DAY 11- toe-tally

This day was much more structured than the last. Claire and I woke up early to see a sunrise, but found out that we were too late and the sky was covered with clouds. Nonetheless, we explored the beach, and I even found a beautiful cobalt blue starfish.

After breakfast, we set off on a boat. We were set to go to another small island and visit a village. The ride itself was one of my favorite parts of the day. I love being on the water, and it was a long, relaxing, scenic ride.

After fishing a little, the boat arrived in this little village. It seemed a little better off than the one we stayed in for those four days, since the houses had actual doors and most were made out of cement blocks and not walls of aluminum. We walked a bit around the houses, but eventually made our way up to the school. It was up on top of a hill, and the stairs weren’t a walk in the park. They were extremely steep blocks of uneven stone that led us up to a field where their school was. We crossed the field to the colorful school buildings, painted with shades of red, green, yellow, and blue. We walked around the buildings a bit, and then went into one of the rooms where the kids all sang to us. Their voices were beautiful, and the teachers said it was because it came from their hearts. We introduced ourselves to them, and sang Deep in the Heart of Texas once again, and went on our way.

We had a little time to walk around the village afterwards, which was a bit awkward since none of the villagers were really prepared for us to be there, and a lot of them didn’t really seem to want to talk. At the point of almost leaving, we were waiting on the beach for the boats, and Mrs. Bottoms was showing some little girls about high-fiving. They greatly enjoyed it, and mimicked her movements. Once she left, I tried my hand at showing them show to fist-bump. It ended up with the kids loving me, and taking turns at holding on to my arms and hands. We couldn’t understand each other, but I felt the connection that laughter and touch brought. It reminded me of my friends from our village before, and made me smile.

We got back on the boat and traveled to our lunch destination. It was a little group of homes on another part of the main island, tucked into a jungle-like area. We got one of the best lunches we had had in a while (grilled chicken, cheese, and lettuce on white bread), and were free to explore. It started off with a lot of relaxing on the beach. There was some sort of ball hanging from a tilted palm tree that people would swing on, and a lot of hermit crabs that we (mostly Alex Long) could declare our children. The most memorable, yet the worst thing for me was the following series of events. So on one side of the beach was a rock wall that had the Fijian word for “hi”, “bula”, written on it. I wanted a picture, so I made my way across the beach. Of course, since I’m clumsy, I jammed my toe on a rock. I saw that it was bleeding, but I still wanted a photo so I continued on. By the time I was walking back, it was hurting so bad that I was limping, so I went to sit on the rotting bench with Claire and Alex Cooper. I guess it just wasn’t my day, because as soon as I sat down, the old, weathered bench broke in half. Yep. I sat down on the bench with a bloody toe, and broke the bench. That was definitely my low of the day (no matter how hilarious it was for me at the time).

After that was a volleyball game, the most hilarious volleyball game in the world. It was made up of about three of us who had ever really played volleyball, a few Fijian men who knew how to play, and everyone else who had no idea what they were doing. It was the best part of my day, especially when Meghan yelled at Brett for every ball that came over the net.

The ride back was a bit more eventful. The boat had an odd number of people, and remained unbalanced for the whole ride. Alex Long was able to real in a fish that had a shark bite in it. We got back once it was dark, and finally got to shower and get ready for Ulla’s presentation that night.

Ulla arrived the day before. She is a Nat Geo photographer and explorer like Brett and Lisa. She gave a presentation about how she got to where she is, and some of her projects. She has such an amazing life and story, and it was truly inspiring to see. My pictures were of the volcanoes that she’ll stay in.

That night, I stayed up with Mariam and Alex Cooper in their dorm. It ended up that I fell asleep on the foot of Mariam’s bed, and then woke up at 3:00 am to realize where I was. Instead of walking to my room right next door, I slept in one of the extra beds in their dorm.