Call out ‘yadra’ to Joseph as the shelter van parks in our drive. Pull the cats from the loovers, shut them in the only part of the house they can’t escape. On the road and the van door opens. Lean over and hold onto our things in the back, door slides closed as we go down the hill, reach back and pull the cord to make it lock.
Not even eight in the morning and the kennel hands are already putting up the marquee for Open Day. Like most of our things it’s broken. It takes six of us to prop it up with a broom handle and weigh it down with rocks. ‘That’s what I like to see, the local way (of solving a problem),’ the President comments as he brings in the sound system.
We fill an esky with sunquick juice and fire up the gas BBQ. Everyone is wearing ‘We are all God’s creatures’ t-shirts. Buns are sliced and buttered while second-hand books are dusted off and arranged on a table. It’s hot. Pink and yellow cupcake icing melts beneath its gladwrap shield.
The secretary of the board arrives with a bucket of kava and half a coconut shell. We drink.
There is some talk about the local council and what to do about the stray dog problem. We dream about owning more land and building a new shelter, far and away from the sea wall and tsunami threats.
Consider how to photocopy back-to-back as Lo is asked to copy a whole school textbook for one of Asata’s children. Show people around the shelter. Try to find a family composition form for Irava to fill out as part of her visa application to visit her sister in Australia. Chat to potential new owners for Vuaka. Paint children’s faces: dog, cat, spiderman, butterfly. Sweat makes face-paint colours run.
Then everything is packed away except the plastic garden furniture - we sit back, relax and drink more grog. Dump the broken marquee frame beside the rusty trapping cages (irreparable but too big to dispose of, it sits there like a bizarre art installation).
Scrounge around for empty bottles to fill with leftover sunquick, nothing can be wasted when we have so little. Another basin is filled with kava and a pack of cards comes out for ‘trumps 10’. Papa Joe shows me how to play, pointing to the cards I should discard with his one long finger nail.
Asata says ‘kana katakata koli’ (hot dog - literally a hot dog, not the food) and we laugh and laugh, slapping the back of one hand into the palm of the other.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Ice cream soup and homemade citrus aid
We sun-bathed on the grassy banks of the sea wall, toying with paper cups of ice cream melting into soup.
Next to us an unwashed man slept under a coconut tree, just one more discarded item in a pile of rubbish.
Back at home Vuaka played in the grass grown tall inside the unused chook pen, barking when he got his head caught in the crosswire.
We laughed when Laura tried to get ice out of the freezer to make homemade citrus aid and the freezer door broke off.
Another Sunday in Suva.
Next to us an unwashed man slept under a coconut tree, just one more discarded item in a pile of rubbish.
Back at home Vuaka played in the grass grown tall inside the unused chook pen, barking when he got his head caught in the crosswire.
We laughed when Laura tried to get ice out of the freezer to make homemade citrus aid and the freezer door broke off.
Another Sunday in Suva.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
All the women in saris, all the men in jeans
The bride had mehendi stained hands and sparkling bindi on her forehead - a pair of diamond eyebrows above her natural ones.
Inside the temple had been decorated with coloured balloons and the space was filled with the sound of bells and chanting.
Babies wailed and were shifted between shoulders and little girls tottered between seats in cheap plastic heels. A crowd gathered out front as the groom arrived in a jeep adorned with yellow flowers. All the women were in saris, all the men in jeans.
The ceremony was led by an old man dressed in white – he read from a book in Hindi and every so often would turn his face from the microphone and whisper instructions to the bride and groom.
There was much holy water dripped from the tip of a leaf dipped into a plastic cup. Drips on the floor of the altar, over an offering of flowers, banana and honey, and into the couple’s clasped hands.
A fire was lit in a small bowl and some of the holy water was drunk. Relatives sat behind the couple and fussed with the bride’s red sari or dabbed at her tear streaked cheeks with a bright yellow cloth.
Two pillows and a blanket were passed through the altar, from the bride’s family to the groom’s. The dowry: unwrapped gifts with the price still marked (sale items reduced by almost 1/3 of their original price).
Our workmates waved at us from the car park, beckoning to us to join the wedding feast in the laneway next door. So as the ceremony continued we sat at a long row of tables covered with the plastic of many milk arrowroot biscuit wrappers taped together. A line of men passed each plate to dole out portions of oily curries. We ate our fill of roti, rice, tomato chutney, jackfruit and other delights.
In the nearby makeshift kitchen, a scratchy broadcast of the rubgy was showing on TV. Inside the temple the bells and chanting continued. Back in the car park we found one of our friends who had not yet eaten; the wedding was so long he had gone to sleep in the van during the ceremony.
Inside the temple had been decorated with coloured balloons and the space was filled with the sound of bells and chanting.
Babies wailed and were shifted between shoulders and little girls tottered between seats in cheap plastic heels. A crowd gathered out front as the groom arrived in a jeep adorned with yellow flowers. All the women were in saris, all the men in jeans.
The ceremony was led by an old man dressed in white – he read from a book in Hindi and every so often would turn his face from the microphone and whisper instructions to the bride and groom.
There was much holy water dripped from the tip of a leaf dipped into a plastic cup. Drips on the floor of the altar, over an offering of flowers, banana and honey, and into the couple’s clasped hands.
A fire was lit in a small bowl and some of the holy water was drunk. Relatives sat behind the couple and fussed with the bride’s red sari or dabbed at her tear streaked cheeks with a bright yellow cloth.
Two pillows and a blanket were passed through the altar, from the bride’s family to the groom’s. The dowry: unwrapped gifts with the price still marked (sale items reduced by almost 1/3 of their original price).
Our workmates waved at us from the car park, beckoning to us to join the wedding feast in the laneway next door. So as the ceremony continued we sat at a long row of tables covered with the plastic of many milk arrowroot biscuit wrappers taped together. A line of men passed each plate to dole out portions of oily curries. We ate our fill of roti, rice, tomato chutney, jackfruit and other delights.
In the nearby makeshift kitchen, a scratchy broadcast of the rubgy was showing on TV. Inside the temple the bells and chanting continued. Back in the car park we found one of our friends who had not yet eaten; the wedding was so long he had gone to sleep in the van during the ceremony.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Palms, then backs, then palms
Somehow turning both hands,
Palms, then backs, then palms,
Communicates a message between Lo
And the shopkeeper we pass in the street.
No words are exchanged,
Beyond his first ‘eh’ to attract attention.
Then it is left to hand signals,
Palms, then backs, then palms
To ask a question
And answer it.
‘Oh, Irava has it waiting for you in the office,’
Lo says.
The shopkeeper raises his eyebrows in reply.
The conversation is over.
Palms, then backs, then palms,
Communicates a message between Lo
And the shopkeeper we pass in the street.
No words are exchanged,
Beyond his first ‘eh’ to attract attention.
Then it is left to hand signals,
Palms, then backs, then palms
To ask a question
And answer it.
‘Oh, Irava has it waiting for you in the office,’
Lo says.
The shopkeeper raises his eyebrows in reply.
The conversation is over.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
"Be-le... be-le... be-le..."
(for my friend Tepora)
Walking over water
Along the cable lines -
Jisu clouds and streams of light
On the grey horizon -
Let’s go down the hill
To explore the jungle in Cheli’s garden -
Baby cats climbing
Deb and Thea mountains -
Pleating, wrapping, pinning
Glittering wedding saris -
Josi’s afro bouncing
Blowing bubbles for her to catch -
These are things worth living for.
Walking over water
Along the cable lines -
Jisu clouds and streams of light
On the grey horizon -
Let’s go down the hill
To explore the jungle in Cheli’s garden -
Baby cats climbing
Deb and Thea mountains -
Pleating, wrapping, pinning
Glittering wedding saris -
Josi’s afro bouncing
Blowing bubbles for her to catch -
These are things worth living for.
Breaking chocolate
To watch you
Break
A block of chocolate
Into equal portions
So everyone
Has squares to eat
Inspires me more
Than any quote
I’ve ever read.
Break
A block of chocolate
Into equal portions
So everyone
Has squares to eat
Inspires me more
Than any quote
I’ve ever read.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Tuesday on the campaign trail
7am - Write radio briefing notes for our Miss Hibiscus contestant (Lucia)
8am - Attend Radio Fiji interview with Lucia and other contestants
9am - Meeting with co-sponsor South Pacific Productions (SPP), UNIFEM volunteers and Lucia
10am - Accompany Lucia to her Fiji Times interview and photo shoot. Collect sponsorship contract
11am - Visit Hibiscus Committee headquarters to select a more flattering profile picture of Lucia
12pm - Return to animal shelter to stamp contract (Fiji may just be the only country that still requires a company stamp on official documents!)
1pm - Try to drop off contract at HC headquarters but HC staff are out to lunch, office is closed
1.30pm - Arrange meeting to discuss sponsorship, call Lucia to ask her to spend some time with SPP this afternoon
2pm - Return to shelter, Dr Deb shows me a box of flea-coated puppies that have to die because we have no free kennels to house them. Extend insurance to cover our Miss Hibiscus contestant and volunteers throughout the festival.
2.30pm - Call Learning Centre to confirm details of Teddy Bear’s Picnic fundraiser. Call Village 6 cinema to organise fundraiser film screening
3pm - Respond to email from Fiji Times journalist asking for our response to town council poisoning campaigns and why our ‘charges are so high’.
3.30pm - Call from Cheli about a mangey white dog she has managed to capture at her workplace the psychiatric hospital. Try to organise for our ambulance to collect the dog. Ambulance gone on another house call.
4pm - Final tweaking of designs for Hibiscus promotional materials e.g. t-shirts, banners, stickers, bookmarks
4.30pm - Leave office to return to HC and try to deliver signed contract
5pm - Meet with board members and UNIFEM volunteers, discuss sponsorship and fundraising opportunities
6pm - Attend mock public judging of Miss Hibiscus contestants. Cheer for Lucia and take note of all the questions asked of contestants so she can practise her answers later
8am - Attend Radio Fiji interview with Lucia and other contestants
9am - Meeting with co-sponsor South Pacific Productions (SPP), UNIFEM volunteers and Lucia
10am - Accompany Lucia to her Fiji Times interview and photo shoot. Collect sponsorship contract
11am - Visit Hibiscus Committee headquarters to select a more flattering profile picture of Lucia
12pm - Return to animal shelter to stamp contract (Fiji may just be the only country that still requires a company stamp on official documents!)
1pm - Try to drop off contract at HC headquarters but HC staff are out to lunch, office is closed
1.30pm - Arrange meeting to discuss sponsorship, call Lucia to ask her to spend some time with SPP this afternoon
2pm - Return to shelter, Dr Deb shows me a box of flea-coated puppies that have to die because we have no free kennels to house them. Extend insurance to cover our Miss Hibiscus contestant and volunteers throughout the festival.
2.30pm - Call Learning Centre to confirm details of Teddy Bear’s Picnic fundraiser. Call Village 6 cinema to organise fundraiser film screening
3pm - Respond to email from Fiji Times journalist asking for our response to town council poisoning campaigns and why our ‘charges are so high’.
3.30pm - Call from Cheli about a mangey white dog she has managed to capture at her workplace the psychiatric hospital. Try to organise for our ambulance to collect the dog. Ambulance gone on another house call.
4pm - Final tweaking of designs for Hibiscus promotional materials e.g. t-shirts, banners, stickers, bookmarks
4.30pm - Leave office to return to HC and try to deliver signed contract
5pm - Meet with board members and UNIFEM volunteers, discuss sponsorship and fundraising opportunities
6pm - Attend mock public judging of Miss Hibiscus contestants. Cheer for Lucia and take note of all the questions asked of contestants so she can practise her answers later
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