Moce Fiji!

Welp. My time here has officially come to a close. This afternoon I leave for Nadi with Alex, Audrey, and Grey. We're staying at a hostel tonight and we'll hang out tomorrow until we need to go to the airport.

Monday was Carly's birthday (team member Carly, not niece Carly). We had a big hoopla for her with a delicious dinner from Tiko and then Tiko, Va, and Poasa had made an arrangement of cakes and goodies to celebrate! It was so fun.

Yesterday was hard. It was my last day of my exercise class and the last day of tutoring. I didn't ever imagine saying goodbye to be so hard. I just love these kids so dang much! We had our last team dinner, and then headed over to the church for our ward potluck farewell. They made food for us, talked with us, and sang us the traditional Fijian farewell song. It was truly touching. In return, we sang "God be with you Til we meet again" (cheesy I know, but it's what we could do). Then we said our goodbyes to them and headed home. We made a bunch of cards for people and played some games and went to bed. I slept horribly- I have a cold (yes, a cold in Fiji- what the heck?!), my sunburn is on it's 2nd phase of peeling so it itches like crazy, and I got woken up at 2:30 to let some team members in the house that got locked out. Couldn't go back to sleep, so I packed all my stuff. So this morning I feel like I got hit by a train!

This morning we took apart our bunk beds and sent them off to storage. Then some wonderful cleaning. A little later we will go to Hilton and say our goodbyes there (I cry just thinking about it). And then Audrey, Alex, and I will be off. I will probably cry the whole bus ride to Nadi. I just can't believe it's over.


With my suitcase probably weighing far too much and a cold in full swing, I can honestly say that I am leaving Fiji having done everything I could have hoped to accomplish and more. I just wish it was longer! I will always remember this amazing experience and all the love I have felt from the people of Fiji. They will always hold a special place in my heart.

And now I would like to thank each and every one of you for your generous donations, prayers, and well-wishes that made this trip possible and one of the best experiences of my life. Thank you SO SO SO much! I love you all very much! God bless you for your kind and helpful hands in my life!

Moce and much love for my friends, family, and most importantly FIJI,
-Sarah

PS I will do another post or 2 when I return home with about a zillion pictures.

Mango Bay AKA Best Weekend of my LIFE.

So this weekend was one of the best weekends of my entire life.

Friday- Woke up early and went to the Suva Temple. It was amazing. I love the temple. Went home and took a little nap. Then I got up and packed for the weekend. We were supposed to be going to Levuka this weekend on the other island, but it didn't pan out and we didn't end up going. But we made up for it. Grey and Brit had gone to this place called Mango Bay once before, and we found a really cheap deal for it, so we (Grey, Britt, Alex, and I) went. We packed up our stuff super quick and headed out, picking up fresh pineapple and cookies on the way. Got to Mango Bay after a 2 hour bus ride, actually we ended up driving right past it and had to walk up this monstrous hill to get to it. We got there, put our stuff in our 16-man dorm room (which we ended up having all to ourselves! HOORAY!) and changed for the beach and headed out. The view. was. AMAZING. Seriously gorgeous. Clear, blue/turquoise water, coconut trees, the works. The only lacking was the sand wasn't actually all that great- it was really rocky, but still awesome. We pretty much hung out on the beach for most of the evening (I tried to stay in the shade and left my t-shirt on because my mega sunburn has yet to completely heal... such a joy). 

The sun started to set and we decided to celebrate our last Friday in Fiji with style- by getting fancy drinks and watching the sunset on the beach. I was so excited when I saw that they had Pina coladas (virgin of course!) so I ordered one. It looked amazing. Unfortunately, they do them a little bit different in the states. A lot a bit different. The drink I received literally tasted like... well... vomit. Not even lying, I had the other team members tasted it and that was the word they chose to describe it before I had said anything. Such a let down. But it's ok. Because the sunset was amazing (and of course I left my good camera at the house- thinking it was going to rain most of our weekend... idiot). I had my other camera, so I got some good pictures! We then saw an international frog race. Yes, you read that correctly. They picked a bunch of frogs from the area (oh my holy good grief there were about a zillion frogs at this place- kinda gross) and put numbers around their necks and assigned each frog a country. We tried to get the USA frog, but we didn't want to spend much money (ya know the whole gambling thing) so of course we were outbid, but it's ok. We had fun watching it! 

Then we played a few games in the club house (this little area at the resort that they had for games and activities). Next we headed back to the beach and just sat there listening to the water and looking at the stars and talking. It was great. Then I headed to bed a little early (lame I know), but I was just tired! It was so nice having the dorm all to ourselves! 

Saturday- got up and had a great continental breakfast of fruit, toast, and OJ. Then we headed to the beach and got snorkeling gear. We went out, after lathering up in sunscreen of course, and holy dang. It was the clearest (and coldest) water I've been in yet. It was gorgeous. I saw SO many fish! All kinds and some with some seriously cool patterns. I loved it. I saw several starfish (they're a blueish/purpleish color here), sea urchins, sea cucumbers, zillions of fish, and of course, coral. My most exciting find: MARLIN, NEMO, AND THE ANEMONE! I kid you not. One bigger orange fish with white stripe (only one stripe tho) and a smaller one literally in a little anemone. And they just stared at me the whole time I was near them. If I dove down and swam closer to it, they wouldn't back into the anemone like I thought, they would swim out towards me! It was so cool! But I didn't want to get too close, so I just laughed, waved (yes, I waved at them) and swam off. I loved it. 

I didn't snorkel for too long for fear of frying my already fried skin. So we headed back to shore and were promptly given a fresh coconut by some younger boys. We drank it while we talked with them. Then they pulled out a rugby ball and we passed it around and played a bit. We did a line out (the jumping thing where you life someone in the air really high) with the smallest boy, and the thrower may or may not have hit me in the head with the ball. Oh well. Then we went and laid out some more and watched the boys climb up the coconut trees and chop them down (so cool the way they just climb all the way up). In the afternoon, Brit and I found out that there was a rugby game that afternoon in Sigatoka (a biggerish town about 30 minutes away), so we decided to go! We went to the main road from the resort, and flagged someone down, who gave us a lift for free! The game was PACKED. At first, it was super hot, but the game was going so good. Nagrada (I'm 87% sure that I spelled that wrong, but oh well) vs. Namosi. Nagrada was SMASHING Namosi, but Nagrada was also getting all the injuries. The last 15 minutes of the match, it started POURING. SO MUCH RAIN. and we were in lawn seats. So we got soaked. But it really was fun. We stayed until the very end! Final score was 35-3. Then we found some of the workers at Mango Bay (Brit had made friends with them last time she was there) so we got a free ride back to the resort with them! It was so fun. We got there, met back up with Grey and Alex and got a ride to a nearby village where a bus would pick us up. 

Unfortunately, it was a game day, so every mini bus that passed was so full, or the bigger buses were 'special' bus or 'charter' buses, meaning they didn't stop until certain cities. It was super annoying, but everyone in the village was there helping us. Trying to flag down buses, trucks, or anything. In between pass by cars, we would all just talk. After about 45 minutes of this, we decided (well Alex decided) that we should have an impromptu talent show! She went first and showed off her muscles (Alex is a very tiny, skinny, hilarious girl). Then Britt showed that she was double jointed. Then one of them got up and danced (he was super embarrassed tho) and then I got up with another guy and he danced while I beat-boxed (not that I'm good or anything, but I can drop a simple beat!). It was so much fun. Then a bunch of the little kids (like 15 boys ages 7-15 were there) started trying to beat box so we had our own little jam sesh! Some of them got pretty good! We had so much fun with these kind, loving people. After about an hour and a half, pushing 2 hours, of trying to flag a bus down, we caught a fish delivery truck who would take us for $7 each. It was a very interesting and fun ride! But Michael (the driver) was super nice. As we were getting in the truck all of the people from the village came running over and waved us goodbye, blowing kisses and shouting things like "WE MISS YOU ALREADY! MOCE!!!" It was just the best. Such a heart-warming experience. It truly is amazing how wonderfully generous EVERYONE here is. If you need help, they drop everything and start helping in anyway they can. I love it and that will be one of the things I miss the most. We got home pretty late, but our rather bumpy ride home woke me up, so I showered and then popped in a movie and stayed up a little later. 

Sunday- Went to church. All of us got asked to get up and share our testimonies since it was our last Sunday. Then we said some goodbyes, but not many because they're doing a potluck farewell dinner for us on Tuesday. Got home from church and FaceTimed MY FAVORITE CARLY BECAUSE IT IS HER 4TH BIRTHDAY!!! (Sunday for me, Saturday night for the Michiganders!). Can't believe how big she is! Love her so so much! Miss those kids all the time. Then I watched a movie for a bit (I didn't finish it the night before) and worked on my reports. Then we had team dinner and team meeting.

After that, we went back to the church for YSA game night that we set up! It was SO fun. We played taboo, movie charades, signs, wink/murder game, and mafia. It was an absolute blast. I just love these people so much. I can't believe my time here is just about over (only 4 days left! and only 2.5 in Suva). It seriously makes my heart hurt to think about leaving. I can't even talk about it right now or I may cry. 

Well. Here's to one of the best weekends of my life! Amazing experiences that I will remember forever.

Moce and much love!

-Sarah

PS This is already a huge post, but here are a ton of pictures to complete it!

-Beautiful Mango Bay

-Grey catching some ZZZZs in  the beautiful sun.

-Grey was my model :)

-Can't get over the sunsets here.

-Sippin fancy drinks under a beautiful sky on the beach. Life doesn't get much better!

-Such an amazing, beautiful, and fun night.

-So a lot of these pics are awesome and I don't want to put too many of them up without editing them to make them even better. So this is one.

-This is another one that was edited. This is Alex jumping (wish it wasn't a little blurry) but this is just too legit.

-The coconut boys playing rugby

-Our favorite boys.

-Blue starfish!

-Love these little guys!

-Abel climbed all the way up there and chopped down the coconuts!

-YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Quality ruck going on right there. I love rugby.

-Get him down!

-Oh ya know. Just meeting some of the players after the game.... and yes, that is his arm around me. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

-The view I had for the weekend

-Suva LDS Temple. Such an amazing place.

-Brittany and I getting soaked at the game!

-True fans right here.

Tavua Adventure.

Monday morning, Britt, Audrey, and I left at 6:30 to get to the bus stand and catch our bus to Tavua. It's a 5 hour bus ride. It was so long, and rather uncomfortable if I'm being honest. Luckily I had my ipod with me so I just listened to it the whole time. But they did show a movie on the bus. It was called "the Lost Medallion" and it was about the dumbest kids fighting a cobra king for a magic medallion movie I've ever seen. Oh goodness. But the kids on the bus were SO into it. Kinda funny. These buses stop quite frequently to drop people off and pick up people, but it's only for a few seconds. We stopped twice for 5-10 minutes where people can go to the bathroom and get something to eat. Guys. The bathrooms here. SICK. Not to mention hardly any of them have toilet paper, so you have to bring your own. Some of them cost money. You'd think if they were charging people to go in, the least they could do was invest in some TP and a mop... NOPE. Ah well. Go Fiji. We finally get to Tavua, grab some lunch and head to our first workshop. We went to a Fijian village (Tavua has a lot of Indo-Fijians (Hindus)) in Loloma. These ladies were a RIOT. They were so funny and just the nicest, most loving people ever. We did a workshop where Audrey talked about healthy eating habits, and I talked about Exercise. It went really well! They loved it and participated. It was great. Then we went back to town and got a few groceries for our dinner that night. We stayed with a woman named Irene who works with the GOLD Foundation (the foundation that organizes and helps the women's groups in Tavua). She is Hindu and lives with her husband (Roma), daughter (Chan), and granddaughter (they call her Baby, and I can't remember her name). They live on a farm (goats, cows, chickens, a dog, and a kitten). They are SO funny. Roma showed us all the goats (all the adults were pregnant, and we got to touch the preggo bellies!) and around his farm. Roma is just about the funniest man I've ever met. He was hilarious. Then we started making dinner. We had 3 kinds of curry. Potato/Eggplant, Pumpkin, and chutney. We made lots of roti (those tortillas that we love so much). We made them over an open fire in their yard, and whenever it was time to turn the roti over, Roma would say "FLIP IT, BABY!" he's so funny. He told us stories of how there used to be cannibalism in Fiji and anytime someone would say something about falling in the fire  he would say "oh that's ok. We'll just eat you if that happens." Slightly creepy, but mostly funny. The curry was DELICIOUS. Oh my gosh. SO GOOD. I could eat that all day.

While we were making the dinner, a few funny things happened.  First off, the granddaughter is a wild child. She is 2 1/2 and she was just everywhere. I was given the responsibility of watching Baby while everyone else worked on dinner. I AM THE BABY WHISPERER. The whole time she was with me, she sat still and did whatever I asked. We sang songs, I taught her the itsy-bitsy spider, and we watched geckos and frogs (there were SO many here I almost threw up. It was kinda gross). Second- while we were watching said frogs and geckos, the little kitten came over to us. It did the coolest/grossest thing I've seen here. There was a gecko climbing on the wall just under a window. The cat came SPRINTING over and parkour jumped onto the wall and grabbed the gecko in its mouth and landed smoothly back on the ground.... and then it started to eat it.... which was gross, but it was an impressive series of events.

Also, Chan made us sugar roti. It was basically 2 small rotis glued together with butter and cinnamon sugar. Delicious. Reminded me of the things Mom makes in the oven. They were so yum. Brit, Chan and I stayed up and watched some Indian Soap Operas and then a movie. Then we went to bed.

Got up the next morning and had some left over curry and roti and some toast. Then we went to our second workshop in an Indo-Fijian village. These women were very kind, but much quieter than the Fijian women. There was also much more of a language barrier (most of them only spoke Hindi). But the workshop went alright, and then they prepared a huge lunch for us. It was all delicious, but pretty spicy! I started to not feel so well, and then we got picked up in our ride- a pick-up truck with a tarp over the back and handles to hold onto. Then we proceeded to travel up the bumpiest road I've been on to get to the school we were going to be at. I almost threw up about 15 times. I felt horrible by the time we got there. But we were very early, which was lucky, because they changed times on us. We were supposed to do our thing from 2-3, but they wanted us to change it to 1:30-2:30, so we got started right away. These students were SO polite, well-behaved, and VERY cute. We played Sharks and Minnows (on land of course), keep off the ground (with balloons), animal noises, missionary tag, and a few others. It was a blast. We talked with them for a bit about working together and helping each other out, but it was mostly just really fun.

Then we got to take the bus with a bunch of them back into town. That was a fun bus ride! Got off the bus and found the bust station for our ride back to Suva. Except the next bus was going to leave until 5:45 and it was 4:00. So we had a long wait, but it was alright. We got some pineapple (which was REALLY not ripe and burned our mouths!) and scones (more like cornbread here) and waited for the bus. It was a really long bus ride back as well, and pretty bumpy. We got home just before 11:00 PM. I showered and then went to bed. It was an awesome trip, but a lot of traveling for only 2 days (not even full days). Today I am super exhausted, but that's ok. Only a week left, which is super weird. I'm partially ready to come back, partially wanting to stay here forever. It's a hard life.

Moce and much love,
Sarah

PS Picture time!


-Talking to the Women's Group in Loloma

-Preach!

-Chan makin the Roti!

-Baby Whisperer Sarah!

-Flip it, baby! Roma teaching me to bake the roti!

-delicious roti

-Finding their heart rates

-Audrey, Irene, and me in front of the GOLD Office

 -Playing Animal Noises

-More Animal Noises

-Trying to flip the sheet over!

-Attempting to flip it!

-SHARKS!

-Class 5-8

-Human Knot

-Gorgeous girls!

-Some more human knot!

-Love these kids.

-They're just so cute.

-So well-behaved

-Bus posse.

-Loloma Women's Group!

-Teaching the 2nd Women's Group

-One of the cutest/craziest babies alive!

-This baby is BEAUTIFUL. Her name is Ishaka. She was at the 2nd Women's Group.

-Waiting for the bus with these amazing kids.

-Bus Posse for Life.

PHOTOS.

Here's a ton of pics (mostly from Takalana Bay/Moon Reef). Enjoy.


-The crew at Takalana Bay! Such a gorgeous view! (me, Natalie, Audrey, Grey)

-This is how close we were to the spinner dolphins. AMAZING.

-The waterfall we hiked to. It was beautiful.

-Gettin ready for the rope swing! I was so scared.

-But I did it! And the water was COLD! But felt so good (it was fresh water, not salt, so that was nice)

-Just hangin out in the pool

-Our attempt at the Ariel pose in "Part of Your World". Splash compliments of Grey, Soko, and myself.

-On the hike back from the waterfall. This place is so beautiful.

-This was the Reef we snorkeled in. GORGEOUS. PS This one was taken with Nat's GOPRO.

-Suliasi (Suli) and Simeli from tutoring. Love these boys. We have entirely too much fun with homework!

-EFY reunion in Fiji! This is my girl Courtney from one of my Nauvoo sessions. She's so legit.

-Jim. One of our tour guides at Takalana Bay.

-Suva, Fiji LDS Temple. I LOVE it.

-Moon Reef (GOPRO Natalie)

-The coast of Takalna Bay

-Oh Fiji. So beautiful.

-Dolphin jumps! Sadly, I didn't get any real jumps in pictures, but it was awesome!

-Best action shot I got. Still pretty cool.

-Dolphins rock.

-There were SO many in the reef!

-And this is how Jim found the dolphins when they weren't surfaced. Hahahha.