Since my last post so much has happened! For starters, there was a MASSIVE hurricane! On Tuesday last week, Evan blew in from the Pacific. He killed a couple of people in Samoa and Tonga and then picked up speed when he reached Fiji. The hurricane was stage 5 when it hit Fiji. Hurricane Katrina was a stage 4 when it hit New Orleans back in the day. I remembered how much damage it did in the states and was really scared for the people of Fiji.
That morning it was quite cool and really windy, and the wind continually picked up until about 2 or 3 PM when the peak of the storm was upon us. The eye of the storm didn't hit right in Lautoka, but it was not too far from here. The winds were so strong. I have never experienced anything like that in my life. Our house got boarded up in the morning and we packed all of our belongings into the rooms at the back of the house. We were chilling in our house which is on the top floor of a two story building, the wind was fun at first, but then it started lifting tree branches and random objects and flinging them into the house. That was not so fun. It was so loud. Rain came in through the windows and soaked the floor. I was actually scared, and I don't really get scared easily.
The family that lives downstairs invited us down when the storm got really bad. We stayed there all day and overnight. The family down there is related to the family that we are staying with. Auntie downstairs is Auntie Margie's sister. When we got moved downstairs I was so scared. There were trees and large pieces of tin roofs flying by the windows at warp speed. All I could think of was all of the poor children and families that live in the settlements near by in their one room shacks. I broke down into tears for them.
At one point, the large tree in the back yard broke apart. The way the wind was blowing, the tree should have crashed right into the house, but magically the pieces that broke off flew by one on each side of the house. God was protecting us after all. But the neighbour on one side had their roof torn off of their house and it flew away. And the neighbour on the other side had their car port collapse on their car. The roof of the car port kept getting caught by the wind and lifted a bit, only to be dropped back down on the car. The car alarm went off all day long. I really struggled with wondering why God would let such a thing happen to such poor people. Everything they had was destroyed before their eyes in one day, a week before Christmas. But I had to let it go because crying was doing no good.
Luckily the storm passed after a long day inside. When I got up in the morning and went outside it was like I was in a different world. My surroundings went from being those of a beautiful and lush tropical ilsand to a barren wasteland filled with rubbish. All of the trees were either torn right out of the ground or else had had all of their leaves blown off. There was paper scraps everywhere and rubbish everywhere. There were tin pieces from roofs scattered everywhere. Our yard was scattered with the remains of the big tree, a lot of books, including and introduction to psychology text book, a wheel chair, clothes, and the power lines had been demolished.
We spent the next few days cleaning up the yard. We all had bought machete's as souvenirs and we got to USE THEM! Awe yeah. We got to hack apart the large branches that were scattered on the ground. It was awesome. There was a lot of us working so we got it done pretty fast. Some of us helped the neighbours too. And the fire department came and freed the neighbours car. It still worked!!! And we learned that no one had died in the hurricane. Thank the Lord.
The next few days involved more cleaning up work. We went out to Vinesh's house. A Canadian girl named Jodie had raised money to build him a new house. Good thing they didn't build before the hurricane. We went out there and 1/3 of his house was gone. And instead of building him a house we got to tear down the wrecked part. AWESOME! Mission groups should demolish things more often. So fun.
The next day the boys got to go back and start building and the girls got to go to an old folks home to do some cleaning. When we heard cleaning we automatically envisioned cleaning toilets. When we got there, the maintenance guy snickered at us and pointed us to a large tree that we were supposed to 'clean up', which means hacking it apart with machetes and moving the remains to a field. HAHA! YESSSSSSSSSSS! We were jacked. So we got to use more machetes. We felt so manly.
At one point I pulled such a typical Steph move. As I was macheteing a branch (apparently I look like I am cutting veggies when I hack at branches) and suddenly by butt was soaked. I was really confused and I couldn't register what was happening to me. I was like 'am I peeing myself?' but then I turned around and realized that I had stepped on a broken pipe and had broken it a bit more to the point that it sprayed everywhere. It was refreshing in the hot sun. :)
It is so weird. All of us got sun burned after the hurricane. And no one got burned before that. We don't really know why. We think the hurricane blew the sun closer to us. But maybe it is more to do with the lack of shade because no trees are around anymore. Also, since the tree in the back yard is mostly gone, we have realized that we have a really nice view off of our back porch. There is a whole aspect of Fiji that we didn't realize exists!
So now most of what was wrecked during the hurricane has been fixed. But we are still waiting for electricity to come back on at the house. Most places in town have power back on though, so that's a bonus.
In other news, Yesterday was Sunday and at church we had an evening candle light service. We sang carols and such and it was really beautiful. It even felt a bit like Christmas in the Air Conditioning. Today is our last day in town. We picked up our last minute souvenirs and are hitting up the internet for the last time before we leave Fiji. We are leaving on boxing day, so we only have 2 more sleeps. I am actually so sad. I don't want to leave my new family. I am hoping that Dan and I can trade places and I can live with his family and he can go to Canada with mine.
For Christmas tomorrow, we had been planned on staying on a private island for the day and snorkeling and such, but Evan kind of ruined those plans. He flattened the island for us. Thanks Evan. But it turned out to be good because we got 1400 dollars refunded to us so we are able to bless some of the families that we have been working with, including Dan and his family. So it will be a Merry Christmas. We will be having Lovo with the Sumasafus. But we will be cooking it. A lovo is a traditional way of cooking a feast where you cook the food in the ground. We even get to shave coconuts. It will be grand.
Yesterday Ben and Jackie's mom brought us her Fijian stuff that she makes. Her stuff is like the stuff that merchants sell in the market, like woven fans and purses. And traditional carvings and such. I bought some traditional tools. The Fijians used to be cannibals before the missionaries converted them to Christianity way back in the day. The Fijians actually ate a few missionaries I think. So they have these tools. There is one club thing that is used to break the victim's neck. Then they have a spoon tool that they used to scrape out all of the flesh and stuff off of the bones. There is a spoon thing that has hooks on it and they used to thrust it into the gut and when they twisted and pulled it out it would bring all of the guts out with it. Then there is the scull crusher that they used to crack open the skull. Then there is a triple pronged forkish thing that was used to pluck out and eat the eye balls and the brain tissue. Fun times.
Apparently, the Fijians would go to neighbouring villages and massacre everyone. They would then bring all of the bodies back and give one to each family. And they would cook them in a lovo. Haha. Maybe we will be eating human tomorrow and we won't even know it! Good thing I have the proper utensils to do so! (This is a joke! We will be eating chicken, but I won't because I don't eat meat, but I guess I could eat some veggies with my eye-poker-outer!!)
I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to everyone that we have met here, but the time will come soon. And then we will be embarking on a whole new journey in New Zealand. Craziness. And apparently Evan is on his way to New Zealand too and we will get there on the same day! Ha! How many people can say that they have lived through the same storm twice?!
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