Fijian Bonfire

An often-disregarded law on Oahu: Fires (especially bonfires) are illegal on all beaches due to safety concerns. In fact, Bishop Smith sternly lectures anyone who has attend BYUH 2nd Ward about how he will personally squash any fires you start in his capacity as HRI’s chief security goon.

That being said, last night starting around 10:00 the Fijian Club put on one of the great bonfires I’ve attended in my 2.5 years in Hawaii.

Before getting into some specifics, let me address one question I keep getting asked: How does one determine if there’s some bonfire action going on?

If you weren’t “privileged” enough to get at least three phone calls from concerned friends telling you that they need a ride (thus inadvertently alerting you to the news), the cars are a dead giveaway. Everyone knows the beach parking gate closes at 9:00 pm. And everyone knows that when a fleet of rusty cars are parked for almost a block away from the main gate something’s definitely going down.

That something, most of the time, is a bunch of college punks throwing assorted pieces of wood into a makeshift pit and having some alcohol-free fun.

Thus after turning down three requests for rides, I found myself jumping in the back of my friend’s truck and making a speedy getaway towards Pounder’s to check out the action.

I’ve had few dealings with the fine people in the Fijian Club. I did a report on Fiji once in 7th grade. I knew them to be a fun loving people both generous and wise. Strangely enough, I haven’t really made any Fijian friends at BYU-Hawaii until the fire.

All my suspicions on how cool they were would be confirmed as the night blazed on.

Food was everywhere. In fact, they were forcing you to eat it. Hotdogs, marshmallows, chocolate, graham crackers (which they called a “biscuit,” hah hah!) and fruit punk to drink. They even provided skewer sticks, which caused more problems than they solved given how short they were — but hey, no one’s perfect.

I was full within 30 minutes but they just kept coming around asking that I take more. Have you ever said no to Fijian before? Even with burnt fingers, trust me when I say it’s very hard to do.

Also, Bonfires — given their eliptical nature — herd people into circles.

At this event, there were three main circles of people. The food eaters around the main fire, a smaller circle comprised of people I didn’t know playing closer to the water and then a medium-sized circle comprised of actual Fijian Club members. I hung out in the latter circle for a bit to chat up a few of the club members.

Soon people began to sing folk songs and began dancing to it in a circle. Fun stuff. I scooted away after watching for a minute or two, fearing that I might be “selected” (coerced) to participate. (Seeing me dance is not something many have seen and lived to tell the tale.

I headed back to the main fire where I caught up with some friends I hadn’t seen for a few months. Toward midnight I was getting tired and decided to dig out. My two roommates (who had shown up about an hour before) decided to race over the cliffs near Pounders and across the expanse of beach that leads up to our apartment in Haaula.Not exactly how I wanted to end the night, but I’ll admit it was the quickest way to get back home.

15 minutes later, I claimed victory and dibs to the shower where I washed off the smoke and ashes from my charred body and promptly crashed on my bed.

While I don’t often use the word “kudos” I feel the need to break it out to appropriately convey what a kick-ass event this was. Normally, bonfires are gathering of cliques and idiots with guitars but this one managed to keep me entertained in various ways for close to three hours.

So kudos, Fijian Club. Kudos.

May 22nd, 2005 in Journal |