Day 5

Since we arrived Kyle has been asking me why the staff seem so happy and laugh all the time. He is very in tune to the emotional environment and very curious. A great question that is important to note! I told him they have figured out how to hold community, family and work in a perspective that is fun and not a stressful. I have thought a lot about his question all week and how that applies to us personally and in North America in general.

The staff all live on the island with their families, just around the corner from the resort - a bit like a compound with a church and play area for the kids. There is a desalination plant here for drinking water and I am still not sure how they get power to the island.

Last night it rained really hard with huge cracks of thunder and lightening around 2am. Still, we woke up to sunshine and relative calm as things were drying out in the morning heat.

We started by playing tennis after breakfast but that only lasted about 20 minutes as the heat was already a bit much. There are ping pong tables in a covered shade too that we played for a bit. When the wind comes up it turns into 'trick ping pong' and does not work very well.

Today (14th) was Jeff's Fiji birthday so he decided to go for a scuba dive out on one of the many reefs. Perfect day as the water was calm everywhere. There was an underwater rock cliff with coral growing from it and fish and he explored that down to about 17 meters. While he was away the boys and I played in the ocean and in the pool as usual!

Today was the Fijian Lovo celebration. The lighting of the Lovo oven was at 11am - pit dug out of the sand, then filled with dead palm brush and wood and covered in river rocks. As the wood burns down it leaves the rocks hot at the bottom that they put the food on top of and cover completely in sand to cook for 3 hours.

We went for a hike to the top of our little island this afternoon. As I mentioned all the islands were formed by volcanoes so even the smallest one is a steep hill. Well, our island is not that small when trying to climb it even on a good path. We were all wearing only our bathing suits and just dripping in sweat it was so hot. The view was incredible to see all the reefs and islands on such a calm day, worth the 30 minute uphill hike. We ran into the goats up there but they must be wild because they took off when we came anywhere near. There are very colorful little lizards here with orange bodies and blue/green tails. There were plenty of them on the trail but they don't stick around long! We were so hot after the hike we almost ran down the path to the pool and ocean to cool off. The warm water temperature of both were very apparent at that moment!

This was a special evening dinner with the food from the lovo oven and all the staff performing native dances and singing, along with the kids from the Kids Club that were all dressed in traditional clothes and had practiced all week. It was really special to see that and they are very good singers. The musical instruments are hollow bamboo poles and drum sticks on a half hollowed log. The dinner that followed was great as usual, lots of coconut creams and curry, fish and chicken. Just like every other night here, it poured rain for 30 minutes prior to the celebration and delayed it a bit. But then the sun comes out and everything dries up again. The sunset tonight was amazing. Jeff and I came upon 2 large frogs at the veranda of our bure when we walked back from dinner. We tried to move slowly and get the camera but that was enough to send them hopping. They sort of freaked me out they were so big! We are all packed up to leave tomorrow afternoon for the main island and ready to soak in the last morning here in paradise. Thank you for your comments, we are having troubles seeing them right now but will look forward to reading when we get to a larger center :)