Sarah goes to FIJI: 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