2008 South Pacific, Wallis
Between summer 2008 and early 2009 I have lived for seven months and a little in the South Pacific. How and by whom I got there would by itself give a solid story. Anyway, on one beautiful afternoon in July 2008 I have landed on the island of Wallis, expected by my local friends. Since then this tiny dot on the map between Fiji and Samoa grew close to my heart. And when I say a dot, I mean a really small island. Without its beautiful lagoon, Wallis has about 14 by 10 kilometers, so you can easily make a roundtrip by foot in a single day there, which I also did one day with a couple of friends.
Most of the time I have spent on the mission of Lano and Sofala in the north of the island. Either with sisters of the Donum Dei Missionary Family or sister Falakiko SMSM, my local "granny" ... and especially with the young boys and girls from missionary boarding school. I shared with them my knowledge of computers and they, in turn, taught me their language and many other beautiful things that one can find only in the Pacific. A perfect trade. After all those months I have managed to fight a battle, to some extent a winning one, with the local language called Wallisian - faka'uvea. It is a very nice and not too complex language. For my personal needs I had created probably the first existing Czech dictionary of the Wallisian and latter made a Franch-Wallisian version of it. You can see the dictionary on my website.
On Wallis I have spent probably ones of the best months of my life, and certainly not because it would be a "tropical paradise". Unfortunately it is not true for many reasons ... but it does not matter for me. I will return there for sure whenever I have the chance. I guess I took roots there by the time I have spent there ... and by the departure some of those roots remained in the red Wallisian soil. Surely I will never be able to thank enough sister Malia Ana Vakalepu for all that I have received there.
Wallis: People
You will find more photos and videos from my travels
in my photo gallery and on the page of travel videos.