Dear Friends,
Having survived the cyclone at Nawaicoba (which by the way is
pronounced Nuh-why-thom'-buh), Saturday December 22nd found us in the
village of Barotu near Raki Raki visiting the home of Roshlin's
father. The weather was scorching and still with of course no power
for any fans. So we spent a very pleasant time nearby swimming in the
local river, which is strangely quite tidal yet never salty.
This particular bend in the river is my ideal swimming spot complete
with a large ancient tree and tarzan-like vines hanging down with
which you can swing and jump etc. The kids had a tyre tube and a
small raft, called locally a billi-billi. This raft is a Fijian
traditional one composed of about 4 thick pieces of bamboo lashed together.
After the parents had completed their dip I was left in the water
with all the kids - about 8 of them ranging from 5 to 20 years of
age. We were having a ball when one 13 year boy named Muna noticed
that 3 of the girls were on the billi-billi and of course he had to
tip them off. Now all the local kids think they are really good
swimmers, but in fact they can barely manage a few strokes, whereas
my friend Praveen's 19 year old daughter Joshlin can't swim a stroke.
I can only assume that Joshlin had no idea that the water was 4
metres deep - or else she is a complete air head. I immediately saw
the horror and panic on her face as she went down and automatically
swam over to save her. However, like all drowning people she simply
put her hand on my head and pushed me down!! I shall never forget
seeing first her horror, then yellow, brown, black! She did this 3
times and still I couldn't turn her round to reach the raft. You must
realize that there were also about 5 other kids all thrashing about
trying to save themselves too.
If Joshlin had pushed me down a 4th time, I'm sure I wouldn't have
made it. But eventually I somehow got her on to the raft and
side-stroked back to the shore to recover. Sure gave my stent a work
out but at least I didn'[t have any chest pain as such.
The irony of the whole affair was that the adults on shore thought we
were having a whale of a time. But then afterwards Joshlin, although
quite aware that I'd saved her life, didn't thank me, but spent hours
apologizing for daring to actually touch my head - apparently a no-no
in Hindu culture. Thank goodness I was there, for if I hadn't been
she certainly would have drowned, no doubt taking a number of others with her.
I do have to confess worrying about my unfinished jumper on the 3rd
trip to the bottom....
David in Ballarat, AUS
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