Fiji

I never intended to do a strip tease in front of the Fijian village chief. Honest! I fully intended to keep my knees and shoulders covered and my head and feet bare, as prescribed, while inside the Mavua village’s community hall.So, yes, blame it on the kava -- a ritualistic potion of the South Pacific islands . This wasn’t my first meke --the name for a Fiji village meet-and-greet celebration that inevitably involves song, dance, food. And kava . The making and sharing of kava typically begins the meke . Murky as the water of the Sigatoka River we’d travel upstream that morning to reach the village, kava is made by the villagers, who grind and strain the root of a local plant known for its sedative properties. Most of the village of about 200 turned out to greet our tour group on the river banks that morning, among them a dozen or so children in their grey school uniforms, big smiles, and bigger bulas . Bula, the exuberant greeting Fijians thrust at visitors, is usually accompanied by...

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