The International Language of Dance

One thing I love about being offshore is being able to experience culture. There are a few great things about travelling on the boat that make these experiences all the richer. One is that we are able to get to some more remote locations than the average "parachute" tourist, another is that we are able to bring our home with us, and a third is that we are a whole group of young people.
After leaving Lautoka we sailed over to another island, still part of Fiji, called Waya. We brought Kava to the cheif and we warmly welcomed into their village. It was a very traditionaal Fijian village and a mother named, Mila, gave us a tour of their village and introduced us to the "old man" (chief) and "old woman" (matriarch) and then a local boy, Sie, led us on a hike up the mountain. We found out later that we were the first foreigners to ever climb all the way to the top! We were also suprised to hear that we were the first boat to come to island in least 20 years and definately the only boat full of young people who wanted to spend time sharing with them.
We rowed some of them back to the boat for a tour and to play on our rope swing and were invited back that evening because they wanted to dance for us. After dinner we rowed the dories back in the dark and they led us over to a low cement porch covered by mats overhung by corrugated tin roof, in front of a field where they would dance for us. Some of the local boys performed a knife dance, the warrier/fertility dance, the flame dance, and a fire dance. It was a hilarious. You could definately tell they were having fun with it, adding in some impromptu and less than authentic moves... it was all fantastic though! The fire dancing was the most awe inspiring. They were whipping around sticks with flames on the ends of them (kind of like the ones jugglers use) and doing all sorts of pyramids and tricks. The most amazing was when they balanced the flamming sticks on the bottoms of their feet. They were laying on the ground holding balls of fire on the arches of their feet!!!
The next part was possible even more hilarious.
They asked us to dance for them.
They had everyone stand up and tought us the "Bula Dance" definately some form of the Fijian Macarena, and then we did a sort of congo line which included a half squat, reaching between your legs to grab the persons hand behind and infront of you and then a jump... all the while the locals laughing hysterically and yelling at us to "not touch the coconuts".... slightly offside, but we were happy to make their day.
After this we had a kava ceremony and we brought some instruments on land and Tavish and Jose performed a drum duo and we all had a little impromptu mug-up with them.
All in all a very memorable night and a fantastic way to start of the leg.
We are now unfortunatly back in Lautoka waiting for fuel and a part to be made correctly for us, but tomorrow we will be on our way to Vanuatu.