Levuka Public School 135th Anniversary Celebrations

LPS celebrated its 135^th birthday at the end of our 2^nd week in Levuka. Having been the first school in Fiji this was a big event with important people including the current Fijian President and old scholars from al over the world coming to celebrate and meet old class mates.

The day started with a procession through the town, marching in the school houses with specially made shirts in house colours for the students and white ones for the teachers. I definitely got a lot of confused looks throughout the whole day as people wondered who the white guy wearing a teachers top was! The march was led by the Fiji police band and included floats (artistically clad pickup trucks) for each house. We had heard many people talking about the reunion since we arrived but as I walked as part of the procession it soon dawned on me that this was a big deal in the sleepy town of Levuka, the streets lined with people!

Arriving at Nasau Park (the big rugby field in the village) I took my place at the Ma’afu tent ready to watch the days events. The day was great fun, each house had a couple of themed acts alongside other performances from the hostel students and so on. As one of the teachers I was led to ‘take part’ in the maafu performances- these were traditional Fijian dances which included having a circle of people sat on the floor singing and clapping (i was just sat clapping but it was great fun). 

Other events on the day included a competition for the crowning of a ‘princess’ from one of the houses.

All the old scholars were up dancing at any opportunity, finding it particularly funny to do the conga or impersonate the acts as they being performed. By the end almost everybody was running up to the performers and jokingly putting bits of food in their mouths too put them off their dancing. This was really funny, particularly when a Delana High School boy (the rival school) ran up and got booooooed by the whole crowd.

Rach had a busy day at the hospital as usual but managed to escape for an early lunch and early finish to catch bits of the performances and be part of the festival atmosphere. 

After the days celebrations we spent the evening with the 2 english boys also working at the hospital with Rach who were leaving the next day. Eating our favourite dish, prawn laksa, in the Whales Tale restaurant we began our nights drinking with numerous drinking games. Alot of Fiji Gold was consumed!! The worst effected being of course Rach and Tom.

We moved on, or stumbled i should say, to the Town Hall where a Barrel Night was underway. A live Fijian band played whilst we continued to drink more, this time Fijian Bitter, and danced the night away with an array of different partners. And as you guessed got progressively more and more drunk if this was possible.  After the band stopped playing, to our disappointment, we followed the crowd to Levukas only “club” Koro Makawa. And again found ourselves yet more drinks.

We were the only white people and so again seemed to be the prime targets for dance partners. With Rach having to escape numerous Fijian men who got a little toooo close. Not that Tom would notice as he spent part of the night slumped on the grass outside.
It was all good fun though and we felt entirely comfortable ( not just due to being  so drunk)  but mostly due to our friend Manasa the Fijian prison officer who seemed to spend the night looking out for us and deterring any odd bods away from us and we danced until the lights came on. The pain came the next morning though..... especially for Tom!!