Several days have past since our last blog so we had to dream up a fun place to go to just to add some excitement to this mission we are on. So what better place than the country of Fiji? Okay, we were asked by the Pacific Area Family History Manager to go with him to set up a Family History Center on the a small island in Fiji in an area called Taveuni. Tough duty, I know but somebody......you know the rest!
For those of you who are now expressing how lucky the Kite's are, I'll dampen your spirits by letting you know we only had a couple of hours of sunshine the whole time we were there and this isn't a great place to be when it is raining hard. Actually, the weather being bad was good so we could concentrate on what we were there for. All in all it was great and we met some wonderful people who work hard at being the best people they can be under humble circumstances.
So here is the pictures, videos and stories to go along:
Once we landed in Fiji in the town of Nadi (pronounced Nandi) we had to catch this plane to travel to Taveuni. We joked a bit about taking this old-fashioned plane just to cover up the fear, I think.
This is the inside of the plane. Most of you reading this are too yound to remember television show "Sky King" but that is what came to mind about this plane. It looked 1950 vintage. As you can see, you could easily get to the pilot to hy-jack it, as though there was something of value to have or some high-value target to crash into.
We were in the very back of the plane for this trip and, as I mentioned above, the weather was full of storms and rain which gave us an "E-ticket" ride, if it were Disneyland!
This is the enitre airport when we landed. So luckily we visited facilities before we left.
And, of course, we had to make sure our luggage made it to the luggage carousel (thats the board in the middle, you know).
This is a photo of a fruit bat I happened to snap. Actually, watch the video below for a little more on our hotel room and the bats.
This was a beautiful bird that landed by the pool area while we were having breakfast one morning.
Next, this neat-looking ship came by that looked like an old mariner ship of old.
Here was a typical home in which these people live. We were invited into the Branch Presidents home (a little better than this) for dinner on night after we provided Family History training to the Priesthood brothern. The food was very interesting and Sister Kite even got to see a small gecko drop from the ceiling directly into the meatball (we think) platter.
Brother and Sister Sinekuraciri (the "ciri" is pronounced "thidi") had friends in this village that manufactured black pearls by placing certain sand and stuff into oysters on the farm that is out in the sea nearby. They were pretty but not exactly cheap. The pearl in the round silver loop you can see at the bottom just above Sister Kite's thumb went for $243 and another she liked was over $500. We weren't sure what they would go for in the states, so we passed thinking that was a bit too much.
These are some of the great people we had the opportunity of meeting here. On the right side is Sister Sunderlage from Salt Lake who is there with her husband working in a Mission Leader Support. The members there were so excited to have a Family History Center finally come. We expected we would need to train them as they haven't had any place to do family history work before but soon found many had not even used a computer before. So we started by teaching them how to move the mouse around and click. Eventually, we had them get registered in newfamilysearch and showed them around the site a bit. The night we gave a presentation to the Priesthood, we even had most of the men get registered as well. It was real fun to see there faces light up when we logged them into the family history program and they saw their children's names and sometimes their parents. Another day we assembled the new microfilm readers and loaded some Fiji film that Sister Senikuraciri had brought with her. Then some were able to add several names to the church records and started to make preparations to have their temple work done. A GREAT experience !!
This was a sign several miles from the Family History Chapel that marked the lane to another meeting house. This chapel is below.
Here is Brother and Sister Senikuraciri and one of the Priesthood brother that was at this meeting house mowing the lawn and grounds. The little girl in front was fun and I had a couple of "lollies" (candies) we shared with them. By the way, the sisters in the shot above at the Family History Center were equally pleased when we shared lollipops with them once they successfully completed their registrations for newfamilysearch.
A couple of photos of the Bouma Falls we visited several miles from Taveuni. The lady in the background had a massage chair and was selling massages there. But she left right after completing this lady so we were out of luck. But I imaging it was real relaxing by the falls with the spray vapor, veiw and sounds.
Brother Senikuraciri wading toward the falls. We both wanted to take a swim as it looked real inviting.
This was a shot opposite the falls from the bridge we were on shooting the falls. Pretty stream...not for the flowers and foilage but because it looked like it should contain a good population of trout if it were in Utah !!
This is a Fiji bure (house) that folks used to live in. Honestly, when I pictured Tahiti, Fiji and Samoa, this is what I pictured by the ocean with white sandy beaches, palm trees, bananas, coconuts, etc. Sorry, but that wasn't the case. A few nice beaches and clear water when the sun shines but I was a little disappointed. But that was good as we were there to work anyway.
When we finished our work the last evening there, I decided I better at least experience snorkling or my children would be upset with me. So I went out with this newly-wed young man who was there diving and mentioned we should go out sometime. He had an underwater camera so he gave me a few shots he took for proof to our children that we didn't go all the way to Fiji and not snorkel.
We saw this blue starfish which was cool.
This is a fish ! Sorry, but I saw several types and don't have a clue of the names.
Adam might be able to name these but I just call them pretty fish.
This was our Thanksgiving Dinner. The reddish looking thing on the plate was really turkey and about the only thing Sister Kite would eat. The yellow is a form of potatoe. The bread-looking item is actually "Dalo" which is very abundant and exported. It grows like a beet in the ground with very large leaves like a banana plant leave. However, the taste is very bland so they cook it in coconut oil to try to give it flavor. Given time, one could develop a taste for this Fijian food, but that's given time !
Here is Elder and Sister Sunderlage from Salt Lake. They were kind enough to shuttle us around when we had checked out and our flight didn't go on Friday night. We were having pizza at a restaurant they were familiar with, which wasn't bad but I'll take even Little Ceasar's anyday.
When our flight didn't go on Friday night due to strong storms, we had to take another small-plane flight the next morning to Suva, rather than going to Nadi and then find a way to get to Nadi from Suva since all flights were booked. So the only solution was a cab for a three-and-a-half hour drive from Suva in order to make our flight in Nadi.
Along the way from Suva to Nadi, our cabbie stopped at a few stands to "check-out" the bargains along the way. Here he was negotiating with a lady for some nice-looking crabs. However, she wanted about $60 Fijian dollars (about $40 for us) for these and he said she wanted too much.
Next he wanted some cooked corn here and though I couldn't see, Sister Kite whispered to me that he ate each row of the corn individually. I usually take 3 rows myself....
Again, we cannot say enough about how wonderful an opportunity this mission is. It is hard work, conditions are never close to how great we have it at home, and is often full of new and scary adventures. But the people are tremendous wherever we go and they very much appreciate that the Lord is thinking of them and their ancestors. It was difficult not to be with our family at Thanksgiving time and I know Christmas will be even harder. But we can only say that the Gospel is true in Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand and every other place there are God's children and He would have us work enrich their lives with the fullness. We love and miss all there and say goodbye for now....
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