Page 8 - Bulletin #67 - November 2020

As a founder I had put all my energy and money into FOV for six years including the
mortgage payments I received from selling my hand-built home in Colorado. Bit by bit I
tracked down the main builders of FOV on the telephone trying to convince them to come
home and rebuild. I paid some of them out of my own pocket, to recreate jobs and get
things going again. Little by little it worked.

I was joined by my intern, protege, and dear friend, Niko Kush, after his graduation from
UC Santa Cruz. We set up a large tent I brought over for glamping on our own land. On the
Big Island of Fiji I met a couple of Americans staying at backpacker lodges near Nadi town
who were eager to learn sustainable building and do something positive. After days of
shopping we powered our remaining boat from Lautoka several hours home to our island
on the Blue Lagoon with food stocks, tea, and first aid gear.

We began picking up more pieces, but this time to rebuild, not to bury or burn.

These new building interns were energetic and positive. First we reused the adobe blocks
to rebuild the walls of the bathhouse, picking them up from a huge pile. Then I designed a
very simple structure to begin our housing, an experimental adobe structure that would
change my life (see “Rebuilding Remote Island Communities, One Adobe Cottage at a
Time,” Communities #179, pp. 57-59). We had no building materials around and brought
almost nothing with us to rebuild with, as my plan needed few modern materials. I knew
that nearly everything we needed was already there: pumice, sand, clay, bamboo, and
high quality fibers: voi voi (long leaves used to weave floor mats) and woolo (gridded
coconut fiber). I laid out the floor plan on one of the concrete pads and we began again. 8
We worked in a consistent and relaxed way, breaking for meals, siesta naps in the
afternoons, and swimming. We enjoyed live Fijian music, dancing, kava, and quiet walks
in the evenings.

Tevita (David) replastering the walls of the bathhouse.