Sarah goes to FIJI: Sleep, Glorious Sleep!

So yesterday I left off at around lunch time and I had gone to the market. Well after I got home and had a delicious lunch of strawberry Pop-tarts.... (first meal in Fiji- the most processed American food imaginable.....10 points from Gryffindor). After that I went with a few of the girls on my team to Hilton School for the Disabled and Deaf. OH. MY. GOSH. I am in LOVE with these kids. They were the best. So many smiles and waves from all of them. They immediately surrounded me and started asking me a zillion questions. I quickly learned how to spell my name in Fijian Sign Language, and I taught them how to spell it in American Sign Language (they LOVE to learn ASL and know quite a few words and the alphabet). They love to learn new words and then they teach you in FSL, so I guess I need to study up on my ASL. I got so many hugs from them. My heart melted. They are so cute. A girl on my team is teaching them a dance routine- the school got invited to a city-wide dance competition (they've never been invited because they're a disability school, which is sad). The routine is amazing. It starts with a typical Fijian song and dance... and then goes into.... NUMA NUMA. It's hysterical and so fun. It has bits from other songs and ends with I Believe I Can Fly. It's amazing and they are all so good at it! You can tell they love it. The competition is August 10th and I hope to record it! They are amazing. I may be starting an exercise class at the school and teach them some games- we'll see.

After the school we came back home and worked on some decorations for doors for a school. I asked a bunch of the team members what projects they are working on. I've been told that I can go to whatever I want, so I may just try a bunch of them over the next week and see what I like best. Then I finally took a shower and we had dinner (Our cooks made us Pizzas!). We share a house with some people who run a catering business. Poasa and Va are married and they run it. Va is one of the cooks we have- the other is Tika (I think). They are all super nice and very funny.

It was super hard to stay awake after dinner. But we cleaned the house really quick and did our weekly Team building activity- played a couple games. By then it was 8PM. I went to my room, quickly threw on my sheets and fell into bed. I'm pretty sure Brittany (one of the country directors) came in a talked to me... I have no idea what we said... I was incoherent. I woke up this morning at 8:30 AM. A GLORIOUS 12 HOURS OF SLEEP. So necessary. I feel so great this morning :) Woke up and had delicious oatmeal Chocolate chip pancakes (doing so great on the Fijian cuisine..... hah!). I talked a lot with people about their different projects and what I could do to help. I basically just want to try as many different things in as many different places as possible.

I'm really excited and I'm kind of glad so many things are in full swing. It was great to go visit one of the schools on my first day here! It's amazing how happy they are, even though there are so many struggles and so much poverty. Just goes to show that money and possessions aren't true happiness. Hope you're all doing well! Moce (pronounced mothey- means bye!)

Much love,

Sarah

Ps Here's a picture of the back of the tiny plane I took to Suva