Running into the Wet Season

Yadra Vina (Good Morning), Spring is upon us on Vatulele! Never have you seen so many beautiful flowers and never have you felt so many bugs. We do believe butterflies fluttering on the beach is one of the most beautiful sights of nature on the entire island. With abundant tropical showers and the summer humidity right around the corner, our island is becoming a breeding ground for some interesting creepy crawlers. Palm-sized spiders, bat size moths, terydactyle dragonfly, black hornets, finger-sized cockroaches, beetles galore, and our all time favorite the black and white striped mosquito. Of course the mosquitoes are the worst, making anywhere outside our safety zone bed-net a battle ground. Night time is the worst when making an unexpected bathroom call and exposing your undeeted skin to the enemy. After running for cover, we always count how many times we were hit and tend to our injuries with vats of cortisone. We've discovered you have to thoroughly bathe in repellent several times a day due to their highly intelligent detector system. They have no mercy and they'll aim for below the belt, for between the eyes, and between the toes. The other crawlers aren't so bad, its only when the terydactyle flies into the house and you have to run and hit the deck or when you reach for toilet paper with morning grog to see your hand 1/2 inch from a spider that can literally cover your face. We both have let out more screams that have most likely been heard by the 22 houses of our quaint little village. And we wonder why we don't always get invited over :) Aside from the battle of the bugs, we are very much enjoying finding a productive balance. We both began teaching at the primary school. Drew is teaching about the environment and Liss on life skills and health. Liss is still working in the health center 3-4 times a week and has became the village health advisor as people come to her with aches, pains, rashes, and boils. Drew recently went to a workshop for composting toilets with a fellow villager and he has two compost toilets scheduled for construction. This will be a major milestone for the entire island as these new latrines require no water which will increase overall health and sanitation. Due to the scarcity of water, villagers either flush seldomly or go anywhere around their houses. It feels good to see some progress made and know there is still so much to do. Life as been a little more exciting last week since we adopted a 4 week old puppy, named Tave (means black shell in Fijian). He has given us a many sleepless nights with his whimpering and howling, but we just love having him around. He is definitely an island puppy because he can't get enough of the coconut, papaya, and the freshly fallen mangoes from our tree. Having a dog is making Lomanikaya feel more and more like home. We are just getting back from Diwali Festival of Lights in Raralevu. We spent our time with our host family eating tons of Indian sweets, scrumptious curries, and lighting off heaps of fireworks :) We just love spending time with them because they make us feel so at home and it's the closest feeling to family that we are going to have for a long time. We miss you all so much! Garcia's our prayers are with you everyday! Happy Birthday Mom Styles and Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad Loganbill!