Blake and Deb in Fiji: Labasa, Part 2

Semoko’s village of Naseakula lies less than a kilometer (.6 mi) from the town center. His mother has a house there, and right next door is the house of his sister Caroline and her husband. They are also taking care of the seven children (six at home, one off at college) of one of Semoko’s and Caroline’s brothers, who is divorced and now living in Suva. The village is home to about 10 clans, 100 houses, and 200-300 people. Everyone knows everyone and most are related to each other.

An outsider can’t just wander into a village uninvited. We were guests of Semoko but still needed permission from the village chief to walk through the village. This is granted via the sevusevu, a short ceremony wherein a gift such as kava (the dried root used to prepare the popular drink of the same name) is presented to the chief. We were probably supposed to provide this ourselves but were spared from our own cultural ignorance by Caroline’s husband who handed a bundle of kava to the chief and said some things in Fijian we didn’t understand, whereupon the chief accepted the gift and said more things in Fijian we didn’t understand. He welcomed us and we were told the village was ours to explore.

While the lovo was cooking (more on that in a later post) Caroline showed us around the village. The houses were simple but hardly cookie-cutter similar. Some were vacant and in various states of disrepair. Others were fairly tidy with colorful landscaped yards. Veggie patches were everywhere. And the homes are situated not according some rigid plan with arrow straight rows, but as if the whole village grew organically. There are many connecting foot paths but few roads to cut off homes from each other, giving the feel of a close-knit community. Coming up in Part 3: The lovo. Yum.