Fiji Above Water

It has taken me a long time to write about our experience in Fiji above water. And it has taken me such a long time because I was surprisingly touched by our experiences. As much as we loved diving underwater, I think Mark and I will most treasure the people we met above water and our brief encounters with Fijian culture. I was so moved by the warm feelings extended to us by the Fijians, that on the day we left, it took me completely by surprise to be blubbering like an idiot.

But perhaps the right place to start would be to write about my preconceptions about Fiji and how the reality matched with those preconceptions. Before coming to Fiji, I had never really given the culture there much thought. Skimming through travel guides on Fiji, I was left with images of large, well-maintained resorts, friendly people and of a rich Indian culture resulting from the large Indian population there.

There is a reason why people don't see much of Fiji beyond the large resorts. Fiji is a very poor country. Many of the native people there live a subsistence lifestyle: gathering fruit, fishing and farming to small extent. And many people live in modest, single story, two or three room cement block houses. There are villagers who are so poor and with so little access, that they rarely see foreigners, and are amazed to even see cars driving down the road.

But it is wrong to say that the quality of life in Fiji is poor. Fiji has quite a low population (875,000 people as of this writing). It appears as though such a low population has not yet overwhelmingly burdened the islands, either from a waste standpoint, or food standpoint. Everywhere I looked, there was a clear blue sky, empty jungle and empty farm lands as far as the eye could see. There were relatively few people around for the amount of land available. And there was not much garbage lying around. I never smelled any of the putrid smells that we experience in crowded countries, including our own. I did get the sense, however, that people are sensitive to environmental conditions worsening. When I told our chauffeur that Fiji seemed very clean, she replied somewhat wistfully, "Fiji is still clean?" as though apprehensive that it could all soon change.

Another factoid I had gleaned in my readings was that the Fijian people were some of the friendliest people in the world. I took this to mean that the Fijian people were rambunctious extroverts. That was far from the complex truth. Truth is: there were shy Fijians as well as extroverted ones, but almost all the people we met were warm-hearted. They were also charismatic, funny, and clever. They were elegant and at ease in their bearing. The resort managers at Beqa Lagoon Resort told us that Fijian people are almost always happy, and when they are sad, they don't stay sad for long. They also told us that Fijian people don't hide what they feel, and what is shown on their face is usually what was going on inside their heads. We found that to be true in our daily greetings with people. There seemed to be no filter between the warmth people were feeling, and how they behaved. Whenever our car drove past, pint sized children would jump up and scream "Bula!" (which means "hello" in Fijian), their exuberance was unfiltered by the restraint we so often feel in our cold, Western society.

Most of all, we enjoyed the company of our divemasters, whom we dove with everyday. Our divemasters entertained us with stories, amused us with practical jokes. They showed us a little of their hopes and dreams. One divemaster, Missy, told us how his vigorous schedule of diving 6 days a week wiped him out, and then he made the hand symbol of drinking a bottle of booze. Anyone who has ever dove for a significant amount of time would know what he meant. You feel totally tired and a even a slight buzz after a full day of diving. My heart went to him, because he had two small children and a new baby on the way. It was not a good time to be tired, as a brand new father. Another divemaster, Tusy, expressed his desire to obtain the full divemaster certification. He led divers everyday, but did not have the books necessary to study for this first level of professional diving instruction. , yet a third divemaster touched us with a surprising goodbye gesture When we were about to leave Beqa Lagoon that I can't write about, but caused me to break down into tears because it was such a poignant, tender gesture.

It has been a few weeks since we've come back from Fiji and I am now more fascinated than ever by the Fijian culture and national psyche than ever. Gleaning what we could of the troubles brewing below the surface of all the welcoming smiles, we wished we had more opportunity to explore Fijian culture more in depth. Cracking open my travel guide on the South Pacific, I am itching to explore all the other island nations that await: Palau, Micronesia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and looking forward to soaking up more of that intoxicating South Pacific feeling.