Every night at Nukubati the staff find you to bring champagne and canapes to watch the sunset. After your champagne toast to the sun’s daily work we get ready and head to the main pavillion for dinner. Keith and I have been playing Scrabble before dinner (who knew jape is a word?) and then settle into our lovely evening meal.
Tonight though was the last night for the other guests on the island and Richard’s 50th birthday. The people that live and work on Nukubati decided to throw a party with kava (the local drink) and a meke (traditional Fijian dancing). Everyone who lives on the island gathers in the afternoon and starts drinking kava sitting on bamboo mats. Traditionally they don’t drink alcohol so they sit around this large wooden bowl (tanoa) that houses this traditional drink of grounded pepper root mixed with water. It is not that tasty but has a bit of a sedative effect and your tongue starts to tingle. There was 20-30 people there from the village and they asked us to sit with them and drink kava. Levi is tall and lanky with an infectious bright smile. He was pouring the kava and said I could tell him I didn’t want anymore at any time. He also taught Keith and I how to clap once (Bula!) before the drink and 3 times (Vinaka) after. After a few bowls of kava and some beautiful guitar and ukelele music Gordon asked us to sit on the chairs because they were going to do the traditional dance. Levi must have lost a bet because he was dressed as the women and had a long sarong and a flower in his hair. He clearly had not done the dance before but he was laughing and grinning from ear to ear. There were many different dances. Sarah could get everybody moving and was center stage waving her arms and shaking her hips. As the women (and Levi) danced the rest of the staff/people living on the island sang in 4 part harmony behind them. It was beautiful. Then we all sang Happy Birthday and Richard’s cake came and he blew out his candles. They definitely saved the best for last.
In the last song they sang again in gorgeous 4 part harmonies and then Levi came up with a piece of paper. You could tell he was a bit nervous but still had this beautiful playful, sheepish grin. In grand paraphrasing he thanked us all for coming to spend time at Nukubati with their family. He told Karl he was sorry that he couldn’t take him out fishing earlier in the week cause it was windy but that he was glad he caught some fish that we shared at dinner as sashimi (lovely!) and that he had a chance to unwind from the day. He hoped that Karen and Isabella had a good time snorkelling and laughing together. He thanked Terry and Richard for celebrating their birthdays at Nukubati (they both turned 50) and how Gordon had enjoyed their evening talks. I can’t remember great details of the others because Levi actually started with us. He glanced up from his paper and smiled and said Welcome Amanda and Keith (again paraphrasing) Thank you for sharing your special anniversary with us. We know you’ve had a hard year, that Amanda put in a lot of work in her medical specialty and that Keith was a very good support to his family, watching over the children (at this point I already started tearing up and Keith said he did too). We hope you enjoy your time with us and spend some time getting a good night sleep and relaxing. I honestly, can’t remember Levi’s exact words. What I remember is his face, his eye contact, the sincerity in how he spoke and in how the people of Nukubati made us feel. I thought I was going to be this big teary loser but I looked around and everyone was teary. The staff really listened and had cared about what had brought us all here and were so hospitable and loving. Sometimes you don’t know what you need til you get it. Vinaka to the amazing people at Nukubati who truly see us, who care for us, who have embraced us as family - you are everything we didn’t know we needed and we are forever grateful.
No comments:
Post a Comment