Fiji Part 4: Navave village

Navave

[Nuh-vah-vay]

Like I said earlier...

I basically ate rice and tomato sauce for lunch and dinner

for a week because I wasn't daring enough to try some of the food.

Some of it was really good!

Like curry, scones, bread, and cake.

Our first dinner in Navave

This was a super fun village because they like to sing

to you while eating and have dance parties every night!

There is a group of guys about my age that would come play

the guitar and sing.

My favorite song was "you'll never find another Fijian boy like me!"

Haha, they were cute.

This little boy is Tom

and he has a LOT of personality!

He loves the peace sign

and when I went to take a picture with him he just grabbed my neck

with his little hand and pulled me right in!

The dances were usually ladies choice

and since Tyler was the only guy in our group

the women LOVED him! Plus he knew how to shake

his bootay and they thought that was WAY cool. Haha.

I love these 2 boys!

The last day we worked in the Vuya village

we finished what was left of the septic system project

and hung out with the kids for a bit.

They were pretty rambunctious but soooo cute!

That night Vuya threw us a party.

The ladies loved Sam too!

Our last day on the island was pretty emotional.

All the kids wanted to be around you because they knew you were leaving the next day

One girl made me a hand woven basket. It was so amazing!

Susu & I.

I miss him. A lot.

They held a farewell ceremony

and the children sang to us

the principal spoke

one of the chiefs spoke

and we sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again.

They gave us leis

and danced for us.

Then they blessed the library and each kid hugged us

and each parent

and each teacher

they were all crying

it was heart breaking!

But it meant soooo much to see how this was changing their lives.

Even though they had changed mine more than they could ever know.

After that was done,

We ran down to the warf to swim with the kids one last time

the sunset was beautiful!

We wanted the people to see us off tomorrow

when we left on the ferry

I kept asking Susu if he would come because I knew he was sad

and most of the time he'd run away because he didn't want to talk about it.

Finally after I asked he said

"No, I'm not coming"

I said "Why? I don't want to say goodbye tonight!"

Susu: "I can't come tomorrow because I don't want to see your

face when I know you are going to be leaving me."

It was so sad.

I love these boys!

This is where we slept in Navave.

Our last night there they threw our entire group a party.

And made us a huge dinner including fish head!

Tyler ate the fish eye ball.

The last night was really fun.

Tons of people were there!

We danced a lot and the Navave boys performed for us.

Susu was there for a little bit but ran off before I could say bye.

I was so sad because I was sure that was the last time I would ever see him!

Not only did he say he wouldn't come but all the kids had school and wouldn't be able to come to the dock to say goodbye.

Going to bed that night was bitter sweet!

I couldn't believe this was all coming to an end.

Fiji Part 3: Ravi Ravi

Alright, so continues my story about this adventure in Fiji!

The next village we stayed in was Ravi Ravi

Time slowed down there because it was so peaceful.

The people there are just great. They are super religious.

The preacher Big Bill would come over and play us songs

on his guitar about Jesus. And Tui (the guy's house we were staying at)

would wake us up to him playing the guitar and singing quietly.

While in Fiji and away from phone & internet

it felt like the entire world has stopped. It felt like we would go back and pick

up at the same date & time we left.

Anyways, Ravi Ravi was great. It was quiet and peaceful.

Tui was one of my favorite people I met in Fiji.

We called him Tatui or Father Tui in english.

He was the most patient, kind, and giving person I have ever met.

The pictures for this part are a bit scattered but

you get the point.

We went snorkeling in Ravi Ravi

That is a sea sponge.

I was only in the water for probably 10 minutes

because the second I got in I was getting stung

by little baby jellyfish. It HURT! So I just layed in the boat.

It was cool though, there were neon blue star fish!

I didn't take a ton of pictures while working but I

think I should share what work was done. Because

the entire purpose of this trip was to serve the Fijian people.

This is a picture of my shoes after stomping the muddy ground

over the pipes we layed for the septic system in Vuya.

The picture below is a picture of Tui

and a moth he caught in his home one night.

It was so sick! Yes, that is a moth.

He thought it would be funny to try to freak us out

and pretend to eat it. He never did.

This is a picture of Tyler & I on Tui's boat while snorkeling.

While in Ravi Ravi we went to church with the people there.

We went to one church in the morning and one at night.

It was such an incredible experience!

We had the chance to bear our testimonies and sing I am a Child of God

I loved their churches and found many similarities between

their church and the LDS church.

Us and the children at church.

Kaitlin, Big Bill, Me, and Tui

This is a picture of the trenches we dug

with lots of help by the villagers

in the Vuya village.

This was really hard work but very rewarding!

When we were walking to church in the evening at Ravi Ravi

a torrential down pour began so we got soaking wet

and pretty dirty.

Tyler tried to use a leaf as an umbrella to cover me.

It kind of worked, haha.

This is a picture of the bookshelves built for the library.

We brought over 6,000 books for the library.

The only books they had to learn english were text books.

While painting the book shelves we got a little distracted and

started painting ourselves haha, oops!

The people in Ravi Ravi after church!

Like I said we looooved swimming at the end of a long work day.

We painted the inside and outside of their school.

Here is a before picture

and an after picture.

Tui took us on his boat every morning

on our way to work.

It was incredible!

There were a lot of flying fish.

Playing ring around the rosie with the kids.

We also had a field day with them

We had plenty of games to play with them

and face painting.

I loved getting to know them all!

Fiji Part 2: Nabouwalu village

So our journey that day began at 3am

we took an hour bus ride to the dock where our

ferry would leave.

We stopped half way at The Hot Bread Kitchen

BEST. ROLLS. EVER.

(Liz and Sam)

The island in the background of this picture

is the Bua province. This is where we stayed for a week

and worked at the Vuya school.

It was super humid in Fiji.

No matter what you were doing.

You had sweat rolling down your body constantly.

And it was their winter.

We went straight to the school.

Everything the kids know about America they have seen in movies.

So they thought we were the coolest thing EVER!

They wanted to hug you, touch you, and just be around you constantly.

One girl asked me if I was Paris Hilton, hahahaha.

They all ran outside of their classrooms to watch us.

It wasn't hard to fall in love with the people there.

Anything you wanted or anything you needed they would just give it to you.

They don't have a lot.

They basically have nothing.

Just the food they grow or can catch.

But they gave us EVERYTHING they had.

We ate better meals than they did.

I just couldn't believe their selflessness.

I haven't met anyone like that in America.

(Taking a taxi means piling in the back of a truck)

Our entire group was split into 3 groups.

Each group stayed at a 3 different villages and every 3 days we would switch.

So after our visit to the school we had to go to the villages

and be welcomed by their chiefs.

We had to crawl into the room where the chief was because

you cannot stand taller than him. We gave him a gift and he spoke a lot

of Fijian so I'm not quite sure what happened, haha.

But he welcomed us and said we are now one of them.

This was our village now too.

We ate our first meal back at the school.

I'll be honest, I don't know what most of that is on my plate.

I would say I ate rice and tomato sauce for lunch and dinner.

For 7 days.

Most of us branched out though and tried everything...

Like my friend Tyler.

He was the only guy in my group so the women made him eat everything.

Haha.

Anyways, it was beautiful there.

I couldn't soak it in that I was actually in Fiji.

This entire experience was pretty overwhelming.

It is a lot to soak in.

My groups first village to stay in was Nabouwalu village.

Those are the beds we slept in.

Mosquito nets were ESSENTIAL.

And if you know me at all

you know bugs are hard for me to deal with.

And there were A LOT of bugs.

And geckos

And frogs

It was really awesome actually.

I woke up a lot during the night to a frog jumping by me.

Or one morning I woke up to a frog just sittin' by my pillow.

No big deal, haha.

Geckos climb all over the cieling.

Oh! And roosters crow hours before the sun comes up.

But you gets used to it... And they crow during the day.

I think they are confused...

This was our bathroom.

We usually took group showers with our swimsuits on because

most of us girls were too scared to go alone haha.

I had my first taste of coconut milk

Which the people will just go climb and get for you.

These are all the women that cooked all our meals.

They are so sweet.

The guy next to me is super funny.

Immediately after this picture his wife slapped him

for putting his arm around me, haha.

I shelled a prawn and ate it.

I am an Elementary Education major

I just have a soft spot for children.

Especially these kids.

They just love you, no matter what. Before they even know you.

Liz (my group leader and was raised on this island) said

the people there would just meet you and act like they've known

you for 15 years. And she was right!

I actually felt like I was at home.

This is a picture of one of our breakfasts.

It is their custom to sit and watch us eat before

they can eat. That was kind of funny just being watched :]

Eating the flesh of the coconut.

It tastes like nothing, so I don't know what we're eating in America.

But it's not coconut.

Walking to work and this is our view! Amazing.

This is the dock or the warf as everyone calls it.

If we were lucky, after work we would make it to the warf

before sunset and jump in the ocean for a bit. Of course the kids joined us.

We were never alone there.

Most kids just wanted to watch you and see what you were doing.

After work, the warf, and then dinner we would usually sit up and talk

Their electricity turns on at 5pm and shuts off at midnight, no matter what.

So sometimes you'd be in the bathroom and all the lights would go out.

Haha, that was pretty funny!

Anyways, they knew we liked to stay up and talk so one day we came home

and they had built us this hut to sit underneath.

I just couldn't believe it!

Our last night in Nabouwalu they threw us a party.

There was lots of music and dancing.

Their music is pretty similar except all of the pop songs are remixed

and have a reggae background.

There was a kava ceremony.

I drank 5 bowls.

It was so sick!

It tastes like eating dirt.

A couple geckos on the ceiling.

The next 3 days we spent in Ravi Ravi.

More to come!