Day 2: Rugby and Rain

Sleep was something I thought I would get enough of that day from just pure exhaustion of traveling however that was not the case. I woke up at 5 in the morning from the most annoying rooster that wouldn’t be quiet. It felt that every minute the rooster would make the “cock-a-doodle-doo” sound and so I had a horrible headache when I woke up at 6:45 am. We got dressed and headed for breakfast. I had scrambled eggs with toast and if you know me you would be shocked that I even ate that because I don’t like eggs let alone breakfast in general. After a filling breakfast we were able to go down to see a rugby competition in which all the different schools on the island come together to compete. There I learned a lot of cool tricks about sports photography and how to take a picture in fast motion. Along with strengthening my photography skills, I got to meet so many children and parents during the rugby tournament. They were all so into the game and went crazy when their team scored a point. I realized that there are many differences on how we Americans react as an audience compared to the Fijians, Sportsmanship is key here while in the U.S anger and jealousy is what is evoked. My friends and I wondered off away rom the rugby field towards the beach where we met a bunch of young kids. They were climbing on trees and skipping rocks, something I cant do. They were all really fascinated about our cameras and loved when we took their photos. I realized a lot of them were obsessed with the peace sign and in almost every photo I took that would be their pose. Unfortunately during this time it was raining so I had to put on our rain jacket and make sure my camera was fine. It was slight showers here and there but the ground was muddy and slippery. After rugby we wanted to go to a waterfall but due to the constant rain there was flooding on the roads and we had to turn back, This reminded me of Houston when we had that massive flooding problem, the rain just doesn’t leave us alone. So we headed to the market to buy sulus, which basically are a very large scarf that you tie around your waist. There were a bunch of different designs and they were all fairly cheap and are back home and got dressed to have an early dinner at another house/hut. We were treated with live music and in the middle of all the musicians there was a bow of this brownish liquid, Let alone it was the famous kava. If you don’t know what kava is it is a drink that comes from the root of the yaqona bush, a relative of the pepper plant. The root is ground up and then strained with water into a large wooden communal bowl. It is traditional to drink kava in a large gathering and for us this was our fist time trying it. We were all a bit nervous because the alleged side effects were dizziness and numbness of the mouth. One by one we were each given the same small bowl that was filled with kava. Traditionally kava is swallowed in one gulp and there are different levels to how much kava you want. There is a "low tide” (less than half a bowl of kava), a "high tide” (half a bowl), and tsunami (overflowed bowl of kava). Before a drank it I had to clap once upon it being received to me and once I drink it I had to clap 3 times after. I didn’t like the taste at all to me the after taste was like dead leaves. I had 2 low tides and after that I could have any more. One girl named Clare drank almost 5 tsunamis it was insane I don’t know how she did it but she apparently didn’t feel anything after. After the kava ceremony we had the best fish I have ever head, Served with mashed potatoes I completely attacked the dinner until there was nothing left. After dinner there was another round of kava being served followed by music. The famous quote that the men repeated while serving kava to us was that "you haven't experienced the real if you haven’t drunk a bowl of kava”.  After a wonderful time at the dinner we came back home where we had a brief meeting of what our highs and lows of today, I had to say my high wad the food and my low was the weather. I am exhausted by today and hope I get a good night sleep and pray that there is no more roosters waking me up.