Suva, Fiji

The people of Fiji know their nation as "Viti"---Fiji is a (presumably Tongan) mispronunciation. The Fijians of Melanesian descent make up 50% of the population. Another 45% of the population is made up of Indians that were brought there in the 1800's to work British plantations. The last 5% consist of Europeans and other Pacific Islanders. They drive on the left side of the road. There are 320 small islands that make up Fiji.

The first expeditions that came to Fiji didn't exactly find a "welcome mat". Rather than being invited TO DINNER, they found themselves invited AS DINNER. The islands soon earned the notorious nickname "Cannibal Islands".

Until the 1920's, cannibalism was practiced in many South Pacific islands. The centuries-old practice was a completely normal part of life. Fijian cannibals were fierce warriors, but the eating of human flesh was never necessary for food. It was for religious sacrifices.

Now that I have given a brief history of the country, I would like to tell about our tour. We took a 45 minute drive on a bus that had no air conditioner. We had to open windows. Other than having messy hairdos, the breeze was wonderful because it had just rained. On this drive we saw our first LDS church. There were many tin shack homes in the rural areas. We saw such beautiful scenery. There were large hug trees. I have never seen anything like them. We could tell how big they were by the fact that sometimes they had cows standing under them.











We arrived at the Arts Village of Fiji. We had some time to ourselves to shop or just to look around. Dennis found the area where the swimming pool was located. When it was time to watch the program, we were seated in a sheltered amphitheatre. It was sprinkling off and on all day. The program was a performance by the Fijian Firewalkers. There were also Fijian dancers and a reenactment of warriors fighting. They told us about the cannibal practice that would happen after one of the chiefs died in battle.








On the bus ride back to the ship, they couldn't get the bus door closed. So we rode the whole trip back with the door wide open.

We had lunch on the ship. Dennis and I went back out to have a look at the town. Our first stop was a camera store to buy me another picture card. I had used up all the space on my other picture cards. We found the people very nice and helpful every where we went. Bula!! Bula!! This is their way of saying hello.

We had by passed the street market and stuck to the main street. Just before we were going to head back to the ship we came upon a mall. It was a three story modern mall.

When it was time for our ship to leave Sharon, Dennis, and I were on our balcony. We watched a band playing farewell songs for us. As our ship was pulling out of the harbour, Dennis was using his binoculars and he spotted something on the top of the hill. He looked again and was surprised to see the Mormon Temple!. We couldn't believe it. We felt very blessed. Our last two excitements we had as we were sailing away was that Sharon spotted dolphins swimming next to our ship and the last one was a beautiful sunset.