Fiji Day 4

Today we had our first work day, My roommates and I got up as usual now, 5:00am and watched the sunrise as we chilled in our hammocks, it was nice, the sky was already a little red at 5:00 and progressively changed between purple orange and yellow over the next hour until the sun actually rose. It broke the horizon around 6:00, but it was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen. I have a video of the first part and a short time lapse after that. I haven’t got a chance to look at them too much, yet, but I hope they turned out well. Then after breakfast we began work. I was out in the papaya fields with Hillary digging holes to put fertilizer in, it was fun we got to talk and get to know each other a little bit. It got hot very quick though. I got a blister on my thumb from the shovel, so I had to change how I was holding it a little bit. Then Donyes took over for Hillary for a while and I got a chance to talk to him so that was really cool to have that one on one time. At 10:30 we stopped for tea time of course, which we did not actually drink tea, but had some water juice and some fruit. Then it was back to work. The papaya fields only had two rows left so they moved me to a job where I was digging out and leveling an area to pour concrete. This is when I got to have a good conversation with Russie, he is awesome. I want to be like him someday. He is one of the hardest most efficient workers I have ever met, he studied theology in the Solomon Islands, which is pretty legit and then chose to become a part of the island encounters ministry when they started the farm last year. He is the grounds keeper and the backbone of the farm maintenance there. He wife and daughter Auntie Salah and Flora work in the kitchen and couldn’t be sweeter. They have taught me a lot of Fijian words and a little bit about the food and culture. After we were done with the concrete and leveling it was time for lunch, we ate lunch and drank lots of water. We then talked for a little bit and jumped straight back into working. I went out to the field to plant cavacus (sp err) it is kinda like a potatoe anyway, it was pretty hard work. We got to use Cane blades named for their use in the sugar cane fields to cut back the overgrown part of the field to dig up new holes with a pitchfork like tool to plant the seed. It is one of those jobs that is done whenever we have time to squeeze it in. Then my watch beeped at 4:00…which is when I was supposed to be leaving for kids club, so I ran back to my room put on a clean shirt and ran up to get in the car. Lara was running a few minutes late so I was ready before she got there. So then we went over to Wai Loloma house which is a place for women who had to get out of abusive relationship or orphans whose parents couldn’t keep them because of the culture if the baby was out of wedlock, or if there parents died and no willing reletives clamied them. So we played with kids, then I was asked to help change someones tire and it took forever to find all of the tools we needed, but when I did and removed the old tire and everything, the “new” tire they brought me, was old enough that it had a hole in it and the other one they had….same story, just a different tire. So it ended up being a lot of work not to accomplish much, but it was still fun, especially playing with the kids of course. They really didn’t want us to leave, but maybe we will get a chance to go back. Lara’s kids are adorable. She has a 4 year old an 8 year old a 10 year old and a 16 year old. I have spent the most time with the two youngest, but they all seem very nice and sweet. When I was looking for tools to change a tire I found a note from the 8 year old to the 4 year old telling her that she loves her and hopes she has a great day. It was so cute, her little handwriting and everything. We then came back to the farm and ate dinner. Then I finally got to shower felt so good. Now tomorrow we are having a fun day, we are going scuba diving, to a waterfall, zip lines, I think a mud pit. And hot springs, so should be super legit and a great day for the GoPro. Getting up again at 5:00am tomorrow so I will journal again later.

Fiji Day 3

Today I got up early to see the sunrise. It was a little cloudy so it didn’t turn out that well on video but looked pretty cool. I then ate a lot of breakfast, hard boiled eggs are pretty good. Then we went into Nadi and shopped around for a few minutes. I hung with Lydia and Hannah most of the day, then we went to this café and ate lunch and watched the superbowl. It started at 11:00 haha time change probs. Seahawks destroyed the broncos. Then we went down to the beach again, I went on a walk with Lydia down the beach looking for seashells sand dollars and stuff. When we got down to the end of the beach there was a ramp and a small plane with puntoons on the bottom for taking off on the water, they would fly people around to look at the mountains and stuff it was super cool. There is also a island not too far off that apparently is one of those super crystal blue water beaches. I am not sure if we are going to have an opportunity to go there, but we are going to a really clear water beach in a couple days. Pastor Neil came and talked to us about his ministry with the hindu people of Fiji, he was raised Hindu and converted to Christianity through his brother. He explained how the family is so connected that they would be disowned either directly or indirectly shunned by the community. It was a really neat story.

Fiji Day 2

 Now I am getting ready to go to breakfast and then church, so today should be an awesome day. Burns still hurt a little, but I have put some aloe on them. Church was pretty cool, it was called revival. We met the pastors and church staff there were about 4 of them, and about 25 in the congregation. When they realized that we did not speak Fijian they tried to accommodate us and had some of the service in English. I am learning some of the Fijian words and etiquette. One of the harder ones is that you do not wear sunglasses while talking to people, and the Fijian sun is strong. The rest of the we just chilled, Sundays we don’t really have much activities apparently. Tomorrow is superbowl Monday so we are going into town to watch it and do some shopping ect.

Fiji Day 2

 Now I am getting ready to go to breakfast and then church, so today should be an awesome day. Burns still hurt a little, but I have put some aloe on them. Church was pretty cool, it was called revival. We met the pastors and church staff there were about 4 of them, and about 25 in the congregation. When they realized that we did not speak Fijian they tried to accommodate us and had some of the service in English. I am learning some of the Fijian words and etiquette. One of the harder ones is that you do not wear sunglasses while talking to people, and the Fijian sun is strong. The rest of the we just chilled, Sundays we don’t really have much activities apparently. Tomorrow is superbowl Monday so we are going into town to watch it and do some shopping ect.

Fiji Travel/Day 1

Well I made it to Fiji, has been pretty awesome so far. Things were a little crazy trying to get my passport the morning of my flight, but sure enough I made it. Got my passport at about 10:00am and was on my 12:00 flight out that afternoon. We then were on 3 different planes. I was always sitting in an area with Kelsey josh Hannah Morgan. So that was fun. Then we got to Houston switched planes there, it was a quick switch, we kinda had to run through the airport. So this was a decently long flight 4.5 hours of something to LA, really nice plane though. Very comfortable, goo movies to watch. I watched the new wolverine movie and I watched after earth, but I kinda started falling asleep towards the end. Had some panda express in the LA airport so that was pretty legit. Orange chicken of course. They didn’t have the alacarte option so I ordered a triple entrée like a boss. Then we were on a 12 hour flight to FIJI! WHAT WHAT! Long flight but totally worth it. We got to the airport, got some money converted to FJD then loaded up in some vans and headed out to the farm. Apparently there has been a ton of rain in the past week especially on Wednesday. Which halted the final work on our dorms, so our dorms are kinda still under construction while we are in them. one of the girls rooms went to stay at one of the missionaries house Laura. We went to the beach and just chilled for a couple hours. I put some suncreen on but my back still got decently burned, so I am going to be mindful of that for the next few days and wear a shirt more. The beach was fun though, the food here is pretty good. It is a lot of fruits and some bread. Last night we had a chicken soup for dinner. The locals here that I have met so far are really nice. The people who work here in the kitchen and stuff have told me a lot about the island area. We are in the valley along side a decently large mountain range so that is pretty neat. I and some others expressed interest in doing some climbing maybe on our second day. After lunch I went down to the creek to explore, it was a little difficult to get over there because the vegetation is very overgrown. But once I got down by the water and could see where the cows came through to get to the creek. I ended up knee deep in mud at one point which was pretty funny. But I washed off in the creek and then climbed a big “rain tree” and chilled there, read my bible until heading back a little bit before dinner.

Man Week

Well this week has been exciting. It is…Man week, and women week. The guys and the girls have been split up hearing from a different person each day in a different setting. The first day we heard from Mark Harris, I knew his son Marcus from kamp, but he talked to us about what it looks like to be a godly man, a godly parent and the importance of not worrying about what people think, just speak truth. That afternoon Adam Martin and I went and hung out at Bass Pro, talking looking at guns and boots and water shoes, ate some fudge of course. Just doing life together. People use that term here like they grew up with it “doing life together”, I had never heard that before, but the idea is so awesome. I don’t have to sit and have a class session to learn from my mentors, sometimes going out and doing stuff in the real world is where I learn the most and get to know them best. We went to Joes house yesterday, we got to go to the trampoline room. Yes you heard me right, Joe has a trampoline room complete with a basketball goal right infront of it. We had a friendly dunk contest and then moved upstairs into a serious time talking about the way that we view women. How lust and pornography destroys your mind and in you continue to live in that sin it will cause you to not have control over how you view women, which will destroy your marriage and inhibit your relationship with God. Afterward we went down to the lower fields of K-1 and had a wiffleball game in the freezing cold. It was pretty intense. My team emerged victorious, before heading back up for lunch. Jon and I met up with Grant Gaines yesterday and went over Hebrew, we are only on chapter 2 of our study, but it has been awesome so far. Later that afternoon Lydia and I went on a hike, exploring a creek area, filled a few bags full of trash and went and hung out by a waterfall for a while, just talking and getting to know each other better. That was really fun, it was a little chilly though, so I was glad to have put on some layers. Then today we heard from Tim, Brain Wangs brother in law, he was really cool, he talked to us about how all of our actions are just an overflow of our heart. Our circumstances don't cause us to say the things we do, what you put in is what you will get out. 

I am back!

            Another week in the life of a Link Year student. It is good to be back though. Im getting so excited about going to Fiji Australia and New Zealand. We leave in two weeks. I am reading more and more about their culture and language to best prepare for this trip. I also will be doing a denominational study. I am researching Jehovah’s witness. I kinda know what it is but not that much, so I look forward to learning more about it. I will have limited internet access while out of the country. I should have it almost everyday in Australia, but during fiji probably not at all and new Zealand some of the time. We will see. I probably will not post on my blog until after I get back, but I will try and log my adventures extensively to keep you filled in. I got a gopro for Christmas so I will be taking pictures and videos everywhere I go. It should be a ton of fun. We also got funds raised to build a chicken coop. That will be really essential to this community. It will be one of their primary sources of protein. It is weird getting all of my summer clothes out when it is so cold here in Missouri. The weather is going to be so warm. I cant wait. Then when I get back I will be able to see a bunch of my friends at nationals so that will be a lot of fun. This week one of my pastors here in Branson was our Link Year speaker. Ted Cunningham, he came and has been talking to us about a few things, one he is a huge advocate for marriage and he talked to us all about all of the things someone should consider when deciding who to marry and then about how he believes that people of our generation are unnecessarily delaying marriage. He thinks this is a lot of because of prolonged adolescence. Kids are not transitioning into adulthood as early as they should. They need to be becoming adults that make their own decisions when they leave for college, but instead they are coming back home after college either because their parents want them to or to “save money”, but really all it is doing is prolonging their transition into adulthood. He then talked to us about how communication works in a relationship like marriage. Some examples of bad communication and how to correct that and communicate well with your spouse. Also about what personalities are most compatible.