It was quite a rough and wet boat ride over to batiki from leleuvia, but we made it in one piece and I was very happy to be on land and so kindly welcomed by the village. We would be staying in Callum’s family house, a green wooden house 15m from the shore, in Yavu village. The village (1 of 4) is the largest on the island, with around 30 households. It is hard to tell who belongs to which household as extended families sprawl over a few houses and there is such a community feel, with the kids running around the whole village and cared for by everyone. The house was lovely, although a little basic- we learnt how to “bucket shower” and had to manually fill the cistern with water when you wanted to flush. It made me realise quite how much water we must use in our houses in the UK! We ate all our meals at Callum’s aunt’s house sat cross-legged on the floor with the table cloth spread in front of us. There was a lot of carbs and grease, but all in all the food was pretty nice! Highlights include a concoction of lobster with pimped up instant noodles, batiki pie (sponge with a tropical tasting jelly on top), fresh coconut bread, rotis, “lollies” (mashed up cassava boiled and coated with coconut and sugar), Batiki pizza (bread with noodles, ketchup and onion on top). The absolute stand-out was perhaps the best chocolate donut I have ever eaten- perfectly chewy but firm on the outside, not too sweet, lovely choc icing. Bubu (the grandma) kindly gave us a bit of a cookery class making traditional rotis!
We were obliged to have a “sevu sevu” (no idea how to spell) as a kind of welcome ceremony to the village- this entailed us presenting some kava and drinking it with them in the town hall. We became known as “Joji” and “Rafa”. On finding out that we were an engineer and a doctor, we were presented with a list of errands that perhaps we could help with! I explained that I hadn’t actually graduated yet, but still I was known as “Rafa, the big doctor” 😂
We spent most of our time just hanging out with Callum’s extended family and joining in with village life. Callum worked with the villagers to form a coconut oil company. It was interesting seeing some of the work that went into that along with all the challenges they faced, eg. government funding, competitively pricing, getting the resources to the island. We saw them climbing coconut trees, tried our hand at de-husking and scraping, peeked in at them bottling the oil on the village hall. George enjoyed playing some rugby with some of the local lads- Callum had brought out some rugby kits donated by Bath rugby, which he presented to them. They’re going to look particularly professional in the island rugby tournament in December! I spent some time with the ladies one afternoon weaving a big rug that they will be presenting to the Rev of a neighbouring island.
We visited the school, where the headmaster got a load of the kids to come and introduce themselves to us in English, which was super cute. We also played a lot with the kids outside of school time. I’d given some colouring to Callum’s siblings, which they’d very sweetly shared between their friends. I received various gifts of completed colourings along with their name and village. One evening, we got out the guitar and Uke and sung with the kids sat in a circle around us on the beach. The 2 songs we found that both us and them knew were “how far I’ll go” and “price tag”. We also enjoyed making music with some of the adults too. On our two final nights we joined in the music while drinking kava. We alternated between fijian and western songs. We did our best to try and pick up their songs and join in. I particularly enjoyed the harmonies and low bass interjections. It turns out they tune their ukuleles quite a bit higher than I do, so was bit worried for the welfare of my poor uke, but fortunately it survived.
I continued my S Pacific healthcare tour when we had to take Callum’s brother Jone to the island nurse. It was an absolute S Pac classic- he’d cut the end of his finger off trying to cut open a coconut with a machete (he’s about 5 years old...) His father had used local medicine and put a special leaf on it, but by the time we arrived in the village it had got a bit infected and v painful. I was impressed by the clinic and also the hugely diverse knowledge of the nurse. It was interesting to hear from her that syphilis is a problem on the island- she has the treatment, but people are unwilling to comply.
We spent some time out on the boat fishing and snorkelling. Sadly most of the coral is pretty dead- they’re expecting a company to come next month to start a coral farm! We saw some giant clams, reef sharks and also some turtles sticking their heads out of the water. It was amazing watching a couple of the guys spear fishing. They are so fast and precise and came back to the boat with around 25 fish!
We went on a walk up to the plantations one day, affording us some great views. We caught the men having their morning break, coconut water from the coconut. It’s crazy seeing how high they climb to get them. George did a pretty good job of cracking open his own with a machete. We also had a lovely scenic walk over to Minuku, a village on the other side of the island, where we spent the afternoon.
Saw some beautiful sunsets and amazing stars. Also experienced quite a scary tropical storm one night!
It was with great sadness that we pulled away from the beach, having hugged goodbye to all the kind-hearted villagers who had welcomed us so generously. It was touching seeing them all waving us off. Reality soon hit again with the bumpy and wet 3 hour boat ride back to Suva, it was so long i needed to stop and pee in the boat (not my proudest moment), then the 4hr bus to Nadi Airport for our flight to Port Vila, Vanuatu.
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