by Peter Nelson
Litia, the village teacher, speaks English, as does Koroi, of course, so once again, communication is not much of a problem. Anyway, in this blissful spot, language is a minor concern. We just wander around grinning at everything. You rarely need to open your mouth, except to put food in it. Just as in the other South Pacific islands we visited, by the second day here, we feel as if we’ve lived in Verevere most of our lives.
Litia did teach us one very useful phrase: “Vinaka na kakana, Serena.” Translates as: “Thank you for the food, Serena.” We also learned “yes” and “no”, but sadly, never learned “I love you.”
One day we went on a day-long hike up into the interior hills to Naivoco, (pronounced Ni-VO-tho) to visit somebody’s cousin. The only way to get there was by hiking along this narrow beach. While we were up there, the tide came in, so we had to stay up there overnight.
- A hike through the jungle with Sina
Sadly, eventually, the time came to leave this paradise, and almost the entire village came out to say goodbye.
A bus ride along the coast. After the lovely and peaceful villages of Verevere and Naivoco, the Fijian capital of Suva was just noisy and dirty and full of tourists. So we got out of there.
Next stop, New Zealand.
