Hi everyone, it's time for another update!
First of all, I'd like to express my surprise and absolute astonishment when I've checked my account today and seen that my blog had been voted as exceptional content, I never in my wildest dreams expected that to happen, and I'd like to thank to all of you who are reading and also upvoting my content. It's nice to know that people enjoy the product of my work.
With that out of the way, it's time to continue writing about my adventures here in Fiji.
Two days had gone by since my last post, but life of a rural Fijian is much less adventurous than one might expect.
I wake up at 7:00 AM pretty much every day.
My morning routine consists of waking up, taking a shower to freshen up a bit, then I cut up some fruit we pick around the house and make a morning smoothie.
Today I used pineapple, papayas, passion fruit, bananas and jackfruit.
As a European, I'm still amazed that all that produce is just waiting outside to be picked up. To be completely honest, we cant even nearly eat all of it among the three of us, and it's sad to see so much fruit going to compost, but we're doing our best, stuffing ourselves full whenever possible. We also give a lot of food to the chickens, and even Tito (the dog) gets his fair share of fruit and veggies.
After my breakfast smoothie I sit down with Zare and we discuss what there's to be done during the day.
Yesterday I was splitting firewood (a chore I thought I'll somehow steer clear of here in tropical climate), today it was time to pick up all the mango that is falling off of the tree in front of the house.
The thing is that if it falls down to the ground, it splits open and it's useless for human consumption. In this heat and humidity it starts rotting almost instantly, which attracts a myriad of insects, from mosquitoes to fruit flies, so it's really nice to keep our surroundings clean.
If we intend to eat it, we need to use a bamboo stick to which Zare and I fixed some wire with net, and we're able to reach up into the tree and pick it that way.
When I finish with my daily chores, it's time to decide what we're going to cook for lunch. That's usually Zare's domain (and at this point I have to mention his cooking skills, he's amazing in the kitchen), but yesterday I got permission to cook some cassava (tropical root that strongly resembles potatoes when cooked), which is my favourite food here so far (Liku, Zare's partner, was flabbergasted when I told her, local people are sick of eating cassava as it is the most common food they eat).
We started by going out and dug up some cassava plants. After getting them home, it's time to peel them, and cut them to pieces that are similar in size. Next, we washed them, and put them in a pot full of water, which we positioned above open flames in the traditional Fijian kitchen located in a hut beside the house. We let it boil for about 90 minutes, then we drained the water and cut it even smaller, extracting the core which gets hard in the process of cooking. Following that, it was time to fry the cooked cassava in a pan on a bit of olive oil.
Because I love spicy food, I went out to the garden while cassava was frying, and got some homegrown thyme, basil, rosemary and chilli, cut everything to very fine pieces and added some salt and freshly ground pepper. I later put the mix over my cassava.
While I was preparing the herbs, Zare fried some eggs with diced tomatoes, and the dinner was ready.
It tasted incredible, as you can imagine. I made a photo, but I used my cell phone this time, as I couldn't wait to sit down and dig in:
After lunch I washed the dishes, and took a photo of our view from the front porch, which I just cannot get enough of:
Like in all hot, humid climates, the Fijians have a custom similar to Spanish siesta, and we take a nap every day after lunch.
When the most intense heat let go, we decided to go to the seaside, where I went for a swim (for the first time since I came to Fiji), and I took a photo of a mountain peak through the branches of a tree lying on the coast, put there by the last severe hurricane they had a couple of years ago:
After hanging on the beach for about an hour, we were just about to walk back to the house, when a neighbour drove past and gave us a ride home.
We arrived just in time for that amazing evening light, and I tried to take a shot of a couple of trees on a hill that were in front of some dramatic clouds, but my shitty $100 Tamron makes horribly blurred pictures, despite the fact I used a tripod with it. I'm never buying cheap lenses again. Anyway, I still like the picture enough to include it:
That was yesterday's afternoon, today I stayed at home and took some detailed shots of plants I found interesting around the house, while Zare was watering them. Here are the photos I liked the most:
I just put my camera away, when Zare started to yell 'Go take a shot of that ship!', so I ran in and got it:
It was the ferry I arrived on, it didn't seem as big when I was aboard.
The last thing I did was going on an evening stroll to a shop, where I hoped to get some cigarettes (an awful habit, i know, I'm trying to quit). The 'shop' (it's actually more like someone is selling supermarket stuff for $1 FJ inflated price from their living room) is located about a mile from where I'm staying. On my way back I took a picture of the whole village:
By the way, I didn't get the cigarettes, as it was a national holiday (prophet Mohammad's birthday), so they weren't able to buy more since I bought the last pack off of them the previous day.
That about wraps up the events of last 48 hours. Tomorrow we're waking up at 6, we're going to catch a bus to Savusavu to buy some necessities and upload this very blog. And, of course, hopefully make some more awesome pics for you all :)
When we return, Zare and Liku are going to take me to the ver top of the island and I'll try to get some photos of the Sun setting over the Pacific, I hope it works out the way I imagine it.
Until next time, have a good one!