On our first Friday night on the island (that's Thurday your time) Alan and I got to go by boat to a neighboring village on the far side of Waya Island to watch a local rugby match. It was quite interesting to say the least. The rugby field is the center of the village and obviously a focus of the culture there. Everyone came out to cheer on their team. The teams had uniforms and you could tell that this was serous business for the locals (lots of stretching, organized plays etc). For those of you unfamilar with the sport like myself -- it is VERY rough, basically football without the padding, and considering there is no hospital on the island (I believe it would be a 2 hour boat ride) this adds a certain element of fear to the sport. No one was hurt and the game was great. The home team, babele ("pronounced bambalee") won. Several of the men who worked at the Octopus were on the team. The resort manager, Chris, carted over a cooler of Fiji Bitters (beer) and some Chicken chips (chicken flavored potato chips) for the game too. Alan and I, of course, sampled both. Chris brought his two kids, Charlie and Paddy (ages 4 and 2 I believe) too. It was a great experience!
In the same village is the local school for the island. It is a boarding school and the children from the other villages, including the village closest to our resort, are boated in on Sundays and stay through Friday. Kylie, Chris's wife told me that the mothers in the village take turns teaching the children. As you can see from the pictures, the school is extremely basic. The Octopus maintains a scholarship fund for the local children and also donates their boat to transport the children from the closest village to and from school each week.
For the ride back from the match, we climbed up on top of the boat with the resort managers to take in an incredible view of the Fijian islands and sunset. Truly a memorable night.
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