in 6-7 months will produce a whopper (not a burger!). We sat and had a sevusevu and a huge lunch after a couple of hours of work, using some of his last yield of yam as the basis of the meal. The offering of sevusevu to Leavi from Ben reduced him to tears as he was so touched to have people from so far across the world here on his farm in Fiji helping him dig! It was a great moment and we all shared some afternoon grog. After catching the bus back to the port Adam and Philipa bought us some ice lollies from the little shop which was a nice treat and we climbed back aboard to speed back to Vorovoro…

Meanwhile back in the village, the rest of the tribe had been preparing the bure and lots of food as Vorovoro was set to hold a big dinner with everyone together, and then later in the evening the Mali choir was coming over to perform for us as part of Vorovoro’s first ever music gig, which was going to be recorded for an album! By the time we got back from the farm, most things were ready and we got cleaned up and dressed up ready for a huge night. All the girls were in their bright chumbas and the guys in sulus and bula shirts and the bure was lined with two long eating mats, laid out with plates and dishes and lots of fairy lights were in place ready for the gig later.

The meal was beautiful, and plentiful! Lots of fresh fish and soups with veg and the obligatory yams and rice. It was nice sitting down to eat with so many TW tribe members and the Fijian gang too, although a few of the kitchen girls did stay out to wash up the cooking utensils and then join us later… tut tut!

After the meal the stage was readied with decorative plants, shells and lighting and we waited for the choir to walk down from the Fijian village along the beach where they’d landed earlier. We made a pathway through the crowd and lined it with our head torches for them to walk along, a bit the emergency lighting in a plane hey Cathy?! ;) A few of the team from our village were members of the choir so it was nice to hear them sing. Dave had them sing a bit to set his levels for the recording and they blew us away with just the warm up!! They were so powerful and the melodies were fantastic, everyone was left impressed. After those guys left Georgie organised members of the tribe on stage to record us singing ‘Vorovoro’ in different keys for the song that her and Dave are composing about the island. She did so well getting a crowd of people that don’t sing much to get the sound they wanted, but it was a lot of fun to be involved in, especially in the boys section where we secretly masterminded to sing a silly Fijian phrase used by one of the team here for the first run though… it made us laugh the most, but Georgie had a good giggle too! Once we’d vacated the stage, Sustainability Ben was next up with his ukulele and four of his own songs which are really cool and if you stay on the island while he is here, you WILL be walking around during the day whistling or singing them, lol! He performed them very well and the atmosphere in the bure was growing nicely which should come through on the recordings. Georgie performed after Ben, with a small guitar and her own song about peace and stopping the violence in the world. The room fell stony silent as she started, she plays the guitar sooooo well, and her voice is beautiful. She certainly took my breath away with a superbly written song, and judging by talking to the others later, the same was true for them! After this we’d reached the ‘headliners’ for the gig, Team Fiji and a handful of the songs they rattle off on a daily basis. The atmosphere really picked up here, with Leavi singing and acting up for the camera being wielded expertly by Jim and getting the crowd going with some clapping and I could hear singing from the back of the bure, lol.

The night was a total success and Dave and Georgie got all the recordings they needed too. Look out for news of the music being put together! It might take a little while to get mastered, but it will be worth waiting for along with Dave and Georgie’s song about the island… I can’t wait to hear it!!

As usual with a good night on Vorovoro, the grog kept being stirred until the small hours, to cap of a spectacular day out here for Tribewanted.

Vinaka Vaka Levu
Sloggs :)