the island!: as promised:

My favorite kid ever. This is Mo. He's deaf, but still taught and led the meke of about 30 kids from my village at Kids Games (explained in the next pic). He was so much fun to watch because he was so serious and intense about the dance. He's also incredibly smart. He's fluent in English, Fijian, American Sign Language, and Fijian Sign Language. He became deaf a couple years after birth so he can still speak really well and can read lips so well, you wouldn't know he was deaf if no one told you. A couple months ago he came home for a school break from the deaf school he attends in Suva. He taught me a bunch of signs and gave me a sign name so now we show that off to anyone who will watch.

THE ugliest picture of me and Sarah ever so it must be shared with the world. We were painting faces at an Aussie-led, Jesus-inspired full day of games with kids from 8 villages, KIDS GAMES it's called. Many taboos happening that day. Fijians don't like their heads or faces touched. It's taboo. So here we are rubbing red paint all over their faces, they're wincing like crazy (the equivalent of putting eye liner on a 5-year old), so that there are eventually about 25 spidermen running around this village. Then we played duck-duck-goose, another incredibly inappropriate game for a culture who doesn't touch heads. Alas, it was fun and the kids enjoyed it so chalk it up to another life experience and a random time with other white faces in PCFiji.

I found Sarah here in front of the cupboard looking for some grub and I cracked up because I assume this position at least once a day wondering "what should I eat next..."

Buna collecting lots of mangrove seedlings during our workshops last week! She really did her part. We planted over 400 seedlings in our mangrove nursery.

Lutu gloating over his dead, dried frog from the road. (What Ashley so appropriately deemed "toad jerky".) He brings home all sorts of disgusting treasures, gnaws for a bit, then leaves on the mat for me to discover and clean up later. It's always an adventure, I tell you.

My village rugby team, Team Paisoni (Poison), won the rugby sevens match and $1500. We're totally partying the 22nd of December! Grog and guitars and songs and a gift exchange. It really is christmas!

The kindergarten graduation ceremony. They call it prize giving because the kids who scored highest on their exams get prizes and public recognition for the subjects they led. Each class also performs a meke or song or drama.

I ate chicken feet. Only 2 though because they look too much like hands and I started feeling like a cannibal. I also ate bat the other day, but have no proof. It tastes like really gamey, greasy, pulled pork.