Beqa Island, Fiji
Early morning found us nearing the small island of Beqa (or, spelled phonetically, Mbengga), south of the main Fijian island of Viti Levu. Beqa is surrounded and protected by a barrier reef that prevents the entry of larger ships; no tour ship has ever visited the island and its main village of Daku I Beqa, and we were certainly made welcome. Each arriving Zodiac was greeted with songs, waves, and enthusiastic cries of “Bula!” This village is the home of the firewalkers of Fiji, and a performance was arranged on our behalf. Long before our arrival a fire was burning in a pit filled with stones. We assembled in the field around the pit, as men from the village gathered in an adjacent hut where they engaged in rituals of purification and preparation. They emerged from the hut dressed in yellow and black ti leaves and ceremoniously removed the last smoldering logs to reveal the hot stones. Then, after dividing into several groups at the direction of a leader, each man, in turn, stepped onto the stones, paused long enough to greet us with a “Bula!" and stepped off. Each firewalker did this twice. On the final pass, lest anyone doubted the heat of the rocks, they removed their grass anklets and tossed them between the stones, where they quickly burst into flames. How could they possibly tolerate such heat? Perhaps there are still things in this world that we are just not meant to know!
We were then free to wander about the village and interact with the friendly residents. At the school, which serves children from the three villages of the island, the children were gathered in their green and white uniforms. They delighted us with their songs in beautiful, rich harmony.
Many of us were escorted to the community house. Invitations to enter rang out, and we accepted. We found villagers, men and women, seated cross-legged on woven mats engaging in the social custom of kava. Kava is a mildly narcotic beverage made from the root of a cultivated shrub of the pepper family. The root is shredded, pounded and infused with water to make an earthy beverage that produces a tingling of the lips and a warm glow of relaxation and well being. The kava is dispensed from a carved wooden bowl (tanoa), and served from coconut shells (“high-tide” for a full shell, or “low-tide” for a half-shell). The villagers seemed to take great joy in sharing that custom with us, and we enthusiastically joined in the kava and in dancing to the songs that rang forth, again in rich harmony. Too quickly, the time came to move on. With some reluctance, we crossed the expanse of sand and mud now exposed by the falling tide, and to more songs and waves from our new Fijian friends, we took our leave, bound for Suva, the capital city of Fiji on the main island of Viti Levu.
Early morning found us nearing the small island of Beqa (or, spelled phonetically, Mbengga), south of the main Fijian island of Viti Levu. Beqa is surrounded and protected by a barrier reef that prevents the entry of larger ships; no tour ship has ever visited the island and its main village of Daku I Beqa, and we were certainly made welcome. Each arriving Zodiac was greeted with songs, waves, and enthusiastic cries of “Bula!” This village is the home of the firewalkers of Fiji, and a performance was arranged on our behalf. Long before our arrival a fire was burning in a pit filled with stones. We assembled in the field around the pit, as men from the village gathered in an adjacent hut where they engaged in rituals of purification and preparation. They emerged from the hut dressed in yellow and black ti leaves and ceremoniously removed the last smoldering logs to reveal the hot stones. Then, after dividing into several groups at the direction of a leader, each man, in turn, stepped onto the stones, paused long enough to greet us with a “Bula!" and stepped off. Each firewalker did this twice. On the final pass, lest anyone doubted the heat of the rocks, they removed their grass anklets and tossed them between the stones, where they quickly burst into flames. How could they possibly tolerate such heat? Perhaps there are still things in this world that we are just not meant to know!
We were then free to wander about the village and interact with the friendly residents. At the school, which serves children from the three villages of the island, the children were gathered in their green and white uniforms. They delighted us with their songs in beautiful, rich harmony.
Many of us were escorted to the community house. Invitations to enter rang out, and we accepted. We found villagers, men and women, seated cross-legged on woven mats engaging in the social custom of kava. Kava is a mildly narcotic beverage made from the root of a cultivated shrub of the pepper family. The root is shredded, pounded and infused with water to make an earthy beverage that produces a tingling of the lips and a warm glow of relaxation and well being. The kava is dispensed from a carved wooden bowl (tanoa), and served from coconut shells (“high-tide” for a full shell, or “low-tide” for a half-shell). The villagers seemed to take great joy in sharing that custom with us, and we enthusiastically joined in the kava and in dancing to the songs that rang forth, again in rich harmony. Too quickly, the time came to move on. With some reluctance, we crossed the expanse of sand and mud now exposed by the falling tide, and to more songs and waves from our new Fijian friends, we took our leave, bound for Suva, the capital city of Fiji on the main island of Viti Levu.
