Seas the Day! : The Village

The village was defiantly the coolest experience ever. After not having hot water at Tovutovu I thought I was really roughing it. I was so wrong. When we got to the village we were warmly welcomed with a Kava ceremony and this awesome dance screaming thing. I was I recorded it, it was so cool. Us girls slept in Angies house on our mats. I remember the 1st night I had to pee so bad around 1 am and I was too scared to go to the restroom. I held it until 4 when Lucy got up to pee. I never had to pee so bad. The villagers we so nice and it was awesome to develop personal connections with them. Immedialty hit it off with Wicky. I would guess he's in his late twenties. He is the chiefs step son and is a really good man. He took Chase and I on this tour thing and told us his story. He cut us fruit and just took us in like his family. He explained so much history of the village. Later in the week he took us to the village farm and taught us how to grow Kava. He is also hilarious. If he was American I feel like he would be a talkshow host like Jimmy Fallon. Playing with the kids in the village was awesome. Me and Jacob immediately connected with this crazy little boy named Johnny. He has a little bully sidekick named Henry. Henry was so annoying. Johnny was a little angel and if we gave his attention Henry would hit us and basically be a brat. Johnny stood up for us and beat up Henry. He protected us like we were his siblings. That touched my heart. Everyone in the village was so nice. We worked on a community center with them. All the men are in amazing shape. Its crazy. They are all ripped. They are great workers. They did everything 20x faster than us. Even the 10 year olds are ripped. In the village, my photography really improved. Staying in the village enlightened me, I now appreciate what I have so much and realize that materialistic things aren't important at all. These people taught me so much and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to stay with them. They have so little but are so happy. They are nice to everyone anyway. They are all living in filth and many of them have illnesses but I never heard 1 complaint come out of there mouth. I want to take what I learned from them and apply it to my own life. We live in such a bs life in memorial and I want to change that for myself. I really became a better person because of these people. The village stay was the dirtiest place I've ever stayed in but that didn't matter. I got really bad infections on my feet but that didn't matter. What mattered is the relationships I established with the villagers and the things I learned from them. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to come to Fiji and stay with them. When we left the village it was very emotional. Not a single person wasn't crying. It was incredible to see how not only did they touch our lives but we also touched theirs. They sang us the traditional Fijian farewell song and all of the villagers we in tears. It brings me to tears writing this. The saddest thing was seeing the 12 year old, Val, cry. He was such a tough little boy and he was trying to not cry but he just couldn't stop. He looked like a little boy who's mother just died. It was so sad but so incredible at the same time. I really really really recommend everyone to go and stay in a place like this. It will change your life forever. This experience changed my life forever.

me and my friends goofing off

Our friend Johnny! His voice is amazing. So raspy