THE RACHELEN PROJECT

Where to start! We arrived in Nadi in Fiji on the 4th and took a transfer bus straight to our hostel on the beach. The bar backs onto the sand and it was so good to be somewhere with good quality hostels again. 

There was a cheap restaurant and supermarket a 5 minute walk away, where we ate and bought a pack of cards. We drank with some French people on the beach, along with a Brazilian and someone from my hometown. 

The next day we were still tired from our fast moving time in Australia and slept in for as long as possible. At midday we took the bus into town to look into options for island hopping that wouldn't cost the earth. We had lunch in an Indian restaurant, bought a Frisbee and went into a tourist office a Slovenian girl had recommended to us. We ended up booking to go to an island called Wayalailai for three nights, at almost half the price that most people had paid to go to the islands; a little unsure but looking forward to whatever adventure we'd booked, white sandy beaches and meals included, we went back to the hostel still tired and went to bed early.

So it turned out that we hadn't booked a resort but a homestay instead. We arrived at the wharf and waited around by a little fishing boat for the captain, then we sailed to Wayalailai with the captain's great nephew sleeping at our feet. We shared noodles with our hands and the captain pointed out the resort as we sailed past it and around to the other side of the island.

We met 'Jack', a big name in the village, who sat us down to present us with the island rules. We have to cover our shoulders and knees when in the village, sit down when in the same room as the chief and drank 'kava' with the locals, a midly narcotic drink made from the ground root of a Fijian plant.

We met out host family, Carlisa, Api and their 3 year old son Junior, who looked after us and fed us for four days. They taught us some Fijian words and made sure we were dressed appropriately, woke us up at 7:30am every morning and were the friendliest hosts we've had during the whole trip. 

Our first evening in Wayalailai we had to take part in seva seva, a welcoming ceremony with the village chief. We were supposed to present the chief with a gift and in a mad panic we confessed to Jack that we hadn't brought anything, having thought we were coming to a resort, but he allowed us to buy some kava to give the chief. During the ceremony a bowl of kava was poured for each of us. We had to clap once, call 'Bula!' when the bowl was passed to us, drink the bowl in one go and then clap three times after we passed it back. Bula means hello/welcome and it is the most common word in Fiji. You can't go two minutes without someone calling it in the street and I'm pretty sure it's most babys' first word.

The highlights of our trip were fishing and diving with sharks. I didn't do the latter because of "money" (in reality it was my fear of sharks) but here's Helen to talk about the experience.

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Along with four other of the guests staying with Jack I set off at half seven in the morning in a small fishing boat. The boat was full of young children from the village waiting for us to board so they could be dropped off at their school which was located in another village further down the island. After a few days of staying at the island it became apparent to us that the use of the boats for our activities and transport was dictated by the day to day routine of the island. After dropping the children of at school and nursery our fishing boat began sailing out further to the ocean. Due to the strong winds that morning large waves battered the boat which only added to my nerves before seeing the sharks. However the spectular views of the surrounding islands from the boat helped keep me calm. After an half hour boat ride we had reach the coral where we could find the reef sharks. It took a good ten minutes before I worked up the courage to jump into the wavey waters. After initially splashing around in the large waves I stabilised myself in the water. As soon as I stuck my head in the water and looked down I could see dozens of colourful fish swimming around me and any fear I felt was gone. I was lucky enough to spot five reef sharks. Thankfully they were a couple of meters below me and seemed to have no interest in humans just the food the tour guides dropped on the sea bed for them. Some of the other snorkelers even swam down to pet them, I was feeling a little less brave. It was such and amazing and unique experience to get to see and swim near such beautiful sea life and has definitely been one of the highlights of our trip for me!

We spent 4 days on Wayalailai and were really sad to leave our hosts in the end. Carlisi and Api were so kind and have invited us back sometime in the future so we will definitely take advantage of that if we can. 

Unfortunately a very sad event happened while we were there: the next morning we heard that one of the children who attended a neighbouring village school had died, after having feverish symptoms for two weeks. Jack and Tai Momo rushed to the school to help with the situation. The village was subdued but still did everything they could to be good hosts, encouraging us to eat and relax on the beach. We visited the sand bank, a stretch of sand between Wayalailai and the adjacent island which is only out during low tide. We spent our last evening playing with the kids on the beach and seeing who could throw their stone the furthest. The village organised a bonfire for us on the last night and we all gathered on the beach to drink and share stories. Despite the tragic event of the day, our hosts came to join us and had us all laughing at their dance moves. We were still tired when we arrived back to the mainland but still hoping to find the white sandy beach we'd been dreaming of very soon.