Home at last!

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After a night of little sleep, I stood on the side of the road (with 3 horses, 2 cows, a pig and a dog for company) waiting for a bus to take me to Suva. What amazed me was that whenever a car would drive past, the animals would all move away from the road, some even looked for cars before crossing!

After an endless bus ride along some fantastic coastline I found myself in Suva - Fiji’s capital - and busting for the toilet! The local policeman had a grin on his face when he told me where the nearest public throne was and on entering I knew why. Lets just say that the thongs (flip flops) I was wearing were doing the job that rubber boots were designed for…

Having no desire to wander the dirty streets of Suva I caught the first bus to Nausori and was amazed by how much the area had changed. I guess I was a bit naïve for thinking that it would be exactly the same. There were lots of private car on the road, traffic lights and a new bridge was being built in Nausori.

Once I got to Nausori I went straight to Lelean Memorial School (LMS) where I was a student in 1993. I had a wander through the school for about an hour, took some photos and chatted to the staff. Some had been at the school when I was there all those years ago which was great as I remembered them and vice versa. However at least 5 of them had passed away which was a bit sad. On a brighter note the school was looking fantastic and conditions had improved a lot since I was there!

Back in Nausori I went to the local marked and bought 1kg of kava roots (to be crushed and made into a drink that numbs the body) and caught the bus to Navuso. After a 10min wait I got the boat accross the Rewa River and started my walk up to our old house. Along the way I met some of our old neighbours as well as new people to the area, all of whom were very friendly and keen to hear about my travels. Navuso was looking quite different in that there was much more vegetation, the houses were looking dirty and in need of some renovations and there were quite a few new / missing buildings.

On reaching my old house i was greeted by its new owners (Tawili, Una and family) and was warmly welcomed. I gave them the Kava as my Sevusevu (greeting gift) and they invided me to stay with them for as long as I wanted.
Some of the locals came over that night for a "grog party" (to drink kava) and we caught up on 10 years of stories.

The next week was spent trying to find some of the people I went to school with and visiting families who were no longer living at Navuso. Everyone was happy to see me and most had no idea who I was even after a few guesses and some clues. The best one I got was one lady (Levinia) thinking that I was one of my brother's friends who visited with him a few years before!

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