Lee - Week 6 Notes

Note Index | Megan Lee

Megan Lee Week 6 Field Notes excerpts - More economics and village events

Sunday, October 10, 1999 (written 10/14/99)
SUMMARY

I got up at 6 so I could do some reading before church. There was water in the morning for once so I tried to take a bath but in the middle of it the water went off. We had breakfast and went to church at 10:30. It was pouring rain on the way to church and all during the service. Church was as boring and as long as usual. The old women always try to find the Bible passages for me but by the time they find it, the reading is over and the pastor is rambling on in Fijian and I have no idea what he’s talking about so its seems pretty pointless. I basically just stared out the window the whole time and thought about how I would like to go play in the rain instead of sitting there the whole time. I don’t even pretend to pay attention anymore. After church we came home and then went to Ili’s for lunch. Everyone was there because they were having a special feast for their oldest son Emosi because he got the highest mark in his class. I stayed there for about an hour and a half and then Akini came down and said that Karen and Steve were here. They came to get my e-mail disk. They stayed for about half and hour. I watched rugby with the guys for a little after they had left and then read "The Poisonwood Bible" for a while and took a nap. Stephanie stopped by with two girls from her village. They were going to the AOG church in Naivuvuni but it was cancelled for some reason. They stayed and had tea and talked for a while and then they went back. We had dinner around seven and watched more rugby replays and then I did a little work and went to bed around eleven.
EMOSI’S CELEBRATION

Around one o’clock Nina and I went to Ili and Kem’s. We went in the kitchen door, while the men used the porch door. Nina brought a plate of kasava and four fried fish. There was already a large group of women in the kitchen preparing the food. The men sat in the other room and talked and watched television. Ili’s brother and sister-in-law and their children had come for the celebration from Nadi. She took pictures during the whole afternoon. All together there were about 40 people in the house to eat. They were not all from the same mataqali either. People from all over the village came to eat and celebrate. In the big room there was a long table cloth laid out on the floor with all the food on it. There was more food than 100 people could have eaten. All of the women had made one or two dishes to bring and share. There was fried and boiled fish, kasava, taro, bele, lolo, curry and rice, chicken, watermelon, mutton, and several other dishes. Before the men ate, a man named Emosi, who is Emosi’s name sake, gave a speech in his honor. Emosi sat at the head of the table wrapped in masi and wore a wreath of flowers around his neck. After the speech, the children were sent into the kitchen to eat. The men, and I, ate first. The television was on during our meal so there wasn’t much conversation, everyone watched a net ball game while they ate. When we had finished, the women took our plates and put out new ones for themselves. While the women ate, the men sat around and watched rugby. The little kids brought ice cream cones for everyone. After the women had finished eating, everyone relaxed for a little while and then the women starting washing the dishes while the men sat and talked and watched television.

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Wednesday, October 13, 1999 (written 10/14/99)
SUMMARY

We were at the Rakiraki Hotel in the morning. I had the alarm set for 6:20 from yesterday morning and I never turned it off so at 6:20 it went off. Instead of turning it off I kept hitting snooze so it was going off for about an hour before I finally got out of bed. We had breakfast at the hotel, the usual, Continental Sunrise Breakfast. After breakfast we finished our class and then did a little work. Apryle and I left the hotel a little before one and went to town. We left our stuff at the Education office so we wouldn’t have to carry it around while we shopped. I got some snacks and a new sulu and a soccer ball so I can finally get some exercise. We went back to the education office and got our stuff and went to Vitawa. We got there around 2:30 or so. We stayed at Apryle’s house for a little while and then went for a walk around the village. We wanted to go horse back riding but we couldn’t find anyone with a horse so we want back to her house. Tila was doing something at the kindergarten. We played soccer with Semi and the little kids for a while. I nailed some poor little girl in the head with the ball. I felt so bad, she was so scared. We played for about an hour and a half in Apryle’s yard. After we played soccer we played volleyball for a while and then I came back to Naivuvuni. Louisa and Maro were in Vitawa visiting someone so I came back with them. There was a celebration in the village to celebrate the new water tank being finished. When we came back Tata and some of the women were preparing the mats and material outside of the community center. I went home and took a quick bath and went down to the community center with Koni. Nina stayed home with Semesa. Nana had to go to a funeral in Malake so she wasn’t here. When we got to the community center Tata was in the middle of doing the sevusevu to the men who had been in charge of the tank. I stayed there for the celebration until about ten o’clock and then came home with Tata. He is sick so he didn’t stay for very long either. Everyone told me that usually he would stay and drink grog all night.
VILLAGE CELEBRATION FOR THE WATER TANK

When Koni and I got to the community center Tata was performing a sevusevu for the three men from the Public Works Department who had been in charge of the completion of the water tank. While he performed the sevusevu we stood outside. When he had finished we went inside through the door farthest from where the men were sitting. The women were at this end of the hall, preparing the food. Before we had arrived, there was a presentation to the PWD men. There was one mat for each of them and also three long lengths of material that were presented to them by the women of the village. These were laying by the door when we got there and later when the men left they took them with them. The hall was decorated with flowers and big leaves in bouquets and tied at each of the windows. The curtains were all drawn back and the entire floor covered with mats. There were about 10 men sitting at the far end of the room, including Paula, the head of the village and Tata as well as the three men from the PWD and the village pastor. After Tata had finished the sevusevu, the pastor said a prayer. Then they drank kava. Akini served the kava at first but then after a while one of Tata’s other sons (nephews) served. Paula, the chief did not speak during the entire evening. Tata spoke a lot, both formally and also chatting with the other men. As they drank more and more men and young guys from Naivuvuni and from Vitawa came and joined them. They did not sit in the circle, but rather sat in a group behind the main circle. There were probably at one point about 30 men drinking together. They served the men from a coconut bowl and also from a tin bowl. There were so many people that it was hard to tell who was drinking after who, and who could use what bowl. I think that they stopped paying attention to the respect issues after a while because it got too hard to keep track because they did not drink in the same order every time. They only clapped for the men sitting in the original circle. Every twenty minutes or so they had to mix a new bowl of grog. Outside, several men were pounding kava in a bucket. They put the root in the bucket with a little bit of water and then pounded it with a pole until it was a fine powder. Then they brought it inside and mixed it with more water in the kava bowl.

While the men drank grog at one end of the hall, the women got the food ready at the other. There were five or six huge pots full of food and every family brought a dish or two to contribute to the dinner. There was a big bucket with juice in it. The older women sat by the door and stirred the pots and put food on plates for the "table" while the younger women set the table and washed dishes. Down the middle of the hall they laid out a long tablecloth with all the food on it. There was no silverware but everyone got a small plastic cup for their juice. There was fried and boiled fish, mutton, beef, chicken, rice, curry, cucumbers, kasava, taro, lolo for the fish, breadfruit, bananas, bread, and many other dishes. The PWD men ate first at the head of the table with a bunch of the younger guys and myself. About twenty people ate at one time. The older men, Paula and Tata and the pastor and the other men sitting in the circle, and Akini because he was serving, never ate. When we got home later, someone had brought food for Tata and Akini. After we had finished, the women cleared our places and quickly washed the dishes and put them out for the next group of men to eat. After the second group of men ate, the little kids ate and some of the women. After they had finished another group of women ate and then they began clearing all the food and washing the dishes. After the men finished eating they went and joined the kava group again. After the women had washed the dishes and packed up all the leftover food some of them started to go home. The little kids started to fall asleep on the floor and their mothers covered them with blankets and let them sleep there. The men started to dwindle from the kava circle around ten o’clock. I stayed and drank kava with them, the only woman invited into the circle of course, and left with Tata around 10:30. Most of the women had left by then but some of them were still talking and washing.

Nina said that we could dance at the celebration but once we were there one of the men told me that nothing else was going to happen for the night, that the men would just sit and drink kava until sunrise, so I left. When we got home though I heard music coming from down the hill so I think that they were dancing.
PERSONAL REACTIONS

The celebration was kind of fun, it was the first time that I’ve seen the whole village, or most of it anyway, come together for anything. I’m still having trouble dealing with the gender segregation stuff though. The men basically didn’t acknowledge that the women were there at all. They were never thanked, that I was anyway, for preparing all the food and feeding them all. I wish that I had been able to see the actual presentation of the mats and material to the men. I want to ask Tata what exactly he said at the sevusevu but he’s sick and has been at the hospital or in bed for the last couple of days. Maybe tomorrow I will get a chance to talk to him about it.

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Thursday, October 14, 1999 (written 10/15/99)
SUMMARY

I got up at 6:30 this morning and had breakfast with Nina and Tata. Nana had still not come back from Malake. After breakfast I did my laundry which took almost two hours to wash, rinse, ring and hang up. I did work from about 10 until 12:30 and then went outside and sat with Koni, Amelia, and Lepani for a while. Nina, Tata and I had lunch together (boiled fish), and then I started to read for a while but I fell asleep. At 2:30 I went out to do some work. I went to visit Wati and talked to her for about an hour. When the little kids got home from school I gave them the soccer ball and watched them play for a little while. I wanted to talk to Lewa, Lepani’s sister and Graham’s mother, but she wasn’t home, everyone was at Arieta’s house so Bill and I went up there to see the PWD men leaving. Arieta was so sad, they had been living in her house for the nine weeks they were here, she was crying when they left. After they had gone I went back down the hill and played soccer for a little while with the older guys who were playing. Then I went back to see Lewa. I stayed there until about 6 and then went home when it started to get dark. I stayed home for the rest of the night, I folded my laundry and played with Mesa for about an hour while I watched the news with Tata. I played cards with Pena, Louisa and Maro’s son, Louisa went to Lautoka for something so Maro and Pena stayed at our house. We had more boiled fish for dinner and then I did work for a while. I heard rugby on television so I went to watch for a little break but then Dakui was here and I started talking to him and never went back to doing work. We watched rugby and played cards and talked until almost three in the morning.
LEWA (ECONOMIC SURVEY)

There are five people living in the house now. Lewa and her son Graham who is seven and two of her tavale, Lepani and Bear and her aunt. Her two tavale have been living with her since they were little children (they are now in their twenties). When they were young they lived with her father, who passed away in January, and their mother worked in the hospital in Lautoka. When she retired in 1998, she came to live there permanently. No one in the house is currently employed. Lepani and Bear’s youngest brother, who is twenty is now living in Lautoka and working in the hospital. Lepani used to work in Lautoka at his sister’s company but came back to live in the village.

The family has no permanent source of income. Lepani and Bear fish sometimes, but most of what they catch the family eats. If they have a large catch they will sell the extra fish for $5 a bundle. She estimated that they make between $30 and $40 a month selling fish. They also sell ice pops from the house. Lewa buys a bag of thirty pops for $1.70 and sells them for ten cents each. She makes a profit of $1.30. She estimated that she sells between four and five bags a week, for a profit of $5.20 or $6.50 each week.

Lewa’s brother in Lautoka, who has taken over his mother’s job at the hospital, brings about $20 a week for the family. The family’s main source of income is from Lewa’s sister in Australia. She sends the family anything that they ask for. She and her husband live in Australia and run a cooling and refrigeration business there. They also have an office in Lautoka. They come to Fiji often to work at the business in Lautoka and visit the family. They have just paid for an addition on the house. They have added one room that right now is the living room and kitchen. They are also going to add two more rooms, a separate kitchen and a dining room. When the addition is finished, it will more than double the size of the house. Three years ago she also bought the boat for the family. She has paid for Lewa and Graham to go to Australia twice for a holiday. She also sends clothes back for the family.

The family receives money from the land lease. The mataqali receives about $1000 twice a year for the land lease. Some money is taken out to pay for mataqali functions. When they actually receive their money they get twenty dollars, twice a year.

The family has two payments that they make monthly to Courts. They are paying for their freezer and their stereo. Each payment is $38 a month, $72 total each month. They do not have any other bank loans or payments to make.

Lewa estimated that they spend between $20 and $30 each week for food. The electricity bill is about $20 a month. Lewa does not have to pay for Graham’s tuition at school. She pays $40 a year for his uniforms and books and stationary. He walks to school so she doesn’t have to pay for the bus for him. They may buy clothes once or twice a year but usually they buy material and have clothes made because it is cheaper. They buy four meters of material for $6 and pay an Indian woman $4 to make the clothes. The may have a new dress made three times a year or so. Every week the family donates $4 to the church. Once a year, in April, each family has to donate $100 to the village. The money that they village collects is used for a project that will benefit the entire community. This year the village raised over $7000. The money was used for the new water tank. Additionally, each family must donate to their mataqali. The family donates between $100 and $150 each year for the mataqali. In addition to this, each family is responsible for paying for funerals and weddings that may occur within the immediate family. In January when Lewa’s father died, they estimated that for the funeral, and then the 10, 50, and 100 night ceremonies, they spent close to $3000. The family bought five cows for the funeral and then for each of the ceremonies that followed they had to provide a cow. Each of the cows costs $300. She said that they did not buy all the cows. Other families in their mataqali donated cows to help them because they could not afford to buy all the cows themselves. They also had to provide meals for everyone who attended the funeral for the two or three days that they were here. Lewa said that this is why Fijian families keep cows, pigs and goats, so that they will be prepared if there is an occasion when they are needed. Having your own animals is cheaper than having to buy them for every occasion.

Lewa said that people today have to spend more than their parents and relatives in the past did. Because they have to use money today, whereas their relatives used the whale’s tooth and more culturally valuable items that had little economic value, today they are expected to provide store bought items like tinned fish and kerosene that cost more and put more of a strain on the family income. Providing for a funeral, which is the most expensive ceremony, can cost more than the family’s income in an entire year.

She and her family are happy with what they have. They do not have to worry about having enough because they know that they have her sister to provide for them. The only thing they have to make sure they have enough for each month is the electricity bill. Her sister will make the payments to Courts for them if they do not have enough each month. Living and being together is enough for them. If they need something that they don’t have very badly, they can always go to their neighbors or their family to get it. Sharing and helping each other is the most important part of their life, it is more important than making a lot of money. People from the village ask to borrow money and they give what they can, even if they do not have a lot to spare. People may ask for $50 or $100 and if they can get it, they will help and give it to them.

Lewa said that the amount that they have to pay for ceremonies, funerals in particular is too much but that they cannot change it because it is the custom and the way it has always been done. They have to provide the cows and food for the family that comes to the funeral because they have always done it that way and it cannot be changed. Funerals are becoming more expensive, not less as people have more access to money.

Friday, October 15, 1999 (written 10/18/99)

I talked to Ili in the morning and she gave me some information for my economics survey. They are now selling fish from their house to add extra income. Kem brings frozen fish from Suva when he comes home on the weekends and Ili sells it from the house. She sells bags for $2 each. They buy the fish for $20 in Suva and end up making between a two or four dollar profit. From the bag that Kem brings they also take fish our for themselves for the week. They have stopped eating meat because Ili has heard that meat is unhealthy.

Ili also commented on the fact that funerals were getting to be too expensive. She said that people come and do not bring anything with them to contribute. They come only to eat what has been prepared by the family of the deceased. The family is expected to feed everyone who comes for the duration of their stay which could be as long as ten nights, if they have traveled a great distance and are not leaving until after the tenth night ceremony. The family may have to provide as many as five cows for the funeral and then at least one for each feast on the fourth, tenth, fiftieth, and hundredth nights, which is extremely costly to feed everyone who comes. Many people come to the funeral and do not offer anything, mats or food and they eat a lot and take what they can. She said that the ceremony is good because it brings people together but that Western funerals are better because it is not as long and does not require providing so much for the people who come. The event happens and then it is over and everyone leaves and gets on with their life, is basically what she said, and they don’t keep coming back and requiring all these big feasts which are very burdensome to provide for.

Tata also mentioned something about the amounts have gave me being wrong for the cane farming. He couldn’t really explain it, but I think what he was trying to tell me was that what he actually makes, after expenses is around fifty dollars a ton. What he had told me before was that he makes about $25 a ton. Fifty dollars a ton seems a lot more likely to me. Several people have mentioned to me that he is a rich man, but from what he says he feels like he is barely coming out even from the money that he makes farming.

Wati told me that she saw me at the celebration on Wednesday night and that she wanted to come to say hello but she couldn’t. Her husband did not come home this weekend so she did not have any money to prepare a dish for the party. She said that if she had shown up without anything to share and then ate the food there people would talk about her. They would say that she was being greedy because she did not help provide for the others yet she ate some of the food herself. They would think that she is not acting as part of the whole community but is only thinking of taking care of herself.

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