Bula Bula from Suva Fiji again!!!!

After almost a year away, here we are back again on our way to voyage across the south pacific seas (well for me and the kids its more like a quick flight over the seas, whereas for Carl it will be more like a 4 day voyage across the vast and choppy ocean... vomit!)

Since we left Rotuma last year, for those of you who don’t know, we spent 5.5 amazing months in Israel with my family, I was present to welcome my divine little nephew Leo into the world, celebrated my dads 70^th birthday and spend some magical quality time with my family and friends there. The boys both attended local preschools and made new friends and loved their time with their grandparents aunts and cousins.

We then came back to Sydney and spent the past 5 months staying with Carls parents in Cronulla, Carl working on the Anzac Bridge, Noah started school and Saulei preschool. I did the same as I do everywhere. Mum.

Throughout all this time we have been living off lists of things to do, get, prepare, pack and design, all of which culminated in about 300kg of stuff we schlepped and shipped to Fiji, and here we are, awaiting the way too familiar wait for the boat to sail over to Rotuma.

And on this very day, 16^th of June, Carl and I are celebrating a DECADE together... who woulda thunk????? What a journey!!! I remember on our first date, Carl was telling me about this Island he is from, talking about his family there, the culture, teaching me words in Rotuman and it all sounded so enchanting... little did I know that 10 years later I will be returning to that enchanted island with this man and our 2 kids, for the umpteenth time to build our home...

So we waved bye bye to our beloved family in Sydney and flew to Nadi, were welcomed with a feast of the usual Rotuman Cuisine (Chicken Curry, rice, eko – Taro leaves cooked in coconut cream, lamb stew gravy and Taro). This is what we will be eating for the next 8 months, I know it!

Lovely to see Aggie (with whom we lived in Rotuma) and  her daughter who just had a baby, and to catch up with their family. We stayed in Nadi for a couple of nights and headed to Suva to buy all the local stuff we need to take with. Little did we know that the boat wouldn’t leave when planned (WHY didn’t we know that???? DA!!!!!)  and that as usual we would be waiting way more than planned for the boat, wasting time and money. (Carl will be going on the boat with all our stuff, and the kids and I will follow him by plane. Am very proud of myself for sticking to my oath of never repeating the boat experience, so help me God.)

So we have been stuck here in rainy Suva for more than a week, the kids have been watching more TV than ever, the other kids in this house come home from school in the afternoon and they all go nuts together, rolling in the mud and playing squashed sardines (we are living in the house of Carls uncle Ringa’s family, the 73 yr old work horse who was with us previously in Rotuma and will be coming back with us. There are 8 adults and 5 kids all living in a 3 bedroom house, and it works!)

                                  Mud Model

We have been spending our days shopping for stuff for the house, arranging whatever needs done, the kids and I are applying for Fijian residency (Hilarious!!!) through Carls citizenship, which at the moment is free, whereas last year costed about $1500 each...????!!!!

It is finally my turn to have some input into the house, and the interior design is all up to me, so I’ve been picking paint colours for the walls, we went to choose tiles for the bathroom, kitchen and bathroom sinks, a toilet... what a bizarre experience! (How weird is it choosing a toilet! I think I really embarrassed Carl when I had to check out the comfortability of the seats... how else do you know what’s right for you and your family’s derrières???)
I must say that I am quite glad the variety and options are very limited, as it makes it easier for an OCI (Obsessive Compulsive Indecisive) like myself to choose what I want. That didn’t change the fact that I regretted my choice as soon as we stepped out of the shop...

We’ve been hanging out with Filo, a Fijian lady who’s husbands home is just down the road from ours in Rotuma. She happens to be in Fiji for a few months, playing the lady of leisure Fiji style, and has been taking us around Suva, showing us the sights and we’ve been seeing more of Suva than we have ever before. We usually come here, stay in the same place with the same relatives, and all we know of Suva is the taxi ride from their house to town and around the shops, So it’s great to get a bit of an insider’s view of it all. She took us to a show last night, it was a production of the University of the South Pacific Arts and Culture department, about how the people of the different South Pacific Islands came together to build this amazing Canoe called “Drua” and sailed the seas until the white settlers invaded... Carl and I were cringing at some of the cheesy corny love story factors, but the costumes were AMAZING, the dances beautiful and very powerful and the singing very heartfelt. It was the first time we ever did anything cultural here, a great change. This morning we went down to the waterfront to see 7 of these “Drua” take off on a voyage to Vanuatu and then the Solomon Islands. Beautiful vessels with great traditional carvings all over, (as well as beautifully carved traditional brown sailors, for those of you lady friends of mine who could appreciate, T...) very impressive, but not enough for me to spend more than 10 minutes on.

Not the best photo, I couldn't really capture the whole "Drua" boat but here's a little glimpse.

                                                                Fijian on a stick???

 What else?

We celebrated toothless Noah’s SIXTH birthday last week!!! SIX!!!!! Where the heck did that go????? There wasn’t much to do with him besides presents, an Ice cream in town and a Vampire cake... a bit different from the birthday productions we go to in Sydney...
                       
                Dont you reckon he looks like the vampire on the cake???

The internet situation in Rotuma is sounding very unpromising, which freaks me out a bit, so please gather all your Gods and Goddesses and ask them to make the connections in Rotuma work.... PLEASE!!!!!

OH! And one more thing! A VERY VERY exciting thing! Our very very dear friends Lizzy, Davey and their bub Delphi are coming to visit us in July!!!! Its so cool to have our close friends make the journey over there to get a taste of what we have been living there, and although its only for a week, and only a couple of weeks after we arrive there, its still super exciting, and hopefully they will be the first of many to come and experience our different way of life... How lucky are we?!!!!

So, till next time, be happy, slow down and feel our love floating over to you from somewhere out there... x