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