Backtracking to Fiji,

Nadi, Fiji was a two day trip inbetween Peru and New Zealand. It was absolutely beautiful, and hotter than the jungle! Unfortunately two days doesn't exactly give you time to go do any day trips to the other islands (or much else after you recover from the jet lag).

To be honest I didn't see much of Fiji, but I did end up learning more than I had ever bargained for.

I met Ravi, an elderly gentlemen from Indian, while having lunch at a backpackers hostel. A simple "so where are you from" had started what would be a six hour conversation covering everything from politics to karma. What I learned that day didn't have to do about religion or what being a vegetarian really means but about finding good company in the most unlikely places. To keeping an open mind when it comes to age and who to hang out with.

The next day we went to the Garden of the Sleeping Giant with the owner of the hostel (Ravi had befriended him earlier on the plane). To be hones it put my little Orchid garden project to shame. The orchids are kept in this long shaded walkway and come up on all sides of you making solid walls of color. The walkway then leads to a fish pond covered in water lilies and the paths that lead you into the rest of the gardens which are mainly plants from the rainforest. The legend of the sleeping giant mountains is that they had fallen asleep after drinking too much Kava. Kava is made from a powdered root and drinken everywhere as a welcoming ceromony, or whatever reason they can come up with to share it. While walking down the streets of Nadi on my first day a women invited me into her home to see some hand made crafts from the village as well as stuff her family had made. Inside there were carvings in process, once they are finished they sit in a big tub of black mud to dye them. Her husband explained to us (there was a family there as well) the meaning behind some of the jewerly. After we had looked around a bit, bought a few things, he invited us to take part in a welcoming kava ceremony.

The Kava Ceromony: You sit in a circle crossed legged and barefoot. A shell attached to the kava bowl is places in front of the "chief" usually the male guest. Then the Kava powder is placed in a silk sac and soaked in water. Once the drink is made an opening blessing/welcoming speech is made and then three claps. The first drink (given in coconut cups) goes to the chief. Three claps, he drinks, three more claps, and then the drinker claps three times. The cup is refilled and passed around, the clapping is done for each person. After that the time is filled with talking, in this case teaching about some of the local tribes culture. There is a song that the women sing that raises sea turtles! So the sea turtle is good luck and sacred to women where as the shark is sacred to the man. The chief decides when the ceromony ends, and the family had a boat to catch, so at the end of the ceromony you repeat the drinking ritual and the blessing.