Hi,
        we are Merj and Ivan, two italians that two years ago decided to live in Fiji. we spend our days serving cappuccinos, pizzas, spaghetti and fun in our restaurant cafeteria . Living in a different place from our origins we discovered that is not so important where are you living, but how you want to live inside of you. .

        Ok, we are not depressed or on a ledge ready to fall, but being always two crazies, full of energy and  with a easy life we now found ourselves in the modern prehistory of Fiji. Don't you think that is not a fantastic place: here mother nature find her maximum expression, the summer is never ending, the sea has always a secret to tell and the sky seems to be painted by artist hand on a immense board, in fact Fiji is one of the most beautiful touristic site of the south pacific, but if you choose to touch the reality of the citizens the thing are different.

        Forget the movies' beaches, coconut based breakfast with a parrot on the shoulder or houses with beach garden or night parties with guitar and friends on the seaside... Forget all these stuffs !! We live in Lautoka (second city of Fiji for population and pollution) and it's almost like live in Milan, with the only difference that we are the foreigner !! It's  " almost like "because Lautoka doesn't offer all those requirements like specialist shops, free time entertainment, or all those "needless' things that makes a city a good city. But the real difference is the people.

        Fiji's people is half Indians and half  Fijians; so two different culture and way of life . This mute rivalry between Indians and Fijians doesn't make them consider all the other nationality that like us  (Australians, Chines, Kiwis, Japanese, Koreans or Europeans) live here contributing as everybody to the improvement of the city. We don't think to offend anybody saying that the locals citizens feel good as they are and don't want to change or to appreciate new perspectives.

        Now don't you think that is a daily fight, in fact taken singularly, these two populations offer glorious pasts and rich traditions, but the difficult, if  not impossible fusion between them bring to some small disadvantages like a high and stupid criminality. High because there are lots of trouble makers and stupid because is just a matter of jealousy (a thief don't break throu for value but just to damage something he cant get from their life) . Here the workers gain the 10% of a normal European or Australian wages, so seeing the "normal " life of persons like us coming from far as investors makes them a bit jealous, but (as we said before) only a small part try to understand the difference of culture all the others don't want to make any improvement. On the other hand all the honest citizens (not only the above populations) have bars on the windows and  Watchmen (something like a guard with no power of  "beat" the criminal) in the garden; and the craziest thing is that a fijian thief will never hurt a fijian watchman 'cause a race respect, so with a watchman you are "safe" (it doesn't matter if he's not doing anything but sleeping).

        It's funny if you want, but it's the reality.

        From our side it was a bit of a shock to see any of the locals appreciating us or our cafeteria, but who cares, the main thing for us is to love each other, get married soon and find lot of friends.

        Anyway, here we have a lot of good friends (all coming from outside) and the small parties we use to have are intimate but very funny; the fun we discover here is not made out of a nightclub or something like this, we discovered the simple fun of the culture exchange without the needs of going out in night time or spending lots of money for an alcoholic nightlife. About us is important the feeling you have with yourself to communicate with other people. In Italy we never thought about it just because when you are in your places, you like to stay with the people you like, but if the people you like is not where you are living, the understanding take all the importance.

OUR WEEK/OUR LIFE

        All the days of the week are almost the same , Monday to Thursday, under a cooking sun, with the sea at 5 meters from our Cafe' (but is impossible to have a bath because there's no beaches in Lautoka), the coffee machine always busy and the death after the sunset.
Is it possible for two twenties to go sleeping at 11:00 ? No, but we have a third person with us that makes every day a crazy day; this "man" is Ivan's brother (Alex) a 19 year old raver with a problem of solitude (he wants a girl but here he doesn't like any) and lot of trouble to create!
We and Alex are the famous two side of the medal but we can't stay far away from each other ; Alex is like a complainer/entertainer, in his madness is very funny, he can't stand anything here , but very deeply he likes Fiji. Anyway on thursday night something happens, everybody (we mean the people that cans) go out for dinner and party (good for the business) but for us no way, the only good place there is in lautoka for a good and no risky fun is the one we created, so when we want to party we always look for somebody's house to make the owner spend the night with us (one of these is our great friend Andrew... poor guy... his getting old).
On Friday is the same, with the difference that everybody wants to drink and party and in our cafe' we are still waiting the liquor license (is 1 year now), so all the Lautoka's people move in Nadi (20 Km far) in the Sheraton's nightclub (5 meters by 7 meters of sweat, fights and three hours of radio music). We want to clarify that ours is the only place in Fiji with turntables and a real scratchy Dj but without alcohol nobody cares.
Saturday is the shopping day and everybody makes big queue in the supermarkets to buy all the stuffs for the coming week, but the strange thing is that any of the young people of Lautoka doesn't like to stay on the sea walk or in the parks to have fun... they close themselves in their houses staying alone !?!
On sunday is the same ... nobody 's around, all the shops closed (we too) and nothing to do . We are very lucky to have a spot to spend our Sundays on the sea (Natadola beach) on the only white sandy beach at 45 mins driving from the city. There we find all our friends and is too good to feel like some movie stars alone on 4 Km of beach. A good sun bath (just to believe we are living in a tropical island), a mega splash in the water and then... Monday..

     We hope not to scared you about the life here but we want to repeat that this is the overseas citizen life and after you get used to it it' s just funny, but the tourist find every locals at his feet (he smells of money, it's normal) and a lot site to visit. We've already saw everything twice and there is nothing to be surprise about now, but , you know, we are living in Fiji and if the place is like this is it's not our fault and we are not allowed to do anything.

     Closing we'd like to advise everybody wants to communicate with us or ask info about Fiji or just have two friends like us, e-mail everything you want to ivanmerj@oocities.com or at thelastacall@is.com.fj  . We hope you enjoyed our site and we'll be pleasant to have you here again.
 

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