It is yet another perfect day here. In fact since Cyclone Gene 41 days ago the weather here has been stellar. A month ago there was one week of rain during the daytime, but its hardly worth remembering really.
We went back out to Malcolm and Filo's place and helped rebuild the pool in the natural spring water creek. It had been washed out by a flash flood and it was a simple matter of collecting back those large stones and rebuilding a wall to damn the creek up a little. Little Victoria and William helped out in their own way too. It was a welcome task on such a hot day playing in that cool clean water. When we were done we enjoyed a lunch of fresh fruits and vegetables, chicken curry and dalo soup. We had brought some roti with tuna curry and the kids squealed and yelled 'Roti!' with excitement and gobbled them down. Filo snipped some lemon grass on the property, cut it down and boiled it for tea. After lunch we enjoyed the fruits of our labour by taking a swim in the little pool we had created.
The Joker Draw was the hottest ticket in town. For weeks a huge crowd gathered at the Planters Club to win that draw. There was a lot of excitement in the air and finally last week the woman who owns the Pearl Farm in Savusavu bought 200 tickets and had the good fortune of turning over the joker card and winning the $6ooo jackpot. There was an explosion of cheers and then the crowd gradually dissolved. All those deflated expectations sobered everyone up. It will be some time before there's a jackpot that big again.
A drive out of Savusavu, the road to Labasa (lam-basa), is inspiring and humbling. The beauty of the mountains and the view from their beckoning mist cloaked tips forces you to sit down, focus and take clarity on life and the world in general. This is an incredible place. We need to behave as if we deserve it. The road to the northern town treks though the mountains and a vast forest of towering evergreen trees that reminded us of home. And along the way there are water falls and spring water creeks that taste every bit as sweet and cool as the bottled Fiji water. We're looking forward to returning to hike the mountains more and standing under those waterfalls to cool off.
We had a chance to go to Suva, the capitol of Fiji. It was interesting to experience the pulse of a surprisingly cosmopolitan city again for the first time since we arrived. Suva is an old colonial city with beautiful parks and incredible markets. It was a treat to walk into a completely modern coffee shop and order two Americanos that were served in what amounted to soup bowl sized mugs. That strange and familiar sensation we were experiencing was what's known as 'air-conditioning'.
Tara and I were invited out by friends Penny and Greg to their yacht. They had sailed out and dropped anchor out by Cousteau Resort at the point of the bay. We brought our snorkeling gear and swam for a few hours around Split Rock, an enormous coral head that stands about 30 feet off the ocean floor, and along the reef line about 1oo meters off the beach front. Its a whole other world down there, all those fish of every colour you can imagine and the coral itself glowing with a soft phosphorous luminescence. The fish seem to be just as curious about us as we were about them. After the snorkeling we enjoyed a late lunch out on the yacht until the sun began to set. We decided to get out to that spot as often as we can before we leave.
Speaking of leaving, each day blends into the next in a blur of sunshine and hospitality and a sense of well-being and now we're only two months away from our departure date. We thought six months was so much time when we got here. It wasn't. And six months more wouldn't be enough either. The friends we've made are already starting to tell us how much they'll miss us when we go and how much they hope we not only return for a house-sit but maybe even buy a piece of land, build a place and join their community.
This is not going to be an easy exodus.
