Home Again, Home Again, Clickety Click

Well I couldn't wait to get back home…so here I am, a few weeks earlier than scheduled.

The placement at St Giles never eventuated but many pom poms were made instead!

I hit the eject button early for a few reasons…finances were low, but the hardest thing was the lack of support. Trying to improve and develop a community single handedly was never my plan…and although I had Jesus more active in my life than ever before and Reverend Mereti was also navigating me through the community... I really needed another objective worker to help me who didn't have something to gain personally from my investment into the community, someone who could pray with me, fight with me, offer feedback, encouragement, advice and counsel and someone who could enjoy all the quirky Fijian moments & amusing cultural differences with me! Working with three communities, who all had a huge level of need was becoming too much for me. And the longer I stayed there, the more I was expected to support others financially which was not a viable option.

For my farewell, Va and her husband Vincent, took me out to a lovely Chinese Restaurant, but unfortunately I ate from a dirty fork and got violent food poisoning. This cost me the opportunity to farewell my women's group and give Sami, a little boy from the group, the toy lion I had made for him. Very disappointing. I am not sure if it will ever get to him now. I also missed out on farewelling some other key people and I missed out on my final opportunity to go snorkelling. I still can't believe I spent 3 months in Fiji and only went swimming once and didn't get to go snorkelling at all.

Well God knows... And even though Fiji cost me nearly all I own, it was worth it for what God did in my life. He has healed me of a lot personally and for that I am forever grateful.

I have been quite teary today. I miss many things about Fiji and readjusting back home is proving quite difficult. It all seemed to be flowing beautifully with a well paid job handed to me on a silver platter, and then was taken off me and given to others. This meant I had to pull out of the rental place I wanted to go to. So I am right back to being under employed with Dolleina as a personal care worker and living with my parents.

Sami and his mum, Paula (pronounced Pow-la).
I prayed for him when he had a fever and he woke up the next day 100%. 

Mariani - proudly displaying her pom poms.

Always fun to spy women making pom poms in their homes in the community.

Pacific Harbour Sketch - used it for a water colour class then gave it to Mika on his birthday card.

Newtown house.

Finches

Watercolour class.

Va & her form 3 students (year 9, first year of Basden High School)

Mariani shows us a new way to store coins…in your ear!

Shangri La private beach.

 Maria from Northridge came to visit! She was past Sigatoka, over 3 hour bus trip away. But it was a fun adventure during the tropical depression/cyclone weather to see her, enjoying her Fijian getaway on her own private island at the very lovely Shangri La resort.

Jay & Maria

Teri brought back more looms, & these interesting flower looms.

Knitting at Mereti's House.

Volleyball in Newtown.

Sunset in Newtown.

Long Jump at Basden College.

Javelin at Basden.

Newtown House.

Another knitter spotted!

Kishore Kumar Rd.

 During the tropical depression that turned into a cyclone category 1 our street was flooded. The drains are huge. If I were to stand in it, it would be deeper than my height. Yet, it was so full, the road was flooded to calf height and the taxi nearly couldn't get me home.

Jennifer Solomon, (Lenore's friend, and an Ellel friend) came with her husband Alby on the cruise. She had planned to visit Lenore, so I took them on a day adventure to explore Fiji!

First stop, cooling off in Tappoo City.

After a bus ride to Newtown, a taxi to my home and a scenic taxi back to Suva park, I farewelled them back at the port. After such a lovely day it was hard to say goodbye.

They gave me the leftovers of Lenore's money, so I bought oil paints for the school. They came with free A3 visual art diaries. Oil painting is part of the curriculum, even though the students and school cannot afford oil paints.

More pom poms with the women from AAW (Association of Anglican Women).

Sami.

Mereani models a bag that one of the ladies made with the large loom.

The AAW women decided to hire a truck with some of the pom pom money they made to take us all to a prayer for Egypt day at St Christopher's Home. The AAW were asked to do the bible reading of the woman at the well. They decided to be creative and do a drama and also a beautifully choreographed song of the woman at the well, which I was a part of!

In costume.

On the truck home.

Harvest World Centre at Sunset.

This was my church. It was huge and like Hillsong in style.

I was asked to help teach the children how to draw Palm Sunday pictures for a month in preparation for Palm Sunday at Butt St church.

Mereti took me to Nadawa community. We met some of her relatives. This was a fishing village, and she wanted me to take some looms there and teach knitting.

We met this lady and she showed us some miniature hats she was making out of local materials. Pine needles and thread from 10kg sugar bags. She was making them into earring and necklace sets. She also requested a loom set to learn knitting.

Kids playing in the water near my local shops.

Mereani asked me to pray for arthritic sore knee.

After I prayed for her, she declared she was healed and began laughing! I hope so!!!

 Back at Basden...

Trying to teach the form 4 students (year 10) perspective drawing at Basden.

The students really couldn't get it.
They start high school unable to know or draw the difference between a flat square shape and a 3D cube.

Saturdays back at Butt St…

We made a mural of the palm sunday picture and everyone got to contribute.

My biggest frustration was the issue of the wool! When Lenore gave Mereti the big box of wool, it was clear that was all the wool we had. Lenore was very specific that each lady was to get 2 balls of wool to learn, and to sell their pom poms for $5 and with the first earnings from selling their pom poms they were to buy more wool.
This instruction was completely ignored.
Instead the ladies decided that they would sell their pom poms for $5 each and $3 would go back to the AAW (the Anglican church) and they could keep the profit.

As the weeks passed, I saw the same ladies receiving more and more wool from the box but not purchasing a single roll for themselves. They insisted Fiji wool was no good, you could only knit with Australian wool. There were issues of people stealing wool from the box too. I repeatedly told Mereti they needed to buy more wool. She ignored this instruction too.

When more looms arrived the box was nearly empty, she again asked me, "when will the wool come?"
I said to her, "Mereti, I am sorry you misunderstood, but there is no more wool. That was all the wool. We cannot afford to send it to Fiji from Australia."

Mereti, had wasted all the wool on the older women of the church and not saved any for her true passion, the young mum's group. Because there were always kids hanging around, I thought we were teaching the young mum's…but Mereti's idea of young must be different from mine…

So now I was in a difficult position. I had the AAW, a young mum's group (of 30 mums), a Seventh Day Adventist Group, the Nadawa and the Laquere community all wanting looms and wool. I divided up the looms so each community would get at least one set. But I had no wool left.

So I bought wool. Lots of it!

It came in hanks of 12 smaller bunches. So I divided up the hanks so that each woman got a multi coloured pack.

Dividing the hanks.

I finally taught myself how to knit. A pom pom was boring, so I decided to make a stuffed toy! Fiji wool was perfectly fine. It was thicker than Aussie wool so it made the toy softer, more fluffy and better for hugging.

Multicoloured packs.

He grew into a lion! Although Fijian's don't know what lions look like, so they thought it was a rabbit or a donkey.

I was determined to make this project sustainable. Looms weren't available in Fiji so I began making some using locally bought or found materials. Pegs on toilet rolls and metal bands worked fine for my lion. Knitting made me hungry...

Typical Fijian lunch. Breakfast crackers in tea.

 We finally started the young mum's group before I left. Mereti had told everyone that she felt my purpose was to help run the young mum's group. But I was disappointed that Mereti ran the entire meeting in Fijian, including sharing her testimony, so I did not get to participate at all in it. It seemed my participation was really just to contribute the expensive morning tea consisting of 3 packets of Tang, 2kg of sugar, tea, biscuits and milk powder. My final week I was relegated to helping the sunday school teacher look after the children.

I painted this for my farewell card for Mereti.

Mereti's daughter in laws enjoying the Guava I bought them.

Mereti was tired and didn't want to take me on the community visit Tuesday night. She had invited me for dinner and made hints she didn't want me to come early. But it was my final visit and we had received prayer requests at the young mums group. We had to go!

The weather was perfect & the kids, even big kids were all playing with the tyres.

We gave Aloe cream to a girl with a burnt hand.

We met Willie again. The first man I met and prayed for in the community. He was apparently notorious in the community as a criminal & thief. He had been in jail several times. After we prayed for his paralysed arm, he received movement back!

Willie could now lift his arm.

Willie could fully clench and close his fist.

Willie still needs a wheelchair.

A nice tea provided at one of the wealthier homes.

Farewell Banquet for me at Mereti's place. Fish in coconut cream and breadfruit!

Teaching the Seventh Day Adventist Group.

My lion looks on...

My loom in good use making more legs for a new toy.

My farewell cake at Basden College. Thanks Teri!

My final sunset Wednesday afternoon over church.

 That fateful Chinese Restaurant (last meal in Suva)…

Vincent & Va take us out to dinner!

I completely lost my last day in Suva due to sickness. But thankfully God delivered me. I woke at 3:30am Friday morning, exactly 24hrs after I got sick, and I knew I was better. I began sipping my hydralite every hour and by morning I could eat some porridge for breakfast! Then I finished my packing and took the 4hr bus trip to Nadi.

Many of the towns have these war club markers as you drive in and out.
I've never seen such prominent territorial spirit markings before!

Beautiful tropical water I saw from the bus. I still can't believe I didn't get to go swimming and snorkelling there!!!

It was sunny the entire way until we arrived in Nadi, then it began bucketing down. But by the time we got to the airport, the rain had gone again… Fiji weather!

Goodbye Nadi!

4.5hrs home.

After over 9 hours travelling after a day of illness I finally made it home safe and sound to my parents new place in Hornsby at about midnight Sydney time, Friday the 21st of March.