A group of about 20 UVU students, including myself, left the SLC airport on May 5th.
We paid $2,200 to serve to good people of Fiji and we were all incredibly excited!
It all started out smoothly.
We flew from SLC to LAX just fine.
We waited in line for the Air Pacific counters to open for about 3 and 1/2 hours.
And then the worst thing happened!
(well not the worst, I mean crashing would be the worst, but you get the point)
Our flight was delayed 12 hours
until 11am the next morning.
Buzz kill.
Everyone maintained their positive attitudes though.
We started looking at the pros, such as:
"well at least they are fixing the plane so we won't die, right?"
"hey we get to stay in a hotel for free!"
"free buffet, cool!"
It took a while to get our new arrangements straightened out with Air Pacific.
(side note: we didn't have our luggage)
Eventually, we all got settled and ate our free buffet dinner.
It was actually a beautiful hotel.
It was the first time I spent a night in a hotel room by myself.
I fell asleep with 1 light on and Friends playing on the TV.
Yep, I'm a child. I'm afraid of being alone in the dark.
Anyways, we wake up and eat breakfast when the next blow hits.
We are delayed another 3 hours!
This time we start to panic because we have a very strict schedule in order to fly into Nadi, drive to Suva, drive to the dock, and catch the ferry that will take us to the island where we are doing our service project.
This ferry only comes once every 3 days.
With this second delay we were cutting it really close to missing the ferry.
We were all praying that we wouldn't be delayed again.
And it wasn't, sort of.
When we arrived at our gate, the departure time was delayed about another hour and a half.
By then we just wanted to be there and it felt like we'd never make it!
Finally, we took off.
It was an extremely long 10 hour flight because we were flying during the day.
Originally we were flying through the night so we would all sleep the whole way.
But we didn't and it messed up our sleeping schedules a bit.
I got a few hours of sleep.
We arrived and went through customs,
exchanged money,
changed our clothes,
and hopped on a bus.
This is also where I got my first mosquito bite.
We drove 3 hours, through the night, to Suva.
This is where we picked up our water bottles that we'd be drinking for the next 2 weeks.
We loaded those on the bus and were off again!
This time to the dock, another 3 hours away.
We all tried our best to sleep again.
Finally, we arrived at the dock where all the other passengers were waiting for us.
We drove straight onto the ferry, they pulled away from the dock, and away we went!
This was another 3 hour boat ride to the island where we would be doing our service project.
Unfortunately, I suffer from motion sickness so I sat on the top section of the boat.
A few other students were up there so we sat, napped, and talked.
This was where I got my first sunburn.
3 hours later:
All of the sudden, the island appeared from the ocean mist.
It looked so familiar.
My heart started beating faster and I couldn't help but smile.
After all of the set backs, we were here!
I was back.
I actually did it. Just like I told Susu I would.
Would I seem this little boy again?
Would he be ok?
Would I see my other Fijian friends?
How would this trip compare to the last one?
I was nervous and ready all at the same time.
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