May 6, 2015
This is all about Karen :)
How wonderful is it to be able to share a mission with your BBF. This is exactly what we were able to do this past week. My cute friend Karen Hilton, who has been with me through thick and thin, came to Fiji and spent 10 glorious days with us. Because we were on a school break, we were able to take the time off and show her around. She did not want to see Fiji through a tourists eyes, but through a locals eyes and that is exactly what she got.
She spent several months making fleece blankets to give the children of our favorite Nakavika village. She brought 90 (that's what I said 90) blankets with her on the plane. Two huge 50 lb boxes and one carry-on suitcase full of blankets. That left however, only a backpack for her to bring her person things in. She backed for 10 days in a backpack. Wow, I don't think I could have done that. Amazing lady :)
This post shows her 10 day visit and all the great things we were able to do. It's hard to explain to someone about the real Fiji and the incredibly friendly and happy people here. One has to experience it first hand and she truly embraces the culture, the wonderful people, and our friends whom we will love forever and ever.
Karen arrived in Fiji on April 23. We picked her up at the Nasouri Airport.
It was so fun to see her after almost 18 months. It is always good to see friends and family from home.
This is her luggage. Two 50 lbs boxes and one carry-on of blankets and one small backpack with her clothes and personal items. Amazing girl.
After we freshened up a little, we headed our to see the city. We took her to all of our favorite shopping places here in Fiji. This is the little stand where we buy all of our vegetables and fruits.
this is taken in from of the LDS College with is really a high school.
We headed down town Suva to show her the REAL MARKET. The Pinapple here is amazing. The cut it so it is like eating a popsicle. So Yummy.
Friday May 24, we went to a farewell lunch with the Senior ladies. It was Sister Well's last week here in Fiji. We are so going to miss this cute lady. So glad that she lives close enough to us in Utah so we can see her once in awhile.
Karen ate a yummy chicken pot pie and the crust was to die for.
That night, we headed to our YSA end of Semester Dance where Karen danced the night away. Oh they loved her and she loved them.
Saturday, we headed to the Pure Fiji for a little girly time. These are amazing products and at the factory you can get very good bargains. What better way to spend a Saturday morning.
Sunday we headed to Pacific Harbor where we would spend the next 2 days. On Monday, we went on the Upper Navua River Trip where Karen got to see and swim in a beautiful waterfall, witness a Kava ceremony and see how different Fijian crafts are made. We love this trip and we love taking all our guests there. We said our final goodbyes to the village people and the cute kids in the preschool who love our lollies.
Tuesday was the day to go to Nakavika village to hand out the fleece blankets to the kids. What a fun experience. These kids will sleep warm this winter.
This is the toilet we donated to Moses's family a year ago. He finally got around to installing it. Joanna and Waganu were pretty proud of it.
Karen made new friends up in the Namosi Highlands that day. I think this was her favorite part of the trip. We also said our final farewells to these beautiful people. We have visiting this village many times with all of our children and they have adopted us as family. Alavina and Moses and their family have been a huge part of our mission. We hope someday they will be able to learn more about the gospel and accept it in their lives. We will love them for always.
Wednesday found us boarding a very very small plane for the Island of Savusavu where we spend the next 2 days just relaxing in the sunshine. We had been running around for days, and so the down time was a greatly needed.
This pilot looked like he was 15 years old and he doubled as the flight attendant. That shows how small this plane is. It was a pretty smooth flight though.
We rented a beautiful little home there in Savusavu. It was perfect and the view was spectacular. You had to climb a million steps to get up to it, but it was way worth it. We sat on the balcony and watched beautiful sunsets, spaced in an amazing infinity pool and took a walk on the beach.
We went into town and made some new friends in a transport headed back up to their village. Everyone always wants their pictures taken for face book. What beautiful people they are.
We met Kalisa who is the cleaning lady for this property. She told us that she also cooked for the guest upon request. Well, we requested and she cooked. We gave her some money for cab fare and groceries and when we came back from our days activities, the home smelled of chicken curry, vegetable curry, chutney and roti. She even taught Karen and I how to make roti. We ate her food for 3 meals. So stinking yummy.
The finished product. We ate till we were sick.
On one of our drives, we came across this cute man building a bili bill which is a boat that they make out of bamboo to transport things down the river or in this case, go fishing in the sea. It was very interesting since we have been on these but have never seen one made.
Oh how we love this Fiji
Found sign that looked pretty familiar.
All good things have to come to an end. We loved this little Island of Savusavu and we hope to return someday.
Ended our trip with a night stay at the Sheraton on Denerau. The weather was beautiful and it gave Karen and I one last day to soak up the sun rays. This cute grounds keeper cut a coconut for Karen to taste the coconut milk. Here, they use the young green coconuts for drinking. They say it helps fight cancer and many other diseases. They sometimes eat the coconut meat but not very often. They use the brown coconuts to shave and squeeze the milk out for cooking.
Well, that's the end of our great 10 day tour of Fiji with my BFF. Vinaka Vaka Levu Miss Karen for coming and sharing our beautiful Fiji with us. We will see you in two weeks.
Moce and Sota Tale
