Fiji-sunscreen,sunsets,sugar,and society

Fiji rush hour as workers came to and from work by wading or by small boats out in front of the house.
Phillip wind surfing and girls kayaking.
Sand castle making...actually all 4 together, getting along, etc.
Don't laugh, too loud. My brother got us all Vols clothes and yes mine says "Smokey is my Homeboy". Guess what souvenir I am bringing back for the Hatmakers?

Andrew is an Island Boy and the girls made up a song for him to sing, "I'm an Island Boy". Maybe it will be Kenny Chesney's next big hit.
The beach house we rented had a clear shallow beach in front of it. Lots of Fijiians waded to and from work across to Malolo Island where there was a village.
Lots of dishes to wash.
The boys on a Hobey Cat.

Kenny took us around to visit the village including a Fiji day festival where billionare Owen Glenn attended. Owen and the Nichols stuck out in the crowd, for different reasons. Anna in the school library in the village.
Fijiian students practicing a flag ceremony for Fiji day.
The village church but not the one we went to.
Me doing a little shopping for my sister's Birthday. Don't tell!

Lots of sunny weather for sunbathing.
Meals were a fun time at the beach house and we taught the kids to play Rook in the evenings.
Anna and Andrew led Homechurch Worship Sunday Morning at the beach house.

Beautiful flowers we wore in our hair and decorated the table with.
South Pacific Princess

Low tide in the lagoon where we sailed and windsurfed in the mornings.
Great climbing tree outside the house. I didn't get a photo of Lynn and Andrew's gardening friend, Peter climbing trees for coconuts.

I thought I would list the following high points of our Fiji trip

1)The beauty is amazing and everything a pacific tropical paradise is thought to be. The Blue Lagoon movie with Brooke Shields was filmed a few islands over. I didn't feel like Brooke but more like The Grizwalds.

2)We all enjoyed seeing some family and that was great for the kids. Please come visit us and we will take you somewhere fun but perhaps somewhere in New Zealand which is politically more stable.

3) Speaking of political instability, Fiji is loaded with it. The Fijians are naturally black (melanesian) in complexion and were fierce cannabilistic warriors with a tribal system among the various geographically close cluster of 40 some islands. They were heavily influenced by Christian missionaries in the 18th and 19th centuries and remain more "Christian" in outward association with more religious influence evident than in New Zealand (For example bible verse on bulletin board at the school). Most of the earliest missionaries were Methodists ( a few were eaten!) and then later the Catholics came. Sadly, there was tension among the protestants and Catholic missionaries. Although it was a British commonwealth, Fijiians maintained more local tribal control than the Maori did in New Zealand. In the early 20th century the Fijians started importing people from India to work as indentured servants in the sugar plantations. The Indians brought Hindu and Islamic influences and different cultural habits that were not well received by the indigenous folk who have reportedly maintained an attitude of supremecy. The indiginous fijians fear the ever growing numbers of Indians (Indofijians) may mean losing control of their own homeland and being over run by a foreign people. Instead of a melting pot it is more like oil and water as one pastor told me. For the last 100 years the Indians have been lawfully and officially imposed on based on their race and it still goes on. Many have left and I have met some in the hospitalhere in Whangarei. The Fijians today own 80 % of the land (Indians are not constitutionally allowed to own land) but 90% of the sugar crops are worked and managed by Indians under limited leases. The last 20 years has seen many political coups similar to Haiti but through out it all Fiji has been able to maintan and grow the tourist industry by isolating the political issues. Some key political years were the 1987 election which saw a native Fijian Medical Doctor elected as Prime minister with sympathetic ties and backing by the Indians. He was overthrown by the Fijian military loyalists and never regained his elected position despite a world wide tour to appeal. 1997 saw their constitution revised to say that although an Indian could not be president ( honorary tribal chief position kind of like the Queen of England) an Indofijian could lawfully be elected Prime Minister (functioning head of things). Indeed in 2000 the Indian population had grown enough to elect the first Indian (Indofijian) prime minister but shortly after taking office he was held hostage with his cabinet for 8 weeks. A political scramble insued and a new indiginous Fijian loyal government named themself in his place. They stayed in power until recently when in December a year and half ago a Fiji military leader ousted them and had himself named prime minister. He remains in military based control of the country so we didn't venture toward the capital.

3) Back on the island of Malololailai the sweet Fijian people seemed far removed from all the politics. There was poverty with needs for water, housing, employment, etc. Our first night we had a "late night visitor" come to take water from our beach house's water tank (all though it contained mosquito larvae in our drinking water). Articles of clothing/towels/etc were reported to "just go missing" a lot. We did find the people very kind and we even were invited to shop at a near by village, see a school, and attend a Christian service with a small group of sweet locals in the hills behind the resort. Fortunately it was in English and it was a blessing for us to hear the word of God taught (the sermon was on missions) by a Fijian pastor while we were seated with people who work at the resort. They asked Lynn and I to say a few words. Lynn asked for prayer for the US economic situation and election as it ripples across the world and I shared a verse that I had been thinking of that day (Galatians 3:26). It says believers in Jesus are "clothed in the righteousness of Christ" not our own goodness/self righteousness (which by the way we have none) and in that "there is neither Jew or Greek, free or slave, male or female" or anything else that causes discrimination but we are "one in Christ". I was reminded of a sermon on Acts that I heard recently in Whangarei from a minister who spent 30 years in Papa New Guinea and 2 or 3 in Fiji. He said based on the New Testament there is no room for ethnic cultural superiority for a Christian. We are finding that many people lump Christianity in with British empire colonization and all the bad that conquest brought. I have read a wonderful book about women pioneers of the Northland here in NZ and most were Christian missionaries who brought education, medicine, suffrage rights and advocated for Maori against entrepeneurs with more economic self interests. I think sometimes the benefits the missionaries brought are forgotten and their motives misunderstood.

4) One day while on this beautiful pacific resort, my journal page for the day had a translation of Psalm 71:3 which reads, "Be thou my strong habitation, wherunto I may continually RESORT..for thou art my rock and my fortress. " and I thought about the politics, the social injustices/prejudices, the economic crisis, the various militaries of the world, the uncertainty of aspects of life, and I was thankful that God calls himself a RESORT to which I can always go and rest and be safe.

5)Anyway, we had a great time as a family enjoying the hot sunny weather and the resort with the kayaks, the hobey cats, a fishing trip, and snorkeling. We ate a new fruit called Paw-Paw (as in the Jungle book) as well as the biggest crab we had ever seen. We rode bikes, wind surfed, napped, and swam. The last night we stayed at a 5 star hotel close to the airport and had Indian food (my favorite food) buffet and enjoyed watching Nim's Island in the airconditioning.