In the Spirit

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Sunday today. We're attending church later on in the village which is going to be great. The singing is supposed to be amazing. Service will be in Fijian.

I'm watching the sun come up right now, just out my bure window. Very pretty. Last night all 6 of us took the sunset hike to watch the... yes sunset... on the other side of the isl, also very pretty.

It's been a cool experience staying at such a small resort and there's been not much turnover. It was only 6 here last night, down 2 from night before:

• Alex - UK - heading to univ to study either geology or product design. looks like Harry Potter.
  
• Rob - UK - heading to univ. in Cardiff to study French/Span.. not bad on the guitar. not bad on the ukelele either.
  
• John - UK but living in Ireland w/ Kate - better on guitar than Rob. archaelogist.
  
• Kate - Irish - adopting a vietnamese child.
  

John & Kate gave us their NZ lonely planet guide in exchange for a Fjii Bitter and a Gin and Tonic (pre mixed in a can of course). 2 days ago Sherry also bartered for the new Harry Potter, got it for $F5 plus memoir by Alice Seebold. Good deal!

...

Back now, evening. Church was pretty cool. It was Methodist. The singing was absolutely great. Can't say that I got that much out of the sermon though, it was all in Fijian! The kids were probably the best part. We were seated in the middle, towards the front. We arrived early and all the children were turned around, wide-eyed and waving and saying 'Bula!'. There was a 2 year old in the pew in front of us who was standing facing us, hand extended to shake all of our hands. This happened _multiple_ times. It reminded me of Shaw's dog w/ a tennis ball... He kept saying 'tourist Bula', 'tourist Bula'...

The attire for men, all seated on the left, was a long skirt and nice shirt. Women, all seated on right, wore dresses. Children were dressed in skirts/dressed too. In our group, the men wore pants, except for Rob who wrapped a Qantas Airlines blanket around him like a sarong. Sherry wore a sarong and her beach coverup, which Bill (our guid) thought looked very Fijian. This made Sherry smile.

Today was very chill again. Tomorrow we'll take the Flyer back. Still haven't been able to contact the Club Masa surf camp. Joe even called by radio ph. to his mother on the mainland who called... No answer... I guess they're always out surfing!? No, there's no internet here.

Very calm now, was hot earlier today. Sherry and I walked to next beach and saw lots of crabs and also goats and lots of trash washed ashore. Aside from that and the strange sulfur smell (it reminded me of a night in the Jalama campground!), it was a really nice beach. Took a swim out to the reef drop-off and back, which was a pain b/c the tide hadn't come in very far yet and the water was only 1-2 fee deep.

Things they have here in the Yasawas:

• flush toilets
  
• showers w/ tepid water
  
• elec. from a generator, off at midnight and during the day
  
• volleyball net (very sorry looking thing)
  
• 3 kayaks
  
• 5 bures
  
• 1 dorm w/ room for 16
  
• bar with beer, soda, and premixed drinks (G&T, vodka and orange, rum and cola).
  
• lighting - flourescants powered by the generator and also parafin lanterns
  
• telepoh, but a radio phone where each party can only speak 1 at a time.
  

Things that they do NOT have here:

• swimming pool
  
• TV
  
• comfortable chairs
  
• newspapers
  
• traffic (no cars, no roads)
  
• bicycles (haven't seen any)
  
• set schedules for anything, they call it 'Fiji Time'. It's like an ESRI development schdule ; )
  
• maid service for the rooms
  
• japanese tourists
  
• people from Texas
  

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