Tavaiqia's

Hawaii to California all the way to Las Vegas and Back to Hawaiine!!!

2010-03-03T18:42:00.000-08:00

Yes, so much has happened in just this short period of time. I went and relieved my sis-in-law in Oakland, CA which was unexpected but knowing that she had to visit her husband and her son in Fiji made me feel empathy. So, I took care of an old lady who was such a dear but lived in the woods. It was totally isolated and I thought I was back home in Sawani. The only time we saw the sun was early in the morning because the tree's were so tall and thick that it hid the sun. Needless to say, I did get a good white tan from that experience, people thought I was preggers! The highlight though of my time there was meeting up with my friends/classmates and just hanging out. Also got to meet with the Fijian members and how they were praying for a Fijian branch to open up and the neat thing was that while I was there it was announced that the First Pres. gave them the "go ahead"....that was really neat to be a part of that.
Anyhow, so after spending close to two months in Oakland, my husband decided to visit and since it was during the week of the USA 7's, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. We took the long drive to Las Vegas and back and I swear I will never do that again......gosh I thought Nadi to Suva was long!!! But it was a fun trip, I got to see the lights which was the highlight of the trip not the games. I did have a "moment" where I asked myself and husband, "If people come from all over the world because we are attracted to the lights of Las Vegas, why aren't we attracted to the Light of Christ then???
Well, that is a question I am still working on, so if you wanna shed some light into this please feel free. We came back home after the games and after just spending 2 weeks at home we were struck with a tsunami warning....wailei tutu joji!!!! Is it a sign or what??? Well, that was a sign for me to get our welfare started. I was more worried for my sister and her family in Kiribati where I swear a 12ft wave or less can swipe the whole island off the map. It is so tiny with no mountains. I asker my sister Nina, where their evacuation site was? She said they have to climb to their rooftops since it was the highest points in the entire island! Oh well this is when we realize that the only chance we have is to pray and pray and pray some more.

Moces....

YAH.......I'm finally here!!!

2009-11-28T23:41:00.001-08:00

So, I know its been a month now that I am here in Hawaii with my dear sweet husband but I have to post this. To thank everyone for your prayers and well wishes in making sure that I got here in one piece and soon.

It was bittersweet living my family but I gots to be with my family and so here I am. However, I am having a lot of "Fiji"withdrawals not to mention the physical ones too. I MISS that country lots and especially my family. I was fortunate enough to be still in Fiji when my sister and her family from Kiribati came in for the wedding and I got to spend time with my niece and nephews, that was really cool. We also celebrated Ice's wedding to Daphne Levaci, glad that she joined our family and the first ever sister-in-law so that is exciting. It was a really funny wedding, we got to see some weird traditions like the Ice's in-laws family will feed him and the wife and they got to seat on their aunts laps while they were eating....so yea that was really funny to watch Ice who usually shy's away from attention be the center of attention.

Now that I am here, the next order of business is to find a job......arrrgghhhh!!! Anywayz, working very hard on it so it will be good sometime soon.

Lolomas...

Unbelivable!!!

2009-09-13T03:09:00.000-07:00

At the advanced age of 28, I finally got my drivers license.......woohoooo....yipeeeeyayooooo!!!! I started driving 2 years ago and I only worked up the nerve to go in for my test and the test master or whatever we may call him was so HARD....he was a nightmare!!! So, to you who haven't gotten their drivers license anything is possible at this advanced age of 28.

We are now preparing for Ice's wedding next month. Its always exciting to prepare for weddings as it brings the extended family together and I can't think of another good reason, oh yea its FUN!!! His wedding will be a small affair compared to the ones we've been having and since he insisted on having a small one we have obliged him. He is weird like that and smart since he will be paying for most of the stuff and he says he can't afford feeding a whole village or he will be having rourou for dinner for the rest of his life.

I am excited since the processing of my papers have been advancing at a pace not expected and I am still crossing my fingers that it will be soon and very soon. For the time being, I still am at home working the firewood and slaving away at my glorified landscape projects, and best of all being a pest to my little brother. oh.....oh....oh I have to tell you of my big find and that is I am now a #1 fan of pioneerwoman.com she is so cool, hilarious, and she loves to cook......what more can a Fijian gal ask for.

Lolomas.....

2009-08-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

For the last few months since the economy downturn, life has been exciting. There has been so much stuff going on for me that it has helped me cope with my "attachment issues." I mean it is hard to be apart from my husband for 7 months now but I am coping or I would already be institutionalized. We live in a rural area where there is no regular water supply and only when I turned 18 did we have electricity in our house. We live like a mile away from where we can catch regular transport and I have always hated living there from when I was a teenager because of its inconvenience. I have learnt to love it now. I really do love it now!!!

I get to cook dinner outside on the fireplace to save gas, I plant flowers and have started to landscape our very very bare yard, I go swimming in the river every now and then (when I am not cold), chop firewood, bake, and sleep a full 8hrs without any noise. Can it get any better then this? This is the life and I was thinking of people wanting to live the country (Fiji, including myself) to move on to bigger and better things and I cringe because this is the life I want for my children. As simple and as hard as it may seem, its very rewarding. I am beginning to dread moving to the States because of how complicated it can be but....that is where my heart is so I better take the rest of my body there.

Anyhows, its been real and life is a struggle but it is worth every damn bit of it. I gotta go check on my flowers and give it some water and check out our overgrown waterfall and see if we can restore it to its former glory....lol!!!

See ya.....I will be posting pics of my very domesticated self working on my simple but glorified projects very soon!!!

Toodles....

2009-07-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

Okay....so this will just be a short update since there weren't any drama this week. So far we have just been preparing for Orisi's trip to Hawaii to finish off his education. He had an extended trip which was supposed to last a year but it moved to more then a year. But he has been very industrious at home cleaning, weeding, gardening, and planting and besides we have just harvested the taro he planted and we ate it last week. So,, he will be leaving us this Sunday and will be in Hawaii for at least two semesters.
I got to attend the wedding reception of Romulus Toro to Annie it was a really nice reception, reminded me again of mine...lol!!! Junior (youngest bro) has gotten right back into playing in the Saints team, giving my mom a lot of heart palpitations ( she is worried that her baby will get paralysed from playing rugby). Anywayz, that is all about our boring life here in Fiji. Will make sure that I update this every week if it's possible.

Moces!!!!

Took a pic of us right before heading to church!!

"Sorry"

2009-07-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

Man, I have said that word so many times that I think I've lost the true meaning of it. Anywayz, I have been lax in my blogging due to some unforseen circumstances which were way beyond my control so please bear with me. My computor and internet connection were stolen and because of our trustworthy police system (NOT), I believe I will never see them again. So, onto serious matters of the heart...lol!!! I am still here in Fiji, missing the husband and hoping that I will be joining his soon.

Nina and her family have now moved to Kiribati and so the house is empty. We now live with my grandmother who is a dear old lady and not as mobile as she was before. We enjoy having her with us always as she keeps mom company. Orisi is preparing now to go back to BYUH, its been amazing how Satan is working really hard to keep from progressing. He had the biggest, nastiest, and most painful boil ever on his right hand for a month...a month people!!! He looked so helpless since he found it difficult to do the most mundane tasks. But he weathered the storm and was able to get back on his feet and then when it was time to work on his papers, he misplaced his passport. He had to work on another new one and in his case it would usually take a month or so to process a new one that has been misplaced but he got it in less then a week......a MIRACLE!! So, now he is waiting for the embassy and his appointment date with them and hopefully that goes through also. I wish him all the best in the world!!!

But, I'm saving the best for last and that is my younger brother just got back from his mission. Woooohooo......he is the greatest youngest bro anyone could ever ask for.

He served in the Sydney North Mission. So, I will be posting up pics later as soon as I can figure out a way to sneak in again and use my mom's computor at her office. Hopefully, I will be regularly updating this blog as often as possible so that I can keep updated with my own life too.

Tootalooos......

RS B'day!

2009-04-02T00:54:00.000-07:00

So, just this past Saturday we had out Relief Society birthday and it was so fun. I was tasked with organizing the whole program and I had so much fun doing it. It was a tea party and each sister was required to wear hats to the party. Anywayz, we didn't have a lot of sisters attend but the little that came did have fun so here are some pics of the event.

Heidi and I made the cupcakes and once again it was fun making them. So, thank you Heidi for the big help!

We tried to make the icing blue but it turned out green but it still worked......and it was all gone in a few seconds.

This was the best part....the finger food was a surprise b'day gift from the Bishopric. Dosen't that look so good??? Anywayz, I ate my fill of those chicken wings and it was "finger lickin good."

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY Relief Society!!!!

Jane's story

2009-03-31T01:16:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation of the fun we had last week so I have to share this story. Now if you get to ask Jane about this then this is a warning that she will totally and unequivocally refute this story....don't believe her I'm a first rate witness!

So, we were playing volleyball with a total stranger who could be from NZ or Aussie and he is an ok player but he was drinking too at the same time. Jane decides to be the umpire while we were coaxing her to join us. The stranger decides to....oh I remember his name now...John! John invites Jane (man dosen't that just rhyme?) to join us......as you can see in the pic, John is walkin towards Jane who is taking a picture of him (I wonder why?).

So, as he is walking towards Jane, she decides to run and she runs smack dab onto the rope that secures the volleyball net to the pole. Jane is a sucker for accidents as you may recall the "Macdonalds fiasco" that will be another story but here is a picture of her blister...

Isa Jane.......anyways that is our story!!! Jane e dina nai talanoa qo se vacava???

2009-03-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

This is dedicated to the Wakolo's who sent us some stuff from NZ. First of all they have been a part of our family from the time my dad died in 1990. Elder Wakolo has been my father since and Anita was more like a sister then a mother....or she was both! They have been more then blessings to us as a family. They have been there from teenage rebelliousness to graduations to marriages and to now to our nieces and nephews and we are a family. So, with that they have recently moved to NZ and Elder Wakolo just this week visited Fiji to fulfill an assignment so Anita ever the faithful grandmother sent along some toys and some very cute outfits for my niece and nephews.....and most importantly some of my very favorite chocolate....Almond Gold. You can see how the boys "kaicolo" their toys!

Here is Na checking out the outfits for Christina.....it was adorable! I bet it's fun to shop for little girls' outfits rather then boys.

Oh and yea we did some fun stuff earlier on in the day, it was a girls day out. Man, it was so refreshing....even though I really love my family but I gotta take a break from them every once in a while. So, me and my friends (Hilda, Marj, and Jane) went to Uprising and it was so fun.....its just a breath of fresh air when you get together with people your own age. A time to rehash the old times and just be plain stupid and so on....

Marj tryin to show her Fiji rep status in pani.....not volleyball ...sorry!!!

After all the fun, sun, and games, guess what we had to do???? YES.....hitch hike...another one bites the dust!!!

Qori.....this is what happens when we have too much fun!!! Thanx ladies I really enjoyed the day....and I'm looking forward to the next date with ya'll!!!

I'm Back!!!

2009-03-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am the worst Blogger ever, there is a Fijian sayin that goes, "Katakata vaka Kuro kava." Which simply translates, hot like a tin pot....and that describes me totally. I was all fired up when I started this blog but that fire slowly died down and it resulted in nearly a year of sabbatical.
Well, since I'm back a lot has happened over that 'sabbatical' period from blogging. First, I quit my job at the Social Welfare because they weren't paying me, they led me on a wild goose chase. So, I just upped and quit and it was a good thing too because it was draining my wedding fund.......which leads to the next big thing that happened!
I got married to the most wonderful guy, who is everything I'm not. I would love to extol his virtues but I'd rather not as it would embarass him....LOL!!! We got married at the LDS Temple here in Fiji and which was way cool. We have been married now for 3 months and it has not been a blast so far.....because we are the first couple that you would have heard off that gets separated after a month of wedded bliss. Anywayz, I am here in Fiji for an indefinite period of time till my papers to move up to the States gets processed and then I can join him....lucky thing we are just separated and not divorced!!!
So, in the meantime I am working part time as a teacher and I love it because its a challenge but I am also looking for work.
Also, my first ever niece was born, she is the cutest baby with the thickest mop of dark black curly hair. It kind of looks like Monica's black doll from Mom Sue...well I surely will post up pics of her.

2008-07-10T02:01:00.000-07:00

Oilei....just the thing that I didnt want happening did happen......I PROCRASTINATED!!!! It's not that I intentionally left this out but I changed our operating system on the computor.....that's all that I know about computors and iIce was supposed to load the new one but he took his good o'le time in installing it. So, it is up and running again which is why I'm blogging again.
So much has happened in these past few weeks that has been stressful, fun, and exciting. Our ward had the Primary Talent show in which us the Relief Society did Tina Turner's song, "Mother Mary," that was hilarious.......we had these usually reserved Relief Society sister's dancing, jumping, singing, and basically making a fool of themselves. I had so much fun with them and the other ward members. Meanwhile, at work we have been working overtime with our voucher book prepations. We had to do file reconciliation for each 800 of my recepients from Post Office Suva. Then we had to do 500 ID's for all those that brought in their photo's. The final process was to come up with a list of all the names and input into the database so that their checks can be printed.
During these process at work, we were organizing the Tri Stake activity that is to be hosted by our stake. We decided to do Bootcamp at the Army Camp. I thought there was going to be another military coup after we left but we left with fond memories of the camp or rather muddy clothes and an appreciation for what military people go through. At the camp we did many obstacle courses this were not made up ones but it was real ones that were frightning at times. There were two people at the camp that became my heroes that day. There were many instructors that day that were discouraging them from participating because of their size but they wanted to prove them wrong and they did all the obstacle courses that day. I mean I am supposed to be more fit then them but I couldn't do some of those courses because they were too difficult.
Anywayz, we managed to complete the whole course and return unharmed. I was so proud of all the people that were unafraid of the challenge. I have to admit I was scared ready to pee my pants before going into camp but after it all it was too good that so many people are asking for another camp......but I will have to count myself out of the organizing committee. So, that is the update about my uneventful life, I will be uploading pics later when I get the chance. Until later adios!!!

Happy Ratu Sukuna Day!

2008-05-30T00:03:00.000-07:00

Hi ya'll! Hope that everything is going good for everyone. And today we celebrated Ratu Sukuna Day who is a statesman of Fiji. He is well known and well loved thats just about what I know about him. We had a ward activity in which we had to dance to Tina Turners song, "Proud Mary" it was a hilarous dance. Our Relief Society sisters were all so good that everyone was on the edge of their seats laughing. Tina Turner was our former Relief Society President Eta Taukada, she really did play her part well.
By the way I happen to be the Relief Society 2nd Counsellor in our family ward. Its weird to be back in a family ward again, there are so many things that are done differently. Its really a great calling I realize why the Lord blessed me with the BYUH experience. Its been great getting to know each of the sisters and realize how each of them are unique. They also have faced extraordinary challenges and continue to face them but they're still in the church. Every Sunday attending church feels like a treat, most of the lessons given leaves a lot to be desired but the spirit I feel from them often rejuvenates me and keeps me in check the whole week.
Work this week was uneventful, it was a usual week where we deal with Family Assistance. It's the assistance we give to the poor kind of like TANF. It's can be really draining to deal with recepients but I love my job so no complains.

2008-05-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

Hello Ha.....this week has been slow for me....well not really I guess just normal. I got to do my first Court Report for and adoption, we call it a GAL report. My supervisor rated it very good for a first timer......woohooo!!! It was an interfamily adoption and the hearing was on Friday which ironically was my birthday. Me and Marj played hookie and didn't go to work so we can go celebrate at a real nice resort at Pacific Harbor. So, me, Orisi, Marj, and a friend Janelle from Hawaii all went. It is an hour away from Suva so we borrowed my sisters car. We had a real nice lunch for an affordable price then we went swimming. It was so nice the beach wasn't crowded like it is in Hawaii always and the water was cool. By the way we are approaching winter season so it can get cold too here. They have real good water sports activites which we have to pay so we payed for the ones that we can afford.....kayaking. We were moving around the water like TOVUTO's more like beached ones. I really enjoyed the place so if anyone comes to Fiji for a holiday and want me as a tour guide I will take you there.....just make sure you pay for my lunch.

We came back and we had another dinner with one of our workmates. She makes the best dhal anyone could ever taste, along with Lamb curry, tomato and cucumber chutney, and the works. Tomorrow I'm seriously thinking of joining the water aerobics group but then again what have I got to lose!

I'm a BLOGGER!!!

2008-05-15T00:47:00.000-07:00

Hi....this is the first time I'm trying this out so bear with me. I thougth it would be a good idea to blog and say its your journal rather then keeping an actual one....which is tiring to keep! I will make sure I introduce blogging to my children maybe when they're like 2 or 3 years of age....if I get to keep this going for that long. Also, I'm using this so I can only say good things. So, if I ever miss or I've been missing in action for a long time just email me so I can get on with it again.

Anywayz, I've been back in Fiji for four months now and its been a roller coaster trying to find a job. I had hoped that I would get in the Department of Social Welfare but they thought otherwise and with the current situation in Fiji....I mean I was seriously considering selling some vegetables in the market, its a noble profession too you know!

So, as Marj said the only way into being a Civil Servant is through the 'back door'.... the Fijian way of saying it, "e backdoor taki." So, I've been working for the Department now for a month and a half and I still haven't been paid.....I guess the Lord is trying to punish me for not stopping the coup.

Well, today was the first day I got to go to Juvenile Court, I had heard some pretty traumatizing stories of Chief Magistrates and today I got to see firsthand. Luckily, she was a real nice Fijian lady who seemed to know that it was my first time and went out of her way to make me feel welcome. However, after that experience I felt so weak that I came back to the office and 'mokusiga' around. Towards the afternoon I got a memo informing me that a child that was placed in Care had passed away. I had read the file while filing it away and it seemed like I knew the child but when the news came it seemed like a statistic. It was sad, I didn't even know the child but it was really sad....but those are the joys of being a social worker.