Michael's Adventures In Fiji

As I am sitting on my porch this afternoon, and the past few days, I've been pondering a few questions. The most prominent: why are we often so eager for the next thing in life? Are we not content with what we have? Or worse, do we even realize what it is we actually have? Sitting on a plastic chair that--for now--is holding my weight, I can appreciate the sound of the wind and rain falling on the banana trees around me. Stop a moment longer, and you notice the sound of the water flowing freely in the Creek down the hill. The sound of parrots, birds, insects and foliage together makes for an excellent backdrop to ponder what it is in my life that I have to be thankful for. To further the point of thankfullness, I had the opportunity to video chat with my immediate family located in Colorado and Indiana for just over 3 hours: and they are located on the other side of the world. How amazing is that? What I've noticed the past few weeks, and to get more to the point of this blog...

Where has the time gone?! Incredible to think that it is now past 2 weeks here in Fiji. In one sense, it is incredible how much has happened, and in another way, how little I've actually done. Much if this last week was working, grab a quick lunch, work until ~6pm, eat something for dinner, and then play volleyball. To that effect, I probably ought to explain: there has been a team from Toongabbie Church, Australia. This highschool team (15 including leaders) helped rebuild the sheep pin which was dying, or I ought to say: decomposing back to dirt. -- side note: it is, at least for this Coloradan, amazing how quickly things turn back to dirt around here. Either dirt, or growing other living organisms.. Take one walk past the dumpster and you need not guess how many thousands of maggots and other living things are in there (you can trust me on that as I looked in once... the things seen can not be unseen..) But some really great things happened last week! On Wednesday night (fami...

Well, the past few days have been rather eventful and the new 'norm'. Thursday: Continued work on the computers--which mind you is the primary reason for being here. At around tea-time however, a family from New Zealand (NZ) came to visit and have tea with everyone there This was no normal occation however; this family, 6 months ago adopted one of the babies that was in this home. At under a year old, this baby and his mother came to live at Homes of Hope. A few months after being here, his mother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. She remained in the care of the Homes of Hope staff until she passed away 2 years ago. Having no father, home or family to call his, two of the HoH staff members (Tuonga ("Two") and Alita) took care of this boy for the better part of 2 years. After time, HoH officially gained custidy of the boy. The boy, "Libby-K", hardly spoke or ate due to the trama. About 8 months ago, a NZ couple came to visit HoH. The couple grew fond of Li...

(Monday) The plane arrived at the gate around 7:35am local time, after 10 minutes of the immigrations office holding us on board, the many sleep deprived passengers stumbled our way to the immigration and customs officers through the open air walkways. Once inside, we we're greeted by traditional guitar and singing from two Fijians that definitely were not jet-lagged. I qued up in another line being thankful that I was seated towards the front of the aircraft (row 16) and thus would not be having to hold my 50lbs of luggage as long. After what I later found out was a very rare and brief questioning from my officer, my passport was stamped and I was on my way to the foreign species checkpoint where the sum total of my three bags were scanned and checked. I exchanged a $50 USD bill at the arrivals gate and was greeted with the 'friendly' tourist charge of rouhgly 10% fee--very thankful I didn't need to exchange more. I made my way to the departures drop off where the a ...

Facades. What do you see when you walk past another human being? Do you see a body that is either "fit & trim", "average" or "over weight"? Do you see emotions that are sad, happy or just someone trying to get to the end of the day? When you see possessions, do you envy that so-called 'wealth', or can you see the person still? Perhaps hardest of all, when you see someone asking something of you, do you ignore them or engage with them? Having spent several hours driving through the rural parts of Honolulu today I am sticken by the basic human needs across all ages, vocations or economic status. What I saw today was largely people being pushed by life and the enumerable ways that it tries to pursuade us to strive after the momentary pleasures that all too quickly fade into yet another distant memory.

And it begins!  Thank you Mom and Dad for waking up at 3am and taking me to the airport! If curious, I am carrying only a carry on (36 lbs) and a personal item (14 lbs). Approximately 50 lbs in total. The contents are below. Of particular note: is three 14in laptop computers. .. that was a bit of a packing challenge! Thanks to the very well designed Osprey Farpoint 40 carry-on approved backpack for making it that much easier. First stop Seattle, then Honolulu! For a nice, purposefully planned 12 hour layover. :) Fiji Packing List - Carry-On + Personal Item ● Clothing ● Patagonia Rain Stretch Jacket ● Long sleeve button up ● Short sleeve button up ● x6 - tee shirts ● x2 - shorts ● x2 - swim trunks ● x6 - pairs of underwear ● x4 - pairs of socks ● Pair of chaco sandles ● Pair of chaco flip flops ● Pair of New Balance Trail Glove 4 ● bandana ● x2 - Baseball hat ● x2 - pair of s...