BULA!
Happy Birthday Katherine and Vivian! On day one of our trip most of us spent the day traveling long distances. All of the students met in Los Angeles airport - we had some time before our flight to find out about each other through the usual questions: name, age, hometown, and favorite music. We ate dinner at the airport and had a couple of pieces of cake for Katherine's and Vivian's birthday that were "shared" (mostly devoured by Max and me). We boarded our plane and had a long, uneventful ride to Fiji. Because of the time change, we skipped an entire day. We arrived in Fiji at 5:00 am and drove to our first campsite. I think everyone can agree that it is great to be here. This place is BEAUTIFUL!
-Max
Village Acceptance
We piled into a truck this morning and began the long drive to the village. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing as we all sang along to the radio and let our backsides take a beating on the bumpy road. The views were great, we stopped a couple of times for photo shots and snacks. We finally arrived at Nakavika after about 2 hours and were greeted by many smiling faces and "BULA"! We put on our sulus and settled into our houses before heading over to the school house area to begin our service work. We took a break and sat down for afternoon tea and lunch. Later we walked across the village to Chief Leo's house. In a customary fashion, Ben entered first as our leader; the Ryan, as our spokesman; the rest of the boys; and the girls last (Fijian custom). In ordered to be welcomed into the village properly we engaged in the traditional kava ceremony. Some Fijian words were exchanged and the kava cup was passed to each of us in turn. When receiving the kava one claps once, thanks the chief (Chief Leo was all smiles and just sat in the corner the entire time), drinks and says "done" in Fijian. After this was completed Leo spoke a couple of word and essentially welcomed us to his village and welcomed us as family into the village. It was an incredible and very social ceremony. Everyone felt truly welcomed.
-Karl
Working in the Village
We woke up this morning to the sounds of crowing roosters. We got up, some of us took showers and ate breakfast - hash browns and eggs. Around 8:00 am we headed out to the worksite. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Before today we had completed only the beginning parts of the house for the teacher...the foundation and whatnot. We began the day gathering tons of wood together to use to build the floor. When the villagers arrived shortly after us we began to install the flooring. It was a pretty slow process and took lots of hammering, but slowly the floor began coming together. We broke around 12:30 for lunch and a break. We ate with the Fijians who had prepared a meal for us. We returned to work on the floor and at around 4:30 Moses said that we could call it a day, but we wanted to finish the floor today so we continued. We finished around 6 pm and a couple of us went down to the river quickly to wash and cool off before it got dark. Around 7:30 we sat down as a group for dinner. We had pasta so it was a big hit! When we finished and prepared for the social that was going on for the school. We went at around 9 pm and as soon as we arrived we were overtaken by people wanting to dance. Everyone was friendly as usual. Several dances later we decided to call it a night. Everybody was getting pretty tired. We made it back to the rooms and everyone crashed in their beds. Another sweet day in Fiji!
-Ben
Our Last Day in the Village
The day began as it had for the past week, we woke up, cooked breakfast, and prepared for our last day in the village. We moved our stuff out of the houses where we had stayed. After that we went to the house that we helped build and took lots of pictures. In addition we signed out names on the walls on the inside of the house. Then we went over to the school and the first and second graders put on a skit for us followed by a hectic game of soccer. After the game the kids sang the good bye song to us. We went to the chief's house for the last time where we all shook hands with him. We then went down to the river where we started kayaking and began our voyage down the Luva River. The trip was awesome and we stopped to see a waterfall along the way. At the end of the kayaking trip we were met by motorized long boats that took us into Pacific Harbor. We returned to camp, quickly set up our tents before it came dark and went out to eat. We were all exhausted after an amazing week.
-Mia
Surfing at the Beach
We got to sleep in today! Well, sort of. Laura and Vivian had some issues with a cat trapped in their rain fly. Laura's shrieks woke most of us. Luckily "bobbi the cat" survived. We had breakfast and split up into vans to get to Natadola Beach, where we had a surf lesson. We practice jumping on our towels on the sand and then waxed the boards and hit the surf. We all were able to get up on our boards! Those of us who had never done this before were psyched to stand up and surf on a wave. It was really cool to watch those who had surfed before carve on the waves. What a great sport. After a quick sandwich we set off for the sand dunes. Walking up the steep sand hills was difficult, but surfing down on boogie boards made it worth it! We were all VERY sandy for the ride back to our camp, but were able to take hot showers! We had some free time before a great curry dinner and then we were entertained by a guitarist. Later there was a campfire, more music. We all slept well after our long day. Another day in paradise.
-Kathleen
SCUBA Diving in Beqa
Those of us who were getting certified today spent the morning in the pool learning techniques while the certified divers did a couple of reef dives. It was cool learning about diving, plus we got to do a little dance in the deep end of the pool. According to the certified divers they got a chance to see blue ribbon eels which were incredible.
-Bridger
