Passin Time in Fiji

It is has been a great week, full of all things Fiji....followed by a good weekend full of good friends and 4 birthday parties!   I have begun taking Fijian language lessons at the embassy.   I have an incredible teacher and friends to practice with (including Warren who is also taking the class) but I am immediately brought back to my high school Spanish classes and remembering how TERRIBLE I am with learning a new language.  I seriously have some sort of mental block against learning to say, "How are you?" in Fijian.  To be fair, it is quite a mouthful (Vacacava tiko? - pronounced vacathava tiko?) but really it shouldn't take me two weeks to master that!  Regardless, I've signed up for 40 hours of lessons so I am hoping I get better!  I just need to get confident enough to practice with Fijians and diligent enough to study outside of class. On Wednesday, ISS (the kids' school) had their swim carnival.  Wednesday also happens to be a day that I wo...

It looks like I am blogging once a week nowadays.  It works for me.  I feel super busy lately.   Also, it still feels weird to talk about anything except the cyclone.  This country is still reeling. 53,000 people are still in evacuation centers.  Damage to agriculture has been estimated around 60 million USD.  Around 250,000 people are still in need of water, sanitation, and hygiene assistance according to the UN.  Everyone local person I know has at least one family member extremely affected.   Again, we were so lucky here in Suva.  I think that if the cyclone directly hit Suva, the city would be so destroyed....we'd probably be sent home, at least temporarily.  I don't even know if Suva would still be operational....   I am SO excited because we booked our tickets to visit the good old USA this summer (our "winter")! We will spend time in Atlanta.  I will go to my annual girls' weekend.  We will spend the week in Duc...

On Friday my friend Lisa and I went up into a few of the villages that were more badly hit by TC Winston.  I had heard that many of these villages didn't have access to clean water and all of their crops had been devastated with the storm.   Many villages lost all of their dry goods as well as their shelter.  I knew aid was on the way....but it wasn't happening quickly enough.   The aid organizations had to assess before they could freely give.  (Now, aid is getting into most of the villages thank goodness, but some still haven't seen anything).   I didn't feel like I could just continue my normal Suva life with my generator and lunches out and exercise and not do  anything.  I had to feel busy doing something to help if for nothing else than my own sanity... I just felt like I had to do something. I am aware how completely fortunate and spoiled I am to be sitting in my sturdy house with a generator post Winston.     My friend Lisa ...

I am not sure when we really knew that Tropical Cyclone Winston (TC Winston) was going to be hitting Fiji, but I became acutely more aware of the imminent threat on Friday morning.  I was at school/work trying to tie a few things up for the week ahead when I started to realize that we may not even have school in the week ahead.   The principal sent out an email advising all staff to leave when the students left so they could go home and prepare their home for the storm.  I let some friends from home know that the cyclone was coming and it looked like a category 4 (which later increased to a category 5).   They gave me honest reactions...but definitely made the whole thing seem a lot more real.  Everyone surrounding me (minus Warren) seemed relaxed about the whole thing...but my friends and family from home were really freaked out.  They said I should evacuate...but all planes were grounded so that was not an option (don't think I would have anyway).  ...

Because the girls and I couldn't make it to Virginia for Glen's memorial service, we really wanted to do something here in Fiji to honor Glen.  Andie actually came up with the whole idea.   On Sunday, Valentines Day, we honored and remembered Glen/Dad/Papa in the best way we knew how. We planted a lipstick palm tree in the front yard with a painted stone - "In Memory of Papa".   On three smaller stones, we each drew or wrote a word or picture that reminded us of Glen.   The stones had pictures of hearts, donuts, smiles, and Papa and words like Father, wise, our biggest fan, sandwich king, funny, and Love. After the tree was planted, Warren played music (George Harrison's  Give me Love ) while we all placed our stones around the tree, patted down the soil, and watered the tree.  Everyone was quiet....  the moment felt somber, peaceful, and beautiful.  I am so glad we did it.  The girls are now checking on the tree every time we walk past i...

It's really really hot right now in Suva.  SO HOT.  And, it's basically 100% humidity every day.  The air is thick. I usually run at 5:30 am and it's still pretty sticky at that time.  I have never sweat so much in my life during runs.  I come home and it looks like I've jumped in the pool with my shoes on.  I am dripping.....drenched with sweat.   Even my socks and shoes are soaking wet...squishing like I have walked in a puddle.   It's pretty gross. I've mentioned before that my running has been terrible lately.  I am not sure what's going on exactly...but I just cannot run at the same pace that I ran in Atlanta.  Maybe I'm just getting older...or maybe it's the climate...or maybe it's both.  It hasn't stopped me from trying.  Every weekend I attempt a long run and I usually just shuffle my way through it.   I feel good after I do it at least!   The views also make it worth it. Random- but also check o...