Elder Collins told us the other day that he had “googled” Fiji and had located a beautiful beach. They then checked it out and found it and also found that the people who lived right there only charged $5.00 a car to use “their beach”. And it was beautiful.
So today the Collins, the Petersons, the Wells and the Jacksons loaded up the Peterson’s 12 passenger van and headed out. And there it was!
We parked the van and hopped out. We walked the beach, we swam, and down the beach we spotted a group of people so we hiked down to check out what they were doing. It was two men and a group of small kids and they were net fishing. So we all hung around and watched and played with the kids and helped them pull the nets in and took a gazillion pictures.
It was the kids job to grab the fish out of the net and put them into a bag. And when they got the nets in they sprang into action and went after the flipping fish. But they didn’t grab a hold of them, they pressed their hands down on the sides of the fish and grabbed them by the gills. We discovered that they had sharp spines on their backs and you didn’t want to grab them. Then to keep them from flipping around so they could grab them they threw sand on them to weight them down. You could tell they had done it before. They kept all the fish, even the tiny little ones.
While they waited for the men to get the nets positioned they played and some of us played with them. We drew a line in the sand and broad jumped and they dragged Sister Peterson down in the water several times.
We sat down on a sheet to eat our lunch and while we were saying the blessing a chicken snuck up behind Elder Peterson and just at “amen” raced over and grabbed a hunk of his sandwich which he was holding in his hand. So we had to watch those dang chickens and then the dogs came to beg also.
As we finished our lunch out of the trees came a taxi. They drove around on the sand, and then backed into the shade for a picnic. So as we left we also had to drive out on the sand and show off a bit. Should have done a little less showing off – for not 2 miles down the dirt road we got a flat tire.
So how many senior missionary men does it take to change a flat tire? 4 and two good Samaritan Fijians. And it’s always exciting to get passed on those dirt roads by large trucks! The spare was a bit flat, but useable and it held out until we could find a gas station and get it more air in it.
It was a beautiful blue sky day – our favorite kind – with large puffy clouds floating around and by the time we got the tire changed and back to Suva it had clouded up and we had a few rain drops. But it was such a fun day and this beach was just what you expect to see in Fiji from reading all those guide books. Wonderful day!
