Catherine and Jon's adventures in Fiji

Those of you who have attended a Jon and Catherine party know that we cannot have a party without a theme and this was no different with our first party in Suva. So last Sunday night Bollywood came to Nailuva Road in Suva. I think I have mentioned in a previous blog we have become quite addicted to Bollywood since moving to Suva. (So much so that our ring back tunes on our phones are the Hindi song Teri Meri from the Bodyguard – though I want to update mine to Chammak Challo from Ra-One – just to keep up with the latest).

Our Suva friends joined in the spirit of the night decking themselves out in the best Bollywood style.

Every Bollywood film needs at least two Divas - Bron and me

Some of us were even brave enough to wear saris for the first time. Two of our friends Linda and her cousin Alice who are both from Rotuma (a Fijian Island) both looked stunning in saris – though it had made them three hours late to the party as they were struggling to work out how to put it on. Jon and I thought we were very clever finding a website called “Good Indian Girl” which had a video with step by step instructions on how to put on a sari. Basically a sari is 6 metres of beautiful material which you have to wrap and fold around you.

And what would a Bollywood party be without dancing? We had three dancers from the Suva Multi Ethnic Cultural Centre to come and perform for us and teach our guests the latest Bollywood moves. Jon and I had actually been practising all weekend as we had bought a DVD with the latest Bollywood video clips on it.

Being a Bollywood theme we had Indian food catered for the night. However Fijians love to over-cater so security guards up and down Nailuva Rd were helping us eat the leftover samosas all last week. It may be a while before we can eat another samosa

Although we had thought we had been very clever getting my sari on, as soon as our dancers with their mothers arrived they offered to ‘fix it’ for me, which basically involved taking the whole sari off and starting again. This time, however, they used strategically placed safety pins – it was lovely having 5 Indian Fijian women fussing over me and getting the sari just right. I also felt much more confident when it was our tiurn to take the dance floor, with the safety pins holding everything together.

Learning some Bollywood moves

Our friend Max looked like a real Bollywood Mogul

Max, Seni and Micah looking like a Bollywood family that has just been snapped by the paparazzi. Though I'm not sure how Max and Seni can explain the blonde-headed child with them

Now this is more like it - our Bollywood Mum Rebecca with her children Micah and Zoe

Max with Zoe - an up and coming Bollywood princess

Two Bollywood jokers - Marty and Jon

What would a Bollywood film be without a man in a turban? Gavin, Yoko and me. We had the party as a little fundraiser for the charity Gavin has started here called Really MAD - which works with disadvantaged youth in Suva

Under our Bollywood Shrine

The Happy Ending ...

Well we have just finished a week of festivity here in Suva, though most nights it felt like a war zone with ‘bombs’ (as Orisi our security guard called them) going off all night. They were in fact a combination of fire crackers and fireworks to celebrate the Hindu festival of light – Diwali. Although you did not need to be a Hindu to partake in the noise pollution of fire crackers and fireworks – it seemed every home in Suva had explosions in their backyards (or compounds as they call them here - and if they did not have a backyard they would set the firecrackers up on the road and cars would just drive around them).

It seemed one neighbour would start and as soon as they stopped to reload the next neighbour would start, like returning fire during a battle. Thankfully hostilities would finish at midnight each night but they would often start before the sun had even gone down. It really was bizarre and given my Australian ingrained fear of firecrackers, that is people would blow their fingers or worse off, I did feel quite stressed once night fell. (As I write this a little boy next door is throwing crackers which in turn is driving the dogs in the neighbourhood mad - in fact there had been warnings in the newspaper about what a stressful time it was for dogs and how dogs run away and even have heart attacks!).

Luckily, however, we have met a lovely young man involved with the Hindu Cultural Society, Visharad, who has become our Hindu guide and accompanied us to two different temples during the week, so we could experience the traditional cultural and religious side of Diwali.
As Visharad says Hindu festivals can always be associated with light, colour and food – and we witnessed this all, from the lighting of clay lanterns in the temple, the women dressed in their beautiful saris and eating the feast of food prepared during this time, which includes the traditional Indian sweets which are associated with Diwali.

So below I have shared some of the photos from our week of festivities.

We started our week on the Friday night by visiting the temple in Samabula which had a cultural evening which included traditional dancing, singing and music. The night also included some Bollywood dancing.

The Chief Guest for the evening was the Head of the Indian Cultural Centre in Fiji. He is an eminent Sanskrit Scholar (When they introduced him they read out the titles of the 20+ books and papers he has written including publishing details!). To our amusement (or rather horror) at the end of the evening's entertainment, we were asked to join him at the special guest's table while we ate a feast of Indian food. Jon and I soon realised we had become the entertainment as people watched us (and took photos of us) struggling to eat the yummy curries with our hands - and to make it worse I was wearing white trousers - a disaster waiting to happen!

During the entertainment they distributed plates of sweets and drinks. Everyone enjoyed them and even had seconds.

One of the local primary schools performed a song and dance number. It was lovely to see both Indigenous and Indian Fijian children taking part in the celebrations.

This little girl was just one of the many little girls dressed in all her finery for the celebration. We thought she looked like a little princess sitting on her throne

Local children were encouraged to enter the Diwali card making competition

The Diwali public holiday was on Wednesday, although ceremonies are held on the days leading up to and after. On Thursday we attended one of these ceremonies at the temple in Toorak (yes, Suva too has a Toorak!).

As part of the ceremony women decorated a coconut to represent one of the forms of Krishna (one of the gods associated with Diwali)

Part of the ceremony is also lighting the clay laterns which is what the women are doing above.

Throughout the ceremony people made food offerings, which we later enjoyed as part of the feast

At the end of the ceremony bells are rung

Jon and our guide and friend Visharad

Visharad and his sister Aditi lighting the clay lamps (which actually kept blowing out because of the through breeze)

Some people have described Diwali as being like the Hindu Christmas - and what would Christmas be like without Christmas lights. Unfortunately our camera could not do justice to the houses with lights. We ended the evening by driving around, as did most of Suva, looking at the lights which was a lovely way to finish our Diwali celebrations.

If you would like to find out more about Diwali this clip on youtube by National Geographic is a good start:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrrW3rO51ak&feature=youtu.be

Ok I’m officially feeling guilty after receiving yet another email from a friend asking for the link to our Fiji blog ... I had good intentions of starting the blog much earlier but oh well this is what happens when you move to paradise you start adopting ‘Fiji Time’.

A Fijian Traffic Policeman on duty

So basically I will need to bring you up to date with some of our highlights so far and try and share some photos, though we have been very bad tourists and have not taken many photos – I suppose that is what happens when you live somewhere rather than just visit.

Here’s a bit of a blog I prepared earlier (like 2 months ago)

Today is a cool day in Suva – around 25 degrees Celsius – so cold in fact some of the students walking around the university have seen it necessary to wear woollen scarves! For us new arrivals from Melbourne we are finding today very pleasant and a break from the heat and humidity, of the last few days – being perfectly comfortable wearing short sleeves dress/shirt and shorts.

However given it was a bit cooler today I did opt to have a massage instead of having a swim. On the way home, though, I was wondering if I had been in more pain before I went in for the massage or when I came out.* The masseuse was a sadistic young woman originating from Harbin, China. The Chinese are just one of the many nationalities you find in this wonderfully multicultural city/town called Suva.

(*I have since found out that the place I had the massage offers its male clients a 'happy ending'. I have not been back!)

After the native Fijians (referred to as i-Taukei) Indians are the largest ethnic group in Fiji. Many of their ancestors came to Fiji in the 1800s as indentured British labour to work in the cane fields. Their influence on Fijian culture cannot be missed especially walking around Suva Town – colourful saris and salwar kameez decorate shop windows, Indian inspired food is found everywhere and the cinema advertises the latest Bollywood block buster.

A taste of India

(Since writing this we have seen two Bollywood films and in fact tonight we are off to a lecture at the Uni about one of Bollywood’s most famous actors Shammi Kapoor. My goal before leaving Fiji is to be able to understand the Bollywood gossip columns which appear in the daily newspapers – all the actor appear to be related and have several different nicknames (eg the actress Priyanka Chopra is sometimes called Piggy Chops – not a very flattering nickname, I would think, for the woman who was just this week named the best dressed woman in India!) Nevertheless I hope to master it by the time we leave.

Now a bit about where we are living etc.

About two weeks before Jon left Australia we found out the house which the University was supposed to supply for us had fallen through. Luckily for us we were able to enlist the help of my brother Stewart’s contacts in Fiji. Rajah found us a great 2 bedroom apartment which has views out to sea and is only 10 minutes walk from the Uni.

So just to give you an idea of what it is like to live in Paradise here are some photos from our balcony and on the USP campus.

Looking out to sea - on a good day we can clearly see two islands and the coral reef breaker

The University Campus is very green and tropical

Enjoying my daily Paw Paw smoothie