Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! (I know it's a little a late, but oh well!) Hope everyone had a lovely day with family and friends, celebrating what they have to be thankful for in their lives. I found myself thinking of home often yesterday, picturing everyone bundled up in jeans and sweaters, gathered in kitchens and dining rooms, feasting, laughing, playing games. Quite different from my day in a skirt and tank top, sweating in the humid heat, trekking through the jungle, surrounded by banana, coconut, and papaya trees, to get to my island "office" to send email on a cellular connection that makes dial up seems high tech speedy. My office is actually quite nice - the far side of the island gets the best reception, so it is there that we go to work. Jimmy, Nemani, and Poasa have used various materials that we had on hand to build up a great desk, complete with woven coconut fronds crafted into shades that I can roll up or down to let in air or keep out rain. I love it! While I wait ages and ages for a page to load, I can relax and listen to the birds and the gentle waves in the mangroves. It's by far the best office I've ever had!

While we didn't have a Thanksgiving dinner here in Fiji, we did have huge feast on Thursday bidding Jim farewell and welcoming us into the leadership roles. It was a grand feast - a fusion of American dishes and Fijian dishes. On the American menu we had hamburgers, homemade buns, homemade ketchup, potato wedges, candied pumpkin (our Thankgsgiving dish!), and salad with homemade vinagrette dressing. From the Fijian side we had fish, fish and more fish - fried, boiled, curried. We had cassava, breadfruit, dalo, chicken stew, pineapple (the most delicious I've ever tasted!), grated paupau (papaya) salad, and many more dishes that I do not yet know the names of. We've been to many feasts in Fiji, and this was hands down the most delicious and extravagant - it seems each one is better than the last. It was full day of cooking, and then grog late into the night. The island was full of Fijian friends from our earlier months on the island - it was great to see faces we haven't seen in a long time. So while it wasn't Thanksgiving, it was still an amazing day!

I had the opportunity to experience Labasa hospital this week. And what an experience. I have never been more grateful for the healthcare available in our country before. Tomosi, a tribe member from England staying a couple months with us, had been ill for several days and his symptoms were matching up with those of appedicitis. So with Nemani with us as an interpreter (he speaks fluent Fijian and Hindi - very helpful) I went to the hospital with him to get checked out. The hospital was crowded, unlit, dirty, disorganized. Truly a 3rd world hospital. Instruments are sterilized with tap water. After the xray for Tomosi, there was no one to help us or to tell us where to go next. We waited in a crowded hallway while Nemani knocked on the emergency room door only to be told that there were no doctors available - they were all at a ceremony celebrating the opening of a new part of the hospital. During this time, patients were left for hours, locked in the emergency room with no attendants. I hold hope that the system will improve with this facility closes down, and the new one is in use. I spoke with a woman who has recently come back to Labasa after being gone for 15 years and she shared with me her frustration. Her mother was in the locked emergency room with all the symptoms of a heart attack - she could not get to her. For the people of Labasa, where I've been told the average wage is $50 a week, this is their best option for healthcare. You hear so often about the terrible healthcare in developing countries, but it to see it in real life was a huge eye opener. I have so much sadness in my heart for the people here - I've been told that when someone gets sick, they just get worse. There is no facility there for real healing. I was told of a little girl of 5 who came to hospital for a tumor on her head - there is nothing to be done there so she is home in her village, playing, she and her family ignorant to the fact that she is terminally ill. In the hospitals, they don't talk to you - if they can't help you, they just send you home. For foreigners like ourselves who have access to money and credit cards in the event of real emergency, we can fly to Suva to a private hospital. The mama bear in me was relieved to find out that the owners of the sawmill in Labasa, who are friends of ours, just secured a private helicopter, so if one of the kids gets seriously injured or sick, we have a way to get to Suva in a hurry.

In the end, Tomosi is feeling better. Even though he had the ultrasound done at the hospital, we never had an opportunity talk to a doctor about it. When we finally found someone to answer our questions, they shuffled him through a line where a doctor wrote him a hurried prescription for milk of magnesia and something else I can't identify, but never offered any information about what might be wrong. When we got back to the island, it got worse - he was in terrible pain, vomiting, hadn't eaten for a few days. The Fijian family that lives with us began to heal him in their way - they have been praying over him several times a day now (starting at 4 am) and massaging him (massage is an important part of healing in Fiji - healing hands are hereditary and I have seen them work miracles). The prayer and massage did for him what the hospital could not - he is feeling better than ever, and his symptoms are all gone.

My time on the computer is up - I have my family eyeing me to "totolo" - hurry up! It's time to grab a bite to eat before we go visit friends, then head back to the island. We will not be in town as usual on Monday, so the next update will likely be a week or more from now.

Hope all is well with everyone! Much love!

Phone Numbers

A few folks back home wanted to know how to reach us by phone - we have a personal cell phone and the company blackberry.

Personal phone: 011-679-834-1791
Blackberry: 011-679-992-0428

That should ring straight to us!

Not much to update on right now - still in training with our new positions. The big thing this week is the upcoming community meal on Thursday to celebrate and say farewell to Jim (the current project director) and to welcome us into the leadership roles. We are going to have a fusion feast of Fijian and American dishes - yummy! And it is such great timing that it falls on Thanksgiving, so we will have a Thanksgiving feast afterall, Fijian style!

Much love to everyone back home! We love hearing from everyone - please continue writing emails and commenting on the blog! It is so wonderful to read a message from back home!

XOXO!

Few more things...

How to reach us:

Mailing address:

PO Box 2670
Labasa
Vanua Levu
Fiji Islands

Phone/email:

We can receive and send email messages from the island on our Blackberry!!!! We can even do texting, although I have to find out how much $$ it charges before I go crazy with it.

If you want us to get a message from you on the Blackberry, email to these addresses:

jenny.cahill@tribewanted.com
jimmy.cahill@tribewanted.com

We will still have our other email addresses and will check them when in town, but the other email addresses will reach us much more quickly.

We have both a personal phone number and the Blackberry number, but I don't have them handy right now. I will post them here on the blog soon.

I am downloading all our email today and taking it back to the island with me, but unfortunately won't have time to respond to any today. If you've emailed, expect a reply in a few days, or just resend it to the Tribewanted email!

I think that is it! Moce mada!

Gettin' into the groove...

Today is day #3 of official work - Jimmy is shadowing Jim, the current project director, to learn the ins and outs of the job before Jim leaves us on the 25th. I am shadowing Jenny, who has been filling the Tribe Manager role in the interim time of when Amy left back in Sept. and when I take over. There is a lot to learn in a short amount of time, but it is all well organized and because we spent so much time working with the project this past summer, we are well acquainted with how things run so as things are explained to us, it all makes good sense. The downside is that we are so busy that the kids are on their own quite a bit, and feeling a bit homesick, but they understand that these first few days are going to be the most intense and that after we get our jobs sorted out and all the info under our belts and in our heads, life will feel quite a bit different.

It's very, very hot - a big adjustment from the cool, fall weather of Indy! It's just showered once very briefly - El Nino has delayed the rainy season, according to the Fijians. We started off living in the family bure, where we stayed this past summer, but found that it was very, very hot at night because the design of a bure doesn't allow for any breeze to come through. So we have moved to the vale next store, which is a 12 bed dormitory - the design of this building is much more open, so we get a bit of a breeze at night, as well as more daylight during the day. It's larger also, so we can spread out a bit. When booking numbers pick up, we will have to move out to accommodate tribe members, but for now it is a really nice space to call home.

As I learn the details of my job, I feel more and more confident that I will love it and be good at it - so much of it is really is like managing a household, just on a much larger scale. I am having lots of bouts of homesickness - really missing everyone back home - but that is balanced out with lots of excitement about having such an amazing job and opportunity!!!

Our luggage all arrived safe and sound on Monday - BIIIG sigh of relief. Really missing the camera we lost - still no word that it has been found. Not very optimistic at this point. Ben, our boss, is helping us check into getting it replaced. Fingers crossed and crossed again that that happens soon!

Well time to close now - off to do a Labasa tour with Jen. Hope all is well with you - and please drop a line!! We love to hear what is happening back home!

XOXOXOX!

After a whirlwind of a trip, We are finally here! I am in Labasa today checking on our bags, which have made it to Fiji, just not to us yet! I will know in a few hours whether or not we will get them today. Getting caught up with friends here, and caught up on sleep, and beginning to feel like ourselves again. I will be back in town in a few days, and will update more then. For now, all safe and sound on Vorovoro!!!

Jimmy

We are here...

Here we sit at Nadi airport - Lucas is reading a book, Ollie is sleeping in the chair next to me, Bethie is playing darts on her video game, and Jimmy is across the way at an internet kiosk, attempting to make some headway in untangling our current mess. We are in a sorry state right now - I'm sick with a nasty cold, in addition to the toes I broke and the bumps and bruises I got from falling down the basement stairs yesterday morning, Oliver is feverish, we left our camera (our expensive SLR digital with 50 mm portrait lens) on the plane in LA (we hope that is where it is anyway), our luggage (all 12 pieces of it that we had to pay $340 to check) didn't make it on the plane and is still sitting somewhere at LAX, our travel insurance wasn't activated yesterday like we expected it would be, one of our laptops broke when the bag it was in fell from a luggage cart yesterday (the laptop with all our contact info saved in it, of course) and we are all tired and smelly. Phew. I think that is it. Struggling to stay positive - had a few moments of tears and anger earlier today when we realized that we lost our camera - I was already feeling so crummy, it seemed like adding insult to injury. When we realized that none of our luggage was going to appear on the baggage carousel, for some reason I was not surprised - it seemed to fit it just right with the tone of the entire trip. Losing the luggage is an inconvenience, but at least the chances are good that we will get it all back - it is supposed to flown to us by Saturday. We can get along till then without it. But as for the camera - it feels like my fault. I was too sick, tired, and out of it to have been responsible for it yesterday - I should have put it in my backpack or check it. I hope we left it on the plane and we are able to recover it - there is a chance that I set it down at the baggage check at LAX. If that is the case, I am not optimistic that I will see it again. We were supposed to have travel insurance secured by our boss. He phoned yesterday to say that the insurance website wouldn't let him buy a policy for other people, so we should purchase a policy and he would reimburse us. In the rush of last minute tasks, we found ourselves sitting on the plane without having bought a policy. I am angry at our boss waiting for the last minute to get our travel insurance. I am angry at us for being too busy to buy a policy before we left. I am angry at myself for not being as prepared as I had wanted to be when departure day came - I had wanted to be packed and ready days before we left, and it came right down to the wire for packing up the house and packing our luggage. J and I had slept about 10 hours in 3 days as of yesterday morning, and by the time we got to LA, I was falling asleep standing up, sick with a fierce head cold, feeling battered and bruised from my fall, and useless for anything other than dragging bags to where I was told. I'm glad J was in better mental shape than me. I'm sure I was quite a sight dragging two bags as large as me through LAX, limping like a 3 legged dog. Oy. There was no time between connections for any breaks or food, so by the time we got on the plane bound for Fiji at 1:30 am our time, we still had not eaten any dinner. Paid $25 for 5 bags of chips, 3 bananas, and 2 waters on the way to the gate. Ollie wasn't feeling well at all yesterday and was too weak to carry his bag and could barely keep up as we rushed through the terminals. We were worried he would attract the attention of the airport employees and not be allowed to board the plane. Despite all of this, the kids did great - they seemed to understand we just had to keep moving. For this I am SO grateful. We travel so well as a family. We had the choice of staying here in Nadi until our luggage arrives in a day or two and being reimbursed up to $500 FJ for our expenses. That was appealing - a day or two to rest up in a hotel room, to get feeling better before finishing the last leg of our journey. That would require switching our flights to Labasa (which would cost $$) and somehow reaching our friends who are expecting to pick us up to let them know of the change in plans (can't get to any phone numbers cuz of the broken laptop). We opted for plan B, which is to finish out our travels today and trust Air Pacific to ship our luggage to us in Labasa on Saturday. The upside to that is we save $$ by not having to pay the luggage check fees, and that we will be welcomed and surrounded by friends sooner rather than later. We really need that right now. So that is where we are now - waiting for our next, and final, plane departure. The check in counter for our flight has just opened, and J is headed off right now to check us in. Hoping that goes smoothly - but would not be surprised to find that they lost our reservations or something crazy like that. But if that is the case, oh well - what can we do? The challenges and lessons of this journey are coming at us fast and steady - we are attempting to meet them with grace and acceptance. Change what we can, accept what we can't. I can change the way I prepare in the future - it was a mistake starting this journey so sleep deprived and frazzled. Won't do that again. I can change the way I look and feel about the situation - a few moments of anger and negativity were enough for me to realize that that is not how I want to be and feel. So we will see what the next chapter brings, how this crazy travel story will play out. Whatever the ending, I am grateful for helpful customer service people, for my patient and flexible kiddos (not always the case back home, but they have really impressed me the last two days), for our safety, and for the opportunity to learn and grow through this entire experience. Sega na leqa (No worries)

UPDATE:

We made the flight to Labasa a-ok and are here now making necessary phone calls before catching the boat to VV. The airline gave us reimbursement for $500 FJD ($250 USD)for clothes and tolietries, so we went on a shopping spree in the gift shops for friends back on the island - that was fun. Found out that our bags that we left behind a few months ago are waiting for us on the island (they had been in storage off-island), so we will be fine for clothes and toiletries for the next couple days. J is checking with Frontier airlines, hoping to hear that someone has found our camera.

It is surreal being here - it's like we never left and our time back in Indy was just a dream. It is crazy - like we just stepped in where we left off. But we have lots of memories from the past two months tucked away to remind us that it wasn't just a dream - we are ever aware of what we have left behind. We have all been a mixture of bittersweet emotions since leaving - leaving our friends and family back home was one of the hardest things we've ever done. If you are one of those people, know that we love and miss you more than you know! XOXO!

We will be back in on Saturday (2 days) and will try to update again then. Till then,

Tick tock goes the clock

If you haven't heard, we leave again for Fiji on Nov. 10. Things are coming together well - house is rented, other house in process of being sold, pets have homes, house is almost packed - still lots of little things like seeing friend and family, dental appointments, utility switches, power of attorney paperwork, and on and on. But ultimately, things really couldn't be shaping up any better!

Just uploaded some new pics to our flickr account - there are some cute one from Halloween. Check 'em out!

Will start posting again regularly, to get back in the swing of things before we hit the Fiji sand. I've made a commitment to many people to post updates regularly!

Much love from us to you!