Summer Explores

surprise, we actually get to email twice. So bula again! We started our work projects the day after i emailed you, and so far it's been the most amazing experience of my life. We're working in the Matanimoli Village and we're each assigned a family to build the bathroom for. I'm in a group with another boy and girl, and I think we have the best family by far. They gave us all Fiji names, mine is Susanna (It sounds amazing with an accent). There are roughly 8 little kids in the family, with new kids showing up every once in awhile. They have school right now so they usually don't get home until an hour before we leave, but our whole family ditched school one day so they could hang out with us. There's a 15 year old boy named Unax who is staying home from school the whole time we're here so he can help out. He's awesome, I'm pretty sure most of my pictures have him in them. There are two girls around syd's age who are super adorable, and a boy who's 12. His name is Jamos but I gave the kids american names since they gave us Fijian names. His name was Josh, but he wanted to change it to Ty when he heard it was my brother's name. So now i call him Ty :) Tell dad that instead of a tar baby, I'm a cement baby. I mix cement all day everyday, but it's the most fun i've ever had. The work is SO hard, especially the first few days when you have absolutely no idea what the people are telling you to do. Our foreman's name is Ben and he's a really quiet young Fijian guy, but he's suuuper cool once you get to know him. There are roughly 5 guys that are always there helping out with our bathroom, so we sort of have to force our way in to help. They usually play music on their phones...a mix of Shania Twain and rap. It rained really bad one day so Unax took us to his uncle's house and we sat and watched a Shania Twain concert on DVD...it's great the stuff they get into. They have remixes of all our popular songs like That girl is on Fire, but it's a Fijian remix so it's actually super awesome. We have the same bus driver whose name is Riz. He has a family in India but a girlfriend here in Suva so that's a little weird...but it turns out he's like the coolest guy ever! We played soccer on tuesday, it was just 3 of us with a bunch of Fijians..and Riz. He was so good! Until he ripped his pants...it was super funny. I can count to ten in Fijian super fast now without even thinking about it, and I know a really fun Fiji game i need to teach you. I also learned how to make coconut buns...best thing ever. Sorry mom, but you've been replaced. My Fiji mom is super crazy, we call her Na. She's hilarious and we have a grandma (Boo in Fijian) who can't walk but has a full on beard...pretty great. We have breakfast at 8, drive to the village, work, have tea time at 10, work, have lunch at 12:30, work, tea time at 3, play/work (mainly play), then go home and have dinner at 6. Sooooooo much food, holy crap! And tea time isn't just tea...it's bread bread and more bread. I'm not complaining, i'm just getting fat. We went net fishing yesterday and it was actually super fun! The Magoons are way cool and they had two boys my age so i talked to them a bunch. One of them got attacked by a shark two years ago and was in the hospital for 3 weeks! We gave them a ride to Suva and he sat by me on the bus. Once you get used to their accents, they're super funny. He got my name for facebook so we can be friends. Then we went ziplining and it it was soooo fun! I was really bad at braking though so i had to be pulled by the foot a few times...still super fun. Then we had dinner at mcdonalds, which was soooo expensive! My happy meal was 9 bucks. We were going to see Turbo and i was way excited, but we had to see Smurfs 2 instead. It was a good nap. I don't know how i'm going to say goodbye to the villagers on wednesday...i might just die. I told them i would bring a "change" so we could all go swimming in the river. If i don't come back home, it's because i "accidently" got left behind. I'm definately coming back here someday so you guys can come too if you want. Just prepare for my type of paradise, it probably doesn't match yours. Fijians have a very distinct smell... i actually love it, everyone else says they smell bad though haha. I'm super paranoid about the whole head touching thing, i accidently touched a kid's head the other day and no one did anything...so who knows. Our ward is great, we had a ball on friday that was really fun and the girls taught us a cultural dance. I volunteered to give a talk for BYDtonight so that really sucks, i haven't even written it yet... I'm so tired all the time, but america is for sleep, fun is for Fiji. My favorite thing to do is wave at people from the bus. Everyone is sooo friendly, all the Fijians anyway. There are a ton of Indian people here and if you wave at them, they just stare at you. It's pretty funny actually. We don't go shopping until thursday so hopefully i find some good stuff...I got some awesome sand dollars yesterday at the magoons house! They live right on the beach and didn't even pay for the property...I'm definately moving here some day. I have like a gajillion bug bites because we all have bed bugs, but it's all worth it. Anyways, have fun in america. Try not to be too jealous of me. I'll teach you some fijian stuff when i get back. Until then, mothe!

P.S. Wow haha i just saw the blog you made...i guess you already know everything i'm doing here. But yeah that guy on the roof with us is Unax, and he's in the rugby picture too. And i've given up on the local food, i just eat the sack lunch the lady packs us. But Brad caught a crab yesterday and i tried some, it was actually pretty good. And there are these ssssuuuuuuuuuper hot little green peppers that i tried...oh my goodness, worst thing EVER! But hey, no regrets. So yeah just thought i'd add that...bye!