Hungry? WHY WAIT.

..grab a taro root....or ten. (also, random pic of some people from our team when we did our talent show for eachother.)

okay i'll try and upload some pics

SO, I wrote that rockin savu savu update with pictures and all, but it wouldn't upload and then the pictures would n't upload to the right part of the update, so i'm just going to try and upload a bunch of pictures and probably without captions. enjoy!

savu savu update

SAVU SAVU WEEK:
417

(Waiting at the airport..Me, piper, maria)
So, I went on a separate project with 6 others to a different island called, Vanua Levua, to a smaller town called Savu Savu. This place happens to be gorgeous. I guess tavua (the place were we live) is sort of like the nebraska of fiji….it’s still pretty of course, but there are many other places that are just breathtaking and Savu Savu happens to be one of them. I went with Bryce and Jacob (the 2 rm who served here), val, piper, libbie, maria. The boys had set up this whole project with their former mission president who was funding all the money for the construction aspect of these projects. It was pretty cool because we flew to this island specifically to help members of the church which isn’t something I have ever necessarily done. So our plan was to knock down this lady’s house (Sister Low), because she was being evicted. We were going to knock it down so that they could move it to a different location. We also planned to build 2 kitchens, bench for some business, teach health, education, and business lessons, and bring supplies to a village up in the mountains that was 4 hours away by bus. We also were supplying some things for a septic tank. We had 4 days to do all of these projects and lessons so it was pretty busy.
Project one: Sister Low’s house~ Saturday, May 30, 2009
pictures at top
Brcye, Jacob, Tori, Val, Maria, Lib, Pipes travel up the mountain and find the dirt path up the hill to sister low’s home. Slick, muddy path, but we made it. Her house is bigger and made of sheet metal and wood. Turns out sheet metal is really strong and hard to knock down. Often harder than the rotting wood. We spent a lot of time and a LOT of sweat knocking that place down. The Fijians helped of course and we could not have done it without them. It started raining which I appreciated, but I’m not sure others did as much.
We got a large portion of the house knocked down, but not all when Jacob decided he wanted to travel to Tukavesi village to see exactly what materials were needed there. I decided to go with him and we got on the 2pm bus.

Project two: This bus ride was just like a roller coaster, except dirtier, no seat belts, and lacking the fun down hill feeling. Mostly just jerky and bumpy and intense. It was 3 ½ hours long. We got to tukavesi and the sister who’s house we were building met us at the bus stop. We walked to the branch presidents land and he showed us where we were sleeping. Turns out to be a small hut/home this one lady gave up for us. Two double beds with mosquito nets. It looked very comfortable and I was excited about that. Here’s a pic:



We stayed in this lady’s house. I dunno how to put pictures on this thing, turns out......

It gets dark here around 6 so it was already pitch black, but we then walked a couple feet to the branch president’s home where we ate tin fish and dalo leaves for dinner with a lot of dalo and cassava roots. We then talked and played with the kids for a bit and then went back to our hut around 7:30pm. We were exhausted. Jacob and I talked for a bit and then I realized I had to go to the bathroom so bad because I had had 5 glasses of water at dinner…Turns out tin fish and dalo leaves aren’t my favorite dish ever…I went outside next to the house and went to the bathroom. Got back inside and into bed when we heard 3 dogs barking and running straight towards our hut. (luckily our huts are elevated) they ran over barking and started digging up the spot where I had just gone to the bathroom. They were furious that I had just marked on their territory I spose. They then marked their territory again and ran away. Weird. Anways, we fell asleep probably around 8:30 or 9. The branch president came and woke us up at 6am. Jacob showered and I got up at 6:30. Church was at 7am.
Sacrament meeting in the BUSH:
We walked to the local primary school with the branch president and his family. There we set up the room for church and a few others strolled in. Probably ten adults total, Jacob and I included. These people know English, but are too shy to speak it, so everything was in Fijian. The lesson was on agency and adam and eve and the branch president taught it. Next, Jacob was asked to teach gospel doctrine. Then sacrament meeting was last and Jacob and I were asked to be the speakers. It went really well and I really enjoyed being with those people and even talking for a little bit in their sacrament meeting. By 10am it was extremely hot and we walked down to the spot of land where we were supposed to build the house for this sister who was currently living with the branch president and his family. Jacob talked to them about the supplies they needed and got everything set for that project. We then walked back, changed, and had HOT tea and scones/Fijian pancakes for breakfast…..it was already 100 degrees with 100% humidity and I was drinking hot tea. Needless to say, I was dripping dripping drippppping sweat at the table. Embarressing. We then went to our hut to take a nap and I was so hot and uncomfortable I was in physical pain and couldn’t fall asleep for 30 minutes. Frustrating. Then I dreamed about telling Urs how I needed surgery to stop all this sweat because it was so embarrassing and the Fijians didn’t know what to do with someone like me… Oh wait, that part is true. We then had lunch (spinach leaves in coconut milk/cream) which always makes me feel like I am having an allergic reaction. The dalo leaves are intense. We then played with the kids for a while and hung out with the families. I loved that. We hopped on a bus and had a 4 hour long roller coaster ride home.
We got back to Sister Low’s where the gang was watching a pirated version of “Twilight” and eating bananas and having lemon tea. We then headed back to our new hotel which had Air CONDITIONING AND WARM WATER FOR SHOWERS. Amazing. And breakfast was included. All for $10 american dollars a night.

Projects 3 &4: Monday the girls went to sister Low’s to finish knocking her house down. The local elders came as well. One of them was Fijian and literally took a tree trunk and bashed down the walls in 2 seconds that we had been trying to get down for like 2 hours. Awesome. We then headed to our separate projects. Bryce, Me, and Libs went to a separate village to focuse on building a kitchen for a women who had some type of palsy and couldn’t speak. She also was paralyzed on one side of her body. Libbie and I were in charge of cutting out an opening for the door which meant cutting the sheet metal that was already on her house. Turns out that took about two hours. That stuff is intense. A man called Pwata helped us. The lady was so cute and funny. She would just giggle and laugh and slap your back.
I noticed that the stairs going into her house were rotting and had large spaces between the slabs. I was helping her up the stairs and she fell through them, and so did I. It was awful. I thought why were we building her a kitchen when she can’t even get into her house? I talked to Libs and we decided we wanted to build her a new set of stairs. So that became our project while bryce worked on building the kitchen with the Fijians, Libbie, me ripped the old stairs out and built new stairs with Pwata. It was pretty difficult to communicate how we wanted them, and it was hard work actually building them, but we did it! My camera was dead, so I’ll have to get some pictures from Libs. It was so awesome! I was so happy we got to do that. The others were building a kitchen for another family as well as building and teaching some things for a separate home. We did these projects for a few days as well as taught health: basic health, first aid, sanitation/hygiene, business, and importance of education lessons.

Back to Tukavesi:
Wednesday I took Libs, Pie, and Maria to Tukavesi. We left around 10:30 and didn’t get there til about 3pm. The bus wasn’t that full until we got about 20min away from where we were supposed to get off. It became jammed pack and we were of course, in the very very back. People loaded corn and huge bags in the middle of the bus and we couldn’t get out. The three girls threw their stuff out the window and then they jumped out the windows as well while I was literally climbing ontop of bags, corn, and people to get to the front. IT was quite funny and embarrassing. It then started to rain so we hung out at a random house for a while and I practiced my Fijian. The branch president came and met us and we went back to his house for some juice and cookies. I then taught basic health and sanitation/hygiene lessons for over an hour and it went really well. I also taught about stoves and we went on an adventure to find some clay. They have easy access to clay so that was exciting for them! The girls went back to the hut for a while and I played with all the kids (10 or more) for an hour and a half. I got so buff swinging them all around and playing all their crazy games. Bryce, Val, and Jacob arrived around dark and we had a business lesson and then dinner. Fish, fish , and more fish. Usually they have a bucket of water for you to rinse before you eat, but they brought out soap with it! It made me happy that they were implementing what they had learned in my health lessons. We talked some more about health and education and had some great discussions with the people. There is this one little boy, Michael who is Fijian but has blond curly hair (his dad is Australian I think)..and was absolutely adorable.


I played with the kids for a long while and started dancing with them. Fijians think it is the best and most hilarious thing in the world when Palangis dance. It was really fun. The little kids also love my long hair and were playing with it and braided it. I looked like Madusa, but it was cute. Around 9 I went to bed with the rest of us in that same hut Jacob and I had stayed in on Saturday.

This one lady, Rita really stood out to me. She was very helpful in all the lessons and finding clay. I talked to her for over an hour about her life. She wasn’t a member of the church yet, but her husband was. She called her husband, “my honeybee” and they have been married for 7 years. She grew up in Suva, but came to this village with her parents when her uncle had died. She realized then that she wanted to live a village life, and soon after met her now husband, Rafeal. They got married, but the pastor didn’t get it legally recognized. Their marriage certificate was also misplaced so now they have to pay to get transport to town ( 4 hours, $10 each) and then get re-married, and pay for a marriage license ($20+). They do not have those funds. She talked about how she could not join the church until their marriage was legally recognized. It was fascinating and devastating. It probably costs $50 total to get the license, but they haven’t been able to save that money in the recent years. Wednesday I said goodnight and went to bed, but I didn’t specifically say goodbye to her. That is my biggest regret. I wish I could have given her a gift and said goodbye properly. She was amazing and I miss her already.

Thursday we woke up at 7,and ran to the bus. We then got off and got on a boat that took us to Tavueni…known as the “Garden Island” of fiji. I’ll write more about that rockin vacation later!

Hope you enjoyed the very long update!

Savu Savu and Tukavesi were beautiful: