Merry Christmas mai Fiji!

Hello again friends!
It’s been awhile since I’ve written you anything substantial…sorry about that! The past month has been a flurry of rearranging and moving around. I’m now on the second half of my vacation…my mom finally arrived! I can’t explain how wonderful it is to have someone who knows me so well be here face to face. It’s been over seven months now since I left the land of familiarity for where I am today…and while I’ve made great friends here, some of whom I am counting on having in my life after these two years are over…it’s a breath of fresh air to have someone from home here in this new home of mine.
The last couple of weeks have made me realize how easy it is to get comfortable someplace…and to lose the sense of awe and wonder we have when we’re experiencing something for the very first time. I had forgotten to really breathe in the beauty of the place that I currently live for a while there. It was really refreshing to visit friends on Vanua Levu—the big north island. I spent a few nights with friends at Hannah’s site. She lives in the interior of Vanua Levu…and has an absolutely amazing view of the coast from her house on a hill. We tried to capture it in photos…but these only give you a 1/100th of feeling you get when you’re up on that hill a short walk through “the bush” to the ocean.




The first night there was spent around the tanoa bowl (kava bowl) in a local village. We talanoed (told stories) with some of the young ladies and guys there…and Christa finally got a Fijian name…Teresa…we have yet to figure out where that sprung from. The next day was spent exploring the ocean after a walk through the forest.

After Hannah’s village we were on our way to Savusavu. This is one of the two towns in Vanua Levu. We spent a ton of time snorkeling in a coral reef right off of the coast. Friends, I am now in love with the ocean…I may never be able to live far from it again. It’s a whole new world down there…I don’t know what Ariel was complaining about because it would be awesome to live in a castle under the sea. One of my new favorite animals is the cuddle fish…they look like squid and change colors and travel in big schools...they’re just fantastic. Amongst the other sea creatures I was awed by were huge multi-colored clams, a bright pink sea cucumber, and of course all of the brightly colored coral. As if I don’t have it good enough living on a tropical island with amazing views of the land pretty much daily, I have now discovered a view even more awesome. Christa has some photos on an underwater camera…I’ll try to kereakere (borrow…forever…) some of them for your enjoyment once she gets them put onto a disk.

This Christmas was definitely different than the snow covered ones I’m used to back home…but it was refreshing. Of course, I missed my friends and family…and the traditions I’ve taken part in for as long as I can remember like baking Christmas cookies, ice skating in Chicago, walking down Michigan Avenue when the little white lights line the streets, and singing Silent Night on Christmas Eve at church, but this Christmas was free of the materialism and chaos of malls and shopping and consumers running around like chickens with their head cut off trying to get whatever new gadget is out on the market that their kid just can’t possibly live without. Instead, I had a simple Christmas with good friends and awe-inspiring exploration. Christa, Leslie, Hannah and I went to mass at a beautiful stone catholic church right on the coast. It was the first Fijian service I’ve gone to where the pastor’s tone was joyful instead of threatening…and their singing of familiar songs in an unfamiliar language was beautiful. After church we headed to Becky & Dana’s (volunteers that live in town) who graciously shared lovo (traditional Fijian food cooked in an underground oven) given to them by their neighbors. We listened to an audio version of the Grinch and then we headed to the beach where we partook in said snorkeling. We ended the night with a good meal and hit the sack early exhausted from the sun. Yes, this Christmas will be one to remember, not because of anything I got from a store, but because of the memories created with good friends and the renewed sense of awe in the simple complexities created under the sea.

Merry Christmas everyone…and may your New Year be a celebration of whatever adventure life took you on in 2008…and a renewed sense of awe and wonder for 2009.


And now…a tribute to the two ladies that we missed a ton because they were in the snow with ya’ll at home…Alisi and Kendalicious…I hope both of you had fantastic Christmas’s with family…but know that you are especially missed & I wish you were here snorkeling with us!

isa.