Friday, August 23, 2013

Kula EcoPark in Sigatoka–August 24, 2013

We were off again for a Saturday out today.  We drove up past Pacific Harbor (about 2 hours away from our house) to an area called the Coral Coast.  There are some big resorts there and the waves come in closer to the land there than in any other area of the island, and there is a little park called the Kula Ecopark.

They have birds and turtles which we watched them feed, peacocks, iguana's, fish in tanks with soft coral and it’s a beautiful walk around.  We spent a couple of hours and took a bunch of pictures.  We went with Elder and Sister Whitehead who are from Canada and are here teaching the teachers in the LDS schools how to be better teachers.  It was a very pleasant afternoon.

Then we drove back to Pacific Harbor and on the way we went in and checked out several of the big resorts and what they had to offer.  We are going to have to go over and spend a couple of days in one when we get a chance.

Then we had lunch at a place called Baka Blues.  It was the best food we’ve had in a long time and hands down the best salad we’ve had since being here.  Usually when they say “salad” they mean a bit of lettuce, a tomato and no dressing.  We will go there again as well.  By the way Baka means red branching coral as well as the Banyan tree and they played Blues music – hence the name.

Back by 5:30 pm.  When we left the youth camp was using the car park at the temple so we parked the Whiteheads car down in the back at the service center.  On our return it was safely locked -  inside the gate.  Luckily there is always someone at the temple gate and they unlocked the parking gate and they were on their way.

Youth Regional Camp–August 23, 2013

School is out here and the outside activities have shifted into high gear.  The Regional Camp for youth 14 to 18 was held this week.  The boys stayed at the LDS Primary School (just behind our office) and the girls stayed at the LDS College, and all the meals and classes were held at the College as well.

We were assigned to give a 40 minute presentation on what is available to help students with their higher education.  There were about 500 youth and leaders and our time slot was 12:10 to 12:50pm, which actually was closer to 1:10 to 1:50 and just before lunch.  We had to work hard to keep them from drifting off to sleep or fainting from hunger.

The boys hung all their wet clothes out the window and there was one boys white shirt hanging on the fence.  I could just hear him saying, “Dude, I can’t find my white shirt!”  They had a dinner and dance, and did all the other fun things.  They ended on Saturday morning at the temple site and they were all wearing their bright new yellow shirts.

It was Hibiscus Festival in downtown Suva as well and there were a lot of other churches holding youth and adult retreats around the city.  The city has been a zoo and the traffic horrific and to top it off Wednesday it rained about as hard as we have seen it rain and it lasted all day.  Busy week in Suva.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Sunday Afternoon Stroll–August 18, 2013

After church today we had dinner and then went for a stroll on the sea wall.  It was absolutely beautiful today and everyone was out enjoying the sun and sea.

We took a few shots and then went down to Suva Point and visited the Fiji Yachting Association.  There was a fellow out on a windsurf with his dog, very cool.  And the boats were very neat.  We talked to them about renting sailboats and going out, and yes they do that.  Another fun thing to put on our to do list.

Then the sunset was cool and we got some shots where the water looked silver.  Beautiful day.

And we also met a group from mainland China.  They are working over here and had just enough English that we could ask where they were from and they could ask us the same.  They were from Xion and were surprised that we had been there.  We passed out the high fives and they left to “go home” as they told us.

Nice Sunday afternoon.