Passin Time in Fiji

As I mentioned, I want to document the rest of last weekend because it was one of those weekends where there were many moments that I felt validated that we made the right choice in moving here.  There were so many times that I felt content...and I want to remember those moments...for the times when I miss home and wonder what we are doing here. When we woke up at the Christian camp, we ate a nice breakfast with the volunteers and hung around while all the volunteers packed up and found their transport back to the city.   Andie and Zoe found the Fijian children that reside at the camp and played happily (and barefoot) for the whole morning.   They played with the dog, swung on the swings, played in their house, caught more bull-frogs, ate cake, and went fishing.   As I packed up the room and heard them laughing with the kids, I felt so happy that they could make friends anywhere, despite language barriers.  The kids took the girls fishing.   This was no...

Last Friday was very different than any other kind of Fridays I had in the states.  At the end of the day, I went to bed thinking...."Gosh, what a full day and so different than what I am used to." It started off very similar to my days in Atlanta.  I woke up with the girls, got them off to school and then turned on my downloaded version of the most recent Bachelor.  I watched the terrible/awesome show as I packed for a weekend away.   It took me way longer than necessary to pack (and I totally forgot underwear for the entire weekend) because I kept getting absorbed into the "most dramatic" home dates ever.... and just couldn't believe that shy, sweet Jade had posed for playboy, but I digress.  I even missed my run because I was sucked into my awful reality tv show ... the one that lets me escape from real life. Oh, ya!  Gotta love it! After I finally finished packing, I went over to the embassy for cultural training class.  It was such an awe...

How amazing are my friends from home?  They wrote a letter for me for every week that I am here during my first year.  Every Monday morning I sit down with a cup of tea and cherish opening my weekly dose of home. Makes my heart happy. I just hope I can find friends here that I feel even half as close with. (P.S.)  Been working on a long blog entry.  Taking me forever.   Promise to get it out tomorrow for a small slice of the tropics for those of you snowed in.

I am so ecstatic!   A friend has recommended the amazing, fabulous, super de-louser.... the nit fairy herself, Seine.  A HUGE burden  has been lifted!   This is Seine. (Say-Nee).   She happened to fall into the booming business here of "nit picking".    I've decided to have her come once a week to de-louse/nit-pick the girls' hair.   She spends about 1.5 hours on each girl and half an hour on me.... going through each strand of hair, looking for anything suspicious.    She's extremely thorough and has found the littlest pieces of things in their hair (sand, dandruff, and so far....2-3 hatched shells of lice).   She is coming once a week and I am combing out once a week.    Yes, we are down to prevention now... and it's only twice a week!  This means we have our afternoons back.  No more 2 hours of screen time every day!   We can have play dates, do homework, and swim after school!   I am SO thankfu...

This morning on my drive to help out Andie's class at the pool, I was very aware of my surroundings.  There is such contrast in  my daily morning commute in Atlanta and the morning commute here in Suva.   While there is traffic in both Atlanta and Suva, that is about the only thing in common between the two.   So much is different.  No wonder my brain/senses were working overtime when we first got here.  There is a lot to take in.    Don't worry, I only took photos at stoplights or while standing still on the road.    There was so much more I wanted to capture (local housing, all the people jaywalking, the crazy roundabouts) , but couldn't do so safely.   While you look at the photos, picture island music on the radio and people driving crazy.   There seems be to very little rules here when it comes to driving.  People pass each other all of the time on one lane roads and there is no real way to tell if roads are one ...

Before Quiz Night Happy belated Valentine’s Day from Fiji.   We had a stay at home, lazy weekend again.  I’ve not been feeling well, so I haven’t been up for too much.   I have a sore throat and generally just feeling weak/yucky.   I truly think part of it may just be the heat.  Three of our air conditioners are broken in the house.  It’s SO hot to me.  I know that the very large majority of this country lives without air conditioning and they do just fine.  I know it sounds spoiled of me to complain about the lack of air conditioning, especially when I still have it in my bedroom…but I guess that’s what I am doing.  Maybe next year at this time, I’ll be more adjusted to the heat.   It’s so hot and humid outside right now that my sunglasses fog up every time I walk outside.  Luckily, our house has a lot of windows, so we are able to open up the windows for whatever breeze may come through.  I need t...