Gunusende (the g is silent)

So here is that photo of the rafting trip last week end.

Friday was 'bula Friday', this meant we all had to get dressed up in our best 'bula shirts', if you don't you have to pay a penalty fee. Bula shirts are basically a fashion faux-pas everywhere in the world except here. Think of really bad Hawaiian shirts and you get the idea. Friday was also gunusende which was held after work. This is a kava drinking fund raising session. Firstly kava is a concoction that looks like muddy water made from the root of a pepper plant. I guess its a herbal medicine. Kava has been used throughout the pacific for over 3000 and still has a very strong presence here in Fiji. Its drunk to calm the nerves, promote sociability and also to numb muscle aches. So you basically have three differently sized coconut bowls, one worth 20 cents, 50 cents and 1$. You pay to have someone to drink whatever size you pay for. If you can't drink anymore you have to double the pay and send it back. This gunusende idea doesn't necessarily therefore have to be done with kava. As you can imagine I was a popular target as being my first kava session everyone was really keen see me on the floor. I managed about 2.5 hours of solid drinking and was pretty 'relaxed' with a fairly bloated stomach by the time I left the party, which had shifted into second gear by that time. Its not uncommon for Fijians to drink 'grog' (what they call it over here) till all hours in the morning. In fact I am pretty sure the only 24 hour shops in Fiji are grog shops. So ended up going to an AYAD house party and everyone took note of my very relaxed and laid back demeanour. All in all close to $400 was raised for only $50 worth of kava and it was good to socialise outside of work with some of the staff here. I am also getting much better at sitting on the floor for extended periods of time, I won't, however, go so far to say its comfortatable.


Next is a photo of me and my counter-part Shirley, she has been working at radio pasifik for about six months and has already accomplished a great deal here. She used to work at Radio Fiji for 12 years and amongst other things was the host of the romantic love song request show.
Saturday was an early wake up again as Radio Pasifik was doing an outside broadcast in Sukuna Park (the main park in the middle of Suva). It was for the closing ceremony of the National Youth Week Celebrations and was organised by various NGO's and charitable organisations. The radio volunteers did a great job of mc-ing and held various fun-day competitions and handed out prizes. It was a bit of a small turn-out but it didn't rain which was the lucky.