Age doesn’t weary the volunteering spirit

Elaine Wolfe is the type of person who is keen to help others. The 80-year-old American from Boise, Idaho, has been volunteering around the world for many years and when she came to Fiji she decided to become part of Vinaka Fiji. “It’s wonderful,” she said. “Everyday is a new adventure.”

And it certainly has been for Elaine and her travelling mate Suzy McDonald from Bandon, Oregon. Neither are spring chickens, Suzy is 67, but they arrived in Fiji just after the massive Cyclone Winston and are now helping in the clean-up operations.

Elaine has been involved with cleaning up around Barefoot Manta Resort and has gone by boat to nearby Naviti Island to help Vinaka Fiji assess the damage in villages and the needs of locals. She finds out how many people are in each home, how many children there are, their ages and what they need.

Vinaka Fiji is providing emergency supplies of basic food stuffs and items like tarpaulins, shipping the goods into the Yasawa islands with the help of its sister organisations, aboard Awesome Adventures Fiji’s Yasawa Flyer vessel and Blue Lagoon Cruises’ Fiji Princess ship.

The trust arm of Vinaka Fiji has also set up a fund raising initiative seeking donations for post cyclone repairs in villages. Suzy, who loves diving, has helped get the resort’s dive shack back on its flippers and has been assisting the marine biologists there count butterfly fish and assess the health of the local reefs after the cyclone passed through.

She first visited the Yasawas in 2013 and on the way up to Blue Lagoon saw a brochure for the Vinaka Fiji volunteer programme. It gave her the perfect opportunity to return to Fiji to help out and get in plenty of diving at the same time. “It allows me to combine diving and marine conservation,” she says.

One of her tasks has been to clear the mangrove nursery to replace the mangroves that were wiped out in the cyclone. She has also been studying the dozens of types of butterfly fish that are in the waters around Barefoot Manta. She said looking at the fish on a computer screen was one thing, but another to identify them under water. She said she would take down a recognition board with her. “I’d think I’d spot one, then I check the board, only to look up and the fish has gone,” she laughs. But she is learning a few new ones each day and is “up to speed” and ready to record fish numbers. Butterfly fish are a necessary part of the local environment and help keep Crown of Thorns starfish under control. “If you have a healthy butterfly fish numbers then you have healthy coral,” Suzy says.

Another of Suzy’s tasks is to clean clams in the giant clam nursery, which is anchored in deeper water off Barefoot Manta’s Sunrise beach. The clams are in a wire-mesh cage and so they don’t get cleaned naturally by fish. They become covered in algae and so Vinaka Fiji volunteer divers need to descend and clean them up with a toothbrush. Suzy says it isn’t hard, but it is important for the shellfish, which also help in the fight against Crown of Thorns starfish. The giant clams filter water around them and in doing so kill off the starfish spawn. The nursery is part of an on-going plan to repopulate the area’s waters with the giant clams after they were almost wiped out due to over harvesting.

Another of the diving team’s tasks is to make sure the giant shellfish are standing upright, because a significant portion of a clam’s energy comes from the sun.

So how is she enjoying her volunteering? “Absolutely enjoying myself. It’s so great to be diving with a real purpose. “Being here so soon after the cyclone we are all really needed in so many ways. “And it is such a gorgeous setting at Barefoot Manta.”

Suzy’s travel companion Elaine originally signed up with Vinaka Fiji to go to a school and help the children learn to read and write in English, but the cyclone has meant the education programme is on hold until the village schools are repaired.

Apart from getting information from the locals about damage and immediate needs she has also helped out removing debris from ruined homes. It is a big ask – even for young people – but Elaine has a cheery disposition and a “can do” attitude. “The heat has been a factor,” she admits, “but things have been, you know, do-able.”

Elaine says she loves the Fijian people. “They are sincere, accommodating and kind.” And, she says, “They are always pleasant.”

For more about volunteering in Fiji or to make a donation to the special fund, go to the Vinaka Fiji website www.vinakafiji.org.fj and for information about volunteering packages click here.

Words and Pictures by Richard Moore, travelling in Fiji with Vinaka Fiji Charitable Trust