Our little island of Vatulele, as we fly over by sea plane.
Well there are so many details about our everyday life we feel we have yet to share with all of you, so we thought we'd dedicate this entry to all the small experiences of our life.
*The beauty of the traditional art and the work that the whole island puts into producing the tapa cloth is just amazing. The men plant huge plantations of the mulberry trees, and harvest them after 9 months. The women and children peel the bark, and let it soak. Then the women spend countless hours beating it thin, letting sundry, and then printing it with paints made from other native trees. It is a long tedious process, but the most beautiful creations are made everyday. Keasi our neighbor is printing a 14 ft x 14 ft piece at 11pm at night in her home.
*The solidarity of our new culture. Everyday having someone come over and ask to borrow our hammer, or some salt, and then asking them later if we can borrow some sugar or their bike- this is called the Kerekere system. Saying hello to every single person you pass down our one dirt road. Usually you ask where you are going and where you're coming from, but it's not a stopped conversation it's usually a yelled out "Mai Vei or Lai Vei" followed by a village name.
*Our favorite past time activity is a game of cards. Great Grandma and Grandpa Barnes are smiling down on us, because we have taken over their friendly competition of cribbage. Here we play our favorite game, 'Shipwreck'.
*The fact that after you build a home you get to name it anything you want, usually after another village or city in Fiji. Instead of saying I'm going to Emori's house you say I'm going to Rakiraki. We named our house after our first hometown together, Ventura.
*When your ideas and suggestions are put into action and projects actually get started. Here Drew helps our carpenter Jo, begin the framework of the compost latrine.
Composting toilets have been a breakthrough in Fiji, stopping pollution into the ocean, and creating a cleaner, more hygienic living space. It has been very trying convincing them that they can reuse all their organic waste, but they are now excited to see what we have been talking about.
*We have the most gorgeous bush roosters you have ever seen. They are fast little suckers and I'm still working on getting a picture. They are all different in colors, but my favorites are the brilliant spotted orange ones with teal green tail feathers. They start their crowing every morning at 3am.
*Every morning all the children from the south end village, Bouwaqa, ride by on their new bikes. Our pastor recently had an Australian friend round up about 40 used bikes, from small kids bikes to classic cruisers, and ship them by barge to Fiji. 
Now the children can leave their homes at 7:00am instead of 6:00am (before dark) and even stop and have breakfast in our village. As they ride by in little groups, about every 10 minutes we get shouts of "Yadra Melissa, Yadra Adriu...Moce Melissa, Moce Adriu" (good morning and good bye). We love having our home right on the road to pass out ripe bananas or plastic bags when it starts to rain.
*We love having extra down time to perfect our cooking skills and try out new recipes. Everyday we cook at least one meal together in our little kitchen. Our favorite dishes at the moment our fresh tortilla chips, and aFijian variation of ceviche called Kokoda (marinated fish cooked in lime juice, onion, and coconut milk).
*We love exploring. Our island is small, but you can walk around the entire island through small plantation paths. Last week we hiked to the furthest point south and found two small islands about 10 meters through crystal clear shallow turquoise water.
It's amazing to be surrounded by the hustle and bustle of village life and have no privacy, and then hike about 2 hours and have an entire beach to ourselves that is so pristine we have to bring our machete to hack back overgrown vines and giant spider webs. 
*Oh the mosquitoes! Definitely better than they were in the humid season, but still always buzzing. People tend to think the tropics are all warm sun, and beaches, but the mosquitoes can make you insane. Just thought we'd give you an idea of the giants we have to defend ourselves from every single day (notice the needle like mouth- and yes you feel them prick you!) *Drew especially, appreciates the hard work it takes to garden everyday. Here is Kumala (sweet potato) planted in giant mounds, the sand on top is to deter island rodents.
These are the ring leaders of a group of about 8 munchkins. We get them over practically everyday, just charging through our door curtain and starting up with a thousand questions "Where's your mom, where's your dad, where's Soxsan (Aunt Roxanne), where's Tave, What are you doing and between each question they ask Can we have a biscuit?) This particular day they were munching on raw sugar cane and we kicked them outside because they were spitting their fibers on our floor inside.
