Boy, Oh, Boy. What a week - I'm glad its over because it has been a crazy one. This week was the Gold Town Carnival in Tauva! Chanae and I have been helping the Gold Foundation for a few weeks now to prepare for this carnival and we spent every day in Tavua - hence the long week. Every year this carnival has young women vie for the Miss Gold Crown in the carnival pageant. However, the only thing you have to do for this title is raise the most money to be donated to the Gold Foundation. There were 5 girls in the running this year, but 3 of them dropped out last minute. So, naturally, they turned to the 2 white girl volunteers to fill one of the positions. They asked Chanae to do the job and they called me as her "manager". We both thought this was an absurd idea - an American girl in a Fijian town carnival? No way.
They said they needed "help" and we were from "Help" International so this should be in our nature to lend a helping hand. Nice… they pulled a fast one on us… So what was expected to be long days of manning a HELP International booth at the carnival grounds, turned into pampering with the contending "Queens". We had delicious meals paid for us, got a tour of the Fiji Water Plant, were forced to wear makeup and do our hair (which is weird when you haven't cared about your looks for a month) and were given special attention from the Board of Trustees of the Foundation.
Did I complain about the change of events? Not one bit. It was like a week long vacation.
The week was filled with lots of laughs between Chanae and I because of how chaotic it all was especially with everyone on "Fiji Time" (ie: the walking parade was supposed to start at 1pm on Saturday. It started at 2:30pm).
Carnivals in Fiji are very different then in America.
Example 1: Their Ferris Wheels are like Ferris Wheels of Death. They are the fastest machines and they look like they're made from match sticks. You get on and you can ride the thing till the cows come home. We had to yell at the operator to let us off b/c we were starting to feel sick…yeah, it was bad.
Example 2: There was a "Best Breast-Fed Baby" Contest. Not kidding.
Example 3: They had a whole nights entertainment dedicated to the Priscilla's of Tavua. Priscillas here in Fiji are commonly known as "cross-dressers" in America. Yup, a night devoted to the trannys - and this was a paid event too! $2 to see 7 "shims" prance around on stage, dance to their hearts content and flip their wigs back and forth. The best part about it - I was asked to be a judge. Did I laugh the whole time? Yes. Did I feel uncomfortable at all? Yes. Will I ever forget that night? Never.
When the scores were tallied, I was summoned on stage where I put the sashes on the winners. I felt so awkward because I was the only "true" girl on stage and I had to fake a smile and tell them "good job" as I gave them their consolation prizes and draped a sash on them. The winner of the night was so overwhelmed with joy that he/she asked to hug me. Yikes. Truly, an unforgettable night.. sadly.
At the end of our stay in Tavua, we were very impressed, once again, by the generosity of the Fijian people. People we had met just days ago were offering up their home for us to stay in, offering Chanae outfits to wear for each evening Ceremony, buying us food throughout the week. We were overwhelmed with kindness and compassion from the people of Tavua.
I wish American's were this open and trusting of others. People here talk to you to be friendly and to get to know you. I feel like in America were trained to question the motives of everyone - there must be something they're wanting from me… Here, its different and I love it. Everyone needs a trip to Fiji to see what I mean.
Oh and in case you're wondering, Miss Help
, as she came to be known, took 2nd runner up. We were expecting that seeing as she was white, raised no money and had no desire to be in the contest. hahaha. Also, we won for best "Float" in the parade (got a trophy!) - probably because we had about 50 Fijian kids walking with us shouting out "HELP International!" on my count. It was an awesome sight.
Sota Tale!
(See you later!)
Miss Helps Manager
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