April 27, 2010
‘We have a breach’. ‘I’ve got him on radar…Oh no, I’ve lost him. I
think he’s moved into sector alpha. There he is! Get him! (Smack!) Do
we have a confirmed kill? …Yes? Another one down!’
Such is the narration of Mike’s war on mosquitoes just a few nights
ago. Many a nights I have waken up to see Mike on his knees in his
bed, with his headlamp blaring, as he seeks to terminate another
invader. Mosquitoes have proven to be a worse pest than rats. On the
night mentioned above, we had Becka and Justin climb into our bed,
seeking refuge from the ruthless persecutors of our flesh. I left
the room, while Mike, Becka and Justin launched a full force
onslaught. Mosquitoes seem to like some people better than others.
And they especially like night time visits.
We have been offered some hope, in the form of a gift from our recent
visitors from America. Bug repellent that you apply to the mosquito
net, which is supposed to keep them away effectively. We have all
experienced relief over the past couple nights, while the weather
change seems to have chased them away. I know I’ve told many people
every thing God created had a good purpose in the beginning. I’ll be
first in line to see what God made mosquitoes for, because they are
one creature I hope to never see again, when we leave this earthly
home.
On a more serious note, we have lots to be thankful for lately! Mike
has been making good progress on the house. We now have much of the
siding up, and windows in place on the first floor. It actually looks
like a home! Beautiful flowers planted on a burm in front of the
house makes it look very inviting. All of us are so excited to have a
more permanent place to call home. That being said, I will tell you
that I am very thankful that we have gotten to live where we are for
the time being. There is no way to describe life here in a few words,
but I will try to describe a typical day, and also some of the things
we experienced during the recent church camp that was held on our
compound.
3:45 am The bells ring. (The bells are actually wooden drums that
someone beats on rhythmically at all hours of the day). Many Fijians
are early risers and some get up this early to have a time of prayer.
All hours of the day and night: Plenty of dogs barking, chasing each
other, and making all sorts of noise.
5:30 am Voices of beautiful singing. Sometimes the choir practicing,
sometimes the children gathered at the school. Best alarm clock, in
my opinion.
6 am Turn off the lantern that we use at night to keep the bathroom
it up. Check the rat traps for any catches. Only one so far, but no
more sights or sounds of rats since than. Some mornings before the
traps were out were spent cleaning up the chewed up plastic or
Tupperware that the rats gnawed on the last evening.
Quiet time in the house. People waking up to read their Bibles and
pray and shower at various times. Showers are ice cold, which feels
somewhat nice depending on the time of day. Water pressure only
trickles sometimes, and sometimes we have no water at all. On these
occasions, extra trips to the Mission for water fills for washing.
7:30 Breakfast usually consists of oatmeal, granola, or corn flakes.
Fruit is harder to come by, these days after the cyclone, and no
electricity to run the blender for smoothies. Praise God for rolled
oats!! Just as cheap as in America☺
8:15 Send Mike to work with the Thompsons’ borrowed truck (thanks,
guys!) loaded down with 10 gallon water jugs to fill, water bottles to
fill and put in the freezer, and a load or 2 of laundry for Jessi to
start before she starts her work at the Mission. Jessi works most
mornings in the clinic at the front desk, and is a huge blessing to
the staff and patients☺
8:30 Morning worship with the kids and our 2 Fijian homeschool
students, and then study time! We charge the computers at the Mission
and hope that everyone can get thru the language and typing
curriculums before the batteries die. If Justin is lucky, he might
get 15 minutes of backyard baseball in before lunch☺
School time is never boring, with constant activity and someone coming
or going. The kids take turns teaching or playing with Justin, while
I work on math and language with each of the kids at their own age
level. By lunchtime, I get most of my work done, and the kids can
finish with reading and homework in the afternoon.
Each day, we have one or two Fijian ladies come work for us to help
with cooking and housework. Instead of going to the store to buy
tortillas, I hire these precious ladies to make homemade roti, etc.
We are determined to have the girls and I learn how to make all the
food from scratch, but somehow it hasn’t happened yet. Nothing here
really comes out of a can or a box, so we are learning to eat
differently in a lot of ways. Lots of potatoes, and rice, and stir
fry’s. Fijians don’t eat beans, but I brought plenty from home. We
found a good source for meat, which we had to keep in one of our
student’s freezers at the mission, and he would bring us enough for
each day. We are now able to use a freezer at the Mission, which will
wonderful.
A huge blessing is that we now have a small fridge! Our friends had
one on their porch that did not work, and they were just using it for
storage. I asked if we could use it for a while, if we could get it
fixed and they were happy to oblige. God has sent a guardian angel to
us in the form of ‘Uriah, aka Mr. Fixit’. Uriah is employed by the
Mission, but is available to do odd jobs on the side. He fixed Mike’s
generator for him, when it broke down, and seems to do miracles with
everything he touches. After a couple hours of me doing puzzles and
playing with his little ones, while he tinkered with the old fridge,
he told me, ‘It will be cold tomorrow!’ Hallelujah, he was right, and
we can now keep butter, mayo, etc. at our house, and even a plate of
leftovers.
This may seem like a small thing, but I challenge you to this. Try not
taking anything out of your fridge or putting anything in it for 24
hours. Try not turning on any light switches or using anything that
takes electricity for the same time period. We are more dependent on
the luxuries that electricity provides than I ever dreamed. I thought
it wouldn’t be a big deal to live out of a cooler for a few months,
but the ants had the same idea. Ants can find their way into
anything, it seems, and we did not enjoy sharing our peanut butter or
anything else with those little critters. I am happy to turn my
cooler into a safe storage place for my oats, and put the butter in
the fridge☺
I hope it doesn’t sound like I am complaining, because I am not trying
to. So many people are curious about the daily goings on of our life
in Fiji, so I am just trying to relay the facts. It is amazing how
much you can adjust to, and be happy. The home we are living in would
be a definite candidate for extreme homemakover. No ceilings, leaks
in the roof, concrete floors, walls that don’t come clean, a toilet
that sounds like it has a wild pig in it when it flushes, a shower
that’s drain smells like a septic, at times. A tiny sink for
dishwashing, no hot water, holes in the screens, or no screens, zero
privacy, constant visitors, no oven, etc. All these changes and yet,
these were Becka’s words when we got back to Fiji, from our trip to
Australia. “I was more excited to get back to Fiji, than I was to
leave for Australia!” All the comforts don’t make up a life. They
just make life a little bit (or lots) more convenient.
Yet, I have discovered that the people make the home. We wanted to
get back to our family, even though it meant getting back to the
challenges of living ‘without’. Now I will share with you what we get
to live ‘with’.
*an amazing family, and community, the friendliest people in the
world, ocean front property, and gorgeous views, national geographic
scenes of flying fish, and natural beauty, etc., line dried ocean
fresh clothes, a roof over our head, food in our stomach, a place to
lie down at night, huge smiles and hugs, beautiful singing, constant
visitors (☺), new adventures everyday, warm hospitality, inner peace
and joy, and so on
2:30 School is over, snack time, and plenty of chores to do. The
neigborhood kids will pop in to visit the ‘library’ I have set up, and
look for hours at books. Favorites include my children’s
encyclopedias. The little boys love to play with the cars and legos.
Some days the boys go out to play rugby, or everyone plays volleyball.
The rain doesn’t stop the games from happening. The little ones love
the girls to come out side and talk to them or play music. Now that
we are settled in, I want to start making visits to all the local
families.
5:30 Time to light the lanterns and candles and get ready for dinner.
Sometimes we still have visitors to send home as we set up for dinner.
Dinner is always in the dark now, and clean up can be a challenge in
the dark, but we have gotten a good system in place. Evenings can
include ‘family time’, movie nights for the neighborhood, game nights,
etc.
8:00 Tucking in the kids means tucking them safely in the mosquito
nets, and blowing out their candles. Prayers for a good nights sleep
and not letting the bed bugs bite mean more than ever before☺
During the camp, we were amazed to see how the Fijians can make
themselves at home in any environment. They would set up a tent or
shelter anywhere, and brought everything but the kitchen sink with
them on the bus. Men, women, and children of all ages used the water
tap in front of our house for their ‘bath’. Wrapped in nothing but a
sulu, they would make their way to the tap, and magically get all
cleaned up right out in the open. Little children running around
naked, and screaming, ‘kai valagi!’ was the norm.
Music and singing was happening 24 hours a day. Laughter was
abundant. They killed 2 cows, during the camp, and we ate our
‘freshest’ meat ever. It is really different to see the cow hanging
from the porch, and receiving our ‘portion’, than going to the store
to pick up some neatly packaged ground beef. Imagine those cows that
you drive by out in the field hanging out on your back patio!
Well, time is running short here, so I will conclude with a few more
news updates.
*The family survived just fine while I was gone in Australia. One
humorous note to mention is a comment from Justin. He was looking a
little grimy when I got home, so I asked him, ‘Justin, who gave your
showers while I was gone?’ ‘No one’. ‘You never took a shower?’ His
answer, ‘Well, I think I took one!’ Now remember, I was gone for 10
days, and Fiji is quite the dirty, smelly place with all of the
sweating that we do here. So I casually commented to Jessi, ‘So,
Justin tells me he only had one shower while I was gone.’ The look on
her face, as her jaw dropped was hysterical. ‘No, I think he had at
least 2!,’ she responded without much confidence. I had to laugh, as
she explained that she thought Mike gave him one shower, and another
time she heard the water on, and asked him what he was doing. ‘Taking
a shower!’ he shouted, and then he explained that he needed one cuz he
was just ‘so sweaty!’
Well, it turns out that Jessi remembered that I did put showers on her
afternoon list of things to do for Justin, but she overlooked that
part. No great loss, cuz he survived and ended up no worse for the
wear. Just goes to show, that Moms really are a needed asset to every
household☺_
We had a great visit from Monique’s brother, Paul, and his wife
Vanessa. They had planned their trip to serve at the Mission, when
the Thompsons were here, and decided not to cancel, even though the
Thompsons are still in the states, with Margaret getting continued
care for her elbow. (Keep them in your prayers, as her recovery has
been slow, but they are in good hands now!) Paul was a great help and
set up a computer system for the Mission. Vanessa is a skin specialist
doctor and saw over 100 patients during her stay at the Mission. She
even got to stitch up Mikes’ leg when some glass fell on it, while
working on the house. I think it was quite the experience for her to
give a talk on fungal skin problems in one of the villages, and to see
every kind of condition in the book on a live person. As she was
teaching, even Jessi observed that she had one of the skin problems
happening on her shoulders. Talk about hands on medicine.
Unfortunately, we ran out of the needed creams to help people, so
donations for anti fungal cream would be much appreciated☺ Paul and
Vanessa got the full Fiji experience, as they dined with a different
family on staff, each night. We definitely enjoyed their company, and
look forward to future visits from them in the future!
Well, it seems like we have been in such a time of transition, and are
finally settled into a routine, which will be somewhat steady until
our house is done. Teams will be coming down from the states, and the
Clinic is entering the busy season with many students and surgeons
coming to serve.
After seeing the Thompsons go thru the medical challenges with the
different hospitals and clinics they went to, we realize especially
how important the clinic is. One man told me the reason they love
‘Natuvu’ is because people come there, and they get better. Other
places they don’t get better. They may receive an exam or get sent
home with some medicine, but many times people simply don’t receive
decent health care. One friends little girl got sent home from the
hospital, where they were supposed to pull a rotten tooth for her.
Their conclusion was that she had to come back when the little girls
had no pain or swelling. What? Yep, go figure that one out. Please
forward this on to all willing dentists ,who would like to come to
Fiji!!
On a serious note, a dear friend of ours here has been diagnosed with
breast cancer. It is so saddening to know that the doctors making
decisions with her life do not have the proper diagnostic tools (no
machinery to do scans or mammograms) and they are probably limited in
their education and knowledge, as well. Fijians do not have the
options of spending thousands of dollars to seek more help or advice.
They have to make do with the limited resources here.
Good health care is a privilege, and a blessing. As many advanced
countries try to make decisions on private vs. public health care,
most of the world are left without any opportunities. Just something
to ponder, as we typically start complaining if we have to wait more
than 10 minutes at the doctor’s office. As I look at it now, we
should be thankful, thankful, thankful even if we have to wait all day
to see a good doctor.
Well, I must close now, but will share a couple things you can be
praying about.
*Continue to pray for Mike’s health and strength as the building
process is slower than you can imagine. Pray the the supplies would
show up on time, and not be too crooked!! Imagine a 2 X 4 that
swerves like a snake, and you will know what he is dealing with.
*Pray for the Mission teams and outreaches that will be happening this summer.
*Praise for good health and continued health of our family and the Thompsons.
*Pray for provision for food and building supplies in the aftermath of
the cyclone.
Many thanks for taking the time to read this and stay in touch.
Love to all,
Lolomas,
Sara
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