It took a trip home to really highlight the differences between Fiji and Australia. Although I have to admit that as I walked through immigration, turning to wave at a slowly receding Ed behind the glass, it was with mixed emotions, and a feeling of heading for one home but leaving another. While I was ecstatic about being so close to seeing family and friends again, five weeks seemed like an impossibly long time to be away from life in Suva. The first morning I descended the stairs for breakfast, and did a little victory dance when I discovered Sultana Bran [View Full Entry]

---

---

Bula everyone, it’s Julia back again. I had plans of writing about my trip back to Oz and my first few weeks back in Fiji working at Fiji Rugby Union, however the political situation in Fiji has deteriorated over the past few days so it seems pertinent to address that instead for now. On Tuesday, the government (i.e. the President, at the request of the PM Laisenia Qarase) tried to sack the military commander, Frank Bainimarama, who is currently out of the country. However, their chosen replacement declined the position, and the military has declared its allegiance to Bainimarama. Ov [View Full Entry]

---

---

Bula, Ed here…WELCOME to a world where sleeping at work doesn’t get you fired. But first let me tell you just how much effort I had to expend in getting my hands on this blurry photo of the “Sleeping Guy” that sits opposite me. I would estimate that he’s asleep approximately 50% of the time that he’s in the office. Seeing as he’s also mysteriously absent for 50% of the week, that leaves 25% of the time between 8 & 4.30 Mon-Fri that I should be able to happily snap him in one of his numerous sleeping postures - and believe [View Full Entry]

---

---

“Save the tuna … say no to pirates! Save the tu-na … no to pi-rates!” Now that’s people power if ever I’ve heard it. Welcome to the Greenpeace float of Suva’s least eventful parade. They call it the ‘Hibiscus Festival,’ Suva’s week-long party of the year, which revolves around an old school beauty pageant. The grand opening of the festival involved a parade led by none other than…the infamous Police marching band! As the band strode down the main street I started having vivid flashbacks to precious sleep interrupted. When the [View Full Entry]

---

---

It has been family season recently in Suva for the AYADs - not a week has gone by without someone’s parents, sister, brother, cousin etc visiting from home. Our first visitor from home was Ed’s mum, Kathie, who was here a few weeks ago. After a couple of days sightseeing in Suva we headed northeast to Ovalau, a small island off Viti Levu that is home to the old capital of Fiji, Levuka. Levuka is an old colonial town with a gorgeous main street and some fantastic buildings around the place; the Levuka Club and an old Masonic temple that was [View Full Entry]

---

---

I like marching bands. I really do. They usually play cheery tunes, it’s great watching the person up front twirling their baton and flinging it into the air, and you’ve got to admire people who can walk in step and play a musical instrument at the same time. I’m just not so sure about marching bands at 6:30 in the morning. Every morning. For the last three weeks. Right down our quiet residential street. I’m also not so sure about a marching band drum solo, right outside our house. The police barracks are behind our house, and it’s the police band [View Full Entry]

---

---

I am now the proud holder of an Open Water Dive certificate. The course normally takes four days, but I conveniently managed to squeeze it into two and a half over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend. Ed, Tim, Shaun and I headed off on the Friday night on a bus to the west side of the island, which in itself was quite a journey. The bench seats on the bus are supposed to sit three people across, but they certainly didn’t have Fijian people in mind when designing the bus. Perhaps a pygmy tribe instead, or school children. But Fijian people [View Full Entry]

---

---

I think I’ve perfected my market shopping approach; yesterday I made it out with all the fruit and veg I needed in under 15 minutes, a record! The first few times were a bit tricker. The market is huge, with scores of stalls in a big undercover area, all selling pretty much the same thing. It can be a bit confusing standing in the middle of it and trying to decide which of 47 tables of bananas is the one from which you should purchase. But yesterday I had a plan, and made a beeline through the middle picking up the [View Full Entry]

---

---

(Assumed knowledge for this entry - Fiji is having a national election at the moment, and the one before last in 2000 when an Indo-Fijian was elected PM resulted in a coup where George Speight held parliament hostage for something like 57 days and there was rioting and other general unrest). The Fiji election began on Saturday, and all eyes are on the upcoming result. Voting runs for a week, then counting will begin on Monday. There has been a fair bit of mud-slinging going on in the press, with the current PM, an indigenous Fijian, alluding to possible trouble if [View Full Entry]

---

---

I’m nearing the end of my second week in Fiji and Suva has definitely grown on me. It’s an interesting place with plenty to do, although more geared towards living here rather than being a tourist. Ed had been cleverly telling me our house was liveable but VERY basic, so when I arrived I was pleasantly surprised. The walls are a bit bare, but we can fix that and otherwise it’s quite nice. The living room is sizey, as is our bedroom, and apart from an occasional feeling of being in prison due to the heavy duty security grills on all [View Full Entry]

---

---