Fiji. Beautiful green lush fields. Opaque pristine waters. Palm trees swaying in the warm tropical breeze. That's how the tourists see Fiji as and that's what they find. They don't venture inland into the squatter huddles around the bit of muddy river. They don't see the impact when the river floods and takes the little possession they have of land and belongings. The beautiful lush fields turn into a mess of mosquitoes and red clay the second you step into it. The clean waters are filtered - you don't find pristine blue waters in the interior. The palm trees are still beautiful - no comment needed.
A team of 11 of us headed out from Capernwray for two weeks of mission trip work. We experienced heat 100% humidity the second we stepped off the plane. The first couple days we were dead from the heat but it got better once it rained and clouds came in. Although it was hurricane season we thankfully didn’t get to know what that was like. Basically a normal day at island encounters went like so:
- 6:30 wake up time
- 6:45 devo
- 7 really good breakfast made of fruits (fresh watermelon, pineapple, bananas, avocados, passion fruit, guava, and papaya!)
- 7:30 to 8:30 was quiet time with Jesus (I read through Zachariah and half of Romans)
- 8:30 we met with sunscreen and bug spray ready for the day
We worked for 4 hours (except the last day when I got in 4 and a half hours) each day with a break for morning tea of fresh juice and cookies and Busa - a Fijian trail mix of raisins, nuts, curly crisps, and dried peas.
- 1 lunch ranging from bread and rice to boiled cassava - lots of starches!
After lunch we usually hung out, had a nap, or played some games. This was also a good time to prepare crafts for the kids activities we did in the afternoons.
- 3 or 4 we had kids ministry! We did a skit, song, and lesson around the Good Samaritan story in modern day life.
- 6 was dinner which was soup and rice or curry and rice or chutney, chicken, and rice.
- 7:30 was testimonies and going around the circle saying a high and low of the day and what we learned. That was really cool to hear what people had experienced that day. Afterwards, we played some games that people had in mind or oftentimes we had Deans Deep Discussions. This was when we plyed our leader Dean with questions about life and then after he gave his answer, we all discussed what he had said with what we had in our slight store of knowledge.
For tourist activities, we went to beachcombers island and experienced mud pools and zip lines upside down in a jungle under the hills of the sleeping giant. It was actually sad to see the stark difference between the tourist realm and the actual life of Fijians who live in dirt poor. But it was a very good time overall and our team bonded amazingly well!