3 months!

Today is the 3 month mark. We arrived in Suva on January 17. It feels both shorter and longer than that, but all up, we are very happy to be here. I asked everyone to say  2 things they love about Fiji. Ethan and Soph found it very hard to limit to 2 which was lovely. Here are the responses.

Tony-is loving new friends and new foods.

Susie- Friendliest people on earth -I kept thinking people thought I was someone else when they said hello, then I realised they were just being friendly....go figure..!  Also, love that they play mainly 80's music on the radio.Seriously, " Waiting for a star to fall " is on ALL the time. I'm so meant to be here.

Hannah- loves that skype works here.

Ethan -loves EVERYTHING other than his family being back in Australia. Loves playing footy with coconuts, no men in business suits looking stressed, laid back people, frogs, mongoose, the list goes on...

Soph- loves school, her teacher, the school cat, taking peanut butter sandwiches to school. (there are no allergies here)

There's heaps more we could say, but mainly we are happy to be serving God where He has put us. He has provided for us in big ways and in the tiniest details (don't know why we keep getting surprised at that). We look forward to sinking our teeth into the ministry when the work permit comes through -in the meantime, we'll learn patience. Here are a few recent snaps.

Ethan at karate. I reckon this looks like a poster for a movie.

A quick catch up dinner with the Gibb family (the Vanuatu missionaries from Sparc)

Helping do some gardening at a Girls Home with some uni students. Really good morning.

Working hard!

Found this little friend in the shed.

SPARC Conference and other things

We're all sick and housebound at the moment -so a good chance to catch up on blogging. The kids are all trying to get out of doing a guest post, so in the meantime I'll have my turn.
We had a great time away at the South Pacific Regional Conference -with about 200 people from our region -Aust, NZ,Tonga, Vanuatu, Fiji and Solomans. Beauttiful venue, fantastic people, good food and a chance to connect with many people from all over the place. I spent most of the time looking after kids -and our kids were very sad when it was over. It was good for them to meet Aussie kids just like them who are missionaries in Vanuatu, but 5 years further along in the adventure. We even get to meet up again with them tonight for dinner at Maccas. Very exciting! Here are some pics of our time away.

Our accomodation

Singing with new friends

The 2 Ethans listening to the talk

Small groups.....nothing distracting about this venue at all...

Tony MC'ed the last night

Introducing us as new staff worker and family

The international delegates

Traditional Fijian farewell song on last night.

Spotlight on Ethan!

Hi everyone! Ethan here im just doing a few comments on what we are doing here in fiji. First we went to a church camp which was HEAPS of fun. There was a pool with a waterslide and a big tiki face. There are some pictures of it here. There were also tons of frogs everywhere!

The two "Ethans" and their shared love of frogs and all things outdoorsy.

We also went to a museum with lots of native fijian weapons and cannibal forks and fijian animals. I learnt  a lot about fijian culure and tradition. There were also lots of fijian rafts and boats. Next to that was a gift shop with lots of cool souvenirs and weapons (I particulary wanted a brutal looking axe)

Me at the museum

Milkshakes afterwards at the Mango Cafe

School is really good here with lots of new learning styles and fun fijian games like vindi vindi and plenty of others. Recces and lunch are really different though for play we get changed into sports gear and after play change back into school uniform. With the classroom you are not allowed to talk not that that we can due to the massive walls on either side of our desk!


Thats all from me GOODBYE!!

We're heading off to a 3 day conference tomorrow with about 200 people -including people from Fiji, Australia, NZ, Tonga and Vanuatu. There are some great speakers lined up, lots of fellowship, a great pool to swim in and we get to share accomodation with an American family who live in Vanuatu. Their kids are the same age and gender as ours -the boy is even called Ethan -lots of fun to be had! Anyway, here are some random shots of whats been happening -nothing too exciting, but much appreciated by the grandfolk.

Tides out!

A great park near our place

Volleyball in our front yard

Hannahs school

Their learning centre

Lunchtime with friends

Boys playing soccer at lunch

Rainbow cake in the making

The finished product.

Easter 2013

Despite a fair amount of homesickness, we had a lovely Easter. Wet, but lovely. We checked out the Cathedral on Good Friday where they re-enacted the Crucifixion. This was very powerfully done, with a great deal of emotion.The kids all brought books to read in case they got bored, but none of the books were opened...in fact, I would go as far as saying none of the kids actually blinked! Easter Sunday was exciting as Tony preached for the first time. It was excellent and he is now a regular on the roster. We had lunch with an Aussie expat whose wife is currently overseas -whcih was really nice for us and him, I hope.here are some pics.

Good Friday

Friday night performance! The Lift -proud Dirty Dancing moment for mum.

Followed by Masterchef -girls cake

Boys cake -they won.

Exploring on Easter Saturday

Not sure where this facial expression came from...

Tony preaching on Easter Sunday

Livin' the dream on the open road

Jesus is alive cake!

Well the holidays have begun -and the kids are excited! Well, they were excited until I broke the news to them that they would be doing schoolwork at home for half the hols as we head to Sydney soon for a short stay. Heck, can't accuse me of not knowing how to be a  "fun mum"!! Here are a few snaps I took of the school at the recent parent teacher intereviews.

Sophie's school house

Classroom area

Ethan's school house

Classroom area

Lunch shed/ morning chapel/ art class

Playground -perfect for playing touch footy with a coconut

!

Our great Tuesday language class- 2 other Aussie couples and our teacher.