AGAIN!!–May 28, 2014

Yes – again!  Unbelievable as it may seem!!!

The rear end of our cute red car is once again – smashed up.  And I am wondering if I have a bull's-eye on my back with a sign that says “Hit Me”.  I must!

No one wants to hear this story – again – but…it’s what happened after that is the real story. 

So I am stopped for traffic at one of the busiest bus stops in all of Suva and this young man in a large SUV runs into my rear.  We won’t take the time to discuss my reaction other than to say that I finally got out and went back to talk with him – he hasn’t gotten out of his car.

And he tells me that he has to go – that he is in a very big hurry, and I am surprised to say the least.  I walk back to my car to put on the hazard lights and he pulls up along side of me.  I roll down my window and he says, “I can’t stay, I have to go and I jumped out of my car to talk to him through his window.

At this point he hands me his drivers license (no really) and says “give me your phone number and I will call you tomorrow!”  So I give him my phone number and write down his and his license plate as well and off he goes!  Is that amazing or what?

The next morning he calls me and says, “Please don’t call the police, and then he tells me that he was late to take an exam and after the exam when he actually thought about it, figured out he should never have given me his drivers license – ya think? 

Well, at this point I just have to fill out the accident report and the office will take care of the rest.  And the car wasn’t damaged nearly as badly as the last time, but I am back to being highly gun shy when I am on the roads. 

Unbelievable!  Oh, and I am calling off any of my extra-curricular driving!!!!

Outing with Maraia and Selai Vuetibau–May 24, 2014

AGAIN!  The sixth time must be the charm!

After taking Foki’s boys out to Takalana it was the girls turn to go.  It was a blue sky day with just a few white clouds.  And off we went.  And the road doesn’t get any better, and in our little red car the bottom of the car is very close to the rocks, and requires slow driving.

When we got there the parking lot was completely empty and we thought we would be there all alone again, but as we walked down to the deck we found that there was about 15 Aussies who were staying out there.  They are volunteers here in Fiji.  And so it took two boats to get us all out to dolphin village.  So we were in the small boat with one guy and four Aussie’s girls and the four of us, Dew and I in the back row, a row of Aussies and then Maraia, Selai and another girl in the front.

The sky was blue, but there was a stiff breeze and the ocean was rather rough.  Not far out from the beach we hit a wave and the board the front row was sitting on went up in the air, but came down, not it the groove it should have sat in, but on the bottom of the boat.  And so they rode the rest of the way out on the floor of the boat.

It was quite a ride out, but when we got to the reef it was smoother.  The dolphins were there, but not in as playful a mood as they were two weeks ago.  But they do love to get in front of the boat and race.  It is almost impossible to get pictures of them, by the time your brain says, “dolphin – press the button”, they have gone back into the water.  But they are so beautiful to watch.

Then over to snorkel and with that large group equipment was short, so I stayed in the boat and gave the girls my snorkel.  They weren’t great snorkelers, but had a fun time bobbing around in the water.

Then back to see the dolphins and we got to see a couple of spinners.  All too soon it was time to head back.  And the waves were even bigger on the way back.  There were a couple of times that the waves were over our head as they came in along side the boat.  But our driver was a master at catching the waves and it was an exciting ride.

Lunch was good, stir fry and then they brought out what they called Samosas.  It was bread dough wrapped around spiced potato cubes and were they ever yummy.  Then back in the car to head back.  With only one stop – a Magnum break – and then home. It was another great day in paradise.

Oh, and I was asleep by 8:30pm and slept until 7am.  Does that mean I am getting old?  Nah!  Oh and one last stupid human trick on my part.  On the way back to the resort we did a bit of shell hunting and I had both pickets filled with our finds.  We came home and I dumped all the swim suits in to wash and then wondered what that strange noise was from the washer.

We had to stop it, take all the clothes out and fish for sea shells, before we could finish the batch.  And even then, I found two in the dryer that we missed.  Dumbbbbb!

		Outing with Maraia and Selai Vuetibau VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Meeting Moses’ Family–May 18, 2014

Another life changing event.

When Scott and Ann came, and then later when Kara, Jeff and Kent came we all took the Upper Navua River trip, and Elder and Sister Peterson went along on one of the trips as well.  Our boatman for the trips was Moses and we all enjoyed him – a lot.  He ended up being the recipient of whatever we could give him, and we wished we could have given him more.

He talked with us about the church and talked of his family.  He asked if we could get him some books about religion – yah we can.  And so when the Peterson’s family were here they took a box of stuff to him.

It was then that they found out that is wife was very sick, she has cancer in fact.  They asked Moses if we could come up and bring him some supplies and give his wife a priesthood blessing.  He was more than willing.

And today we went.  It has been raining here, in fact is has rained pretty much steadily since Friday night.  Moses was in Navua and we made arrangements to pick him up and take him back to his village.  But we were all rather worried about the roads, that much rain makes the dirt roads treacherous.  So we were not even sure if we could get up there, but we tried.

We picked him up, along with his cousin and his wife and off we went.  The roads weren’t as bad as we feared, just a couple of spots of slick mud.  It rained the whole trip, but it was a beautiful trip. His village is called Nakabika Village which is in the Namosi Highlands – such a beautiful place.

When we arrived at the village which is just past where we put in for the river trip we were invited in to meet his family.  His wife is very nice and we met his four cute kids, aged 14 months to 7 years old.  His extended family was having dinner and we even visited with them and discovered that his brothers all look and sound just like him.

Elder Peterson and Jackson gave his wife a blessing and it was such a wonderful experience.  We played with the kids and shared treats with them and all too soon we had to get on the road back home.  We didn’t want to be caught on that road after dark

On the way back we took another route, which brought us back to Nausari, which is out by the airport, the exact opposite of where we drove up from.  It was a very spiritual, wonderful experience and one of those days we will remember for a very long time.

PS – As I entered his little house, there on the steps were  pair of “covered toe flip flops”.  I did a double take – no one wears them except Kent – and then I remembered that they were indeed a gift from Kent to Moses.  Such a small world of wonderful people.

		Meeting Moses’ Family VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL