The reality of life in these places has been experienced. Ties have been made with people, faces aligned to a country, and an understanding of the land that they live on. My latest assignment for my development studies course is on development induced migration. You might think about the three gorges dam, or other high profile mass re-locations.  But there are countless stories like this on smaller scales around the pacific.

Right now I’m thinking of what we’ve seen along the way, not necessarily experienced directly, but through the stories of people we’ve met…

* Displacement from Bikini island for nuclear testing for “the good of mankind”

* The impact of world war two on the Marshall islands and Kiribati.

* Displacement from French nuclear testing in polynesia

* Banaba island resettlement to Rabi island Fiji. And while we can say the above didn’t have a direct link to New Zealand – this last one did.

Phosphate spraying in Northern NZ from ‘Our sea of phosphate’ by Katerina Teaiwa

For a low price the British Phosphate commission (BPC – including NZ and Aus) stripped Banaba of it’s phosphate by the ship load. Much of this was used in New Zealand for fertilizer turning hill country soil into arable and lucrative land. So we are connected to the people of Banaba as the phosphate from their island helped us increase agricultural fertility in the 50s and 60s. And we are connected to the people of Banaba in the sense that in gaining our fertile land, they lost theirs.

This connection isn’t just true for people of the pacific. We are connected to people in China who make some of the products we consume, the factories that serve us derive their power from the three gorges. We also may even be connected to the people in Congo who work in Coltan mines so we can have phone batteries, and other electronics. We live in a world where we have no idea who makes our products. We don’t see who, or what environments are affected by our purchases.

Cheers, salut, skal, and all that to the wonderful people we’ve met over the past few months.

In Fiji when you anchor off a village you should go ashore, make yourself known to the chief and he will welcome you to the village. The catch is he will only welcome you to the village if you come bearing a 1/3-1/2 kilo package of Yaqona, aka Kava. This needs to be appropriately bundled in newspaper (which is apparently read from front to back) and the long twirly sticks of Yaqona are tied together with a piece of ribbon. This tradition goes for Fijians and foreigners alike, and we found it a really nice way to experience the culture. Once the ceremony is finished you are part of the village and are allowed to walk through it, fish, swim, etc. Here’s a picture of the liquor cabinet on Confederate stocked with Kava and ready for action.

In Savusavu we caught up with a few boats we met in Tonga – Celtic castle and Toodles. We are loving the somewhat transient community we find ourselves in, and the instant respect for anyone we meet knowing that they have crossed an ocean to get where they are.  All the moments we are sharing with people along the way are really special. We spent about a week with Kate and Gary (a fellow Kiwi couple) with some awesome convos over rum, fish, fiji golds, and a random yet fantastic meal in the thriving metropolis that is labassa.

Tis a good chance to thnk everyone we’ve met so far for the good times and community spirity. Big shout outs to Trish and Dave off Halcyon 2 and Geoff and Sharon off Silhouette who we left behind in Tonga but loved spending time with you guys.