On Saturday, May 11th, in the middle of our trip we had a free day at the beach.
It was low tide when we arrived so we took a lot of fun pictures on the beach before
braving the trek through the coral to the water.
The walk out to the water was a little rough.
Everyone got cut up and left with battle wounds.
The best part of the beach day was laying out on the sand when we reached the shore again.
We all tried working on our tans and getting rid of our funky tan lines.
Little did we know that the lovely sun (when you are so close to the equator)
only takes about 5 minutes to tan your skin and begin to burn.
It was worth it though.
^^ Liz (or Via Via, her island name) in her natural habitat breaking open a coconut with a large machete^^
The next day was Sunday and this is a day of rest in Fiji.
We made the transition to our second village called Nogondoa.
This truly was a picturesque village.
The church sat on a hill and when it was time to come worship a bell would ring 3 times.
The first two times the bell rings is warning you that church starts in a half hour.
We attended a Methodist church and although we couldn't
understand the language it was very uplifting.
The singing voices of the congregation sounded like angels in heaven.
And I'm not even exaggerating.
The best thing was hearing their choir sing and the sound carrying down the hill through the village.
Everyone was so interested in us.
All they wanted to do was stare at us.
Occasionally an adult would ask us a question (in English, of course)
and everyone would crowd around us waiting for our answer.
Later that day we were presented with a feast for lunch.
Oh, and it was Mother's Day so that was the main reason for the feast.
Anyways, after eating we played with some of the kids, napped (or tried to), and wrote in our journals.
Sunday was a nice day to relax but by then everyone in my group was going stir crazy.
We were ready to begin our last and final week in Fiji and get some work done...
... which we did.
We spent the day sanding down shelves, priming, and painting.
^^Kim and the beautiful scenery at BCC^^
Our last night in Nogondoa the village wanted to throw us a party.
It began with a big dinner.
We then sat with some of the men from the village while they drank kava
and played the guitar.
A few of us promised the kids in the village we'd party with them
so we headed back to the house we were staying in.
Can I just say that Fijians know how to party?!
We danced as much as we could before the lights/electricity turned off at 10pm.
Some of the women got really into the dancing and smeared baby powder on our faces.
I'm not quite sure what that means but I think it's a good thing... haha.
Side note: Nogondoa was an interesting village because the place we stayed had really scary outhouses for bathrooms (no showers). We didn't even look in the outhouse/bathroom because the previous group told us it would cause nightmares.
So, for the whole time we were in Nogondoa we had to knock on Michael's (the wealthiest man in the village) door and ask to use his bathroom and/or shower.
That was a fun experience.
Thanks for letting us bug you, Michael.
He really is a sweet guy.
When Tuesday rolled around we knew it was time to say goodbye again.
We were on our way to the third and last village we stayed in.
^^ Merica (obviously not his real name but they make up American words that you can call them) was my favorite boy in this village. He was the sweetest. On my last morning there he had his dad ask me if we could be pen pals. Of course I said yes!^^
My whole group was so excited to move onto the third village.
I won't dwell on the negative but we each struggled during this middle portion of our trip.
It was time to move on and finish strong!
I had heard wonderful stories about this next village...
I just didn't know they would be so accurate!
