Cannibals, sugar mills, and churches: the Suncoast in Fiji

The taxi picks us up from Nadi International Airport and off we go on a 2.5hr ride to the beautiful Suncoast of Fiji in the north eastern corner of the island.

We drive miles and miles of country roads, past houses with chickens, pigs and goats in the front yard, cattle feeding off the yellow pastures (we are told, that it’s been unusally dry, with no further rain expected for at least another two months), and colourful washing hanging from the laundry lines.

Bigger groups and families are sitting in the shades of their porches or under the trees, a grandfather has his grandchild dozing in his lap. There are sugar cane fields for miles, lots and lots of them, in all stages of growth and harvest. Troops of workers are busy with burning the stubs, sometimes gangs are cutting the canes.

The roads are busy with public buses, and the omnipresent sugar cane trucks, dangerously overloaded with massive canes that add another 10cm to either side of the truck. School kids in colourful uniforms that shine against their dark skins are waiting for their ride home, while others are cutting across the fields to their houses.

You can see that this is a poor, underdeveloped country. The houses are mostly build from cheap material, weatherboard or corrugated iron sheets. The house in the photo below is one of the few examples of traditional building techniques; many modern houses come in shrill pinks, purples and turquoises.

Full article here: http://www.happinessandthings.com/2014/09/17/cannibals-sugar-mills-and-churches-the-suncoast-in-fiji/

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