Fire dancing is dangerous

Fijian fire dancing (not at the museum).
from w
Here is a strange story from the Fiji Times today. What do they mean 'intoxicated guests'? Should fire dancers and intoxicated guests be allowed to roam free in the very important cultural archive the Fiji Museum? I think the event was the 25th anniversary of some computer company and my son said he should have been there. No, he's not a fire dancer.
From Fiji Times
Chemical fire
A 25th anniversary celebration almost wiped out our 200-year history at the Fiji Museum on Friday night. A fiery dance group of teenaged girls and boys were performing a fire-dance when kerosene they were using spilt on to the floor and burst into flames in front of guests as well as the Ra Marama replica that stood not more than 15 metres away. The dancers attempted putting the fire out with water but induced the "chemical fire". Intoxicated guests rushed in and helped put the fire out.

To watch a video of this 'event' go to youtube A Night at the Fiji Museum

Hibiscus Festival and the Museum

from w

Today it was a bit rainy but rather than the kids stay in the flat at Namadi to play video games and cards, I offered to take them to the Hibiscus Festival - each of us wearing raincoats and carrying a big brown umbrella. Not that it was raining heavy. The $5 taxi ride seemed reasonable to as far as Government Buildings where we had arranged to wait for my son’s lunch break. We waited outside the Suva Court with the nicely dressed people coming and going and my grandkids lolling about. (Two actual grandsons, the others children of my niece so I was Grandma to all of them – Mereoni, 13, Elijah, 10, Jordan 11, Andrew 9. We bought roti and curry parcels and hamburgers for lunch. The stalls looked very elegant as blue and white (I think) strong tents and of course the kids wanted to quickly go on the rides – ferris wheel – there were at least three of them, octopus, sizzler, roller-coaster, etc. $2 a ride and a few free ones. They were allowed only one ride each. Albert Park looked neat and tidy and there was a small crowd.

My plan was mainly to take them to the Museum (the old teacher streak in me surfacing) and I found a neat clean toilet at the entrance to Thurston Gardens. The kids were well-behaved and attentive in the Museum and very talkative about the historical and cultural items. I went into ‘know-all’ teacher mode. The kids had only been there once before they told me. Some other time I’ll try and go back to draw some of the items. There was also a room full of contemporary women’s costumes made from masi and art exhibition of watercolours was interesting. The Museum has a website.

Then we returned to Albert Park for another ride and the crowd was getting bigger. By 3 p.m. Grandma was tired so we got taxi back to our ‘home’. The Fiji Museum has an excellent website.

Meanwhile Peceli spent the morning at the Methodist Conference at Centenary Church then Furnival Park with the choir competition and stalls, meeting many old friends and some new ones. One group generously gave him some cultural artifacts from Nadroga which is a precious gift.