If Fullerton was the first taste of Home Country Love then Pacific Beach and the Wedding was the buffet. How wonderful to be surrounded once again by family and friends all excited for Mark and Lisa's big day and enjoying the time we all have together. It was great catching up w/ everyone and dancing w/ my family and shareing hugs  and stories.....adventures and shortcommings. It was great to see my Aunts and Uncles and cousins ...... no matter if  they're too tired to climb out of bed and meet me for a drink.....Skannells( every family has a light weight side)!!! It was also a real joy to share time w/ all of Mark and Lisas friends from different places..you all are truely blessed. The newly wed couple even made room in their home for a free place for a poor traveler to stay..thanks for making it easy for me and the hospitality was great. Sensational time, I almost did'nt want to leave until I heard everyone talking about work next week and I'd chine in "yea the beach in Fiji is going to be hard to get up to on Monday!"

   Wakeing up in Beachcomber Island, Fiji was like waking up on temptation island w/o out the comitted relationship. The island would take you 15 minuted to walk around....prestine beach, water sports , volleyball , Putt Putt and enough booze to get King Kong buzzed. Here I fell into a group that enjoyed their social life...two brits, two Kiwis, a Swiss and myself...our daily routine was to start w/ Putt Putt after lunch ( all meals included in price and the food was magnificent) where we all some adopted "Top Gun" ..it was unlawful and cost you a shot...to call anyone by any other name. We carried a cooler w/ us golfing and if you had the worst score you were the cooler caddie for that hole...it apears that mini-golf has'nt caught on in Switzerland because Iceman was appropietly nicknamed!!! I happened to be Mav after one of the Brit saw me playing volleyball and was poking fun of my Marine background.....he quickly became Goose and was courting and American gal on the Island which we gave the best name of all...haveing forgotten Meg Ryans charactors name and frankly not wanting to rememberit..she quicky became "Dead Gooses Wife" which met huge appoval except from the person we bestowed it on..oh well..it stuck and was quickly accepted. The rest of the day was silly antics and more partaking. Every night the staff would have various activities to get people mixing, always w/ National pride....each country forming their our team for various relay races....or hermit crab auctions which represented a country for a race the craps would compete in....great fun. One of the more unique things I did was attend church on the island which was open to the guessed but only well attended by the staff. The entire service, after a welcome in English by the minister who arrived by boat from another island , was  in Fijian. The most remarkable and beautiful part was the glorious voices of the Fijians singing...it resinates w/ me still.

      After the most commercial of all experiences in Fiji...I went for a authentic village experience. I had befriended a gentleman that worked at the Tourist office at the Airport and he had invited me to a homestay in his...the oldest village in Fiji....he was separated from his wife and moved back in w/ his folks and brought his son w/ him.Atu described the village makeup like this amoungst the village there are tribes and amoungst thoust tribes there are clans. Every village is dependent on tribe and every clan....each clan has a specific role in the village...if your clan is responsable for the fishing , then generation after generation share w/ their offspring those skills..and you provide the fish for your tribe....if you are the carpenter than you build the structures for that tribe and so on and so on...Atu's clan was responsable for the Burial of Chiefs..and other ceremonial customs....it appeared they were of good statis in the village. The chief of their village..it turns out has another job...small but inportant...he happens to be the President of Fiji!! I was the only westerner and white for that matter that I saw the entire time I had my home stay. Their homes are nice and simple yet adherd to a fijian style....beautifully woven thatch was laid for a carpet and it was imperitive you took off your shoes before entering the house. My first night Atu was helping his mother w/ dinner and had to go outside and from a stock pile of coconuts open them and shave them into a bowl which when water was added and smoosed w/ your hands gave the coconut oil inwhich most Fijian meals are prepared. A real insite for me was that when I had arrived a man from a neighboring village had passed away. His wife was from ours ( Atu and his friends told me whenever you are ask where you are from in Fiji say Versasse -incorrect spelling- because this is your Fijian home) there fore there was an obligation of our Village to pay respects to theres. That night Atu outfited me in one of his traditional Zulu skirts, I through on a Bula shirt that I had already bought in town and as a village we made our offering.....many hand woven thached carpets, Caraceen for light, and above all and most inportant a Whales tooth ( the most presious of Fijian Gifts, to drawl a tooth from a whale one needs special courage). I helped deliver these items...the men would go first...even myself a westerner and the woman would follow w/ food for a fiest. It was given in a Kava ceremony...and then accepted. The fiest it turned out was for the woman and children...for I saw none of the food....what I did see was a group of us going to the Mayor of the villages home to have a small Kava cellebration. Kava is a root that they rind down to a powder add water ring in and out with in a bowl. Its purpose is to slow down the heart like a mild drug...it did'nt have any affect on me. It taste can be best described this way: it was as if the Chief of the village ran around in his socks for an hour and they put them into a bowl, added water and there is your Kava......maybe its an aquired taste..I never aquired it! Regardless it is there tradition and I was'nt going to offend anyone. There was about eight of us and we had about 10 bowls thats roughly 21 small bowls/ person....thats alot of Kava. As I said these folks were from higher standing in the village, one of the gentleman's father was the Fijian Amassador to Japan. The discussion was great, and they all wanted to pick my mind about what Fiji's image was where I came from, or what I thought of Village life....or there challanges w/ village makeup and the modernization of Fiji and the loss of educated Fijians to other countrys or living out side the village dynamic...all inportant questions. I loved my Fijian experience, my Fijian Family and my Village!!