As a young village girl ‘walks’ up a palm tree, then using her feet she kicks and dislodges the coconuts, with them coming raining down to the ground with a ‘thud’. A village elder with his machete slashes the tops off and passes them around for the team to drink the freshesh of fresh coconut milk and its silky-soft flesh.
The children were in awe as they drank from the shells, “it tastes like L&P”, “it never like dat at ome”.
We had walked through the plantations, past small squatter villages to reach this remote small fishing village which is supported by the Anglican Church of Polynesia and Anglican Missions Board in NZ.
This village of Nadawa exist on land they don’t own.
They live by the crops they grow around them and the fish they catch in the sea. Their children walk daily through the plantation to catch a bus to attend the Anglican School an hour away. Last year a girl from this squatter settlement was the School Dux.
And they are happy.
Life is tranquil, they have enough to live on (most of the time), they have family and community, and their village chief – a young man is a Christian man teaching and preaching weekly in their own church. He commutes weekly to Suva, another hour away, for weekly Christian training at the St John’s Bible College, where the team is staying.
Their only concern is lack of land ownership. Now in partnership with these Anglican agencies mentioned, and key support staff like Joe, money is being raised to secure this 3.5acre village site for them. The Christian faith in action.