New Neighbors

After getting used to living outside of town, with only two quiet neighbors (and those are separated from us by a steep hillside), practically in the “bush”, it’s suddenly very different around here. After a long saga involving lawyers and property lines, the house directly next to us (we share a covered breezeway) is being torn down. The folks who have taken on this project, who are friends of the owner of the computer store, are living there while they take it down. Since our house is more window louvers than walls, and the house next door is now missing several walls, there is not much privacy.

It feels like we are living next door to a miniature replica of a Fijian village. There are four men and two women staying there, but several other people come and go as well. The men work on the house, carefully taking it apart and numbering and stacking the materials so they can be used to re-build the house on another piece of land, and the women (as far as I can see) cook for them. They cook with two big pots over a fire they have built on a workbench under the carport. They all get up around (usually before) dawn—no problem for me since that’s when Jasper wakes up too—and stay up late drinking grog (a.k.a. kava or Piper methysticum), which is a bit more problematic. They take a break to rest during the middle and hottest part of the day. We don’t do that at the computer shop, naturally, and so I am really building up a sleep deficit since I’m such a light sleeper and can’t fall asleep while they are laughing and listening to music and drinking grog.

Despite the annoyances of sleep disturbance and constant construction noise, things are very pleasant. The people are very friendly and they LOVE Jasper (everyone here does). They bring him food whenever we are home, and although they say it’s for Jasper, there’s always a ton for me and Miles to eat too. So we are basically being fed traditional Fijian food every day: “pancakes” for breakfast (which are like un-sweetened donuts), and cassava and soup for lunch (made with lentils, noodles, and whatever else is around- prawns from the creek, tinned meat, wild greens, etc). Sunday, a group of people came over for dinner and there was a bunch of traditional food, and of course we were invited. We had cassava, taro (the staple root crops served with everything), fish and some plant related to sugar cane cooked in coconut milk, curried fish, stew and rice, and of course lots of grog. These people, like all Fijians, are so generous. If they have something, it is shared. This is especially true with food. I don’t think it’s possible for them to make food and not offer us some when we are right there. Every time I go outside with Jasper, they offer us something to eat. That happens a lot, since Jasper loves playing with them.

It’s nice to be invited to eat and drink grog with people, but it’s hard too. They speak very little English, and Miles and I speak very little Fijian, so most of the time we just sit there and smile while everyone is talking in Fijian around us. Often I can get the gist of what they are saying, but since I can’t really participate by saying much, they assume we don’t know what they are saying. This is kind of annoying, because they are frequently making jokes about us. Now, I know we are weird kaivalagis (“Europeans”), and there’s plenty to make fun of from their perspective, but it is rather uncomfortable to understand enough to know that people are laughing at you but not be able to say anything, and the whole time, they think that you have no clue. They do try to teach us new Fijian words, which I really appreciate, because I am always trying to add to my vocabulary, but even this can be frustrating. Sometimes it feels like they think we’re really dumb, like when they were telling us the words for “hello” and “thank you” after I had already been using full sentences and asking how to say “he’s in the house” (prepositions are hard in every language!). It’s been fun learning more about the culture and food, and their generosity is amazing, but I’m also really missing our privacy and am getting tired of being laughed at.

Luckily, we are getting a short break. They worked on the house for a week and a half, and they are now spending a week in Labasa for a conference for Jehovah’s Witnesses. If current progress on the house is an indicator, we can expect them to stay for three or four more weeks when they come back.