A beautiful Sunday with a beautiful woman

Two sundays back i.e. 14th July, Atul and I spent a few hours with Laisa Vulakoro and her family in their lovely home in Wainadoi! Laisa is one of the most gorgeous woman I have met with an incredibly gorgeous voice...she is a singer, also known as the Queen of Vude! Her lovely home next to Wainadoi river, a bit of grassland, veggie patch, a cute little house for ducks raised up through a pond, walkway and a lovo pit...you have it all, what more would you want! Her hubby Brian showed us around while Laisa got the lunch organised! We treasure these friendships and experiences which is what will remain with us when we move from Fiji...Photos speak volumes and here is a glimpse of the brilliant sunday!

A walk through the beautiful property

Duck house in the pond

Beautifully designed coconut branches - very useful too!

Wainadoi river flowing by the edge of the property add to the picturesque view

Laisa loves to cook; cuts the fish and brushes it lightly with soya sauce and it turn out yummy...

Before

And after

But wait the 'after' shot goes through a series of process...the art of lovo-making! Laisa has a great team of people around her...getting the lovo ground ready

Getting a bed of hot stones ready

Getting all the carbs and proteins ready (dalo, palusami, fish, chicken...)

The bed of hot stones is being organised for the roast

Team work at its best! Laisa leads her troop...

Food parcels being laid on hot stones carefully covered with a bamboo mesh

Everything must go!

Covering all of it with banana leaves...

and covering it further...

Finally all covered with soil - a perfect oven!

 And this stays for nearly 2 hours...the result is tasty lovo! As this was getting ready we took a walk around the property, talked, listened to beautiful singing by Pasifika voices - Laisa mentors these young talents, I have heard them sing in a number of occasion and they are an absolute delight!
A few shots that will remind me of the warmth and affection shared that glorious sunday afternoon...

The beautiful backyard!

Lovely home

Keep smiling Laisa..

A week long cultural journey through the Walisean and French culture!

From Auckland to Wallis...what a contrast but if you closely look into the culture there are some striking similarities. Atul was invited by the French govt. to explore and discuss renewable energy project/ education for the country. I made use of this opportunity and took leave and accompanied Atul.

We landed in Mata-uta, Uvea (Wallis) on saturday afternoon and were welcomed in true Wallesean style, fresh tropical flower garlands!

Kini, Atul, Josepha, Joseph, Catherine (Left to right and front)

...and everything from here was just amazing five days...which will need more time than 'all in one post'!

Mixing flavours

Auckland was purely a business trip but as usual I had to mix flavours for various reasons...four keynote speakers at this conference were Khoa Do, Kevin Honeycutt, Jason Ohler and Glen Capelli - so even at a conference you would like to have a diverse range of speakers...mixing flavours! The theme for Conference dinner was Disco...and I was like...seriously, disco! Not that I do not enjoy disco or should I say everything from the disco era but it was not what I was expecting...I guess it was once again about mixing flavours. The conference was more for school teachers - an excellent initiative which also attracted a lot of techies and researchers and teacher educators...mix flavours!

Now I had to mix flavours too, so here we go...

And mark what you want to come back to...

Squeezed some time to catch up with old friends, they live in Devonport, so visited them and experienced yet another flavour of the city...

And I reach my friends' place in the quite suburb of Devonport, a nice cozy home with antique pieces. And how could I not capture this 19th century cooking range...

Behold, skewers were not grilled here though but here...

And the dessert had a mix of flavour too, here is creative Jessie's culinary masterpiece...

Coming back after visiting friends, the city view from the ferry was simply breathtaking!

Little time that I could squeeze out, went up to the Sky tower with the intention to be brave enough to walk on the glass which I did! Considering I am not comfortable with heights, it was quite a feat...mind over matter, is it! Skytower...ticked! So I not only walked over this glass but also made sure to capture the moment!!

New Zealanders are famous for their dairy. Inspite the cold, I had to have one icecream, it would far more fresh then what I would have outside NZ. Kiwis truly rule at this and they take it quite seriously too, check the signage too...

A hint of Maori culture is all I could pick. I managed to pick a 'tiki' from the shop in town, not sure how authentic it is though! I was impressed with the fact how every occasion starts with an opening/ prayer in Maori, quite a contrast with Australia...

Diwali is approaching and how could Auckland not be ready. Came across this square where they were getting ready to put up a Diwali show over the weekend, too bad I flew out that weekend!

It looked like everyone seemed to be in 'Diwali' spirit including the 'Hare Krishna disciples in Auckland! 'Hare Krishna' disciples started with just two and soon had a whole lot of others join them adding to the festive mood!

And more with Hare Krishna singing along the Queens Street in this video below...

The experience was 'a drop in the ocean' but enough to help me admire the country and its people! Will have to go back again though.

Settling back after two weeks of travel and immersed in a documentary

What an amazing two weeks it had been! Last weekend I returned after spending a week in Auckland, New Zealand followed by another week in Uvea (Wallis), Wallis and Futuna. The trip to Auckland was official while Wallis was a holiday! I managed to make the most of my time to get around both places to get a flavour of its culture and the environment. To be fair on the two places, I will dedicate a post to each separately.

I am back in Fiji, watching a documentary on ABC channel and its past midnight. and feel totally immersed in it - all I can think of is WWI and WWII.  This Irish-Polish woman Magda who migrated to Australia when she was 5 yrs old goes to Ireland to find our about her grandfather and then to Poland to find out more about her father...a chilling and emotional account of grandfather's life who experienced WWI and father experienced WWII and both had to leave their countries...I can't help now wonder about million others who have also gone through similar experiences.

Let there be peace...

Book characters come alive!

A few months back one of my colleague, Sereima contributed to a book chapter - it was a result of her doctoral research. The research was based on her home land Wainika. Below is the cover of their book:

The book launch in Suva

Last weekend was one of the most interesting and amazing one as we had each of the three days full of excitement and cultural experience when the characters from Sereima's book came alive. Day 2 of  this trip (Atul's solar energy project), we wake up at 4a.m. and get ready to drive up to 'Wainigadru' to reach in time to take the 45 minutes boat ride to get to our destination Wainika, the south of Udu. Wainika must have one of the most pristine waters and beaches as it is one of those places where very few 'outsiders' let alone tourists have stepped in. We counted ourselves as the lucky few as did the people of Wainika since Atul was going their with the French funded solar project. Everyone was happy!
When we reached Wainigadru, we were trying to explain to the people of Wainigadru where we were headed to - they did not understand who was this Sereima we were talking about but after a series of references we all hit the jackpot 'Di Volivoli' , precisely what Seriema had mentioned during the book-launch (she is known to her people as di volivoli and not her Christian/ English name and degrees). As we waded the water the scenic Wainika from her presentation at the book launch came alive. Finally it was such a pleasure to meet the 94- year old Aunt Tupou - the name in the the book who Sereima owes her research to along with her people in the village. My understanding is quite limited in ethnography and its epistemology but the whole experience was humbling and added yet another drop to the cultural ocean that I am to discover...

"That is my tugalala home Cu'u" - Bula Sia (Hello) Cu'u!

Beautiful Cu'u: Ima's tugalala home (settlement) away from the main village of Wainika

A variety of fish from Wainika waters with love

Leaving Wainika

The Epic Journey back from Wainika

Ni sa Moce (Goodbye) Wainika

 I had to leave a bit of my culture behind, here is a hint of that from my lovely little friends in Wainika.

An experience with a renewable energy project

I had the opportunity to join Atul for his French funded Renewable Energy project 'Banish the Kerosene Lamp' when he visited Namau village (25 kms from Ba) and then villages in Vanua Levu in the remote locations in the last three months. It was not only an eye-opening experience but also helped me understand and appreciate the basic things in life that we take for granted. The project targets villages in remote locations that utilize kerosene lamps or diesel generators for lighting purposes and I was humbled by the extent of the project which involves creating awareness, training and improving livelihoods while for the villagers villagers it involves taking ownership of the solar system in every sense. Visiting these villages and watching the whole process was a very rewarding experience for me. Pictures speak volumes so here I have some of my favourite shots, hope you will enjoy and learn from this visual journey that this post intends for!

Demonstration at one of the remote schools in Vanua Levu

Crossing the river to come and pick their light

One of the solar system also has a small fan along with 4 lights - A child looking at the fan while drining milk without fuss now

Villagers happily going back home with their solar system

Villagers take keen interest to understand how solar light works with the small solar panel

Atul with his troop heading to another small island with solar light system

The contrast - Solar LED lights on the either sides with kerosene lamp in the middle

A training session in Namau village

Children looking at one solar light after a talk by Atul on Renewable Energy and Solar lights

And that is what makes all the difference - the spark in the children's eyes and the smile as they curiously explore the light making the whole project a worthwhile effort!