After a long week of rain in suva, we all decided it was time to hit up the beach. So we took a bus to pacific habor which is about 30 miles away. This was the closest place to suva with nice beaches and somewhere for us to stay. So we stayed at a backpackers hotel for the weekend. Ten of us stayed in one room with 5 bunk beds and then there was a huge common room with a tv air hockey table and some couches. It was really nice to get away from suva and eat what we wanted to eat. So we treated ourselves to some delicious meals and some sun bathing. The hotel had a cool bar and a huge tiki man pool. The theme of the pool area was cannibalism and had a bunch of paintings of Fijians eating white people, a giant spoon sculpture with human skulls resting in it and a giant boiling pot ( hot tub). Only in Fiji. The second day started off to be rainy so everyone wanted to leave but me and a couple other people decided to be optimistic and went swimming in the rain. We wound up staying later and it got really sunny out which was a surprise and it turned out to be a great day. As we were catching the bus back into suva it started down pouring. We got on the bus and there was only enough seats open for the 5 of us. So we made our way down the isle and squished into our seats. I was sitting with one cheek on the seat and the other basically on another mans lap. The bus was not like the others in suva with open windows and instead had horrible circulation and smelled of BO. Not the best way to travel. But we survived and made it back to suva.

The following weekend our group traveled to the village of Silana. We rode in a covered truck in the bed on wooden benches. The trip took three hours and about 2 hours of it was on roads that were under construction so needless to say, it was bumpy. We were greeted by the whole village, which consisted of 26 families. Everyone was native Fijian; some spoke English and others knew only a few phrases. We all got assigned to different families and after gathering in the community hall we went to our designated homes. My family consisted of a grandmother, grandfather and their four year old grandson Pow. My family wound up speaking as much English as I spoke Fijian so it got pretty awkward at times. The first afternoon we sat on the floor of their house drinking tea and eating pancakes in the dark, staring at each other. After I downed the natural lemon leaf tea we went back to the community hall for some guitar playing, kava drinking and feasting. The next morning we woke up, had breakfast and then went for a hike up the mountain. It took about 30 minutes and was extremely muddy. The 13 of us, our program leaders, some children and men from the village were all lead by a man chopping down a path for us using a machete. When we arrived at the waterfall we spent an hour or two jumping in and swimming around. It was the first time one of the women from the village had been there, which we all found unbelievable considering she had lived in the village all of her life. The way back down the mountain became extremely muddy and slippery especially since we were soaking wet, but that turned out not to be a problem at all. All of the men from the village would run down ahead of us and be there to help us over the streams and down the slippery parts by holding a long vine so that we had something to hold on to. Talk about great service. The rest of that day consisted of eating, lounging and learning about different gardening techniques and the crops they grew. The next day we woke up early and went out in the ocean in two power boats to the reef. There, we were able to see dolphins and go swimming in the amazing ocean. We hung out there for about 3 hours. Some of the men went spear fishing and diving and came up with some very fresh fish and giant clams.