Fiji Part 2- Naruwai

We boarded our bus and as soon as we docked we drove off of the ferry.
I was beyond excited!
We stopped just a block up the dirt road by a shop.
I can't remember why we stopped but I'm so so glad we did.
Liz (our adviser & native Fijian) ran into her mom at this store
and saw a few friends as well.
A couple of the returners got off and talked to people they knew.
I sat on the bus just admiring the familiar scenery.
It was so surreal.
I was searching everyone's faces to see if I knew them.
And that is when it happened.
I saw Susu appear from behind the store.
I literally screamed and ran to him.
And what did he do?
Well the shy kid ran away from me, haha.
Naturally, nothing had changed.
But as soon as the other returners saw who I was chasing
they joined in and helped me catch him.
I was so close to tears.
Unfortunately I didn't get a picture.
But I did later, so just wait.
Our stop was short lived as we had to begin our 30-40 minute drive up
 into the mountains of the Bua Province.
When we arrived to the Bua Central College (similar to our Junior High/High Schools) we began unloading the boxes of water bottles.

I made a cute little friend.^^

(the teachers and principals of Fijian schools live on campus
 so their children were all there to greet us)

One of the teacher's houses. ^^

The girls in my group. Team roti!

Roti is a Fijian tortilla. 

I made the mistake of calling it a tortilla & had all the women
laughing at me for a good 5 minutes. 

We were all separated into 3 groups that would sleep/eat in 3 separate villages. 

Every 3 days we rotated villages. 

Karli & Bobbi dancing in the rain^^

We played frisbee with the kids at the school while we waited for the truck to come and drive us to the village we'd be staying at for the next 3 days.

Our first village was Naruwai.

The first night in Naruwai was confusing for many reasons.

We'd been traveling for a good 48 hours and I was exhausted.

By the time we got to the village the sun had gone down.

Most of the villagers don't have lights.

We were escorted to the chief's house because he had to welcome us into the village.

There was one dim light on in the hut as we gathered into the small room.

The windows and doors were filled with curious Fijian people.

Liz was such a blessing to have in our group because she could easily communicate with the chief and the people of Naruwai. 

Us Americans sat quietly, exhausted, and probably smelly. 

Originally, the people of Naruwai had decided to separate each member of our group into a different house where we would sleep and eat.

This wasn't exactly a good plan seeing as we couldn't be by ourselves for safety reasons.

So we had to sit for however long (since we didn't have any clocks either)

for a man to get back from his plantation because he had the biggest house for us to sleep in.

Eventually, after some tea (which is sooo good) a few girls lead us to his house.

The name of the man who owned this house is Sammy.

Sammy is a snorer.

Sammy, the members of our group, and whoever else wanted to sleep in this room with us would pile in the living room and sleep there for the night. 

I was the first to lay down and pass out the first night there.

These were our beds for the next 3 days^^

Pro: they had the nicest bathrooms of all the villages.

Con: Our limbs had gone numb at the end of 3 nights on the ground.

Naruwai was beautiful.

We'd wake up as soon as the sun rose (to the sound of roosters)
and take a walk around the village.

The village was beautiful in the morning.

It was misty and perfectly green.

The most peaceful place I could think of. 

Our neighbor Micah^^

Shower^^

One of the nicer toilets^^

Drying our clothes on the clothes line^^

A Fijian broom!^^

Taking an early morning walk with Tom^^

The beautiful scenery of Naruwai^^

The next day we began our work at BCC (Bua Central College)

These are the before pictures of the library we were renovating:

It was pretty dirty and crawling with spiders so we spent most of the day cleaning.

Blake & Paul bonding^^

One of our meals- curry, bread, and prawns^^

Noodles and prawns?^^

I'm guessing the green stuff is some sort of mashed up spinach?

And the stuff on the right is taro. 

Taro is a Fijian plant. Similar to a potato.

Cleaning out the desks in the classrooms^^

I will be honest,

The first couple days on the island we hard for me.

A lot of it was the challenge of separating the two trips in my mind.

I was in a place so familiar yet entirely different.

Different villages and different people.

The students we traveled with this time were amazing.

But last time I made some of my best friends on the trip.

I was looking for the connection I had last time but it wasn't there... yet.

One afternoon I was sitting in the living room and a girl named Lo sat down next to me and started talking to me. She was the sweetest and funniest girl.

After our conversation I realized to accept the differences of this trip.

I realized I could have those same connections but in different ways and with different people. 

That is when it started to turn around. 

Humidity hair^^

My sweet sunburn^^

(I still have this tan line on my back)

One evening after work we came back to Naruwai and the kids decided to take us to the dam to go swimming. 

Jumping off a vine into the water^^

Lo and I^^

My 3 closest friends in Naruwai^^

Breakfast consisted of a lot of carbs^^

We'd eat a lot of bread, rice, and scones.

Oh, and don't forget the tea!

More curry^^

Rice and taro^^

A really really disgusting bug we found at the school one day^^

Did I mention how much I loathe bugs?

The last night in Naruwai we had a little party.

A Tang party.

Since the village had given up drinking kava
for the first 2 weeks of every month, we drank Tang.

A bunch of men (and a few women) from the village came over and we stayed up late
drinking Tang and just chatting. 

My friends french braided my hair^^

Saying goodbye to the people I met in Naruwai was bitter sweet.
I knew I would still get to see them before we left the island
but I was just starting to bond with them all.
As soon as you get comfortable in the village you're in,
it is time to switch villages.

The next village was Nogondoa.
The next 3 days were fun but carried their own set of challenges...

Can I Just Be Grateful For A Minute?

Ok, maybe for longer than a minute but you get the point.

But I've been feeling very grateful lately.

I am grateful for so many things

but what matters most to me 

are the people in my life.

Every day while I was gone in Fiji, Anders had given me a picture with a sweet note on the back.

I cherished those more than I can explain. 

(seeing as we were away from all internet access and cell phone service)

It was like hearing from him every day.

When I came back, I was shocked to find one on my car the next day.

And then it continued the next day, 

and the next day,

and the next day.

To this day I still find one on my car

or sometimes in other places.

It has been around 1 month and 1 week of these sweet reminders!

A picture from our 6 month anniversary

A rose and a note. 

He reminds me of all our fun memories

and why he loves me.

(and so many more sweet nothings)

Never in my life have I felt so wonderful around someone.

I feel so grateful to be dating my best friend.

He tries so hard to make me happy.

And he succeeds! 

Alright, I'll stop being so mushy. 

Fiji Part 1- Getting There

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. 

Memorial Day Weekend

Hello there,

Memorial Day weekend was a blast! 

It was full of swimming, food, heat, food, babysitting, food, and family.

I can't believe how much hotter Vegas is than Utah right now. 

Vegas sure doesn't waste time getting summer started!

 We stopped in St. George Friday night because we didn't want to drive while we were tired.

Anders has family there that we stayed with.

We got to snap this cute photo on our way there (at some random creepy exit- the hills have eyes may have crossed my mind a time or two)

Check out that full moon!

 We spent some time babysitting my cute little niece Emerson because my sister and brother-in-law went to San Francisco for their 5 year anniversary (congrats guys!!).

Look at that cute little face.

She has such a fun personality developing.

Emmie is 1 year & 1/2. Definitely loving this stage.

 Anders keeping Emmie entertained with fruit snacks.

She loves getting spoiled with sugar at Nana and Papa's.

Jordan showed us around the "underground Vegas"
aka the tunnels that are created for flash floods. 

We all rode our Razor scooters through the hot hot heat until we reached the covered tunnels which were pitch black inside. We walked with our scooters for a while until we came to this pretty cool spot where the light was shining through. 

Oh, and I even ran into Jordan on his first date ever!

Not even planned... 

Although following my siblings on dates to spy on them is something I've done in the past, ha.

Luckily, on Memorial Day I got to catch up with Lauren at BJ's.

And yes, Anders had his first pazookie!

I miss Lauren.

I don't get to see my friends and family enough!

It's always so fun to visit and so hard to leave.

But I had to go before I ate a whole pan of Special K treats (some people call them scotcheroo's).

Until next time Vegas!

Have you seen this??