Scaling the Nawi Hill for Delicious Chinese Dishes
Print this Page- By John Penisten
- Country: Fiji
- Dates of Service: 1968–1969
It was about a five-mile walk from the village of Nawi to Nutuvu at Buca Bay. It was early 1968, and I'd only been in-country a few weeks as a member of Fiji I, the very first Peace Corps group to arrive in Fiji. I was still very much into the adjustment period of life as a Peace Corps Volunteer working for the Fiji department of agriculture in the remote Cakaudrove Province on the island of Vanua Levu. My alarm clock rang very early, even before most of my rural village was awake. The sun was just turning the sky pink on the eastern horizon. Since I had no cooking facilities in the bure I slept in, I splashed water on my face, brushed my teeth, and left without breakfast.
Nawi sits on a flat coastal strip surrounded by coconut groves. Away from the coast, the steep, hilly interior is dense tropical rain forest.
Behind the village, the road passes by and rises sharply to the west. The hill is a long, steep grade, covered only with loose gravel that makes the walk difficult. It is hard to get sure footing. Its hazardous condition is partly why the local Buca Bay bus wouldn't travel on the hill.
The Nawi hill is the most difficult part of the entire walk over to Nutuvu, where one caught the "jungle bus" (as we Volunteers called it) to take the 40-mile trip to the provincial center, Savusavu.
The hill is about a mile long, winding up through the bush, rising from sea level to several hundred feet
in elevation at the summit. Once at the summit, I was drenched with perspiration, even though it was still early morning and the sun was low in the sky. The humidity was high and that made the walk difficult.
Winding down the western slope was much easier, of course. The sun was blocked, providing cool shade that was a welcome relief and made the walk down a breeze. At the bottom of the slope was a relatively flat stretch of road leading to the seacoast again, which it followed to Nutuvu.
Except for the hill, it was a pleasant early morning walk. It was
a time to take in the beautiful, pristine countryside and to try
to sort out my thoughts. If for no other reason, the walk was necessary
because it was the only way for me to get out of Nawi, unless I
wanted to wait indefinitely for the agriculture Land Rover from
Savusavu,
which usually made a daily run to Buca Bay. With a population of
around 2,000, Savusavu was the largest town in the province. The
prospect of a big breakfast in Savusavu when I got there kept me
going.
Eggs,
meat,
bread,
coffee—these
were things worth walking up the Nawi hill at such an early
morning
hour.
Perhaps because it is one of the basics for survival, food was
a critical adjustment for us new Volunteers. The average Fijian
village
diet is heavy on starch and carbohydrates and short on protein.
Starchy foods such as rice and root crops of dalo, cassava,
and yams predominate. Breadfruit is a seasonal food and is perhaps
even preferable to the
other starchy foods. In many areas of Fiji, fish is a staple, especially
fresh fish from the ocean. More often than not, however, fish in
the diet was usually canned mackerel, at least where I lived. Fresh
meat
was scarce, and what meat we had was often the canned corned beef
variety. And even fresh bread was an unknown commodity in Buca
Bay.
The initial adjustment to a diet of tea, cassava, dalo,
yam, rice, and fish was a hard one. And even though we ate, we
sometimes finished
a meal totally unsatisfied, with hunger returning shortly after.
Visions of hamburgers, pizza, eggs, bread, and hundreds of other
things played on our imagination. There was no cupboard or refrigerator
to raid at night. No readily available snacks were to be had. Only
after several weeks of adjustment did I begin to get comfortable
with the diet.
However, I think I never really completely adjusted to it. Perhaps
it was more a case of tolerating it. I recall that, later, as I
made frequent trips into Savusavu, one of my biggest pleasures
was the
anticipation of some good meals at one of the cafes in town. There
one could get fresh beef and mutton, along with eggs, bread, and
other supplies. This was a welcome change of fare from the village
diet.
There were just two other Fiji Volunteers from the first group
in all of Cakaudrove in 1968–1969—my good friends Charles
Matthews and
Dave Reed. A few others came and went, but the three of us somehow
managed to tough it out. Like me, Charles and Dave were attached
to the agriculture department. We conducted the first agricultural
census in the province and got to be quite the bushwhackers, working
for weeks at a time
in remote, isolated regions. To Peace Corps Suva, we became known
as the infamous Cakaudrove Team.
Our favorite rendezvous in Savusavu became Ping
Ho's Cafe or Vale
ni Kana (House of Food). Ping's was located directly on the
road winding along Savusavu Bay about midway in the settlement, surrounded
by several Indian shops. It was an antiquated wooden building with
metal roof, the usual type of structure, except for the fact that
it
was painted a bright blue-green. The sign advertising Ping Ho's Cafe
stated: "Delicious Chinese Dishes." That was somewhat misleading,
however, as the only Chinese food Ping's ever had was a passable
beef chop suey. The rest of the menu covered the usual steak and
eggs, fried
fish, beef, pork, and mutton curry.
Ping Ho was in his late 60s and was from China. He had been in
the islands a long time, ending up in Savusavu, and had opened
his cafe
years ago. We became good friends with Ping, and he always enjoyed
having us stop in his cafe. He often
fixed
us special meals, or added a special little dessert whenever we
turned up at his cafe, tired and hungry.
The five-mile hike out of Nawi to catch an early morning
jungle bus and the 40-mile ride from Buca Bay to Savusavu were
well worth it to savor
the "Delicious Chinese Dishes" at Ping Ho's cafe.