Dear Friends, Here is the first of my Fijian adventures:-
Frankly, we're not hearing the half of what's happening over there through our media here. I always spend 2 or 3 nights in a hotel in Nadi before heading out to the farm I stay on at Nawaicoba (pronounced Na-wai-thom'-ba). First morning I walked into town - only a few hundred metres - and immediately noticed that there were not nearly as many cars on the road. Then I checked the price of fuel - $2-89/litre! Their dollar has been floated since the coups and is now at about $1-65 to AUS$1. I also learned that their cost of living has virtually doubled, while their salaries have been reduced to an average of about FJ$40 per week!! The people are starving because they can't even afford to buy food. So of course there are about 4 times as many robberies.
This was proved to me on my 2nd night in town. I have always enjoyed walking to Queens Park on a Saturday evening at around 8:00 pm and just talking to the locals - both Fijian and Indian. I was chatting with a nice young Indian bloke when a rather pleasant Fijian muscled in on our conversation. Well of course those 2 races hate each other so the Indian left. The Fijian bloke was rather small for them - about my height - and invited me over to his group to partake of some kava. Before we got there - as soon as we were in the shadows - he forced me against a fence and demanded my money. Well, thank God I'm wise enough not to take my wallet to town, and knew I only had about $30 in my tin of smokes. I surreptitiously withdrew a $2 note and handed it to him, but he demanded the tin and took every last coin. Then he took my watch - only a $10 market job - and went through my toilet bag and took the 3/4 bottle of vodka I had there. All this time he was punching me hard in the ribs and sternum. It was when he demanded my ring - which I've worn for almost 4 years - that I really saw red and was prepared to kill him if I had to - or at least remove both his eyes. Fortunately he must have realized I was serious when I said NO, and decided he'd got enough. Then he made me stay where I was while he went and got the police because I was soliciting!!! 3 times I tried to leave and he kept coming back and threatening me with more punches. Eventually I gave him about 30 seconds and made my escape. When I told the people back at the hotel about it, they advised me just to drop it, because they said the same thing had happened to another bloke some months previously and when he got the cops, they simply took his passport, put him in jail, where 6 months later HE is still waiting trial!! Couldn't wait for Pravin to arrive on Monday morning and take me to the farm.
It's now just too dangerous for Australians to walk around town after dark. During the daylight hours the town seemed very pleasant, and of course there was only fun and friendship out at Nawaicoba. I ended up with some severe bruising although there was nothing to see. All the farmers now have to post sentries on their vegie gardens where they have a hide loaded with sticks and stones and a torch in order to fend off the Fijians who tend to come by around 8:00pm. One house nearby which has power has had their freezer cleaned out 3 times in the past few months - the kitchens are always detached from the house and were never locked before this.
That's enough already for tonight - more adventures tomorrow. David in Ballarat To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected].
