This week's adventure = Rabi Island

So back in March, we got to travel to Kiribati for 2 weeks. While we were there I had someone make me one of these custom, traditional blouses. I love the way they do smocking and create a word right in the forefront. Some people display their name or the word "mauri" which means "hello" but I chose the name of this special country.
This week, we went to a "mini" version of Kiribati called Rabi Island and I was dressed appropriately.

Rabi Island is part of Fiji. Back in the 1940's, the British found a valuable mineral on an island in Kiribati and decided to remove all of the people living on that island so they brought them to Rabi Island in 1945. I won't go into the whole story because it is very complicated. It involves a huge law suit and trail but the Kiribati people ended up losing the suit and their homeland and so they continue to reside on this island.

There is a Branch of the Church on this island. It is connected to the Taveuni District. We have been to Taveuni three times and each time the Nuku Branch leaders have sailed over to meet with us. Last time we visited with them was back in April and we told them that next time WE would sail over to meet with them! We had been told it was about an hour and a half boat ride but it could be quite rough sailing depending on the weather. For the week before we were to take this adventure, I began praying that we would have good weather for a smooth sailing. We scheduled to take our trip on Thursday but the winds were way too strong so we postponed the trip until Friday. The winds had slowed down quite a bit but it was still quite a bumpy outing.

Most all of the population lives along the coast. There are about 2000 people that reside on the whole island and it is quite a good size island. Very lush and green; just like all of Fiji!

Here is the boat and the group that we traveled with. From left to right: the 2 young elders who are assigned to this area. They actually live on the Taveuni island but travel over here every couple of weeks. They have quite a few investigators and they really wish they could be assigned here full time. Elder Gashler is from Sandy, Ut and Elder Wall from Layton, Ut. Next is Pres. Lesuma. He is the Taveuni District President. He is a really wonderful and committed leader. He gave us a lot of confidence and peace of mind about taking this outing. Next is the ship captain. He is the brother-in-law to Pres. Lesuma and a very experienced sailor. The ride was rough and long but we never felt unsafe. Paul and I and Pres. Lesuma wore clothes that we didn't mind getting wet and then changed into our missionary attire once we arrived on the island.

Isn't that just a gorgeous view!!!

Here is the MAIN road through the town of Nuku with a few of the sights along the way...

Groups of people just hanging out and enjoying the day...

I thought this "house" proves how plants grow everywhere!!!

Are you ready to see this? This is the Chapel here for the Nuku Branch... very humble! This is one of the original Colonial homes built back in the 1940s. Every person who moved to Rabi was promised a house like this but it never happened and most people lived in tents until they could construct their own homes mostly from coconut trunks and woven fronds.
The pictures below didn't really end up in the order I wanted them but they still tell the story of our outing just fine.

Our main purpose for this trip was to do the mid-year audit of the Branch finances and training on updating and handling the membership records.

After the training and auditing was completed, the Branch served us lunch. Honestly, these dear people have next to nothing so we felt like we were eating their next meal when we got served. One of the wives of the Branch Elders Quorum Pres fixed us corned beef spaghetti served over rice along with sodas and biscuits (cookies) for dessert! I have to admit this was the first time I've ever eaten corned beef spaghetti... very interesting!

Here is Sister Mary who fixed the meal... look at her beautiful hair! and face! and personality!

Here are some of the Branch leaders we met with. From left to right: first is Pres. Natantamokin, the Branch President. Bless his heart! He does such a great job as the Branch President and this Branch is growing. They have about 70 members in attendance at Church each Sunday and like I mentioned, quite a few more investigators. Next is Bro. Mateka. He is the Branch clerk but he has only been a member of the Church for 3 months and was called to the Clerk calling just recently so he is still learning what he is supposed to be doing but he seems to be catching on quickly. Next is Pres. Lesuma who was so much help to us. He really made our job go smoothly. Last is Bro. Valu. When he showed up and sat down, I thought I understood that he was just a member of the Branch. He is a Tongan man but has lived on Rabi Island for many years. He joined the Church in Tonga but has been inactive until just recently. He showed up one day and said he wanted to come back to Church and his wife and 6 children all wanted to be baptized! It turned out that he helped me a lot by translating what I was saying in English to the Branch President who mostly only understands and speaks Kiribati, not even Fijian. Believe me, these kinds of meetings are always really interesting! What I loved the most was that by the end of our training, the Branch President decided to call this Tongan man, Bro. Valu to be the Branch Assistant Clerk over membership records! They even went into the next room and set him apart!

Aren't these children darling!
We always seem to attract quite an interested audience when we pilangies show up!

Here is quick tour of a bit of the Chapel. Here is the sacrament meeting room. It is really small. They have grown so much that they really struggle to get all the members to fit into one room. Some times, members have to sit in other rooms on the other side of the walls. This shot is facing forward....

this is facing opposite of the podium. Quite tight quarters!

Here is one of the classrooms

and this is the Primary room. Notice the "blackboards"! The songs are written on the walls.
It may not have been one of the nicest Chapels I have ever been to but it was about one of the cleanest! I was really impressed with how neat, clean and organized all the rooms were despite the lack of nice facilities. Unfortunately, I have seen really nice buildings that are not watched over and maintained anywhere near to how well taken care of this humble facility is cared for.

So, as usual, all good things must come to an end. We were only on the island for about 2 and 1/2 hours but we felt like it was a very productive and worthwhile outing. We feel like it is important to visit these outer Branches and show them that we appreciate and recognize all that they are doing and that they are important enough to us that we will come to them not just always expect them to come to us. We find we are always touched and edified by meeting these dedicated, willing, humble and committed Church members. It helps remind us of all that we do have instead of how we sometimes just seem to focus on what we don't have.

The ocean was lots rougher on our return trip and it took about twice as long to get back. By the time we approached Taveuni island, it was low tide and the captain ended up having to get out into the water and push the boat forward from behind while....

Elder Wall helped push from upfront with a big stick!

Then we finally all just disembarked and waded through knee-deep water until we arrived at the shore!

We walked quite a ways... you can see out boat just below the right-side of that large island. We loved it! Makes for a fun story!

Here is another story: We weren't the only people in the ocean. For the past month or so people have been flocking out along the shores around this area when it is low tide. They are harvesting what they call "caterpillars" ...

I'm thinking they are more like squid or slugs or something pretty creepy! Apparently, these slugs or whatever, show up about once a year and are a greatly desired delicacy to Chinese people. So the locals dig them out of the sand, boil them and then dry them and then sell them to the Chinese dealers who I guess then export them over to China. After I caught a glimpse of these squishy little beings, I was glad I made it a shore without having come in contact with any of them!

Just another WONDERFUL day in the life of a missionary!

Give Blood! Play Rugby!!!

We went to our FIRST Rugby game!!!

Rugby is huge over here! The season had just ended when we arrived last August. In fact, one of our first cultural events we attended in this country was an end of season, Saints rugby team party but at that time we didn't know any of the team members let along anything about the game of Rugby. So we have been anxiously awaiting the opening of the next season which started several weeks ago. But we hadn't been available to make it to a game until just a week ago.

This is the SAINTS Rugby team.

It is composed of young men from various Wards and Branches of the Church around the Suva area. In fact, George Koroivanuve who is sitting in the middle of this group shot (facing forward, holding the blue bottle) works with us in the MSR Department in the Service Center.

The Saints belong to a league made up of teams from this Province (like a county). The other teams are from particular villages. Ours is the only team not made up of villagers. The other teams practice every day in their village while the Saints only get together for practice twice a week because Monday night is Family Home Evening and Wednesday night is Institute.
At "kick off" the opposing team of this game was ranked in first place of the league. The Saints were in 5th place.

We stood right on the sideline almost next to this guy who began the game with his throw in... good view! Actually, there weren't very many spectators. I don't know why there weren't more fans... I actually believe the women get pretty tired of non-stop Rugby games.

That's George being lifted up to catch the throw in and the guy with #1 on his red shirt is Bro. Ramasimi. We have spent a lot of time with him in his church calling as the Nausori Stake IT (computer) specialist so we were excited to see him in ACTION on the field. He is a really strong, tough player!

Off and running! NON STOP!

Seriously, even when someone goes down the game keeps on going! This is one intense, rough, no-protective-gear game. When players are smashed to the ground, it made me wince and quiver but don't worry, they just jump up and keep on going!

And of course, it just wouldn't be Rugby without the SCRUM! So brutal!
They all put their heads down and together and then start pushing straight forward as someone throws the ball in the middle beneath all the players. Somehow it gets in the hands of some player and everyone is off again.
Their coach, Bro. Maiwiriwiri stood right next to us during the game and "tried" to explain the game but I'm sure he wondered what planet we came from -- no, he knows we are American and only understand football. He did tell us that this opponent team was doing whatever they could to avoid having to get into a scrum with the Saints.

The games are divided in two periods of 30 minutes each. If a ball is kicked over the goal post, the team gets 3 points. If it is carried across the goal line, they get 5 points and they get to try to kick the ball over for an extra 2 points.
During the whole game the only points were made by 2 kicks from the Other Guys (as we called them) so it was 6 - 0 up ...

until the last minute when the Saints ran the ball over the goal line and then...

kicked it over for the extra 2 points (you can barely see the ball straight above the yellow truck in the center of the photo) and the Saints pulled it off:
Saints 7! Other guys 6
They were stoked and we were thrilled! The coach was even kind enough to give us the credit for their win because of our attendance!

So now I can confess that we are Rugby fans!!!! Which, as it turns out, is really lucky since our grandkids, Colton and Cory, have become rugby players and our son-in-law, Eric has become their rugby coach and a cerfified Rugby official! I think we have lots more rugby games in our future!

GO SAINTS!!!!

Ahoy Matey!

Even before we came to Fiji we had heard about a really exciting adventure outing. This last week we finally got to experience it and it was every bit as great as we had been told!
This is the "Sigatoka River Safari".
The brochure touts that it is "simply unforgettable" and they weren't kidding!

We got on board a custom made jet boat that seats 20 passengers. This boat is very comfortable with padded seating and a very competent Captain. Maybe you have heard of him....

"Captain Jack Sparrow"
(that's what he likes to be called on the boat. He goes by Josh off the boat.)

He was really entertaining and kept us laughing and safe all at the same time. He also shared lots of historical information about the Fijian traditions and customs of village life from days gone by as well as village living today. Lots of things are still the same. The Fijians are very proud of their traditions and their villages and are happy and anxious to share this unique lifestyle. This company has arranged with 24 villages to bring these tours through regularly. They rotate between 12 different villages for 6 months and then switch to another 12 villages for the next 6 months. These villages use this as a mean of earning income that otherwise they would have no other means of acquiring.

Here is the loading dock. There were 2 boats in our group and each boat held 20 passengers. The boats absolutely rip along the top of the water. We guessed we were traveling about 40 miles an hour. They can smoothly travel in as low a level of water as 6 inches which in some places we could tell we were that close. Other places the water was quite deep. It is a very wide river and when it is the rainy season, it can flood and raise up 25 feet.

Traveling up the river felt just like cruising the main channel at Lake Powell!
There are a lot of villages that are situated along the banks and we passed lots of people and animals in and out of the river just living their normal, daily lives.

The scenery was spectacular... lush, green, mountainous along with lots of farming and plantations on both sides. Fijians are about the most friendliest people anywhere so every person we passed waved and everyone on the boat waved back.

There are very strict village standards that anyone and everyone must observe and respect whenever entering a village anywhere. First off, all women must wear a skirt or a sarong as they call them here. The tour provided sarongs for all women on our tour. No women in any Fijian village EVER wears pants and never wears anything that would show anything above her knees. Next, no HATS are allowed to be worn in a village. Only the village Chief can wear a hat. Everyone else is "below" the chief and so to show respect, no one wears a hat.
Our villager guide, the man in the red floral shirt, was helping show the guests how to put on their sarongs.

Here is the Welcome to our Village sign for our hosting village of NAVEYAGO VILLAGE.

We were directed into the Community Center where the locals had prepared a Kava ceremony, a feast and dancing. I counted 22 men, 8 women and about 9 beautiful young children. These sweet kids were really enjoying the festivities. Aren't they just beautiful!

Another longstanding tradition here in Fiji is KAVA drinking. It is the high point of any event in the village. As guests, our group brought a gift of a bundle of kava plants (that was provided by the tour company) that the villagers beat into a dust-like powder, mixed it with water (by hand) and then shared it with anyone that wanted to give it a try using one coconut shell cup. NO THANKS. We passed. Kava drinking is actually quite a problem over here. It honestly looks like dirty water and that is exactly what some of the other guests commented as well. I also heard one person say it felt like having gone to the dentist and gotten a novacaine shot.

Then the feast began!
Another tradition lots of Fijian live by is sitting on the floor so that was continued for this meal. Paul & I have eaten in other villages before and so we were more than willing to let the other guests have the bulk of the dishes. People seemed to really enjoy the dishes. I enjoyed the watermelon and the cucumbers!

After lunch, they cleared up the feast leftovers and dishes and everyone got dancing! It is really fun to go to dances because EVERYONE dances... young, old and in between!
After about 2 hours of visiting, eating, dancing and sharing village customs, we boarded the boat and jetted back down the river.
Captain Jack made sure this would be a memorable experience by doing about 5 or 6 360 degree rotations that ended up drenching all of us in water!
All in all it was a really fun "P" day outing!

Girls come to town

Ok.... so this post is WAY BEHIND TIMES but I'm going with the mindset of "better late than never"!

We had the most amazing reunion with Heidi and Katie that last week of April. Katie spent 7 days with us and Heidi squeezed in 4 but we made the MOST of every second we had together!

I'm going to also leave most of the narration up to "pictures speak louder than words"...

here is my report:

Katie, Paul and I had spent 4 days on an outer island and then flew back to Nadi Airport where Heidi was patiently waiting for us... we enjoyed several hours at this airport cafe snacking on hot chocolate, carrot cake and catching up with each other's lives.

The girls were quite impressed with the beautiful view from the balcony at our apartment.

The Suva weather decided to give us a break from the rainy season and treated us to a gorgeous sunny, blue sky couple of days. Here we were on our way to a session at the Temple... it felt like "heaven on earth"!

We had to show off downtown Suva and took the girls to the traditional handicraft market where everyone, including Paul found some impressive souveniors! Paul's is a Fijian warrior head banger!

Turns out they were very useful just a short time later!
(this is the local Fijian warrior that turns up downtown whenever a big cruise ship comes to town)

Paul had lots to choose from... luckily he didn't choose any of those masks.

The girls loved seeing the guard at the Fiji Prime Ministers compound. I love these uniforms.

Turns out what we really needed was some R & R time so we went to this hidden resort that Paul & I had never been to before but looked really nice when we checked it out on the internet.

Here are our rooms: K & H on the left and P & me on the right.

I think K & H were happy with our choice!
Inside and out.....

Unfortunately, these reunions never last long enough!
Thanks for making the effort to come! It was just what we needed!

PS: any one else like to come on over?