Forgot to mention, the further problem encountered at the village was the spontaneous (I didn’t drop it or anything) of my laptop and phone (suicide pact?) which left me in a bit of a pickle.

My equally traumatic experience was just a few days before leaving the village, we were on one of the reefs when I saw massive red octopus, really amazing and intelligent creaturs! it was swimming and gliding along the bottom exploring the holes. However, when lavinia saw it, dinner obviously flashed in front of her eyes and a long battle (with much ink) ensued. Lavinia won. She turned its head inside out to kill it. I declined eating it for dinner.

on a similar note, kirsy says i should creat a guide to tasty reef fish recipe type book, sice i seam to have eaten a lot of them. this worries me! (because parrotfish IS tasty!)

Ok, so I realise it has been a while since I blogged, but I have a perfectly acceptable reason, honest of which the backbone is: the organisations organisation when down the proverbial pot, the remaining volunteers all left for a weeks ‘holiday’, in which time I, the only cavalangi in the village was concerned for my sexual safety, she jests you say, but alas I do not. Distressing at the time, funny now, once the boys had left and I was sat on the beach working (best office ever) a number of village men (at least half of which I didn’t recognise: it can be very confusing how people just appear in the village) started to surround me, with repetitive asking of ‘alicie, are you all alone tonight in the house’, ‘do you need company’, ect ‘Fijian Fijian Fijian, alicie, Fijian hahaha’ you get the jist, I was a bit concerned and decided to evacuate for the week (especially as I wouldn’t be able to get any water based work done with no one else around). So of I plodded to one of the island resorts, where in true English fashion I had a jolly good time splashing around counting fish, chatting to tourists and letting my knees see the sunshine (the sun is making a poor appearance in fiji, I am expecting those in Scotland to have  a better tan!)

Anyway, so after a week away we all came back to the village (apart from Austin who was 2 days late as per usual, attendance of 33% which is a FAIL for any university module). Anyho, it was nice to be back at the village, many of the families and a number of our ‘helpers/volunteers’ are lovely (lavinia, who bossed me around a lot at the beginning and was a bit scary, is now not so scary), and we got a good amount of stuff done, and I rounded up my data collection (one of my site had a lot less time spent at it but I am hoping that doesn’t confuse my analysis).

After 6 and a half weeks (in which my love for cassava grew: it is very good with salt) I have left the village (for ever ever, ever ever) and made the trek (first time in a car for 6 weeks) to kirsty in pacific harbour! :D

Staying in a dorm in a very nice (and cheap) beach resort with pool, restaurant and bar! All very exciting. Me and keith has a lovely catch up with cocktails yesterday (and pasta, not noodles, nor rice, actual pasta in a cream sauce yum yum). And after a breakfast of the best of both worlds: toast and cake, (at first I (stupidly) questioned the Fijian liking of cake for breakfast, but really it is genius) we had a day trip to suva (an actual ‘city’) where we act, shopped and dropped.  As the hibiscus festival has just started there was a fair ground at the park (none of the rides would of past English health and safety lol) and there was one which looked like a (very old and unsafe) version of the kids caterpillar ride from the pleasure beach!

The most exciting purchase being a bottle of red Australian wine (half the price of buying at the restaurant, so if you think about it logically, we were saving money) called ‘Alice white’ the bottle literally had my name on it, if that was not an invitation to drink it (on the beach because we are classy ladies) then I don’t know what was!

The plans so far for the upcoming week involve at least 2 days of diving (apparently I will soon be of the opinion that being surrounded by 40+ bull sharks is not an issues as they are ‘just like puppies’) and hopefully some other exciting activities (I’m going to push for doughnut riding and jet ski) as pacific harbour is apparently the ‘adventure capital of fiji’! (any obviously I will start my data analysis, obviously).

(mum, heads up: probably best you don’t read this next little section).

I have now been on 3 boat trips when I have been force to think ‘if this boat capsizes now, what valuables do I have in my bag and where are my fins?’ (fins being the difference between reaching land and not).

The first time was a boat trip in last weeks storm (it put the valhallah to shame) the second was the most recent trip to levuka when it seemed very likely  that the bottom of the boat would come off and the 3^rd today when hitting some very big waves at full speed!.

So last Saturday, a few of us attempted to get of the island. A 3 hour walk around the island asking at every village for a boat (the tide was VERY far out) and we eventually found someone who realised that some muddy desperate cavalangies would pay good dollar for a boat! The aim of the trip was quite simple some variety and beers (in the case of the boys) a ceaser salad for me!

On Sunday we have our first official day of :D and when to caqualai island where I got more than my knees out (I actually wore a bikini to the boys horror) and did my first (and likely only due to the current weather) bit of sunbathing.

A recent death of a village elder has resulted in a good show if sexism. If preparation for the funeral which the whole island attends (10 villages at 150-250 people per village) 4 days of fishing occurs using arrange of methods and at a range of sites. All very interesting, especially for my report, however due to the tragic occurrence of my sex I was not allowed to go fishing (though a spear gun in my hand is not the best idea) with the boys which resulted in a good deal of boredom.

We have again collected a new pet, a very smelly fruit bat names skunk. Some village boys, upon hearing we were rather fond of pets threw something at it and it simply fell out of the sky poor thing! It is making a good go through the banana stock and was released this morning (after being presented to Austin as his birthday present).  Whilst I am find with the many insects in jars, I am become increasingly filled with hate towards ants. Mainly because they invaded the peanut butter tub (I can understand why they wanted to do this, but I will never forgive them). In addition to everything being covered in ants, it is also permanently damp due to the amount of rain we have been having (apparently very unusual, I call its sods law, I don’t know who this sod man is but I am not a fan). The path down the hill is now a mud slip and slide and the biggest threat to my bones.

I am falling more and more in love with the reef, it changes every time I go for a swim and even though I can recognise so many fish now there are still so many I keep noticing! It’s a shame my camera doesn’t really do it justice. The reefs has also taken on a Hogwarts esque aspect in that we puts things in it and they vanish, especially the newly finished fish houses who location is still a mystery to me! FINALLY diveing of Saturday at Wakaya island so very very excited!

Today was an absolute result! One of the resort island wants a coral farm and will put us up for free for the night. So despite the weather I have squeezed into my sexy wetsuit and gone onto the reef, and after a long hard day of work (make want you want of the use of that word) had an dinner of chicken and sausages with pineapple of kebabs so I am now more stuffed than a parrot fish: which I have seen lots of today. There were loads of wrasse cleaner stations of the reef (which was soft coral dominated, very beautiful) also saw some cuttlefish which looked like they were synchronised swimming, a sea crate and some bat fish!

Tomorrow we will plan the corals we collected to day and hopefully start the process of restoring this reef which is an exciting prospect.

So, after much nagging to the big boss man (Austin) we got the boat to Daku, a neighbouring village which has 2 reefs of interest. The first which is a reefs which bleached in 2000 (water get to hot for corals and dies) and in 2004 there was an attempt to restore it, however, the reef bleached again in 2007/8 however some corals (7.4% coral cover to be precise) survived and in theory these should be temperature tolerant which could be really interesting and very helpful for reef that are under stress from increasing sea level temperatures! The second reef where the coral farm is really nice, so many fish! And the boys swam off into the blue hole (I was too much of a wuss) and saw 5 sharks, so I will have to force myself to have a look next time we go back! Hoping the weather holds, we have just had a big storm which meant we couldn’t do anything for a few days which was very frustrating, I did however use the time to identify all the species we have been seeing, 150ish fish at the moment though that surely has to be about 15%! We also used the time to make cookies (this word gets me to excited) unfortunately not of the edible variety but out of concrete to attach the fragmented corals of as a base for them to grow.

Also quite a surprise to all of us was finding out that the village of Daku has 4 pet hawksbill turtles that they have had for the last 3months since finding them as hatchlings! They plan to sell them to aquariums (better than eating them) though I wish they could go free, it seems wrong to keep turtles which swim across oceans in plastic tubs! When asking the locals if they would still eat turtles after having them as pets the answer was yes… just not these one’s (so I can’t really see a silver lining!)

In addition to the many creepy crawlies that the house has gained (I am starting to become immune: the other day I heard some scratching and upon investigating discovered some massive bugs in a jar rolling around on the floor. Didn’t even flinch) we have just has a pet iguana for the last few days. Named Cornelius there is much debates as to whether he is the same endemic as the mainland or as the island to the east. I am just relieves that he is a live pet and is in a tank.

This we the locals have attempted to cook British, which was such a lovely though! Breakfast, which is normally my main meal of roti turned into banana bread and cinnamon buns! AMAZING Lunch however was tuna sandwiched (its seems soooo stupid that I am in the middle of the pacific and locals think it is more post to eat tinned tuna than fresh fish!) and dinner was pizza. My face lit up! Only to crash into the woman mat to realise that the bread base was covered in noodles and tuna. Noodles, on pizza? Fijians are weird!

So, after mentioning that the locals eat EVERYTING, including turtle, guess what I saw on the reef yesterday! :D yet again I was the only person to see it (I was the only person to see the shark, people will start to think I am lying soon) and I after I had watch it glide around for a bit I though I would snorkel shout (sounds like an elephant underwater) and then actually should to get people’s attention, but by then it had swam away. In a way I was kind of relieved as we had local kids with us (who had already picked up every sea cucumber they could find which are valuable to sell to japan) and I dreading the thought of them trying to chase the turtle, though I think the turtle would win the race!

On firday (wait for it…) I LEFT THE ISLAND! Gasp, shocker I know. The local schools sport championship type thing (you can tell I was playing attention to the reason why we left the island) was being held at Levuka, once the colonial capital of Fiji (good old British we get everywhere; the queen is still smiling from the Fijian dollar bill). This was practically a city compared to Uluibau, no joke there were shops and everything!  I bought bread and ate a burger! Life was good.  Anyway I think the teams did quite well (my sports attention span lasted one netball match before I went for a wonder) and a fun day was had by all, though the highlight was a (expensive) drunk dial from bud :D.

On the boat trip back to ‘the island’ (I could get a lost type thing going here) something strange and mysterious happened…. 

We had ahem, slightly overloaded the boat with people so were going at what can only be classed a a slow pace, (mum could possibly swim faster) and the sun was setting, so all in all very scenic. However, one darkness had descended, and all you could see, hear and smell was the ocean (do I sound ominous enough yet?) lights started flashing in the water, bright blue ranging the size of a pin head to a finger nail suddenly all around us. Naturally the instinct was to GRAB THEM! But all we caught was flashing water, this when on for about 10 minutes, the boat going through a swarm of blue flashes (the vote is that they are some kind of phytoplankton/dinoflaggelate/spawn) and then stopped. After than it was just the occasional flash of glow in the dark coral, you know, the ‘usual’ (still very very exciting: not done any night snorkels yet as I am too much of a scardy cat but I will force myself, just to see the glowing coral).  just as we had calmed down (there were too many excited biologist in too small a boat) we started going over the seagrass, and all of a sudden there were small glowing shrimps! The shame was we didn’t have any of our collection stuff with us and after talking to the locals they say they have never seen such a thing which suggest a rare even that we were randomly lucky to witness. Whatever, it was really cool!

On a collection note, what is not really call is the amount of gecko tails (they drop of stupidly easily when you try to catch them)/insects(just this morning I got the “alice, look what was eating me in the night, I put it in ethanol”/general dead things the boys seem to be collecting.

I don’t know if it is Fiji male attitude or just nature but the boys are becoming more and more boyish by the day, for example yesterday I when to the toilet only to see a dead Fijian endemic (but common) blue gos hawk  on a cardboard box next to the sink. I didn’t dare look to see what was starting to feast on it. I can safely say I have never had that experience before, nor want to again.

Work wise, the transplantation (I am calling it re-coralation) is mostly done at this site, and so are my coral covers. The fish species list is nearly done so then I can do some abundances and there are some massive porites corals (big round balls a few metres high) which I am going to try and work out the age of, I am thinking at least  few hundred years ole and they grow less than a cm a year!

Also going to go diving soon which will be very exciting and I want to see some big fish! (there aren’t any here which I think Is a combination of it being an enclosed reef and overfishing, just need to work out an experiment to prove it), I think the locals are being a bit selective with the truth about the no fishing area which in one way messing up my work but is interesting in itself!

So todays fishy fact is that sharks have two penis’s (peni?) so that when the made want to rape the lady shark, he has ease of access because he has to peni to choose from.  isnt nature lovely somtimes!  On a slightly similar note, the locals keep feeding us the (not very pleasant: I like mine form a cheap Chinese takeaway and deep fried thank you very much) seaweed called loomi and after feeding the boys buckets full told them in was an aphrodisiac! (i made sure my knees were not showing). the boys are all really nice and friendly, missing all my MEMs and langwithians though!

On a work related not after being shown how to ‘garden’ coral I am now let loose on the reef and have started collecting my data, coral cover is stupidly high and the water so perfectly warm I haven’t needed a wet suit yet (the back tan is a stunner if I don’t say so myself). The teaching at the school has also began: we are making ‘fish houses’ that the kids will be able to easily swim to (Fijians have wide feet: I think it is because they are trying to evolve finns) and see coral and fish colonise the houses over time which will be really fun and interesting for them. The general here in Fiji seems to be, if it moves, eat it. I was informed that turtle is on that list ‘when they can get their hand on it’. Safe to say that dampened my appetite. 

The women are defiantly trying to domesticate me. I can now also make jam yum yum, though my favourite new party trick is being able to get hermit crab to come out of their shells my whistling at them. Okay its not a very practical party trick unless it’s a beach partly but still. I do feel a bit mean though as the purpose of getting them out of the shell is to use them as bait…

Moutoriki Island

I have made it to the island! a 3 hour drive and an hour boat ride down the river and out to sea. The tide was out so getting the bag to shore was a bit of a trial! We are staying in a house at the top of the hill upon which the village is built (good for tsunami’s, there are about 20 earthquakes a day around Fiji apparently). Everyone at the village is so friendly! All the children came running out to meet up, immediately wanting to play games. My name in Fijian is ‘alicie’ and according to the little girls I am ‘fatty fatty’ which the adults say is a compliment. I am not so sure!

In the evening we were welcomed with a traditional cava drinking ceremony and a lovo. Yuck to the former and yum to the latter. All of our meals so far have been cooked in the chiefs house (which by law has to be the best in the village) and then I think we will rotate around different families/clans. Also, noone is allowed to be taller than the chief  (when walking of sitting down) which makes things quite awkward and amusing when he is not a very tall man! I have also discovered that showing your knees when at a “hop “hop” in the evening means you want to have sex with the man sitting opposite you…. It was a few days before I discovered this. Needless to say, My knees are now constantly covered.

Im not sure what to say about the house, compared to what many live in it is a palace, but compared to home, it is not, though I think just a good clean, lick of paint is all it needs really. We don’t have electricity or a flushing toilet (at the moment, hopefully to come) but the windows have mosquito screens (a true blessing) and we have running water, though we have to boil it before we can drink it.

Today we went for a swim on the reef, the tombu area which is a temporary no take zone as ruled by the chief, it is also where one of the coral farms is located. The corals are amazing, and those on the farm have grown so well! One batch is really to be sold to England now (aquarium trade) with the money going back into the local community for running water and school . (for every coral sole at least one gets transplanted back onto the reef). There are loads of staghorn collar, which have bring purple tips (and are becoming very rare  especially in the Caribbean) and lots of gigantic massive morphologies, big round corals a metre plus in diameter!  All of the fish are very skittles of people, likely due to the amount of spear fishing that generally goes on (though of course not in the tombu) and I saw a barracuda! I thought it was massive but apparently it is small!

We had a good kill of crown of thorn starfish (pest which kills corals and has few predators due to overfishing) 32 in 1.5 hours! Ironically you kill them with dead coral.

Tonight there is going to be a crab curry (I have eaten rabbit fish and sting ray so far) and some traditional dancing, so very excited.

I can now add parrotfish to my list! We have started the crown of thorn removal and the transplantation out on the reef. We are also trying to build up a (breeding) stock of giant clams and pearl oyster, I found I rare one and it has now been names alicies vassuva (alices clam) it is big enough for me to hug and bright green with black stripes. Just after I found it I saw a shark, so apparently the shark god has given his blessing to my find (as I was the only one to find a clam and the only one to see a shark) so all in all a good day! Austin also saved a boa constrictor from the being killed by the locals, who since being converted to Christianity changes from worshiping the snake to killing it because it is the devil. Unfortunately killing the snakes mean that the rats boom in numbers and these eat the crops and also sandlewood tree samplings, which are the most valuable trees of the island! So we are trying to ‘re-brand’ the snakes as farmers friends through education and experience that they are not dangerous (though to me you say boa constrictor, I think man crusher) but apparently it is OK for us to have one in a box just outside the house…. Not a pet I ever imagined having!

Only one week in and I am already fed up of the local base vegetable casava which in some form creates at least 70% of each meal (their version of the potato I suppose... god i miss potato). Whilst I either love of hate the food (lots of nice coconut curry’s, but also some weirdo textures, Peanut butter of crackers in my saving grace. If I do not come back to England thinner and more tonesd it will be because it is not possible to do! (but then again, 90% of the food i am eating is carb so who the hell knows!)

There are a number of interesting archaeological sites around the islands, ruins of old villages, pottery and stone carving which will be great for developing the tourism guide plan. The oldest skeleton ever found in the south pacific, known as the lady or the grandmother (she is 4000 years old and I worked it out, lived 160 generations ago) was found on the beach between my town and the next!

This weekend some of the local women are going to take me fishing which will be very interesting!