DAY 3- hikes on hikes on hikes

We realized that the turn the power off a night everyday, so the power was never really out. Oops. Meghan wanted me to blog about how she managed to scratch her eye and break the showerhead within 10 minutes. So now, we have a Meghan in pain, and a showerhead that looks like a wilted flower. We deck out in sulus and long skirts for church. It was the best service that I’ve ever been to. The priest talked about the five parts of the human heart, including who you are and where you came from. It was extremely moving, and I loved how much feeling they all put into it. We met Angie and her husband right after church. Angie is a resident of the village we will be staying at next, and wanted to come on our journey for the day.

Our first stop was a waterfall hike. It was beginning to rain, but we didn’t let that stop us. The waterfall was gorgeous, even more so than you would expect. The scenery proved its worth, as we could take a swim in the lake around the waterfall. The water was freezing, just about as cold as our showers each night. Here, we had our first attempt at a National Geographic cover photo; all of us holding the flag in the freezing water, with the waterfall in the background. We then set out to climb up the cliffs to get behind the waterfall. It was most definitely a trek, trying to venture up the slippery slope. We eventually made it, but we couldn’t jump off of the cliff (for safety reasons). After we tried to make our way down, we had another attempt at a National Geographic cover photo, with a few of us up on the rocks with the flag.

Our next journey (after tons and tons of photos) was to a village an hour away from our last site. It held another hiking trail to a waterfall, and our place for dinner. Just as we were making our way to our picnic area, a torrential downpour occurred. We had to make the big decision; stay in the village and meet the locals, or attempt this three-hour total hike in the rain to the waterfall. Most of the group chose to hike, so we set off. The group arrived in clumps, since some were slower than others. The hike was majorly tough, especially because I almost slipped on every single rock and wet leaf. It was well worth it though, because of the view. It was a bit daunting at first, since getting to the waterfall would require swimming against a current, but it was so beautiful that we couldn’t resist. This is the last location of a National Geographic cover photo. We swam (myself fully clothed, since it already rained so much that I didn’t care) all the way to the lake-ish part of the waterfall. We conquered the current in the river, though it did take extreme effort, a lot of pulling each other to the rocks, and laughing all the way. It was a breathtaking view, despite the icy cold water. We hung out there, watching Angie swan dive off of the rocks into the water, and borrowing Brett’s goggles to dive deep down. The swim back to land was much easier, letting the current push us away. The hike back was easier as well, since we knew the end goal. Jamison and Mariam even met some kids who helped them crack open a coconut.

Just as dinner was about to be ready, Lisa led us out to see the beautiful coastline. Some, including myself, couldn’t help but swim for a few minutes.  We then attempted to clean up to eat a great dinner, and take the two-hour drive back home.

Our nightly meeting started off with our highs and lows of the day. My high was swimming to the waterfall, and my low was slipping down the stairs of the suspension bridge. I’ve made it a habit for my lows to be I falling, so let’s see how long I can keep that up.

DAY 2- getting started

The day starts off with no power. As bloggers, photographers, and most importantly, teenagers, it’s a bit of a shock. That shock was easily replaced with weariness, since we woke up too early for our comfort (6:27 to be exact). Nonetheless, we still had to drudge out of bed and get ready. We were lucky that breakfast was pushed from 7:00 to 7:30, since 6:27 proved to not be early enough. We throw on clothes and pack for a hike to a waterfall, which sounded more than appealing. Breakfast was the same as the day before, yet it somehow seemed even better now that it really felt like the morning. We had a little discussion over culture (leaving some of the boys alarmed as they learned they too would have to have sulus) and then another teaching photography.

After those meetings, we learned that because of all of the talk about the primary school championship rugby games, that we would be practicing moving subjects there first. Though I’m not one to be all that excited about watching sports, especially having to try to capture them in photos, I was assured that it would be well worth the trip. And let me say, that was right. After splitting into groups based on photography knowledge, then splitting again into even smaller groups, we set out. The thing I had to focus on was interaction; making friends with the crowd so I could capture them in the excitement of the game. This proved to be easy, yet difficult. The children were more than happy to be friends. I became close with two kids within the first 5 minutes. It got to a point where they were leaning on me and holding my hand (which was probably the cutest thing ever). Trying to photograph rugby proved more difficult than any other sport I’ve taken pictures of, since I have no idea how it’s played. I made my way from game to game, interacting with more and more of the children watching. They were so sweet, and so willing to learn your name and see their photo after it was taken.  It’s a heartwarming experience, knowing that the kids are so much happier than the ones we know back home, even though they have less materialistically. It makes me wonder if material objects can gradually decrease the overall value and experience of life.

As the games settled down and the rain settled in, we headed over to a little part of town to buy sulus. Luckily for the half of us who took the first flight on the mini planes, Lisa was willing to pay for our sulus and wait until we had Fijian dollars to pay her back. Once we took our short stop for proper attire, we headed towards our original destination; the waterfall.  I’m naturally drawn towards nature and landscape photography, so the anticipation for this hike was killing me. Though the drive was an hour and a half, it was definitely enjoyable. However, the worst was yet to come, for after all of the time it took to lead up to this hike, the road was flooded. It was too much water for our vans to trek through (plus, who would want to hike on a flooded, muddy trail?) so we went back home.

The next activity, which was tied with the rugby game for my favorite of the day, was Brett and Lisa introducing themselves as photographers to us. Both of their presentations were awe-inspiring. Brett is a marine biologist who was turned from using his knowledge to write essays that the world didn’t get to read, to using photography to grab the world’s attention and capture the issues from his studies. Lisa is a photographer who grew up not realizing what she could make of her hobby, then turning her life around to dedicate herself to showing the world stories through still photos. Both of their presentations showed so much dedication and emotion, and left me thinking, “I want to be them when I grow up.” There wasn’t a single person in the room who wasn’t captivated by both of their works (especially for Brett’s story of a shark biting his camera).

After some chill time, we went to dinner. The trip itself was a slight adventure to me, since the windows were fogged up and I couldn’t see where we were going. It was a little cliff side restaurant, with a string of lights running along the roof. We sat on the mats and drank cava, which ended up not being as bad as the Internet made it sound. Sure, my mouth and tongue did go temporarily numb, but the taste reminded me of cucumber water. Though Bora may protest, Claire was most definitely the kava queen. Every time they offered it, she took it like a pro. She followed the tradition of always saying “yes” in Fiji. The rest of the night was filled with music and laughter, making it the perfect way to end this day. Everyone wore out relatively fast, so heading back to the bungalows was a bit of a relief.

Our final activity of the day was the meeting to discuss our highs and lows of the day. Most people agreed that the best thing was the rugby game and the kids there, while the stormy weather was the low. Personally, my low was falling out of the van at the rugby game (which was actually hilarious). The next day has church and hiking scheduled, so stay tuned.

DAY 1- the arrival

It’s hard to label this with a day, because our travel time was so weird. Technically, everyone on this trip didn’t have a June 11^th. Logically, we travelled on two days, but calendar wise, we travelled on three. Nonetheless, we were all exhausted. The first flight was fine for me. I just listened to music and pretended that the next flight would be that easy. I was completely mistaken. An eleven-hour flight next to some man with no personal space while trying to sleep in an uncomfortable chair wasn’t particularly easy. I was on the earlier island-hopper flight as well, which we had to actually run to. It wasn’t my favorite, due to my hate of small planes, but the view was incredible. I was overjoyed to land, and get to the bungalows we were staying at. They were absolutely cute, and fit myself, Lucy, Meghan, and Claire. The first thing we did after unpacking was eat breakfast, which didn’t make much sense for our internal clocks. Some much-needed relaxation was the next step.

We headed over to a private beach, on the land of a bed and breakfast. I personally was too worn out to swim, so I sat and read a book.

We met up with the rest of the group, and everyone got situated. We did games and activities to get to know each other, and to see what everyone wants out of the trip. We talked about our fears for the trip, and we learned that we’re not all as different as we thought. A lot of people were worried about offending the village, or not fitting in with everyone else on the trip. It was refreshing for me to have this personal setting with the people that I’m going to be spending two weeks with. Though I was completely tired by the end of it, I really loved feeling connected with everyone, even in this minute way.

We finally got to sleep, and I went to sleep looking forward to the rest of the trip.

the very first photo I took on the trip