Getting lunch on Rabi

[Stacey King]

FIJI TIMES ONLINE Sunday, July 05, 2009

Aaron Tekenatang with the catch his brother speared.
EVERY afternoon when the bell rings at Banaban Primary School Bakaua Mateo rushes home as fast as his feet can carry him. After a hastily gulped down afternoon tea the energetic teenager spear, googles and snorkeling pipe in hand makes a dash for the jetty at Nuku his 7 year old brother Aaron Tekenatang in tow.
Already other young boys can be seen diving off the jetty into the blue sea, shouting, laughing and enjoying the shapes they make in the air before they hit the water.

Bakaua joins in the fun yet not long later he goes about the serious task of diving for their next day's lunch. He makes a deep free dive and resurfaces minutes later with a shout and a fish impaled at the end of his spear. He swims towards the jetty where Aaron sits and waits on the row of steps lining its side and hands him the fish which the little boy passes strings to a tiny rope. The next few dives sees him come up empty but undeterred the teenager shouts out comments to his friends on the jetty about how embarrassing it is to be under the scrutiny of a camera . Bursts of laughter roll out and Bakaua dives again this time an unlucky sumusumu is stuck on his spear. Some of the other boys join in but obviously more experienced than the rest Bakaua spears the most fish.

By the time the sun slips over the horizon the teenager has made quite the catch of an assortment of fish more than enough for their next day's lunch.

"This is the way I can help my parents and I really like doing this everyday," he said.

"My father taught me and I really like swimming in the sea."

Aaron hopes to be as good a diver as his brother one day.