Big Blog

5/24/12

Blogging is a funny thing. A lot of the time people pick a topic and just blog about that. The problem with living in Fiji is that...well, I live in freaking FIJI. I can think of and compose 15 different blog entries with in a 24 hour period and with limited internet use, I end up leaving out A LOT that I want to include. So this blog is for that, for catching you up on...everything. Hopefully.

Accept not Expect. Before Ivy went to Suva she shared a very short part of a letter her mom had written her before she left. The timing of her finding and reading it was eerily perfect. Mom's are pretty perfect that way. The line was "accept not expect". It's their family motto. It was awesome. I have adopted it as mine.

Animals: Geckos live all over our house. Which is awesome, because we'd rather have geckos than mice. They generally stay on the outside of our house and come out at night. They come in all sorts of colors, but usually some sort of limey pastel version of green pink or yellow. They make creepy chirping noises at night and one time Spencer and I were trying to catch one in a box and we saw two fight. It was kind of cool. Geckos always seem so lazy and chill, who knew they fought? There is one Gecko that occasionally is seen in the house. We named it Richard. We also have some colorful anolie-looking lizards that scitter around in our yard sometimes --- black with red, yellow, orange , green and purple stripes. There are mongooses that have been seen by some, but I haven't made any sightings personally. The mongooses are why there are no snakes on this island. They ate all of them. There are frogs here, they look like toads. They are mostly boring. You've heard about the giant cockroaches, tonight we came home after being gone for two days to find a rather large brown recluse in our wash basin. Rather large is roughly the size of a silver dollar. A little bigger actually. He didn't look very nice and sense he had the capability of killing us all and seemed a bit aggressive, he died. I had to leave the room. I really am NOT a fan of killing stuff, sense it was so big we didn't really know what to do so Spencer, who seems to be the designated kill guy, sprayed it with raid. It was awful. Hopefully it wont happen again. I can't even describe the sea life here. I've now snorkeled twice. SO cooooooool. Fish of every color, size and shape. On the beach there are fish that skip across the water like Jesus...pretty sure Jesus walked on water, not skipped, but you get the drift. Besides, fish don't have feet, skipping is the best they can do. There are hermit crabs all over the beach. Sand dollars aren't even fun to find anymore. They are everywhere! We've even found some live ones. Crabs, same as the fish, ever size color and shape. We found a black one with a giant bright yellow pincer. He was my favorite. BAH! And fruit bats! Giant fruit bats! They are awesome! Snorkeling is so cool. Eels, giant clams, parrot fish, clown fish, cuddle fish, star fish, so many fish! I found a star fish that was so small it could sit on top of my pointer finger, with room. We’ve also seen sea cucumbers and sea anemones and sea slugs and snails with little siphons on the top of their heads.

Witch craft and Wizardry. Actually, more just witch craft. Matt is a little concerned about the house we live in. It’s in a "new subdivision" which means it’s one of maybe three new houses. He said that we can't be sure of what happened on our land before our house was built so to be safe, because of witch craft and stuff, we need to shower with our panties on because there may be ghosts. He was completely serious. No laughter. At all. And this was coming from a serious jokster. We didn't really know how to respond, soooo we didn't. It was funny though. We still don’t understand why that would be important.

Short Shorts. OH MAN. Women here wear knee length skirts the majority of the time. But the Men! oh goodness the men! They wear short shorts. They STRUT short shorts. And ya know what? They look amazing. I am in no way encouraging short shorts for men in the states, for some reason those pale moon legs wouldn't be distracting in the same way that the Fijian ones are. I think it's so funny how different the culture is here when it comes to men and women. Not opposite, but different. The Men here are not shy, but they aren't tricky either. They couldn't be even if they wanted to I don't think. On the way home from Raki Raki the other night we stopped for gas in a little town along the way. There was a group of young men across from our van. They immediately started trying (and succeeding at) getting our attention.” Hey! Call Me! Hey!” They were singing to us! I kid you not, dancing for us! breaking it down right on the street corner! It was soooooo funny. I'm so mad I didn't film it. They blew us kisses and laughed and giggled. The boys are not afraid to giggle here. They do it every time we give them any attention. I've thought about buying a fake wedding band just to wear round when I'm working because it can be distracting.

The Zumba Virus. A lot of us have been hit with this little virus. As focused on health the World Health Organization is, it's now spreading that virus all over the south pacific. We have been going to a training in RakiRaki. When our meetings ended each day right before afternoon tea time, they insisted we do 20 minutes of Zumba and it was AWESOME. Just imagine twenty to thirty large Fijian and little indo Fijian men shaken their hips and LOVING it. It was THE best zumba class I’ve ever done. The trainings were so good. I can now put on my resume that I have been trained by the World health organization as an educational consultant. Yep. Weird. We help schools in the Ra area put together health promoting school plans for each of their school districts.

God. That's the subject more or less, not me taking His name in vain. Satan is a real jerk. He's been hounding me pretty hard as of late but I think I finally lost him somewhere over that Pacific Ocean. He might be scouring Provo or LA still trying to find my trail again, If you do see him, do me a favor and don't refer him to this site or let him know of my where abouts. I'm enjoying my time off. Not only does it help me stay more focused and be more productive, but it lets me feel God's presence so much more, and more often. We stayed the night at a resort in RakiRaki in some back packers housing. There was a place by the beach where there wasn't very much lighting. It had been a breath taking sunset that was followed by a crescent moon that hung low. The sky still had a purple glow to it, but a very deep purple-black glow. There was a sand bar that we walked out on in the dark and it was crazy. It went out pretty far and pretty soon the shore and island melted into the darkness and the stars lit up the sky like that was all there was and the sound of the small waves kept a lullaby beat against my legs and the shore somewhere behind me.  It was like I was floating in the sky. I felt so very small and so very big all at once. Me being me, I prayed. My biggest question was "What on earth am I doing here? Why am I seeing this? Feeling this?" And there it was, Love, Peace and a very clear answer. One I hesitate to share here because of what a sacred and personal experience it was to receive it. I felt very much like Abraham did in the pearl of great price when God shows him all of His creations and I was viewing not even close to a million trillion bagillionth of the creations shown to him then. I quietly walked back to shore after the others feeling humbled and God manifested to me His great sense of humor. Fell off the sand bar. Yep. If there is something to fall off of, don't worry, I got it! I made my way back in, we celebrated a birthday for Tacy (20) and then went back to the sea shore to sit and be. One by one the volunteers left. Spencer and I didn't want to leave so we just stayed. We mindlessly tried to fill up a seemingly bottomless hole in the sand that was emanating some sort of heat while we talked about basically everything there is to talk about. He has a best friend that is almost a mirror image of Dan and I's friendship. It was sooooo cool to talk to him about things I have felt and thought and experienced over the years with someone that I was so confident had experienced the same things. I didn't feel alone. Which is a big deal for me right now. We talked about plenty of other things too, God, the beach, Fiji. It was a very good night for me. I felt nearer to God under the southern stars than i have in a very long time. We could see the milky way and shooting stars. The moon made an exit long before we did. We watched the stars rotate in the sky two or three times before heading back to our room with the other volunteers. Everyone was sleeping.

Tacy’s birthday is worth writing about I think. We had dinner and paid for Tacy’s of course. She got two free drinks (virgin) and we were able to get some really good American meals. Some of the volunteers are food sharers which is awesome because we will order different things and then switch around so that we can taste more things on the menu. The World Health Organization guys came to eat with us too. They are so fun. All Fijian. Benny, Sola, Takiko and a third guy whose name escapes me right now. It was fun to see them in a social setting. Especially Benny. He is a HUGE Fijian. Fijian come in two sizes. smallish and HUGE. Benny is probably 6’5”, booming deep voice, broad shoulders, all ma and all married. He is so funny. There are these cookies out here called “tim tams” and there is something that is popular in Utah called the “tim tam slam”. You bite off two opposite corners of the cookie, suck milk through it and then eat the milk soaked cookie. It’s actually really really good. As volunteers, we tim tam slam instead of drink at the bars. For Tacy’s birthday we made a tim tam cake….it was as awkward as it sounds, but it was really fun to eat because we all did the tim tam slam…including the World Health guys! Benny’s face was priceless the first time he did it. It was very “holy crap that’s weird” there was tons of laughing. He did it again and Kylie started chanting “Suck! Suck! Suck!” Benny started laughing and in his deep Fijian accent said “shut up!” and then apologized through laughter for telling her to shut up. It was so funny. It really did look like a drinking scene from a movie. Everyone was having a good time, but we were doing it with cookies and in a way that we could remember it the next day. The best word to describe it was “happiness”. After a couple of “hits” Benny turned to Candice, our country director and said, “Have you tried the tim tam slam Candice?” Candice just made an awkward noise and shook her head followed with a small, “oh no I don’t really…” Before she could finish Benny said “No?! fill up a cup!” Candice” Oh nononono” Benny “Yes Candice you must! Fill up a cup!” She Slammed it. It was awesome.

5/27/12

Haven’t been able to get back to this til now. We went to Cia husband’s rugby game on Saturday. It was really fun. Yeah. We have a friend in fiji that we are close enough to that we watch his games. It feels good. After the game I met Tasleem in the market. Her husband didn’t want us walking around town by ourselves so he sent “bodyguards” to follow us around. Mostly to make it look like we were with them. quick side note - - - The is a really handsome man at the internet café that I’ve just been avoiding all together to make sure I don’t get myself into trouble. Sooooo we walk around the corner after Tasleem explains the extra company and just my luck, one of the guys is the handsome man from the internet café. Awesome. Yep. So his name is Mitchy and he’s really nice, which makes him even more handsome. Lame. It would have been sweet if he had smelled funny or was really weird or distasteful. Then I could have an excuse not to like him. No such luck. We got an AWESOME cake and surprised Tacy with a little birthday party. Tasleem even bought her some earrings for her birthday. It was so sweet. Tasleem and her son, Cia, peter and Cia’s husband and Matt came over and had cake. We put on some music and had a dance party. It was fun and we were all tired out by the end of the night.

Today has been great. Cia and her family came to church with us and invited Kylie and me over for Lunch. It was so nice to be able to get to know them better without anyone else around. We talked to them about their childhood and their famlies and they tried to teach us fijian phrases and we butchered them. We walked away feeling so…loved and local! We looked at each other and were like “dude. We have friends. We watch their rugby games and have parties and eat lunch at their house. “ We love it. We also saw Tasleem on the way home from church and waved as we walked by. Happiness.

Moce

Also --- Today Spencer wore his sulu. Yeah. Men wear short shorts and skirts. And they look fantastic in both. Although men in the states should not wear short shorts. They should definitely start wearing sulus.

Brooke Bellows is THE BEST

I have a huge post coming. I've been writing it on another volunteers computer and still am not done. I'm going to write more in it tonight hopefully finish and post it. Right now I am at the internet cafe and hesitate to write anything because i feel like I will only get half way done and not be able to finish and just be frustrated. But! I want to take a moment and talk about how AWESOME my Sister is. Brooke and my mom took care of my mission blog while I was gone. I'm pretty blog-illiterate and set this one up about two seconds before leaving for the airport. That's why it was so ugly and boring to start with. Brooke got on and snazzed it up and it looks SO good! Thank you so much Brooke! :)

Today we wont to Ba and worked alllll day. We got to know the kids and the staff a little better and wondered town familiarizing ourselves with it.  We met with a place we may be able to stay at. The volunteers last year stayed with her. She was kind of nuts soooooo we're looking around. Again, huge post coming. i just have to finish it. There is so much to write about! i don't want to have to leave anything out!

Moce

Angels without wings

So, I think its safe to say that we are now friends with the locals. We have a small but firm pool of friends and a large group of acquaintances. We have been so blessed with the kind of people that we have met. I think that who we call our close friends are the best people on the island. They each are a true friend. Not one of them is trying to take advantage of us (which happens in Fiji sometimes, we've met a few) and are the purest, most loving people ever. I am going to miss them come the end of the summer. The three that stick out in my mind are: Cia, our cook, Tasleem, the woman who runs the internet cafe, and Matt, our favorite taxi driver with the really cool hair that turned out to be a wig (I know, sad, some of the volunteers are still in denial).
Cia has always been so helpful to us. She'll do our laundry for 3 dollars a bag (I have yet to do this. I'm mastering this "hand washing" thing). She is an incredible cook. Her and her family now share their meals with us because, well, it just felt right. She's like family. She has been married for three years now to her husband and has a beautiful boy named Peter, pronounced "pita". I didn't know it was actually
peter until she called him "pita pan" one day.
Tasleem is a jem! she and her husband run the internet cafe that we use. She lights up when we walk in and says that the locals always ask her where her friends are when we don't come in for a couple of days. I was down here doing research for a project during lunch time and heard a knock on my cubical door, I thought my time had run out, but no, It was Tasleem. She had made me some hot beef lo-mien-like noodles to eat and asked me to bring the left overs home to share with the others. She wants to cook for all of us one day before the summer is over and asked us if we would be willing to come on a picnic with her and her parents because she wants us to meet her family. We laugh so much together and she is always helping us sort out what is good to eat and what is not. She wont let us walk home by ourselves and will assign someone she trusts to walk us home if we're not in a group. She gives us pointers on what to expect out of the villages we visit and is just an all around angel. So kind! AH! I just love her to bits! "Cotton-eyed joe" was on the radio the other day and we taught them the dance that all the LDS kids know. She let us know that the boys that hang out here at night have taken to practicing that dance instead of causing trouble. Which is really cute, because they all kind of chuckled when we showed them, and with just cause, its a funny dance. We now want to put on a dace night for the youth in our neighborhood and teach silly white dances like cotton eyed joe and the electric slide to the locals. It would be so fun!
And then there's Matt. Matt is the Fijian big brother we never had. He is an amazing person. He wants to move to America one day and is working on getting a visa to American Samoa because once he's there it will be easier to get the the US. He has a brother there. We mentioned that we liked the music he plays in his taxi and he offered to make us all a CD of it as long as we get some blanks! (SO excited!) but what really inspired this post has been the past two days. One of our girls had an appendicitis scare right before she left the US. The pain has come back and she is now in Suva. She has been refusing to go to a clinic in hope the pain will just go away and after two priesthood blessings, one for the sick and one for comfort decided it was time to go to a clinic Sunday night. We called Matt. He zoomed over. When I met him at the gate he took off his sunglasses and with all the sincerity in the world resting in his eyes asked in his beautiful accent "Who is sick?" He almost looked anxious, worried. When they got to the clinic he parked, went in with them and talked to the doctors. He kept saying "It's ok Ivy, You are ok, You can do it Ivy!" He would run around the clinic and get her medicine. When they came back that night he refused to take any money. He came back this morning to take her to another clinic. When Annie, Tacy and I went to town, We found Matt, Katherine and Ivy sitting at the bus stop waiting to leave for Suva. They were all eating "kool pops" ( a really good red Popsicle they have here. They told us about going to the hospital in Suva and that Matt said that on the way home he is going to take Ivy to the beach as a treat.
Like I said, We have met the best people here. We are so blessed to be able to know them. I'm going to have to make tons of money when I get home or work for a non-profit because I'm making some very dear friends on the other side of the world. I feel so safe. All the time. Be fore I left I was going through a time that I felt I had lost a lot of safety. I felt vulnerable and weak all the time. Like I couldn't do what was being put in front of me. I felt very alone. It feels good to have some friends here and to feel safe again. I missed the feeling of security.
Keep Ivy in your prayers. And thank God for Cia, Tasleem and Matt! Our favorite angels of Lautoka!

<3 Moce (pronounced more like Mothe)

The Beach.

So i ran out of time last night when I was using the internet so I had to cut the post short. Yesterday we finished up meeting with some of our partners and then came home to be surprised by our country directors! They had planned a brainstorming meeting at a resort that is twenty minutes from our house! We had all been here a week and had yet to touch a beach let alone the ocean. It's called voda point and is 5 dollars (FJD) for a day pass. It was magical! Everything I hate about the beach doesn't even exist here. I hate the crowds, the not-the-best-food, the sand in weird places, the wind, the weird smell, the pounding waves, the sea gulls, lack of vegetation and above all else the cold water! But OH! the Fiji beaches! no gulls, no crowds, THE BEST FOOD, no wind! It smells like salt and warm coconuts, the sand doesn't stick to you, the water is clear and SO warm. Like a bathtub warm there are palm trees and hammocks and little huts to hang out under and grass and the waves are more like a wave pool with a little bit of surf! And we didn't even touch the spa. (we will hit that up this summer!) my weeks are going to be packed and tiring, but my weekends will be a dream! who am I kidding this whole thing is a dream, but on the weekend we will play hard and rejuvenate for the week. I have taken so many pictures but can't post them because the computers here all have viruses so I cant use my USB. Maybe I can borrow a computer with an internet stick. The only thing these beaches lack the NC always delivers is the best company in the world. Where is my family? I think our next beach get together should be here. What say you? I'm learning the ropes and can probably get some cheap resorts and activities. Secret places even! I know the locals! haha, well, I'm getting there. 
The beaches have the coolest creatures, mud skippers (fish that climb on the docks and skip across the surface of the water) little tiny sand crab that burrow in the white sand, but not like the little mole crabs in NC. They actually look like crabs and are almost perfectly circular. Tiny hermit crabs everywhere and bright vibrant purple blue star fish crawling over the corral. The resort loved us and invited us back again and again inviting us to consider them our "second home". DONE. This weekend we are thinking uninhabited island or snorkeling. it's a toss up so far. If we snorkel we will be going out to the island that cast away was filmed on for anyone who might love that movie.
We got a mini bus for the resort. Our drivers name was Matt and we all fell in love! We will be using him again and again. He is soooo funny, 6'4" and has hair like the black Afro wigs you can by at costume stores in America, only his is AWESOME because it's all real. 
Total change of subject, but Fijians do music way better than we do. They've taken EVERY song good and bad and done island remixes of them. They are all epic. Even the really crappy American song are amazing. Gotta get me some tunes while I'm here.
Everyone keeps telling us to stay away from the boys here. They "love our white skin and want to marry us and go to America". dating isn't allowed while we're here. Flirting is actually forbidden, but to tell you the truth I don't really mind that little fact. The foliage is not the only beautiful thing about the scenery here. One problem is that a mere smile could be considered a flirt here. The boys here don't need much of an invitation. We're all trying to perfect out perma-grump faces.
Another bump in the road we've noticed and need to be careful of --- more so than swooning boys is the fact that many here have decided that white skin equals money. Some of the volunteers were being followed home by a group of drunk men one night. They firmly told them to leave and they did, but traveling alone, especially at night is out of the question.
Today we have been project planning, writing up some proposals and organizing ideas. Adding up finances and reading through resources we have in the house left from past years. I've been a little sick. My sinuses are a little mad at me, but that's nothing a little sine off tonight can't fix.

Anyway, this a pretty boring post, but it's just leftovers from last night that I didn't have time to write about. \
Moce!

Killing yourself in paradise, Music Therapy, Blue herring looking birds, the north pole, uninhabited islands, gass leaks and sooooo so much more

Well, um, A LOT has happened. We are so busy and will only be getting busier from the looks of things. it's all been very exciting but now I can't keep straight what happened when and what all I wanted to write about. The original purpose of coming to the cafe was to e-mail Ana, the headmaster that we will be working with in Ba. we met with her on Monday (Annie, Tacey and I). The meeting was awesome! things just started to fall into place. We are going to be working with the parents and educating them on the different disorders that their children have to help them better understand their child and how to interact with them. The Ba special school serve a huge range of disabilities so there will be lots of research. As the meeting went on we brought up musical therapy. Ana beamed as Annie and I explained what it was and the effects it has on all children especially those with disabilities. When we finished she talked about how she and her staff had JUST been talking about what to do on Friday mornings to help the children be excited to come to school. So in addition to teaching parents and staff about the disabilities at the school we will be setting up a music therapy program and training the staff on how to implement it when we are gone. we're going to make instruments and Annie is going to write up lesson plans. The project will run the whole term and we are all really excited for it. We start next Thursday. We have a lot to do before then. Once that is set up and running we will be able to add more projects to our plate. Annie Tacey and I will li9ve in Ba from Thursday morning to Friday afternoon and then head back to Lautoka.
After the meeting with Ana we went to a place called Lifeline. The are a counseling center in Ba that bases their counseling off of listening to people and asking them questions instead of telling them what to do or giving them advice. that way they can come up with and own their solutions. (kind of sounds like counseling in the states, but its a totally new concept here) They mostly need grants and even though I love what they are doing and want to help, I don't know how. But the reason I mention it is because The lady we met with talked about how the suicide rate has sky rocketed in Fiji. For some reason, it struck a cord with me. I found it sickly fascinating that people are living in paradise and killing themselves. I know that people here struggle and that they are living in paradise, but so many are taking their own lives. it made me so grateful for what I have. Not only my financial situation and living conditions in the states, but for the gospel. We went to church on Sunday and they were the happiest people we've met since being here. And that's saying something because these people have a knack for shining like the sun. I pondered in how incredible it is to know that life is more than money and more that sunshine and more that "making it". We are meant for such grand purpose and really can fulfill and feel fulfilled through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for my understanding of the gospel and my life and the value that I have based purely on my existence in this world and the existence of A loving Father in heaven. It's that knowledge alone that brings me through darkness and tears and blood and sweat and laughter even. It gives the laughter meaning, and the tears too. I've spent a fair amount of time in the dark and feeling, sometimes actually being broken. But the light from that knowledge wont go out (thankfully). It keeps me going even if its the only light left on in my heart. I know God lives. That i am His daughter and that He loves me. That when I am sick or broken inside I can be healed and made whole again. With out that light I would go out.
On the way back from Ba or TuaBua or somewhere we met a girl named Letty. She told us about an uninhabited island the locals go for walks and picnics. SO excited. She gave us the name (malevu) and her number so that when we go she can show us some boats that we can rent. Done and Done.
We met another guy who introduced us to his family and talked to us about his childhood and growing up here and how to pick out coconuts. He hadn't heard of Idaho before (go figure) and wanted me to explain it to him. I told him to turn Fiji inside out. It's cold, snows all the time, flat, brown instead of green, dry, very little sun, no water to dive into. He laughed so hard and said in his thick accent "Yes! Yes! your skin! Your skin makes you look like you are from the north pole or something!" We laughed so hard. I love the people here. 
We have been leaving the house early in the morning and not coming back until late at night. Last night we had been gone about eight hours and the house smelled like gas. The hose to the stove had popped off and the gas was left on. But wait, before you freak out, it was NOT a big deal. There isn't any glass in the windows here. The windows had been open allllllll day. but everyone freaked. Spencer and I found the whole thing comical and so did the locals. Our neighbor was trying to hide her laughter as she told us to just air the house out. The country director called the fire department for advice and a fire truck ended up showing up. it was sooooo funny and ended up being a lot of fun. We went out for pizza at a local hotel while the house aired out and the island stirred up a pretty good thunder storm. The night proved that we have some drama queens among us and also confirmed that there are a couple of people that consider themselves experts on various if not all topics. Meh. it makes for funny times if you can find the humor in it.
On the bus ride into town one morning I saw tow big blue herring looking birds and i thought, "My gosh, i live in paradise"

Paradise has NOT been paved over. <3

Koripita

Oh hey. I built a house. :)! It took us two days, but it's up! It was so much fun. It's in a place called Koripita. Koripita is a low income housing settlement that has helped SO many people. The goal is to help those with no money, save. These people come from all backgrounds and many have faced huge trails and witnessed and experienced a lot of violence in their lives. It was originally inspired because of 3 hurricanes that hit the island all at once leaving so many people with out housing. those with out money enough to get a new home became squatters and began squatter settlements. there is a big issue of land in Fiji because if you aren't a native Fijian you actually can't own land and those that do own land will take advantage of those who don't. The people in these settlements stay in there homes for a dollar a day and help build homes for others. It can be quite the adjustment, moving into a community full of people after living in the bush. People are expected to have neighbors and live by rules. they grow their own food and are expected to save money up to be able to move out into their own place somewhere else as soon as possible, many never do move out, but there is a one generation rule, meaning that the kids can't get pregnant and then move in with their parents. extended family is also not welcome to live there. however, there is free vocational training, countless classes , all free and free education for all the school aged kids in hope that even if their parents never move out of Koripita, they will and the y will have the skill set needed to move up in life and leave behind their families darker history. In short, Koripita is full of people hoping to change their stars. It is fantastic and I think that we could implement the same program in the US sometimes. Right now they are trying to implement it in other countries particularly in south America.
Koripita invited us to a dinner fundraiser. The locals made us food and we were able to look at some AMAZING hand crafted things they had made themselves and were selling. It. was. so. cool.
I do have pictures from the past couple of days, but I was transferring the files to my USB right before we came here, so they will have to wait.
We also were able to attend a ward dance at our church last night. It was SO fun. if all church dances were like that I would go to every one!
tonight I sat and watching the sunset on our swing set. you can watch it melt into the water over the rest of the city from our house. It was beautiful. There are tender mercies everywhere.
Only two bug bites! and they don't even itch. OH! I almost forgot. Annie, one of my roommates came screaming out of our room last night. a HUGE cockroach had run past her hand in her bed. it was so funny. another girl tried to catch it and let it outside in one of our bowls. Katherine, our country director about threw up when she found out and to make things even better the cockroach jumped out of the bowl and disappeared under the bed. I was laughing so hard. We all managed to get to sleep. We went for a run this morning and I used the bathroom after Annie as we got ready to go. I didn't have my glasses on and there I sat chillin on the toilet doin' my thing when I look up and see a HUGE black spot on our door. Cockroach. I think i just said "oh hello friend. I watched it like a hawk until I finished brushing my teeth and then went and got Spencer who disposed of the poor little guy. I am not a huge fan of killing things, but I'm also not a huge fan of having cockroaches running around my room. RIP little...er big guy. Sorry about that.
Things are still a little unorganized, but they are coming together. On Monday we travel to Ba and I get to meet Ana! Finally! (Ana is the principal at the special education school I want to work with! I'm stoked. There is also a counseling center that I may be able to work with in Ba as well and a couple other special education schools we're contacting. This first wave seems to be just getting the ball rolling and set up so that the second and third waves can just plow through.

 Put your shoulder to the wheel! push along!

Moce

Hailing from Lautoka, Fiji

BULA!
This has either been the longest day of my life or the shortest three days of my life. I left Tuesday afternoon arrived Thursday morning and am now reporting that I am here in Fiji safe and sound. The only weird thing about all of it is that the transition has been seamless. like turning a page in a book. It feels completely natural to be here. I feel more at home here than I have in the states recently. Everything is beautiful and everyone is so friendly. I am one of the 13 pale faces in town and today we herded around like pack animals. Needless to say we made quite the scene. everywhere we went, ALL eyes on us. People either don't say anything at all or they run up and ask us where we are from. We spent a lot of our time buying some things in town today like pillows and shampoo. We had a meeting with one of our partnerships today, and tomorrow? We build a house!! or two....and then continue to build our little butts off though Saturday. The organization we're working with is FANTASTIC. The are building self sufficient low income housing and helping the people who move into these houses further their education and clear the hurtles that life has place in front of them. Many of them have seen a lot of violence and can now have access to classes and counseling.
We have two cooks who double as our neighbors. One is a native Fijian and the other is a indo-fijian. We eat well. Our house is yellow and we have a swing set...there are geckos everywhere and we found a really cool slug on our house tonight.
It rained all throughout the day which all the locals say is way out of the ordinary. it was fun. I love the smell of this place. It smells like rain and dirt and sun. It's fantastic. The only con I can think of is that everyone has a thick accent and talks very softly sooooo I find myself asking people to repeat themselves a lot. hopefully that will pass.
There is so much I could write that my mind gets scattered. My camera was dead for most of the day so I will have to post pictures later.I am SO excited for tomorrow. All the volunteers are insta-friends!

While I was in Provo I saw a shirt that said something to the effect of "When nothing seems to be right, turn left"
Here's to left turns!

Moce!

Anne