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Laundry like prayer flags flies
All over the island, laundry hung on clotheslines. And although we saw washing machines for sale in the big store in Somosoma Village, we saw constant evidence of laundry being done in the small streams that make their way from the mountains to the sea.
Many people still wear the traditional sulu (or sarong) and my favorite clotheslines were the ones that had a row of sulu rectangles drying in the sun.
This house was above the ocean – that’s what you can see behind those trees – and the laundry flapped like prayer flags.
Taveuni Island, Fiji
photographed 7.5.2013
The day breaks gently
Our side of the island faced west, which meant that the dramatic evenings were offset by gentle mornings, with a flat ocean and clouds that were in a hurry to be somewhere else before full daylight.
Taveuni Island, Fiji
photographed 7.3.2012
The sea is a friend to no one
Airport security’s done on a little bit smaller scale on Taveuni; this gentleman was hard at work, doing something airport-related, with his back toward an open door. No one stopped me from taking a photograph, and I wasn’t pulled for additional security screening when we left. In fact, there wasn’t any kind of security screening when we left.
I like the glass jalousie windows – not all the houses on the island had glass windows, but the ones that did had jalousies. I liked the worn furniture.
But mostly I liked the reminder, pinned to the bulletin board, that the sea is a friend to no one.
Matei Airport
Taveuni Island, Fiji
photographed 7.6.2013
Toilet
“You’re taking a picture of….the bathroom?” the woman asked me. (She was, obviously, unfamiliar with my work.)
So, of course I took a picture of the bathroom. And not just THIS bathroom either – I took several photos of the restroom at the airport on Taveuni.
(Now that I re-read this, it strikes me that maybe there is something a little odd about taking pictures of bathrooms. Perhaps I’ve said too much.)
Bouma National Heritage Park
Taveuni Island, Fiji
photographed 7.6.2013
Bus girl
The main town on the island of Taveuni is Somosomo Village; it’s known as a chiefly town, a designation indicating the residence of a chief who has descended from the traditional rulers of this part of the island. Somosomo Village has most of the island’s commerce, a school or two, and the transit center. Buses needing to make transfers at the center back into the dirt parking lot from the main road, which lets them pull straight out into traffic.
Our friendly guide Sepo told us that very few islanders have seen both the northern and southern ends of the island; the road’s not paved the entire way, and travel is costly. Instead, villagers from the ends of the island come to Somosomo Village once or twice a month to shop, then go back home. Sepo himself first made the trip all the way to the northern end of the island only a few years ago. (To put it into perspective, the island is less than 30 miles long.)
I spotted this little girl on the open-air bus that was headed south from the transit center.
Somosomo Village
Taveuni Island, FIji
photographed 7.5.2013
One Day | One Image 