A strange phenomenon.

Do you believe in something you can't explain? On our trip to the village our guide had told us about an island Beqa, just off the coast, which was famous for three things,one diving with sharks, two fire walking, this is the only island where fire walkers come from and three some of the people, on this island are renowned for having the ability to cure burns by touch.

It was explained to us that women in particular have this last gift and somehow absorb the heat.

When we were having dinner , as is our wont, we got chatting to our waitress who told us she came from the island, Beqa. I asked her outright if she had the healing gift and she explained she did. 

She went to to tell us that this gift is passed down the female side of the family and is strongest if it comes from a great grandmother. 

She went onto tell us that the gift was in her touch and in her present village, people came to her to ask her to cure burns and scalds. She also told us a tale about a neighbour's four year old who had been fairly badly burned in an accident and she had applied her gift over a period of four days, after which the remaining burns, by this time much reduced were treated in hospital. She told us that the girl, now eight, had no visible scars.

I can't explain this or how I feel about it, the cynic in me says it denies science, but who knows,our waitress was certainly very convincing. I share this story because is symptomatic of our journey, of the people we have spoken to and the learning we have had to undertake. Who am I to say that these people do not have such a gift?

Generally I found this encounter slightly more interesting than our trip to the village. The expedition manager and I sat down to discuss the village trip over a beers, and bit of us felt we had no better view of village life than we had had before.we weren't shown any farming, which is apparently how the village survives and we weren't shown anyone's house , all we saw was the meeting house and the school. Is it right that we expect people to become items of interest for tourists? I cannot imagine a school in England allowing tourists to visit four or five times a week, let alone bring the students sweet biscuits. So to stop this , what can I do? Not travel as a tourist or express interest in these things? 

If you follow that line then obviously you deny people who need it a very necessary income. Ther are other issues about Fiji that at the moment I cannot comment on that also cause me some concern.