Fiji/New Zealand Day 27

Well we slept in a little, I went and sat with some people at breakfast, talked for a bit. Then I went back to my room and finished packing up. My room then prayed as a group, for those of us going to New Zealand and those who were going back to the US. After that we headed up to the front, checked out and started saying our goodbyes to the rest of the group. We got in a shuttle and went over to the airport. We were like second in line to check in. We got up there and they told us that our flight would be delayed from 10am to 5pm. So they gave us vouchers to go back to the hotel, we each got our own room and a free meal. It was pretty good. I rested, then checked my email, found out I needed to meet a deadline for a college app, so I got a few things taken care of. We ate some burgers and headed back to the airport. Got on the plane and went to NZ. On the plane we had some significant turbulence, but not too much to worry about, we couldn’t lose. If we made it to Auckland we would enjoy our trip. If we crashed and died we would go to heaven, if we crashed and didn’t die, we would have an amazing story about that one time we survived a cyclone in the middle of the pacific ocean. But we made it to Auckland, and were greeted by a large statue of a dwarf from Lord of the Rings. We proceeded to get our bags and get a shuttle to our hotel. Fortunately they had rooms available for us even though we were arriving a few days early. We settled into our rooms, then went and got a bite to eat at burger king. Aftetr that we went back to our rooms and went to sleep.

Fiji Day 26

So 5:00am up and going, went out got some breakfast, then once we could see a little bit we headed out into the field with cane knives, shovels and bags of pineapple plants. The first big task was clearing out the grass, it is about 5 feet tall and we had to clear an area of about 20 square yards. So we got to work, some would stomp on the grass, then we would cut a line, and starting uprooting from there. Because of the rain the night before it ended up going fast to use the cane knives less and just pull up the grass. Normally you cant do that because the ground is too dry and hard. So we do that and it takes us until about 8:00 to clear everything, then the group gets split in half so that some could work on the chicken coop. Kimmy, Josh Ong, a Giovanni and I stayed in the field though. I dug holes, a 1yrd radius, put them into rows. After a few hours of planting we were finished, then I went and helped Thomas and tyler finish the wiring around the chicken coop. After that we showered, got our stuff together and headed to our hotel. We stayed at tokatoka across from the airport. It was nice to have an actual bed, air conditioning ect. For dinner we all went out for pizza. After dinner Josh O, Giovanni and I went to the grocery store and bought ice cream. Took it back to the room and chowed down, it was great. Watched some random soap opera based in Australia. Then we all met up in the other boys room for poetry night. We all shared our poems, then I went back to the room, ate more icecream and went to bed.

Fiji Day 25

Today we went to the Sigatoka Sand Dunes, which was my research place. We went and toured the dunes and the associated rainforest. We got to see some of the pottery that had been excavated there which was cool. They told us that we couldn’t swim because there were a lot of tiger sharks just off shore. They said during high tide you can see them swimming around fins out and occationally leaping as they attack fish from below. So that’s awesome. Then we went over to a school and put on a short kids club, we told the story of Jesus healing the blind man, I was the blind man John was Jesus and Tyler was the Narrator. Then we had them memorize Isaiah 35:5. Then we played some games with them outside until they had to get back to class. Then the group went to the Tanviu fort. There we learned about a particular establishment that is now a historical site. It was pretty neat, not a lot to see, mostly just got a tour telling us what used to be there. The view from the highpoint was awesome though, the rolling hills, farm below, and river cutting through. Unbelievable. After that we went into the town of Sigatoka, I got a snack and drink, and bought a couple souvenirs and a bunch of bananas. Now we are back at the farm we have cleaned up the kitchen and are now packing to leave. New Zealand here I come. We are staying in a hotel for our last night, so that will be nice. I gotta get some sleep though, we have plant some trees at like 5:00am tomorrow morning, so night night.

Fiji Day 24

Today we were supposed to have a work day, but due to some future weather conditions they moved our charter boat day to today. We went out to the Mamanucas, which is an island group not too far off shore from Nadi. One of the islands out there is the island that Cast Away was filmed on. Unfortunately we were unable to stop there because of some problems with the Jet ski. Oh yeah we had a Jet ski, so we took turns driving it around as the boat went along. It was a blast. Unfortunately it ended up having some mechanical problems, but I got to drive it around before that time. While I was on it I got to jump around behind the boat on the wake, slow down to look into the crystal blue water at fish. I saw a small reef shark eating something and I saw two manta rays. As they skimmed under that water I could drive right with them, they were pretty fast. About 20mph. We saw some flying fish jumping out of the water. Then we stopped and snorkeled for a while at a reef. That was awesome, we saw tons of fish, a couple of sea snakes, which are super venomous. But before you get alarmed, it is almost impossible for them to bite you, they have such small mouths that they cannot open wide enough to bite anything other than an earlobe or the webbing between your fingers. Josh Ong was a little bolder than myself, he was grabbing them and moving them around. He dropped it when he pulled it out of the water because it really flipped out. Then I got to try spear fishing, which was awesome. After about 15min I had a fish. It was really neat I have some pictures of it. Then I let some other people give it a try. We cruised around, took some group pics, ate food and headed back. All in all one of my best days to date.

Fiji Day 23

We got up this morning and went to church at revival. After the service we went to the head pastors house for lunch, it was great. Their were trays and trays of fruit. Pineapple, papaya, watermelon, and bananas. There was also some fish, which was whole. Then there was some peppers that DLaw and Jon tried, they said it was pretty hot, like my mouth was on fire for several minutes. Then we headed back to the farm and just chilled. I took a nap in my hammock, then chatted with people on the porch until dinner. For dinner we had an American dish. Spaghetti and meat sauce. It wasn’t quite like home, but it was decent. Then we got to hear Russie’s Testimony. He told us about how he grew up with a really strict father. Then we ended up in jail for several years where he had an encounter with God. From then on he began to read the Bible and talk to other cellmates about the grace of Christ. He was then released by order of the prime minister, where he went home to Salah and began to live for Christ. He studied theology in the Solomon Islands then ended up working for island encounters as a property management. They have been a really great family to get to know. I will miss them very much. Between the Pittmans, Russie’s family, Shawn and Talei I really want to come back someday and see how they are doing and how the farm is doing. I hope an opportunity presents itself some time down the road.

Fiji Day 22

This morning I got up and helped with pancakes. I stirred up the batter for Auntie Salah and we started cooking. Everyone got a couple pancakes then we ran out of propane, so that was a bummer. The Nazeil and Laura came by and picked us up to go into Nadi, we started at the Hindu temple where we went in and prayed for the lost people there and prayed against the idol and demon worship. It was a sad and heavy time. After that we went into Nadi on a scavenger hunt. We got points for getting to know people and taking pictures of different foods and souvenir type items. Then we took a cab over to McDonalds. My team got second place, which was fine. First place got McFlurries. Then we came back to the farm changed clothes and headed out on our hike. We met up with a local who would be our guide his name was Esa, he was pretty cool, we were laughing that we brought like backpacks with gear and water ect, he had a knife and an apple haha. Also he was wearing flip flops. He quickly took them off and went barefoot though. We went through a river first in which Snodgrass fell and was being swept away by the river, so I threw my pole up to our guide and he held it out for Snodgrass to pull him back over, it wasn’t a dangerous size river he just might have been swept down a hundred yards or so. We were all carrying our backpacks over our heads, unfortunately I thought my go pro was recording, but I missed the first river crossing. Then we hiked up a ways where we got some guavas, a fruit with a pinkish red center and a lot of seeds, tastes good. Then we journeyed into the rainforest it was muddy and slippery but we were having a blast. Then we came up to a large rock that we climbed up on top of, from there we had a view of the whole valley area, we could see the farm and the airport, and even the next island over. Then we began our descent, on the back down we went by a stream where we could drink fresh water, it began to rain, but none of us really cared, we had already walked through a river and deep mud, we were about as wet as we were going to get. Then we passed a sugar cane field so we cut some cane and snacked on that. We then came to a new part of the river where it was a little deeper and we had to walk upstream a little ways. We all made it, after we got our bags across we messed around in the river, trying to swim against the current and pushing each other, it was fun. We passed some pigs in a pen, which smelled terrible, not surprisingly, and then we came up to the Muslim school, which is the turn off to head back to oasis farm. We thanked our guides and gave them some money, then a big 18 wheeler pulls up with a bulldozer on the back, so Giovanni asks them if we could ride on the back until our turnoff, they agree and we all jump on, it was hilarious at the turn, they didn’t really stop, but they had to slow down enough to turn we just jumped off. We walked it the rest of the way in got showered, up, clean clothes and some warm chicken soup in our bellies for dinner.

Fiji Day 21

Today was really chill; we got up and had our devo time, Tyler and Donyes shared. Then we went to the mud pools, which was muddy, as you would imagine. The mud pool was really warm also; we helped cover each other in mud and then began the baking process. We had to wait for the mud to dry which is probably a part of the exfoliating process and detox. Then got in the water and washed off. After that we got in the hot spring, it was really hot there, so after that we got in the pool and rinsed off in a cool shower, then we came back to the farm and chilled this afternoon. Russie and Shawn left to go to Suva for the celebration of the 100^th day since Russie’s dad passed away, this is a common practice in the Fijian culture. Then I went back to loloma and played with kids again, not as many were there this time, but we had fun. Played elbow tag and did some jump rope. I made arrangements with Laura to stay an extra night in Fiji for the New Zealand group and also figured out how we can leave our bags in Nadi and she will bring them to the airport when it we come back through after our trip. I think it will work out well. Had dinner and visited with some people out on the porch for a while. Now I’m going to sleep. Night