This destination blog will be about information I acquired while visiting Fiji.
Fiji: located next to Australia and above New Zealand
1. Fiji has a hungry past. It is an island once feared by sailors who would rather drown than risk being gobbled up by the warriors on land. As a warrior, consuming another man means you obtain the qualities of what two men accomplish (qualities like strength & wisdom)....or eight, depending on how hungry you are. It was common to dry the human poultry so that it could be jerky. Priests would also have live men thrown in the holes that would hold the beams for their house. The impression is that it would make the foundation stronger. There are many tools for eating people and priests had the special privilage to consume human brain. The tool pictured is specifically for that - and for priests only.
(Yes it is hanging in my kitchen, no it has never been used. The top of the tool is for bashing the brain softer and the prong end is for forking.)
An elderly man who was still eating people 20 years ago - "back when we were sinners" - insists that people taste similar to pig. My love of bacon feels strange now. Keep in mind you never eat someone from your own village. If someone in your village is bad (stole, slept with another's wife) they meet death by tree hanging. Other villages are welcome to take the body and feast.
2. Fiji has missionary influence. They are so friendly in current day that they put 'Minnesota Nice' to shame.
3. Natural spas (like a mud spring) are much cheaper than an indoor salon in the states.
However, low profit can reduce funding for marketing.
4. United States citizens are a rare find in Fiji. Visitors mainly consist of Australians, Indians, and New Zealanders. Their holiday view on Fiji is our version of Hawaii or Mexico. That means accomodations are suited for the other side of the world, including confusing restroom symbols.
To a US citizen these restrooms might BOTH be for men, and perhaps for detectives only?
5. Goodwill donates a lot of clothing from the states to Fijian citizens. I saw a Minnesota Vikings t-shirt walk by. They don't consider what their shirts may represent or care to know. The best sighting was a guy wearing a shirt that said "Free Snooki"
*I was in Fiji because my marine biologist friend (from George Tech) is conducting research on the coral coast and invited me over to volunteer. She lives in a local village far from the resorts. This gave me a unique lens as to what real cultural and environmental threats face this island. (The Coca-Cola Company, China's fishing industry, and continuing to harvest invasive mahagany trees to name a few).
I decided not to write about them here. A lot of serious material is posted in our blog forum (and in class discussion) and I wanted to inject another light entry into the mix now that they are starting to pop up. Yes. I consider the consumption of people a 'light' topic. (hahaha)
Happy Easter - a boring holiday with ham.
WAIT.
Ham = Pig
Pig taste like PEOPLE?
ENJOY >:D
Hi Kim -
ReplyDeleteNice post.
I had somewhat similar bathroom issues in Japan - I can't read any of the Japanese alphabets, so trying to figure out which door to walk through was always nerve-wracking. One very nice restaurant we ate at during our trip had only one bathroom, but it had a urinal so I assumed it's the men's room. I looked and looked for a different one but finally gave up and used it. Thankfully it turned out to be one of their uni-sex bathrooms, but the set-up was so different than ours I couldn't figure it out.
Sorry if that's TMI, but that's one thing all travel guides should clearly include: how to tell which bathroom to enter!
Weird, I figured people would taste like chicken.