The Milky Way

This weekend we went to an island on the northwest coast of Vitu Levu. To travel in this country is not so easy… Early morning taxi to the bus station. Trying to find the right bus; we didn’t found the bus from the company we were told to take, but we found another. We took Inter-Cities from Suva to Ellington Warfh, a journey on 150 km. Four hours for an Express Bus gives an impression of the quality the roads hold here in Fiji; they are bumpy and the potholes are uncountable. Our kidneys had a really hard time. No announcement of the stops and just occasionally I asked the bus host to tell me when we are to reach Ellington Wharf. He sad: It’s here and we got off the bus. What luck! We were standing at a junction just in a sugarcane plantation. We had by the guidebook seen that it’s only two kilometers to the harbor. So we took a warm walk to the harbor; a harbor? Two shelters and a small jetty and no boat. Some people in one of the shelters, called a restaurant. The woman helped us to call the resort and a boat arrived in 30 minutes. The sun in zenith, a fairly hard wind and wonderful green-blue water. 20 minutes later we reach the sandy beach of Nanuna-I-Ra’s southeastern side. Two people standing at the beach welcomed us. Our beachfront bure was very nice. Not more than 20 meters to the wonderful water and 30 meters to the restaurant. We took a quick bath as quick as we could and it was as warm and nice as in our dreams about the Pacific. Later in the afternoon we did some snorkeling too but it was a disappointment. This place couldn’t compete with Tambua Sands on the Coral Coast. On this little island the electricity must be produced on the island; the resort had a diesel compressor that was working daytime and was put of at 10pm. No lamps mean that you can see the heaven – and we really did. All the stars and the Milky Way were just astonishing. Personal best…! We stayed for two nights. The journey back to Suva was just like as it was coming here except it was Sunday and a lot of people walking on the way to or from church, all properly dressed. I have one reflection concerning the bus ride: the important role of the bus host (or what we can call a person who writes out the tickets and helps people handling their luggage). He has the money and makes all the works with passengers so the driver can concentrate on driving the bus. And that takes sure all his attention because the road looks like they do. Being two personal on the bus makes it safe for them and It’s always to have a working mate to talk with… The bus tickets are filled in by the bus host and a copy is given to the traveller. This copy is to be hand over to the driver when leaving the bus. Is this a control that everyone has paid for the journey and even a control of how the bus host is handling his job? I think so and it is good! I can just compare this Fijian style with the Swedish were we have problems with security on our public transportation to the extent that the Öresundtraffic can’t control the travellers tickets because the train hosts are working alone and due to the security situation. I just ask myself if Fiji should be considered as a more secure society that Sweden and my answer is by no means: “No”. We have made so many so called rationalizations that we have forgot the main purpose of the activity and we have made many people unemployed. In Sweden it seems to be better, in the name of competition, to have people unemployed and dependent on social welfare and on the job centres jobcoaches than to let every individual have a job to go to and by that means have a chance to feel proud to contribute to the good for everybody. This is not good!