Meke and Lovo!

We visited the third and final village, Buca, today after being in town nearly a week. We hope they weren’t feeling neglected! Their headman, Asaele, welcomed us into his home and we chatted about their water situation. The leadership of Buca is actually very organized and fundraises upwards of $3,000 a year for improvement projects within the village. They have an elected water committee comprised of 4 villagers who have plans for the existing water supply and distribution system. Their primary concern is the leaky polyethylene (?) pipe that runs from the mainline to the taps. The committee has placed an order with the government for 1-inch PVC pipe to replace these pipes and they are hoping for a 6-month turn-around time.

Last year the Dream Machine Foundation had designed and installed a slow sand filter for the village of Buca in line with their current water distribution system, only to have it bypassed 3 days later and never to be used since. Their reason for bypassing the filter: it was too slow. It wasn’t filling the storage tank faster than the residents of Buca were draining it. Asaele acknowledged that clean water was important, but not having water at all was unacceptable. His idea is to move the filter closer to the village and put it on a parallel line to be used solely for drinking water.

We spent a good part of the morning getting the layout of the village and promised to return on Sunday when we’ll hike up to the water source (a good 1 hour, according to Asaele) to take samples.

Our missionary friends spent their last night in Natuvu tonight, and were given a goodbye party complete with Fijian traditions like a Meke (traditional warrior dances and songs) and a Lovo (Fijian luau aka barbeque!). Some of the Loa men, dressed in full warrior garb, performed a spear dance while the rest sang Fijian melodies in perfect four-part harmonies. Even though we’re here for another two weeks, they included us in the group and presented us with flower necklaces and invited us to feast on the rock-steamed tarot, kavasa, pumpkin, breadfruit and assortment of fresh fish caught that morning (we think one was barracuda). It was certainly a festive night and we were honored to be a part of it all.