Buri building, horses and fish

Weaving palm fronds for bure roof Early to bed and early to rise, following the arc of light at dusk and dawn. Thud…the earthly sound of falling coconuts. One has a higher chance of dying from a coconut bonk on the head than shark attacks. Now there’s perspective for ya. Spent the morning snorkeling with Joli, a native Fajiian from Lambasa. A first for me was seeing velvet purple startfish. We swam around the “acquarium”, where schools of reef fish darted about. Joli is here with 7 other young men from neighboring islands to help re-construct a couple roofs on the property. The men weave together large coconut palm fronds (this is a male job, by the way) into big sheets and haul them to the framework. Their work has begun. In the afternoon, we watched Joli begin training on a new horse Roberta just purchased. The round pen constructed was a bit too small for the job, and the horse and Joli had many standoffs (with the horse turning his rear towards Joli and bucking); I’ve never seen a kid scatter so fast. It was fun to watch. Kent’s diving improve with each day of no storms, increasing visibility. Today: white & blue sponges, elkhorn, fan and brain coral, Nemo fishes! Parrot fish, plus, a 6 foot white tipped reef shark.