It is not the crystal clear waters nor the white sandy beaches. Neither is it the lush green forests or limestone caves. It was the way Fijians treated him after he was injured on a mountain that had a lasting impact on Canadian national George Matousek.
He was a backpacker, a tourist enjoying the tropical Fiji weather on Taveuni in the 1980s. On the last day of what had been a spectacular journey, an accident almost ended his trip in tragedy. He was making his way up the hills of Wairiki to visit the radio tower and also have a look at the widely talked about tagimoucia flower when he slipped and suffered a deep gash on his leg.
“I almost died on Taveuni. The people offered to walk to call a plane for me. I was very sick as my leg had been badly infected.
“I felt something was not right, so I asked if the plane would have come for their children. They said no but they would walk to call the plane for me. They said it would come for me because I was a tourist but it would not have come for their children.
“This kind of generosity was something I had never experienced before.
“When I asked what would have happened if one of their children had a similar accident, a man who spoke English said they would either live or they would die. So I said I want your children to live and I am glad to be able to bring something to help them better their lives.”
Talking a little more about the accident, George said: “When I went to Taveuni, I loved the island with its mountains. On what I thought was going to be last day, I ended up walking up the mountain. When the accident happened (it was when he was on his way up) I really thought I wasn’t coming down.”
When he was taken to the hospital, the doctors said if it was not for some herbal treatment he had received or if he had been taken to the hospital later, he would have died.
“While (injured) up in the hills I saw an Englishman walking around the turn, so I’m going ‘I am hallucinating’. As it turned out he was an English artist hired to make a stand with Tagimoucia.
“He knew one (tagimoucia) was blooming in a tree. Because of the steepness of the hill, we were looking right into the tree. So he showed me the orchard and then I was starting to feel better for a while.
“The next day I was feeling quite well. The red lines that were coming up my leg, they were like wires under the skin were just going away. It was something that doctors don’t believe, and I told them I saw the orchard, it was kind of a very significant event.”
George left for Canada after he was treated and did not return to Fiji until September last year to look for the people who had saved him.
While sharing his story with the people of Wairiki, Taveuni, George realised he had been sharing it with the very same people who carried him from the hills to the village.
“I came to Fiji with a lot of equipment to help people in outlying areas process food that’s being wasted and get it to the market. And also ideas for renewable energy and education and what I would like is to be able to make contact with organisations that can be able to help.
“I have five shipping containers virtually 100 tonnes of stuff. And a lot of this can help people in outlying areas process food or have light at night.
“I am interested in processing food so that it can be preserved, making ice cost-effectively. I understand there are large ice plants around the islands.”
George, who used to work for stainless steel fabrication companies doing metal work, sold his farm of over 20 years in Canada because he felt he needed to come back to Fiji.
“I don’t want anything from them, that if what I am bringing can benefit them, then that’s all there is. I am not here for any political or religious conversion or anything like that. I was so deeply touched by their kind of generosity.
“I was glad to be able to take away a lot of things here and my idea is to help start small businesses whose products will benefit people in outlying areas such as converting old refrigerators to egg incubators.”
He said the materials were usually thrown away from stores and collected from the junk yards.
“The idea of making ice machines out of car parts is because they’re made from materials that are locally available and anyone who can fix automotive and air-conditioning units can fix this ice machine so these ice machines can be made water powered.
“I remember seeing people cooking sometimes over the fire in really thin, bad pots. They have wonderful foods cooked in really bad pots so I have with me in my container stainless steel cooking pots, many of them brand new with the price tags on them.
“There is much waste there – the scrap yards have like rolls of brand new wires, plumbing fittings all kinds of materials and they are just being thrown out.”
