Here are a few pictures of the last week or so. We're heading to Sydney for a few weeks over Christmas, so this will be a little quiet for a while. See you back in February - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy for our friends Ali and Zareen as they finally bought a new taxi.

Warhol-esque art

Home-schooling finished up super well -other than knocking over a few assignments and maths exam, we pretty much ate our way around Suva and through the last week. Breakfast at Maccas, 2 morning teas and a lunch at 3 different cafes. Filling, but fun! Above is Hannah's art presentation.

Driving around Suva city

End of school mufti party day.

Lunch at our friend Numiah's house

Last night was our church Christmas play-followed by dinner. Ethan did a super job as narrator and Soph was real and believable as a wise man. One of the highlights was when Mary and Joseph were sitting on stage cradling the baby Jesus doll and the 2 year old that actually owns the doll tackled them until they handed it over. There were tears -mainly from the adults in hysterics, but the 2 year old was pretty miffed for a while. Hilarious!

Pre-show nerves.

and excitement!

Ethan behind the microphone as narrator

Soph as wise man presenting her gift to baby Jesus who had been whisked away by 2 year old owner (on the left)ha,ha!

Finishing with Silent Night altogether.

Making cup cakes after school

The kids have had the opportunity to get creative this year, with a whole lot more time on their hands. Here are some things they have been up to recently.

Hannah's s'mores muffins

Getting downright kooky with the camera!

Ethan and Soph's athletics carnival a few weeks ago.

Looked out the window and saw our neighbour climbing this massively high tree -Ethan's new hero!

Bits and bobs

I decided to get a one month pool membership 3 weeks ago -so naturally the last 2 of those weeks, I have been unable to swim coz of one sickness or another. This last week I have been in bed most of the time feeling nauseated, headachey and exhausted. Hopefully will make it for my last week of swimming. So, anyway, all been pretty quiet here. Trying to finish Hannah's schooling for the year, changing bedrooms around so Ethan has the large room for bedroom/schoolroom next year, visits to dentist to talk about Hannah's braces for next year and the kids are rehearsing for a Christmas play this Sunday night. All good fun. But most of our focus is on the fact that we fly to Sydney in just 12 SLEEPS!! Very,very exciting. The cousins are even getting a day off school to meet us at the airport - and the fact that we have to wake up at 3am to get our first flight out of Suva just adds to the fun...for the kids anyway.

The whiteboard in the kitchen

The AGM was last Saturday and they all finished with a beautiful Fijian lunch together afterwards.

This is how Soph looks when Tony or I are cooking dinner with onions......

and even DURING the meal when her eyes havent recovered yet. Good look.

This arvo we were invited to a special "lovo" -a Fijian BBQ,which was a reunion/thanksgiving for the camp that Tony spoke on at Levuka a few weeks ago. It was excellent, the food was beautiful and we always learn more about Fijian culture at these occasions, which is good. A team of people were working on the food for days and made the lovo -a hole in the ground and then a pile of rocks and banana leaves to cook the fish and chicken and everything else, starting 6 hours before the event started. When we arrived, we were escorted to the front lounges, as a place of honour, and there were speeches, prayers and singing. Lovely people and alot of fun.

The lovo

During the speeches, I think.

You can see us seated at the back

With the wonderful Susu -who also works in the PSFC office.

Students and graduates

Kids pretty happy after ice-cream with their friend Louisa.

Diwali

The last week or so has been building up to the Hindu Festival "Diwali" -which is their Festival of Lights. Today is the actual day -but the fireworks and lolly-giving and bright Indian clothing will continue on for a while yet. While we enjoyed driving around looking at the lights people put on their homes -same as Christmas time back home- it has mainly been about managing the fear factor for the poor dog. She has improved since being allowed to sleep inside, but the real lifesavers were the sedatives that the vet gave us. There's a sentence I never thought I'd write! Anyway, we have it under control now -and are looking forward to the public holiday we have tomorrow. Here are some photos from today after church.

Ethan on his way to catching some fish. Came back disappointed.

We took a couple of kids from church out for a swim-it was pouring rain at one stage and they loved it!

Still trying to teach her to fetch/drop, but rip out of our hand/bury seems to be more her cuppa tea.

Happy shot of the two of us.....

which,of course, Tony has to take that one step further.

Maccas dinner...in case the decor didn't give it away..

A diwali delight!!

Levuka

Last weekend, Tony spent 3 days at a beautiful island called Levuka. He was the speaker at one of the student camps -speaking on the book of Ephesians. It is the former capital of Fiji and has alot of "firsts" there. Has the first school, church and hospital in Fiji. Even has the first fish cannery in Fiji.Apart from speaking at the camp, they all got to visit a boarding school, go to church and play countless games of volleyball. Very picturesque.

Arriving

Main meeting room

Small group time-shame they couldn't find a prettier spot to meet....

Climbing the 199 steps

Free time

Nothing to do with the camp -but a cool photo of Ethan posing with some Navy guys on Fiji Day. He's still grinning about this moment, by the way.

Church

Hannah took a few snaps of our church this morning -just to give you an idea of where we go each Sunday morning. We are starting to feel like part of the place now, learning peoples names and look forward to going each week and hearing teaching from the bible. The kids are particularly taken with the pastors 6 kids (American, but lived in Fiji for many years) and are loving teaching them Aussie games and rhymes. Hannah has even started helping out with leading in the Sunday School now and then.