Fiji Day 10

This morning we got up and went over to the house in Suva for breakfast. After that we all got in the van and went over to the Fiji History Museum. It was pretty cool, the first rooms showed many of the different boats that came to Fiji either from southeast asia or when the british came. There was some pottery that had been found in the Sigatoka Sand Dunes that dated back about 3000 years ago. We could see many of there early weapons, bows and clubs ect. Then we saw the shoe of Thomas Baker. He was a missionary that came to Fiji and was cannibalized by the people, his shoe was the only thing left. After that his family ended up coming to Fiji and reconciling with village that ate him, their example of forgiveness brought them to Christ, showed them grace. After the chief was converted the entire village began to follow Christ. Through the British/Christian movement the people of Fiji turned away from cannibalism and began to embrace much of western influence. After the museum we headed back to the house for lunch, after lunch some people went back to the waterfall, but I went to the internet café where I got to talk to my family, post from this journal to update people on everything that is going on here in Fiji. Then I went and saw the movie Robocop, which was pretty good. Now im back in the internet café but they are out of wifi codes so I cannot post anything right now or talk to my family. I am a little sore right now, not exactly sure why, we haven’t been on the farm for a few days working, but it might be because of the beds, they are not extremely comfortable and the pillow is kind of awkwardly big, but all in all I am doing well and am looking our last few days in Suva before heading out to Sydney.

Fiji Day 9

Well we just finished breakfast, I had a couple small bananas and some toast, a couple hardboiled eggs and a piece of pineapple. It was pretty good. Now we are journaling and reading our Bibles before heading to church at 10:00. I was reading through 1^st Peter 5 remembering as I read it, memorizing it for chief princess weekend. I want to recommit it to memory. I do not think it will be too hard, it isnt a long chapter. Especially compared to the 48 verses in Matthew 5. Everyone has got there sulus, and bula shirts on ready to go. Today is Morgan’s birthday, so that is eciting, I am going to get her a cake today, I already bought some balloons and candles. I thinking about getting her something for a gift, but figuring out what she would really want is the tough part. If I see something that I think she will really like than that’s what I’ll get, otherwise I will just give her the cakenow I am chillin with Isla and Aden taking picture on my computer. They are so cute.church was pretty good today, the teachers were not exceptionally enthusiastic, but I liked watching the sign language interpreter and try to learn some of the Fijian signs, which is really different than American sign language. I was dosing off a little during the second part of the service, after that we had some lunch and just had a little time to visit with one another about how our time here has been so far. After that we kinda split up some people stayed at the house because they were really tired and others including myself, went on a waterfall hike. It was less like a hike and more like a short trail, only about 100yrds to the waterfall from where we parked, it was pretty neat though. There was a big swing into the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. So that was fun, I couldn’t really do much tricks, but had a good time anyway. Then we came back to the house, I got to go with a smallish group down to the coast where Lydia Kimmy and I went on a walk through the park, it was great, we saw some mudskippers and crabs in the water, there were a bunch of mangrove trees, which we are told are very essential for Fiji’s fish population because that is where the go to spawn, which protects there eggs until they hatch. Then we walked back, on the way back we went by a basketball court where some people were shooting so they let up put up a few shots. The rim was so small though, It was almost half the size, which I guess would help you work on your accuracy, but it was significantly more difficult. Then we went back to the house and ate dinner, then birthday cake and ice cream, it was great. Came back to the rooms and now we are all just winding down for bed. Another successful day in Suva.

Fiji Day 8

Today we were out on the town in suva, we had breakfast over at Talai’s house here in suva, some hardboiled eggs and some bananas. After that we went to the deaf school, at the deaf school we lead a kids club there, which was teresting since we had to explain things all non verbally. We had a translator part of the time, but mostly just had to show them how we do things. I was the narrator for the story of Daniel and the lions den, which we acted out for the kids while it was narrated. At the end I played a game with them that was kinda like pool exept you were flicking checkers essentially into eachother to knock them into holes. After that we went back over to downtown Suva and went shopping, ate some lunch and did some more shopping because the weather wasn’t good enough for us to go to the waterfall. So tomorrow after church if the weather is good we are going to try and go, otherwise we will just go to the museum. My group I ran around with was great, it was morgan Lydia mason and I. We had a blast, found some great stuff too. Then we all met back at our hostel and went to Talai’s house again, had dinner, I gave the devo for the night on Ephesians 4, then we heard a little bit more about Ray and Lora’s story and some of his crazy story. Now we are back at the hostel watched some rugby and just talking now.

Fiji Day 7

Today I got up this morning got in the word a little, packed up for  Suva. We ate some breakfast then got in the cars. I used the rope I bought for my hammock to tie down the bags on top of the car. We got in the cars, I rode with Phil Analise and Hannah Nikels. We stopped at a small market for fruit, got some bananas, mangos and some fruit I cant pronounce. We continued on for a little while before stopping at a small souvenir shop. I didn’t get anything there, we then continued on to a picnic area where we went out on a pier first when we got there it was sunny, but windy, but the wind blew in a rain that was definitely horizontal with the wind speed. Then 15min later the rain had passed and we started eating lunch. Then we got back in the car, but Hannah and Lydia switched. So we continued on to fiji, when we were almost to Suva we stopped at a cultural center, and shopped around. I still didn’t have my money so I didn’t buy anything, but I browsed around at knives mostly, some in a dive shop and one that is for cutting sugar cane, technically it is a knife, but in my opinion it is a machetee. I might buy one toward the end of the trip so I don’t have to carry it around. Then we got to suva moved our stuff into the hotel then went up to the mall. Once we got there we went up to the food court and got some food. That is where I finally got that text message sent to laura lynn. I had pizza coke and chocolate cake. It is good, the chocolate cake was called death by chocolate. Now we are back at the hostel watching rugby on tv, so exciting, literally one of the best sports to watch on tv. Very active, a lot of scoring good contact and some wicked fast agile players, favorite teams are Fiji and New Zealand for sure, spain was terrible though. Im falling asleep though, later.

Fiji Day 7

Today I got up this morning got in the word a little, packed up for  Suva. We ate some breakfast then got in the cars. I used the rope I bought for my hammock to tie down the bags on top of the car. We got in the cars, I rode with Phil Analise and Hannah Nikels. We stopped at a small market for fruit, got some bananas, mangos and some fruit I cant pronounce. We continued on for a little while before stopping at a small souvenir shop. I didn’t get anything there, we then continued on to a picnic area where we went out on a pier first when we got there it was sunny, but windy, but the wind blew in a rain that was definitely horizontal with the wind speed. Then 15min later the rain had passed and we started eating lunch. Then we got back in the car, but Hannah and Lydia switched. So we continued on to fiji, when we were almost to Suva we stopped at a cultural center, and shopped around. I still didn’t have my money so I didn’t buy anything, but I browsed around at knives mostly, some in a dive shop and one that is for cutting sugar cane, technically it is a knife, but in my opinion it is a machetee. I might buy one toward the end of the trip so I don’t have to carry it around. Then we got to suva moved our stuff into the hotel then went up to the mall. Once we got there we went up to the food court and got some food. That is where I finally got that text message sent to laura lynn. I had pizza coke and chocolate cake. It is good, the chocolate cake was called death by chocolate. Now we are back at the hostel watching rugby on tv, so exciting, literally one of the best sports to watch on tv. Very active, a lot of scoring good contact and some wicked fast agile players, favorite teams are Fiji and New Zealand for sure, spain was terrible though. Im falling asleep though, later.

Fiji Day 6

Well today was a great day. I accidentally overslept, which really just means I didn’t wake up at 5:00, someone else’s alarm went off at 5:45 so we all got up then and caught the actual sunrise and had a short quiet time. I am going through Ephesians right now, it has been super powerful to me. Especially in chapter 4 verse 13 through 16. I think next year (2015) I am going to memorize the book of Ephesians. Today was another work day. I started out with Russie out in the field taking down a fence on the corner of the property about 6 posts to allow for an Indian farm who owns about an acre between that part of the creek and the oasis farm. He has decided that he is going to plant some vegetables there, so we were making space for him to get through, after that we re place new posts and reset the barbed wire.  Then we took a short break before going out into the papaya fields to clean things up. All of the holes had been filled with fertilizer and we just picked up the fruit that had fallen and branches that had died. We move them out to prevent insects and mongoose from disturbing the healthy parts of the tree. Then I went over to the other side of the farm house to help with the chicken coop. All of the bases have been set and today we finished most of the frame. After that we had lunch and rested for a little bit before going out to run kids club projects. It was really fun, we played some games with the kids. Duck duck goose, freeze tag, telephone, capture the shoe (capture the flag) then we told Bible stories and acted them out. We did jonah, noah, david and goliath, Jesus walks on water, and Jesus feeds the 5,000. Then at the end the kids did a short song and dance for us that they had learned at church, we the got back for dinner. I sat a talked to Salah for a while then ate the most normal food yet. Sloppy Joes essentially. They had a few bones that you had to make sure not to bite into too hard, but it was good. Then I got in my hammock for a few minutes before the bugs all came out. Then Lydia and I went in the farm house and played a little guitar talk to salah and flora and her two kids. Josh came and played the guitar for a little while too. Then we went back to our rooms I took a shower and started typing this while visiting with the boys. All in all a good day.

Fiji day 5

This mornings sunrise was really different than yesterday. There were almost no clouds so the color changes were not quite as dramatic, but still really pretty. Now we are getting ready to roll out. I saw the box of sandwiches for the day and there have got to be like 80 sandwiches. Got Morgan’s and my gopro batteries all charged up and ready to go. We went out to Scuba Bula Fiji to go scuba diving it was sooooo tight. Had a blast, we did a training and orientation in the pool, then after that we went out on the boat to head out to our dive site. On the way there I used the clamp mount for my GoPro to video us going out to the dive site. I think it turned out really well. They split us up into two groups. While one was diving the other group was snorkeling, my group went first we went down a rope until we got to the bottom, had to repressurize several times to maintain equilibrium. But we got to the bottom and began exploring, I followed my guide and he would show me where to swim and things to look for and video with my gopro. Some of the highlights were a stingray, a giant clam, an anenome, some fish hiding in coral, a moray eel, there was a white tip shark we saw when we got there, but not while diving. Some saw it but I did not and there was a sea turtle that I only saw as it was swimming away. I am not sure what the footage would be like on that. Then after that we came up, it was about 40min under water then we took off our tanks ate some fresh pineapple and coconut , some people drank tea, then the other group started diving and we started snorkeling. It was pretty fun, scuba was definitely way better, but I swam down into a kind of underwater tunnel about 15 feet down swam about 25 feet across and then back up. It was really exciting. The other group saw some baracuddas on their dive which is super cool. Then on the way back I set up my gopro clamped to the boat to video us going back and as I turned on the camera a piece of the go pro mount broke popped it loose and down into the ocean it went… I may or may not have had a panic attack/ had a decent outburst of frustration. I don’t get worked up much, but I was pretty upset about it. They told me that it was about 20 meters deep in that place, but they would try and look for it. 8min and 16sec later (GoPro time) I had my go pro back in my hand. It was amazing, we were moving pretty fast when it fell off and only had a vague idea of where it fell when we circled back, but scuba sam had no problem finding it. As Adam Donyes said “you went from a three year old having a tantrum to a 5 year old on Christmas morning.” The joy in that moment was AMAZING. It was only 8 min and 16 sec in the water. I cant believe they found it that fast, nothing short of a miricle as far as I am concerned. We then returned, I bought him a drink and gave him some money to say thank you. We then returned to the farm and got dressed up in our sulus and bula shirts to go to a village acceptance ceremony. We gave them a root, which is traditional and they met us showed us around the village and gave us permission to climb up the mountain. We have not met the chief yet because he was busy, but it was really neat. Now we have returned and are headed to dinner.