week 6

Yes, tis true friends i am already into week 6 of outreach. I once again come humbly before you all and apologize for not updating sooner. We were a little more busy than I thought we were going to be and the fact that each hour at the Internet cost $2 was a big turn off. So now I am writing to you all in a whole new town where i have seen the most white people since being in Fiji, minus the airport. We are in Lautoka, Fiji and it was another 12 hour ferry ride to get here. I remember nothing from the ride except waking up a few times to blow my nose, oh yeah and i did wake up to eat and then went right back to sleep. I would normally not have slept that much but I have had a sinus infection for 2 weeks now and it is starting to wear me out. The place we were at before in Labasa didn't have enough beds so i slept on the floor which was not very helpful for a restful nights sleep and the lack of air conditioners in Fiji made it so hot to sleep, athen add a clogged nose and the equals little to no sleep each night. So i am hoping to get much better here.
Let me update a little on what Labasa was like. We worked in an indian/fijian settlement for a good portion on the month and it was a little difficult for all of us. Are main purpose was the children, the only problem was the children lack any sort of discipline. The parents never tell them "no" and the kids love to hit for any reason at all. Whether it is to say "hi", or to tell you something, or to take something from you, or to show you something, or just for fun they love hitting. Oh my our team would come home each night and discuss all the children we wanted to injury that day. We were able to hang out with the youth as well and meet the ladies of the settlement, who slaved every night to make us an incredible meal. It was so good and we had to learn to eat with our hands, not only do the indians eat with no utensils but it is the Fijian way as well. I still don't have the hang of it. Our team also worked with an pentecostal Indian church. They love to sing and pray for many hours. It was nice to see how the 2 different groups of people worship though. Both churches don't have much but they worship with all their hearts.
We also cleaned up trash around the town in the parks. There was so much trash everywhere that it was real disgusting. A big problem was the lack of trash bins as well. If there was one it either had a whole in it or a tree was planted in it. I have never been looked at like a crazy person before for picking up trash but in labasa people sadly thought we were the crazy ones.
I also have a new found respect for those people who have to wash their clothes by hand, which is something we had to do for our month in Labasa. The washer was broken so we had to do it the hard way. I must say i never ever want to do that again. I gave up about 30 minutes into scrubbing my clothes and just threw my clothes around in the soapy water to get them to smell almost clean. It was such hard work, and i would sweat so much. After sweating and putting the clothes out in the hot baking sun all we could do was go into the home with no air and sit in front of the fan praying that the sweat would stop pouring out. I love washers and dryers!!
So now I am in Lautoka, which I believe is the 2nd or 3rd largest city. We can see the ocean from just up the road where we are staying and Praise Jesus we have not only an air conditioner in our room but their are washers here. It is the first time in Fiji we sleep with air and i am very happy. The place we are staying is a children's counseling center so once again we work with children, I just pray that are a little bit more tame, on wed. we are going to a prison. Today was a resting day since we just arrived off the ferry and so some of us went into town. As we walked into the stores we saw Christmas decorations being put up, which was really fun to see very surreal. Since we were sweating and wearing as little as possible, it didn't even feel close to Christmas time to us since we are all use to being a bit colder this time of year. So I know that seasons is upon us but until i stop sweating 24/7 i shall not think about a Christmas tree. Well this one is long and i apologize, so i will just abruptly end it here. Bye for now...liz