stinkin wasps!

second wasp bite.  these wasps have weird hanging things from their behind. the slash you with their firey tails and i think the hanging thing is actually a ball and chain whip with fire attachments….it really hurts. right now my hand is swollen up to my wrist. it looks weird. it doesn’t look like my hand. following up with that i opened the fridge door and a huge can of peaches slammed into the knuckle of my big toe. it split and bled, swelled right up and now i can’t bend it or put weight on it.  i’m just glad i don’t have leprosy. that might hurt too!

i have a really strong desire to leave hre. no, not because of my ‘flesh wounds’ but because i think i’m over the whole fiji thing. for today anyway. i do like it here, i really do! it’s just that everyday life here is so challenging and i know that it doesn;t have to be. maybe some of it i bring on myself but when the everyday involves spring cleaning just to get back to zero, i think it’s just too much. it’s not a pristine environment. it dusty and dirty and noisy. that’s where we live. along the coast it would be a totally different story. but i don’t live there. i live here and i live in the everyday and it’s stinking full of creepy wasps and lots of housework!

i got Alec some new, proper running shoes. he is quite literelly jumping up on the walls. Did i EVER have the energy to do that? Mom? i think not. he is like a little energizer bunny when he wants to. his new ‘trainers’ are so that he can enter the Milo track and field games and represent his school. He is thrilled with his new shoes and his abilities in them. up until this point he has been in croc knock-offs. broken ones at that. he did have a pair of runners from the states but came home one day barefoot and we cannot locate the missing shoes. that happens alot here. chilren arriving home bare-foot. most of the times, we don’t even bother with shoes for them. like the rest of the country!

as i type, Elias is incessantly chatting in my ear. sometimes, i tell you, i wish he would just shush. he is so chatty! Alec is running like a crazy man back and forth and jumping up onto the walls. sometimes i wish he would just be still. Vaughn is chatting and running and the topper to it all is he is poopy.  sometimes i wish he would just not poop!

at least none of them bite. 

nice thought.

moce.

today after several days, the door to our back patio is looking more like a door. the frame is warped and they haven’t done things they were s’posed to do and did many things they weren’t…this is SO common here. v. frustrating indeed. there is cement rendering being strewn about my boys room without a care in the world and right now, the young guy staining the bowed frame and door also happens to be staining the screening on the windows. no amount of instruction from myself is heeded. i am woman. hear me whine. they will listen to the man and attempt to make it look like they are doing things his way but in reality, they are just ‘jimmy-ing’ it to look acceptable. it will probably fall right out of the hole in a few day. frame and all. So, i get to watch and smile and bring water and say things here and there and know. just know that they are thinking ‘dumb woman’ it’s just how it is here. imagine how the men look at me when i go asking about stain and paint and sandpaper and nuts and bolts.  i am tired of that.  maybe i should just smack them. ;)  having said all that, the door to our litle back patio is SO very useful. Alec and ELias are thrilled.    We are also getting our nissan van professionally (?) washed right now. it’s a hotbed of activity at our house today! we are selling that van before it does us in financially or otherwise. you know how you just get a feeling about something? well i am a firm believer in listening to that voice, it’s there for a reason, it is time to get rid of the van….maybe we are just trying to complete tasks to have all the loose ends tied up, making it easier to go.  Did i mention the guy is mixing the cement mix rendering stuff right on my floor? tell me, does that make sense?

it is eye infection time again. we just got rid of one and now another one hits. Alec and i seem to be more fond of them than the others in the family however, Vaughn has started to show an affinity for them as well.

meanwhile….i look forward to the return visit of one of my greatest mates here. she left a while back for NewZealand but will be here for a 2 week visit. something to look forward to. So, until the next time. i hope to have astraightened out patio door. no stain and or rendering mix where is doesn’t belong, no eye infections and 20-20 vision.(i can wish for the last one!)

this week has brought an end to our ‘winter’ vacation. we spent it at the beach and various other water locales. went to a beautiful litledestination called vuvale. good friends of our are developing a family resort on the coral coast and right now, it’s just their home situated on top of a fabulous view of some beautiful land boardered in papaya trees and a rainbow coloured assortment of beauganvillea. just outside of that view are the  waves  breaking  jsut offshore.  you can’t see the beach from there but  it’s only a 5 minute jaunt down the hill to a gorgeous white-sand beach, filled with  blue starfish and  an unfished environment.  for 20 years, fishing has been prohibited in this area. the  sealife is tremendous.  ahhh, was a great break from reality.  this week brought us into the last term of grade 2 for Alec and kindy for Elias. In January  Alec will be  entering GRADE 3! and Elias in GRADE 1 !  i’m still coming to grips with that.   This week also brought us VBS. a  wonderful after school even that every kid in this local area has been attending all week after school for a few hours.  I know, it’s a little  bit after vacation for the ‘vbs’ aspect of it but  it  is a great time for my 2 big boys. they are thrilled when they come home and watching them get involved in the action songs and crafts and activites reminded me of vbs growing up. yes, i got teary eyed. that’s why i didn’t stick around any longer. leave my boys to their own adventure. i felt that i had done something right.  that has not happened enuf in this parenting career!

this weekend we are having a bit of a bbq with some good friends and work mates of gerrys. we are also installing a door thru the boys room onto the back patio. that will be so handy. i still have hopes to paint the house (in and out) and get some sort of useful closet space. they are big into useless wardrobes here. Mine have wood sliding on wood for drawers and half the time you can’t open them anyway!  My Ikea wire sliding drawers are working out very well in my kitchen. just the small things make such a differance…

Today, i got to play with fire and water. i lit 2 fires in our yard and 1 got a little out of hand so i then got to play fireman and cool down some of my beloved plants! only the rubbishy weeds that i was trying to burn actually burnt but some of my hybrids might need a little recovery time!  my boys are catching up on their cartoon viewing before vbs just now and i will go and start dinner. having Waloo (fish) steaks and basmati rice and veggies. standard fare.  until next time. moce

life is good, it is, in fact, grand. just the pay sucks. there are so many wonderful things about living in Fiji and so many wonderful people. it’s only when you think about leaving that you realize that you forgot to do the things you set out to do. Me? i was going to learn to play the guitar and the ukalele…have i? well, along that same thread, i sorta forgot that i had 3 kids and my spare time would be very limited. So, i will at least say, that in the next several years, i will learn those both! i am also very hopeful that i will get into fitness for the sake of my future. that falls along the lines of ‘looking after oneself’ and i have fallen into that trap of a coffee diet and my physical fitness relies on the floor. -sweeping and mopping-. for an arm workout, i hang my laundry. never the less, i’m still kicking over here. and yes, Thailand is seeming like a possibility. there hasn’t been a job offer nor has anyone from our camp applied for one. just the very preliminary.  looking at medical, dental, education, shopping, housing,  people, lifestyle, you know …all the things we NEVER looked into when we moved here with  a 2yr old and an 8wk old!   i think i was just really desiring a change. boy, did i get it!  SO,   we continue to realize that our days here are numbered, in more than one way! and that our next destination is likely going to have this climate. i think i can safely sell my beloved columbia boots and snowshoes. (boohoo)  it is a  great great  lifestyle to  have year-round shorts and t-shirts type of weather. we  enjoy the outdoor lifestyle. right from our own little home. eating our meals outside, morning coffee on the back patio. playing puzzles on the front verandah. i like it here so it is time to go. when i first met Gerrys boss, he asked me prior to his signing our bonds, how long I thought WE would be here. i told him that  we wouldn’t leave until i loved it here.  i then told him that i hated it so far and that we’d likely be here for sometime. truth.

again, life is grand, pay bites a bit here so we are looking at the greener pastures. still!