This is what it’s all about. This little bottle is huge. Fiji water actually comes from a Fiji Aquaphor, and it’s 24% of Fiji’s exports. The next largest export item is only 6%. Ironically, over 10% of Fiji’s residents don’t have access to safe clean drinking water.
My understanding of Fiji history is extremely incomplete. Fiji natives used to practice cannibalism. Later they became a British colony. Britan decided to plant sugar plantations, and brought Indians over to work on the plantations. Today many Indians display a red flag on their house as a sign of pride. Many Fijians still live in small villages managed and ruled by a chief. Also, Fijians never, ever, eat tourists these days.
We docked in Suva, the capital city. We went on an excursion. We took a very long bus ride with no A/C to a river, then switched to long boats to take us to a remote area.
The building you see here was built to be a cathedral. The priest that built it wanted it to be the center of French Catholicism. (Who knew there was such a thing?) But there were a bunch of disagreements, and the priest switched to Roman Catholicism, and he burnt a bunch of French Catholicism books and also a bunch of Protestant books and sorry for your trouble, Father, but a building in the middle of a remote area just isn’t going to make it as a cathedral. But it still serves as a place of worship. (I might have missed some details.)
We got back on the long boats and went to a remote village. This village has about 900 houses. Not long ago, they got electricity and flush toilets. I saw some very poor shanties, but everyplace I saw seemed to have electricity. Unsurprisingly, smart phones are incredibly popular. Even young kids know all about them.
We started with a Kava ceremony. Kava is a root plant. They dig it up, break it into pieces, put it in a rag, add water, and squish the rag around. Presto! Kava. Both Danita and I agree with our ship’s entertainment director, who said Kava tastes like dirty water. We did some dancing, which was a lot of fun in spite of the hot, humid weather. Then we goofed around with some of the kids and took a very long bus ride back to the ship.
If you don’t feel grateful that I took a shower before writing this, you should. We were incredibly sweaty and stinky. I hope this finds everybody doing well.
