Monday, September 24, 2012

Im FOURTY!!!


Last Wednesday I turned FOURTY!!!


My original plan for my 40th celebrations was to spend it in Bali with all my favourite girlfriends in the world, and when I realized that was not gonna happen, I succumbed to accepting I will be celebrating somewhere else in the tropics with my favourite boys!!!!
So this is how I celebrated my day...
We had an awsome day at the most amazing paradise beach in the world, swam and snorkeled and finally got to see Carl spearfishing in action! Then we went to another spot with a fresh water pool, had a picnic lunch and headed home to a beautiful dinner and a pink birthday cake Aggy made for me... too sweet!
Thanks to all the lovely birthday wishes, I had an awsome day, made me feel very gratefull and appreciative of my life here and in general, only wish you were here to enjoy it with me!!!!
xxxx


Oinafa beach- my favoutrite beach in the world!

Pure Paradise! with mall my men!

That water is for REAL!!! no Photoshopping!!

OUCH!

Staying Alive!!!

The LIFE!

Bushman Saulei

My Rotuma Family

And my all around family x
















Sunday, September 16, 2012

Howdie there from our little dot in the pacific, where it has been raining for days and our clothes on the lines are getting a super wash by mama nature, and our veggie garden is squeaking with glory and our TV is working overtime...
BIG GOOD NEWS!!! The internet is working!!! ISH... I dunno if it has anything to do with the fact that I called the mobile network and complained a few times and threatened to report them to the Fiji Consumer Council, but its on, sometimes, VERY VERY slow and keeps dropping out, its better than nothing, and I am grateful for it! I can see photos on Facebook (no vids unfortunately) so keep posting them, that’s the only way I can see you!
I’ve just completed my 3rd batch of Virgin Coconut oil soap, this time I made about 65 bars of Lime soap and Orange soap. I still haven't decided if I will sell them or keep them for personal use and as gifts, but I have already had some ladies asking me to buy some...
I am attaching some photos of the process of making the soap:
First I get a handsome husband to collect a wheelbarrow full of coconuts and husk them (about 60 nuts!).
Handsom husking husband!
Then that same handsome young man scrapes the coconut flesh out, which is mixed with warm water and hand squeezed (by his cuzin) to extract the cream (sorry no pics!).
Scraping the coconuts
The oil/water mix is then poured into buckets, wrapped in towels and let sit for a couple of days until the mixture separates – a curd on the top, the pure Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) beneath it, another kind of curd under that and the rest is water. I then need to scoop the curd out (and then sun that to produce “second grade” VCO- which I use for my hair, body and massage), then scoop out the VCO, strain it twice and then sun it for a couple of days to remove the odours. And there you go- BEAUTIFUL PURE ORGANIC HOME MADE VIRGIN COCONUT OIL!!!! So cool!!!!
Pure VCO
The process of soap making is something I briefly taught myself before we came here, knowing I will need something to keep me busy and stimulated for the long months we will be here, so I brought all the gear with me, including some beautiful Essential Oils and the result is here:
 
Me dressed in my protective gear preparing the soap
65 bars of soap! yum!!!!
VCO soap is the softest most beautiful soap to use, and I am very proud of my soap!!!!
School holidays are over and its back to waking before the sun to prepare school lunches and breakfasts, Noah is feeling a little better about going to school, but I have decided to keep him home one day a week and home school him.  I think he would learn more in one day at home than in a week at the school here...
 Life goes on here, the house building is crawling along, Island pace, they have started laying the foundation for the bathroom, and also started on the frame of one of the walls. Carl is still busy cutting up some Mahogany trees in the bush, which will hopefully be finished in about a week, and that will be all the wood he will need for the house DONE! The work has been slowed down a bit due to quite a bit of rain and an infected big toe (Carls), but hopefully next week it will pick up again.
You know the amazing Canoe Carl and Co built a couple of months ago when our friends from Oz were here? Well, we tied it to a tree in front of our neighbours house, as they have a beach and we have rocks in front of ours and cant park it there. One morning Fotfiri our neighbour woke us up early saying the Canoe was gone! it was either stolen (highly unlikely- as everyone knows its ours) or washed away to sea overnight... Carl borrowed the neighbours canoe to go and see if it was washed off onto one of the beaches in the bay, but came back with a sad looking face... After all that hard work!!! And we hardly even got to use it!!! We were really bummed, and Carl-as he does, just got over it and let it go...
A few hours later, our friend Michael Jackson came over to tell us that he went searching for it and thought that if there is any chance of finding it before it got taken by the sea, was at this beach where he knew how the current came in before going out into the open sea, and sure enough- there it was- washed up onto the rocks, slightly damaged but in one piece!!! Needless to say we were super stoked, and as soon as they fix it, it will be sailed back to our village, and tied down with an anchor as well as a rope to the tree...
Mango season has started, and huge mango trees all over the island are bursting with fruit!! UNFORTUNATELY, we don’t have a mature mango tree, and every time I walk past one of these, I drool, and have to flutter my eyelashes at the tree owners complementing their massive fruit, in the hope that they will give me some! Another way of obtaining mangoes, or any desirable fruit here, is waking up before the chickens and going to the trees to pick the fruit that has fallen to the ground over night before the chickens do. Unfortunately for me, chickens are awake by 4:30am, and I’m not 4:30am desperate for mangoes...
Baby Pineapple

So we just keep on eating Pawpaws , which are falling off the trees and we cant eat them fast enough, Banana bunches bursting off the trees, the pineapples are starting to grow into their massive Rotuman dimensions, Soursop juice, Soupsop Jam, Mandarins,  our veggie garden is starting to produce our much anticipated greens, loads of very spicy Rocket, Chinese greens, string beans, basil, Okra, and the rest is still to come. It is SO nice to finally have salads to eat, it makes the hot humid days somewhat pleasurable...
Our scarecrow Zoe
Zoe in the garden

Thats all  for now, hopefully now that I have a bit of connectivity to the outside world, I will write more...
IF you wanna see a little movie that our friend David made of their trip to Rotuma, type in Youtube “Rotuman Adventure July 2012, Davey, Lizzy and Delphi meet Carl's family.” and you can get a great insight into what its like here. I haven’t actually seen it yet, as the internet is too slow to download it, but you can.Also, there’s a documentary called “Passage to Rotuma”, made by a part Rotuman woman who came to Rotuma for the first time, and it stars a few of Carl’s relatives and takes place mainly in Itumuta- the village we didn’t end up building in. Its a great portrayal of the experience I had the first time I came, I cried and laughed when I saw it, and would love you to see it too. I think you can watch it in 3 parts on Youtube.
Shana Tova to all of you who celebrate the new year, and please keep in touch- via email- I can read them now!!!
Love from us all xxxx



                                         Noah and his grilfriends in a canoe (not ours)

                                         The completed front Deck

 Saulei reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (I found him like this- its not a staged photo!)
                                         A Worrier always sleeps with his sword!

                                           Sushi lunch for the kids

                                                    Wild Children