Journal Entry

We have 16 days left in Taveuni.  At this point in our mission experience, we feel we’ve accomplished about all we’re going to do.  We had hoped for one more baptism of a stellar 65 year-old woman  (Elena Maitatoga), but her husband is causing problems and for now her plans for joining the Church are on hold.  So we will teach another new-member lesson or two to Ela and Rosana, take one more trip to Rabi Island, have a couple more administrative meetings with the District Presidency, and then spend the rest of the time visiting our beloved members.  Hopefully, as a crowning event, we will participate in the organization of Vuna as a fully established branch and also see Somosomo get a new branch president (President Mohammed has moved south to Vuna).

Last night we met with the Ranama and Qima families (same house) in Somosomo village, and introduced them to the card game, Phase 10.  There is no electricity in most of Taveuni so we sat in the dark with a kerosene lantern on a beautiful big mat and played (with some assistance from a couple flashlights).  It was so fun and they have invited us up to their little farm shack where they normally live, to have dinner next Monday.  This Saturday we have a big going-away party in Vuna that we are really looking forward to, and Annie has traded her sandals to Sister Jale in return for her making two small mats for us to take home and place under a nativity set we plan to make from materials gathered here on the island. 

Living here has largely become an exercise in frustration and subsistence.  We have had it with “paradise.”  Last night we had a new infestation of rats in our kitchen, we are fighting off another infestation of scabies on both of us (origin unknown), insects are a constant irritant though we’ve both grown partially immune to the mosquitos, and there is little fresh food on the island just now so we’ve barely had any vegetables for a couple months.  We eat to live but often don’t enjoy it.  In these regards, we are more than ready to go home.

With regard to our efforts to help local leaders learn how to lead, and especially to learn how the sacred funds of the Church should be handled, we are leaving in significant defeat and discouragement.  The more we look into financial matters, the more frustrating it becomes and most leaders here would be released from their callings and likely have serious disciplinary action taken against them if they lived in the States.  They have never had money, don’t know how to manage it, and see the Church as an endless money tree for which they have a personal responsibility to distribute the perceived “unlimited” funds to any and everyone who asks – and for any reason.  Truly, money seems to somewhat ruin the church here, and in our opinion (and that of other missionary couples), they would have been much better off if they had simply had the Church and its programs brought to them with no money associated with it whatever.  Third-world people are ingenious at making do in life and getting their bare necessities through a hundred schemes and associations – even if some are deceitful. All this “skill” is transferred into Church leadership when they become members and seemingly without any conscience that certain behaviors are wrong (and prohibited), they proceed to become full-time distributors of Church money while making sure they get their share.  They do not see anything wrong with this and when we try to explain and train them differently, we fear they just bide their time ‘til we leave and a new uneducated couple comes who will not discover all these things for a few months.  It is more than discouraging.

But with all the frustration, these are beautiful people who have so many good things about them.  We love spending time with them in their simple ways of living and making do.  Village life has so many wonderful aspects and much from which our hectic and materialistic “first world” countries could learn from.  We will treasure these associations and always be grateful we had the opportunity to serve the Lord and loving the people of Fiji.

Life on Taveuni

Welcome to our world -- off to teach a lesson

For the last 6 months, our life has been pretty much defined by the sea on one side and villages on the other side of the single road that runs north to south over about half of this 26x7 mile island.  Most of the eastern half of the island where all the water falls run into the sea, is not people-friendly with extremely dense vegetation, sharp drop offs into the ocean, and therefore no roads.

Up and down, up and down, always jostling and bouncing in our seats, we travel this road each day in one direction or another to the four main church centers in Qeleni, Matei, Somosomo, and Vuna, and to many villages in between.  Along the way we've captured some sights and memories that typify life on Taveuni.

The Kids
Smiles, always the smiles.  They seem to love life, love each other, and love social life and play time. They constantly hang out on the road, sitting and laughing together.  It always appears to us that they were on there way somewhere and just decided to sit down and laugh awhile.

Fijians have their own version of "bad hair" days -- but don't seem to care

In families and villages there's a fluidity in child care, everyone seems to take care of each other whether in or out of the nuclear family.  The "olders" are often caring for the "youngers".

Rosana patiently practicing the art of plaiting

Brothers back from bathing in the river -- how fun!

Jyoti ~ an exceptionally bright young woman who wanted to learn about the Church.
We appreciate her sincerity and inquiring mind that always has questions about
life and religion which seem well beyond her years.

Erik Watakini's kindergarten ("kindy") graduation.  His Mom,
Atelini, lovingly made the whole outfit.  We went to the ceremony
and kids were treated as though they'd all graduated from Harvard!

The smiles from graduation were short lived as Erik also "graduated" to circumcision age.  The dreaded but free "circumcision-mobile" visits annually at this time.  We shouldn't laugh but how can you not when large numbers of boys are walking around during the school break with a sulu tied up just as you see below.  They all have their sulus constantly pulled out in front, hmm - to avoid the rub?  In the camaraderie of misery they trapse up and down in the village and on the road headed for the ocean for their daily prescribed sea bath.

Creativity in so many ways.  Young Aisea had made himself a home and was just stirring up a batch of "curry"in a discarded chip bag when we passed by.

The Culinary Milieu

Speaking of curry, welcome to our local fast food dining option where menu decisions are easy.  It is either chicken curry with bones or chili chicken with bones.  We noticed it wasn't listed in the Frommer's guide to Taveuni but then maybe they missed this hometown spot.  When you're seated inside it is difficult to know if you are sweating from the heat in the food or the heat in this little metal trailer, either way the one fan is a special addition.

There's room for four, want to join us?

Guess who got the coveted seat? 

"Camping" is often in our thoughts when we think of describing how many of the local Fijians live day to day.  The Koy family invited us and about 15 others to their home to celebrate the 21st birthday of a much loved elder here.  Can you imagine preparing meals year after year under these circumstances yet they think nothing of it?

Sister Koy was pleased to demonstrate the art of making her delicious roti.  Each one in the
huge stack was beautifully crafted and cooked on the green kerosene stove.

Elder Mabunga was honored on his 21st birthday with a beautiful
home made lei and a chocolate cake made in his honor

A wonderful meal and a wonderful family who has gone out of their way
to love the missionaries.

Although no photo to document, we have vivid memories of enjoying post dinner conversation when a bird, a small plane? - no it was just a humungous cockroach flew into Annie's face. Hitting her forehead first and then somehow it's foot struck her eye, giving it a nasty scratch.  Struggling to recover, she heard the mother say of the intruding king of ugliness; "Oh, it's because the rainy season is coming."  Poor little cockroach, can't stand a little rain? Well, perhaps so and we noticed a lot of his "friends" who had already settled in for the night and they seemed to be welcomed guests.

Chocolate cake seems to be everyone's favorite no matter where you live so recently we have spent several Saturday afternoons with young women who wanted to learn how to bake them.  In contrast to Americans who stand and use counter tops, the Fijians generally prefer the floor, presumably that would be because they have no cabinets in their kitchens.  This group baked in partners and each went home with a cake for their families.  As young Joyti (center in pink blouse) proudly carried her cake home, she melted our hearts when she exclaimed, "This is the best day of my life!" Her mother promised her she would be able to bake her own birthday cake this next month so we gave her some candles to dress it up.

These girls from Vuna really got into it.  

This was a new technique to me but one tried and true to her.

We introduced them to German Chocolate Icing made with
freshly grated coconut, and it was a BIG hit.
One reported, "It's even good on bread!"

All ages enjoyed this activity.  The first young women activity ever for this
newly formed group.

Making French Bread brought this lovely group together.  With only one oven all were very patient in getting a turn to bake.   

All were experienced bakers but none had made French Bread so they
loved adding this to their repertoire

Sometimes we feel kind of sorry for ourselves when it comes to our limited food options.  One morning we were noticing a tree near by our deck that had large green balls on it. What could they be?  Hallelujah, we have avocados!  Now if only tortilla chips didn't cost an arm and a leg here.  Avocados are in the same league as chocolate cake so it has been fun to gift them and also discover some new recipes.  Ever tried avocado bread?

Local beauties from our own tree

Mangos grow everywhere here so we did what seemed like a provident thing to do and made a small batch of jam.  The excess we froze for smoothies which seemed like a good way to use the local produce. 

 Crafting Corner
Most of the women love to get together to create and visit.  Each church unit here owns one sewing machine and a few women have their own so by combining resources we can have 3 machines and do quite well.  Every few weeks we have gathered together to work on some simple quilting techniques.  Last December we found a school uniform making factory in Suva that was willing to donate a rather large bag of fabric scraps which has been a godsend for these projects. Table space was limited but that was no obstacle as you can see.  Each brings a little something to contribute for a light lunch- cucumbers and tuna, guavas, canned meat and bread or perhaps some pre-cooked dalo from home. Sharing something we've baked from home with simple ingredients they have access to is always appreciated and they often ask for a copy of the recipe to try at home.

While Annie works with the women, Tom helps get the generator started for enough electricity to run a couple sewing machines and the computer where he trains leaders on Church software.  Unfortunately, there's not enough power to also run the iron so when it comes time for that, we shut all the other machines down.  It's ok though, we all need time to wipe the sweat off and swab the mosquito bites.  Just before we met, the branch president had sprayed for cockroaches and it was a lucky thing because all those foraging worker ants carrying a big dead roach up the wall to their home would have otherwise had nothing to eat.  It was truly an amazing feat. Ok, enough of life in paradise, now back to the sewing . . .

Found foam insulation will serve as batting for the hand bag

Two Lusi's waiting to serve their missions soon and making bags to take

Sister Bibi was perfectly happy on the floor with a hand-crank machine

And so is he!

Craft supplies are a bit limited here but potatoes were in our cupboard so Annie was set to be able to cut stamps and print.  Imported acrylic paints from our December trip to Suva allowed us to proceed with plans to make banners for each of our Primaries.  No paint brushes, hmm... Tom's whisker brush for his electric razor worked great taped to a pencil.  Lest you think we were wasteful, we were able to cut off the painted parts of the potatoes and cook them up for dinner but that does mean these are "limited editions".

Finished product after the kids added their prints

Always trying to bring added variety to the teaching options for the Primaries, we recently received home made flannel boards made by our talented mission nurse.  They fold up and will travel easily to church.  Kind and generous friends from the US brought flannel board pieces we divided up for the 4 Primaries.  No need for computers when you have access to these.

Sights along the way
The smoke drifting through the heavy rain caught our eye one day as we drove north.  We'd been wondering what this odd shaped shed was for so we pulled in to get a closer look.  With all the smoke and rain you wouldn't think a fly could survive but we were swarmed as we got out of the car and neared the "processing plant."  Guess they like coconut too!  Turns out, this is the village copra drying operation that precedes the pressing out of prized coconut oil.

Though we've been here for nearly 18 months, we are daily reminded that here on Taveuni we not only live in a different time zone, but perhaps in a different century.

After the day's work on a copra plantation, our friends Teivita
and Loma head out for some spear fishing

A family out for some net fishing in the early evening

Headin' home after a long day -- what a joy to be together!

Goodnight Taveuni

Treasures in Taveuni

A couple months ago, just after Ela and Ana were baptized, Ela mentioned that her cousin Rosana Valelala was interested in learning about the Church and asked if we would teach her.  Ela lives in the same home with Rosana, who is a bright but quiet young woman and they both help Rosana's single mother to raise young Litiana, an adopted sister.

Ela helping Litiana with a gifted headband sent from Yakima

Loving sisters, Rosana and little Liti 

Although only 14 years old, Rosana understands well and has been attending Church for several months.   When she was ready and her mother consented, we had a lovely baptism across the road from their home in Vuna at our traditional place on the sea shore.  It was a nice high tide and her friends from the church gathered to celebrate with her.  

 Ela herself would like to serve a mission in the future and has been independently studying the scriptures as well as serving as a teacher to high school age girls in the small Vuna unit of the Church.  We are delighted with how well she is doing so we asked her if she would prepare a talk on baptism for Rosana's program.  Ela not only wrote out a beautiful talk, but also memorized and delivered it with grace as we stood under a small tree by the shore. 

Rosana and Tom then walked out into the sea for the baptism.  It's always so unique there since many of the kids who come along are just swimming and enjoying themselves before and after the baptism.

After the baptism we sat around and visited along the shore with some of the members, sang hymns, and generally enjoyed this beautiful moment.  Fijians have beautiful voices and this group even gathers on Saturdays to practice and learn new hymns for the next day.

With a new haircut, Ela sits with a traditional hand-made Fijian fan

Tradition has been set, so following the program they all love Annie's banana bread or other treats she makes and brings with us.  It was so funny because the bread knife got lost under a seat in the bumpy ride down to Vuna so she ingeniously settled for our big cane knife to slice the loaves. After the treats, the kids jumped back in the ocean and played around (the water is always a perfect temperature).  Tom was walking by the sea a few yards from one 10 yr. old girl who was swimming with a mask and snorkel and it dawned on him that he was hearing her sing a muffled version of "I am a child of God" through her snorkel as she swam along!

Other kids had also gone down the shore and gathered seed pods from a tree and brought them back to where we were.  With a handy volcanic rock, they pounded open the 2-3 inch pods to find a long narrow seed that tasted somewhat like an almond -- yummy.

The sea is everyone's friend.  They swim and play, hand-line fish and spear fish, gather various things to eat from it's waters and shoreline, and run along the shore playing games -- it is nothing short of wonderful to us and we love that part of Fiji.

Saying our goodbyes, we headed southeast to Navakawau, the very last village where the road ends on Taveuni.  We went to have a visit with a man and his wife who are also preparing for baptism (the young missionaries are teaching them).  This is a village that is very isolated and we arrived just as a big gathering of people were butchering a cow.  They had quartered it and were skinning it out and cutting up the meat for everyone in this quite large village.  Few visitors venture down to this village -- especially white ones, and the moment we arrived one of the butchers came right over with a big toothless Fijian smile and reached out a crusty, bloody hand to welcome us to the village. Oooh . . .

The "butcher shop" along with what we think are dalo suckers to be planted

We watched briefly as they worked and saw the kids taking pieces of hide, the tail, etc. and play tug of war with the dogs. Walking down to the home of our friends we found that the husband had gone out spear fishing.  Of course there are no phones down there so you just go and hope you catch people.  Since Muri was not home, we visited with his wife, Mele, and their kids.  

Earlier that day, we had gathered about 15 coconuts from the yard and since they have fewer coconut trees in that village area, we thought Mele might like them (when available, they regularly cook with coconut cream and then use the husks for their fires).  By that time, we had gathered a large entourage of kids from the village who were intrigued with their white visitors, so we asked them if they would come along and help us get the coconuts.  The truck was parked about a block distance from the home so we ran and played with the kids back to the truck where Luisa climbed under the bed cover and gave each child one or two coconuts.

All the kids trailed back down to Mele's home with coconuts in their arms. It was so funny as they were getting a real charge out of the event and one girl kept looking back at us as we took pictures, when all of a sudden she ran into a big bamboo pole that was propping up a clothes line and broke it in half!  Everyone laughed like crazy and it all added to the uniqueness of the moment.  Unfortunately, the movie we were taking had stopped just a second before she broke the old weathered pole -- it would have been so great to have it preserved, particularly her laughter after the fact.

After dumping the coconuts near Mele's outdoor kitchen, Annie suggested we play "Duck, Duck, Goose" so we got in a large circle and taught them the game.  We could tell they were struggling with "goose" until we realized they don't have geese here and didn't know what we were talking about, so we changed that to "chicken".  They absolutely loved it. Since all homes are close to each other in a village, many other people gathered to see the game and cheered the kids along.  When we were done, we were visiting with one mother and then she asked, "can you get them all to go take their baths now?"  But everyone was too wound up for that so we raced back up the hill to the truck and played "follow the leader" for a bit.

While the young missionaries are fluent in Fijian, we are not so we couldn't really verbally communicate well with the little kids, but all children speak "play" and we had a great time.  As we backed out and drove away, about 15 of them mobbed the truck and waved goodbye.  Many of them had seen our name tags and yelled out as we drove away, "Good bye Sister Sherry!"  What a magical day.