I peed my pants!

I knew that would get your attention! Now on with the details.

Saturday, my villagers decided to show me a good time. About 6 of us hopped on a bamboo raft called a bilibili and used a bamboo pole gondala style to get to the ocean. We glided under the shade of the mangroves through murky water out into a small bay. The ocean was so close and I could hear the waves pounding against the black sandy shores, but we "dropped anchor" near the mangrove shore.

My uncle, Vili, snorkeled around for about 2 minutes then speared a big flat fish! He told me that I would be eating it later with the chief! So then my auntie and I got out the fishing poles--plastic coke bottles with the fishing wire wrapped around them. There is a hook on the end and a small rock attached about an inch from the hook to act as a sinker. We slid a small prawn on the hook as bait, ripped off the head and plopped it into the water. Not a minute later I already had a bite and my first offical catch as a Fijian! I ended up catching another fish too.

After fishing we paddled the rafts about a quarter mile to the ocean and parked them on the beach. There were some kids playing around with kayaks and they let me take one for a spin. It felt good to get some exercise! An upper body workout felt great after sitting around in the village and eating for a couple days straight. After I paddled around the bay a little and checked out the coast line, I returned just as the kids were hacking open some coconuts with a machete. So I ate some coconut and then went for a swim.

At this point we had been away from a toilet for about 2 hours and as staying hydrated is very important to me, all the water I drank in preparation for the day was really hurting the ol bladder. So I swam out into the ocean and let loose. And that's when I peed my pants. Swim suits do not exist to Fijians. They just swim in their clothes and I happened to be wearing some cutoff trousers and a t-shirt that day. So technically, I peed my pants. At 23 years old. And I liked it. And I'll probably do it again in the next couple years. Although I'm definitely looking forward to the day when I'll be at a resort, and it's culturally appropriate to wear a bikini!

So after I returned to the group, we played a little volleyball in the water then went back to the village to enjoy the fish we had so laboriously caught. The weather was beautiful, the people were beautiful, the ocean and sand and surf and sun were beautiful. Life is feeling pretty good right now.