"BULA" Fjij

I always knew that I wanted to travel on my way home from New Zealand. I had tried a couple different options but none seemed to be coming together and then randomly near the end of semester I heard some girls were going to Fiji and after looking up prices, I decided to go with them. It was a bit of a crazy decision but one of the best things I could have done. The trip was suppose to be about relaxing and getting a tan before we all headed home but once we got home we all knew that the theme of the whole trip was 'God Provides'.

Since we all booked our flights separately, we arrived in Fiji at different times and even on different dates. The first two to arrive were Caroline and Verana. We really had no clue where we were going to stay or where we wanted to go. I had some suggestions from someone I had stayed with in New Zealand but that was about it.

The Fiji airport is super small and when Caroline and Verana got off the plane they were overwhelmed with what to do next not to mention the fact that they had just spent hours crying because they left the day we all had to say our goodbyes to people. They ended up meeting a travel agent at the airport and found out she was a Christian. She helped them figure out where to stay, what we should do on our trip and talked with them about her faith. It was a HUGE blessing and they were even able to use internet in her office to get a hold of me in New Zealand. We found out if it hadn't been for her, we would have ended up going to the rainy side of the island and would have missed out on so much.

This is the four of us waiting for the last member of our little Fiji crew to arrive. In the picture it's me, Verana from Germany, Maxine from Canada and Caroline from Denmark. We are holding up 4 because we ended up waiting 4 hours in the airport because Christina's plane was delayed and by this time we were over waiting in the airport for people.

This is the "hostel" we stayed at on the main island. I put hostel in quotes because it was really more like a house. It was so random and actually reminded me of Africa quite a bit but it was a huge blessing to stay there because the people that owned it were Christians and it only costed $15 for a night which included 3 meals a day that were amazing! The best part was all the randomness about it that we all got a good laugh at.

Fiji was so beautiful, of course. This is on the mainland as we were walking to the beach near our hostel the first day I was there.

This is us chilling in the "backyard" of our hostel. It was a random yard where they would cook sometimes and had laundry up for all the workers that were there and then some chairs which we sat in to soak up some sun.

Here's the room we stayed in. I would like to point out that my area is way cleaner than Caroline's area. It was so fun to all stay in one room.

We went to town one day to buy water before we went to Mana Island where we stayed for about four days. You can't drink the water there and they charge a lot for bottled water so we stocked up!

I was the only American on the trip so I was the only one who appreciated how funny this was. It was basically a dollar store type shop with clothes.

This is the beach near our hostel. It was funny because the travel agent we met said Fijians think this beach is gross because it doesn't have white sand like the smaller islands do. I on the other hand thought it was beautiful! I wanted to soak up as much beach time as possible before heading back to the midwest!

Another picture of Nadi beach on the mainland. The weather was really wonderful but I guess for Fijians it was winter because they are still in the southern hemisphere so while we were laying out on the beach people were wearing hats and jackets.

We took a boat to Mana Island from Nadi and it was the scariest boat ride I have ever been on! It took about an hour and it was raining so the driver was looking out the side window because he couldn't see out of the front and one of the engines kept acting up so both workers were yelling back and forth at each other in Fijian. Let's just say I was doing a lot of praying! Once we got to the island, the hostel staff took our luggage for us and sang us a Fijian welcome song. The word "Bula" in Fijian is hello so everywhere you go you hear it said and are always saying it.

Once again we stayed at a random hostel. This is where we ate meals each day. It was funny to be inside but still eating at picnic tables with sand under your feet.

Here's Caroline showing off the lovely bathroom. We were lucky because our travel agent called ahead and we had two rooms (one for 3 of us and one for 2 of us) because usually they put people in huge dorms with up to 36 people!

One day we went to explore the island and we walked around the whole thing in 2 HOURS! It was so beautiful and everywhere you looked you saw the ocean. Caroline and I found a huge seashell that is now my jewelry holder.

One the beach were "Souvenir Shops" which were these little shacks that people would set out necklaces and other stuff on each day.

One day it was really rainy so the hostel staff decided to show the movie 'Castaway' with Tom Hanks because it was filmed on one of the islands nearby. So we just moved the picnic tables and voila, you have yourself a theatre.

For cups the hostel used old Starbucks cups which I thought was hilarious. Merry Christmas??

This is Verana, Christina and myself making jewelry out of coconuts. I made a cute little bird but the saws you had to use were intense so my bird was more abstract than I planned.

This is the view we had each day at the hostel. It was Right on the ocean but with an island as small as it was, everything is Right on the ocean.

One of the days we were there we went to see the school on the island. The village that is there is made up of Fijians that work at one of the two hostels or the resort on the island. The kids at the school were so cute and we loved visiting them!

One of the coolest things we got to see was a night church service. We heard the music from our hostel and went to go check it out and it was so amazing. We couldn't understand anything because it was in Fijian but you could see so much joy in the people. They performed dances and then the pastor brought it when he gave the message. They were so kind to us as visitors and it was neat to be sitting by the ocean on a large blue tarp worshipping with other believers in a different language. God is so good.

The last night I was on the island, the staff did a fire dance show.

Another thing we did in Fiji was snorkeling (which I kept calling scuba diving by accident) which was incredible! I had never gone before and I was blown away with all the cool colors and fish I got to see. We had so much fun and took a boat out to where we snorkeled and when we were coming back the sun was setting and I felt like I was in a movie!

Some of the girls I went to Fiji with, I knew better than others but after all that we went through and experienced, I feel like we are bonded for life. It was an amazing time to reflect on all that God had taught me and done while in New Zealand and to get excited about what is to come. Each day was an adventure and God was so faithful. He provided in so many obvious ways and I really needed that reassurance as I traveled home. I hadn't felt that close to God in a while and it was so amazing to be reminded that even when we don't feel God or see Him working, He is always there.