Fiji Vacation

"Everyone come in for a photo!" most Fijians are fascinated by photography because they don't often get their photo taken

Vacation. That utopic place your mind drifts to as your lecturer lulls you to sleep with their monotoned lullaby. Three months' bliss of no homework, no lectures to skip and no exams to cram for. Three months of travel, relaxation and catching up with family/friends. 

But of course reality takes massive detours, justified by the need to catch up on a year's worth of sleep, telly dramas, gaming and broke-ness after spending all the money you've earned from your summer job on countless outings. We might become "ceebz errythang" and stop going out and replying to text messages in the name of _________ (insert your favourite actor/actress/game). Then a week later we proceed to feel sad, wondering why our friends aren't contacting us as frequently anymore.

So perhaps the hardest I've done in the past summer was to get off my backside to travel with my family. Difficulty is not just measured by the distance from home you travel. Difficulty is not just measured by how hard you try to adapt to a different culture. Nor is it just the difference you make to the place. But to say with much cheese and corn, it is first and foremost how much you are capable of being changed yourself. You can do big things like feed orphans and dig wells but can still remain a massive jerk.

So four things I learnt from my trip to Fiji are that:

Be quick to listen but slow to speak

When you come home from a trip, you might be bursting to share every last detail with every last person you encounter but really? They only want to live vicariously so much and might in fact, have bigger news to tell you that they are patiently waiting to break after your bout of verbal diahorrea.

Fresh watermelon being sold on the roadside

Blood is thicker than water
Isolation in the surrounds of unfamiliarity and being strangers to a new land accentuates value in the familiar. Previously I don't think I've quite appreciated my annoying younger brother as much as I would've after he saved my arse multiple times in Fiji. And turned out to be pretty great company when I think about it.

Be discerning because YOLO is why people die prematurely
When lugging half a kilo of photography equipment and staring with eyes wide in wonder, there is no way you can pretend to be a local. Market stallholders will persuade you to try all their goods and rip you off massively. Sadly, your touristy try-in-case-you-regret-not-trying-later-on penchant will often make you say yes to all experiences weird and wonderful. And that's how I nearly got sold drugs (kava). Pictured above.

Avocado

Noni, a fruit with bitter juiced rumoured to be a cure for cancer

Badness is caused by sickness
One night, mine and Esther's families were driving out from our motel to eat dinner in town. We passed a shirtless young man with tribal tattoos dancing on the highway in the rain. On our way back he was still there dancing and chasing cars. Alcohol makes people quite frightening and we are so quick to call drunk people bad. I'm pretty sure I saw this same dude with the rat-tailed hairdo being normal at the markets hard at work minding a stand with his relatives the day after that. Still don't know what to make of this mini Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde moment.

Spent an amazing day living the typical island holiday experience on a tiny island off the west coast of Vanua Viti

Toads are not frogs

Fish markets with no fish because we visited at the wrong time of the day

The one night we stayed in a nice resort, it rained non-stop

That HD view of the scenery with no glass on the windows

Chinese Christian Fellowship - the lovely church community that God has used Pastor Lee and his family to faithfully establish and minister over for the past twenty years.

So we found out why we saw houses built on stilts earlier on. Monsoon season is no joke.

And I'll leave you with some cat photos. No matter where I go I'll still be your crazy cat lady :D

Your faithfully,

Cinda