Fiji Adventures : January 2023

December in Fiji Means Christmas on the Beach!

Three raised beds with bamboo

sides, two in the front

and one to the side in the back

All farmers need Gum Boots

Steve constructed tomato
cages with bamboo poles

December started with the completion of our garden bed, and getting it planted. We spent so much time with the seed project for the Korovou District, that both Steve and I were longing to create our own garden. I spent a few hours viewing YouTube videos made by jungle gardeners and farmers, because when I ask questions, I get a lot of blank looks. I have come to realize that means “everything grows; the climate is year-round; we never ‘make’ a garden—we live in a garden”. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I soon connected with the fellow “city” gardeners who work in the office, and I realized that I had been asking a lot of “stupid” questions! Fortunately, that’s never bothered me! I was able to successfully start 12 sweet basil plants, and about 40 tomato plants from seed (I planted 6 in the garden bed and gave away the rest tied with a red ribbon). Germinating parsley was an epic fail, but I found some starter plants in a great nursery, called the Flame Tree Nursery, in Nadi. Most nurseries focus on landscape plants, and finding vegetable and herb starts is rare. The herbs are all doing very well, and I love being able to harvest from my pots and use them for cooking.

We have a self-reliance program here in Fiji that was designed and produced by the Pacific area office called Eat Healthy, Be Active. It is a 12-week course, with lots of good information and activities, but it is very complicated and somewhat intimidating for an average facilitator with no medical background. The area office staff participated in the full course in 2019, and as far as I’ve been able to determine, nothing has been done with it since. We have stacks of boxes full of manuals sitting in a storage area, taking up space. After talking to a few of our fellow office inhabitants, I offered to facilitate an employee group, on my terms. So, on December 1st we had our first office group. About 25 attended and were able to record their numbers. I had a scale, a blood pressure cuff, a blood glucose monitor, and a tape measure. We identified our December goal as: “NO weight gain over the holidays”

In the January class
I used a presentation
board to get some practice
without electronics

These are the rules we established for the month:

1-Do not drink sugar. Water only. (If you NEED a sugar drink,

have it with a meal.)

2-Three meals a day. Nothing but water in between meals. Get 12-14 hours of no food between dinner and breakfast.

3-Move more. Try to get at least 10 minutes of exercise after most meals.

Strategy: Plan 3 feast days with no rules.

I put weekly content on an email group and a Facebook group. Each week, I invited someone to share their story, good or bad, about how they were making changes, and I repeatedly reminded friends in the break room that I am NOT the “food police”. One of my "terms" is that we meet monthly instead of weekly (that’s all I can handle in our schedule!) I’m going to report here that at our January 5^th meeting there was good news and bad news.

Good news: 8 people of the original 25 showed up. 4 lost weight, and no one gained. Also, 2 new people came.

Bad news: Only 8 people came back for more. I also picked up on some very bad blood glucose readings.

I have 2 ulterior motives. One is to get a few people confident enough, and enthusiastic enough to take the program out to their individual wards, and the other is to expand the timeline out long enough so that some success can be demonstrated over time.

We will persist. I’ve committed to one meeting a month until the end of our mission, or until no one is interested any more. My challenge now is to find content that will appeal, educate, and support the goals.

Staging the supplies

On the weekend of December 18^th Steve was able to have a great adventure. We found out about 4 pm on Saturday that President Qoroya (pronounced Gor- oi-ya) of the Nausori Stake was taking a leadership group to a village on the Rewa River for Sacrament meeting and self-reliance training, and he wanted Self-Reliance missionaries along for the ride. We already had commitments for Sunday, so we decided to divide and conquer, and Steve went on the river trip. He said it was like the Disneyland Jungle Cruise minus crocodiles and natives with spears. The village has several members of the church, and they are getting ready to be a unit, so they can have Sacrament meeting without traveling every Sunday. The village is also getting ready to be tourist stop, so self-reliance classes are very popular. The villagers provided a nice lunch, and the Stake leadership provided ice cream. A good time was had by all!

Steve, President & Sister Qoroya, and other
Stake leaders

Landing at the village

Deliver supplies

Ice cream village style

When I heard they took
ice cream, I was so
surprised!

Senior missionary dinner, farewell
to Roper's
And welcome Lesuma's, our new
Temple President and Matron

Part of my commitment for staying in town was to say goodbye to our dear friends, fellow missionaries, and next-door neighbors, the Roper’s. They were headed to Nadi for their flight to the States, but they wanted to attend an English-speaking ward one time before they left, and chose the ward that meets in the original LDS building in Suva. Since that was the ward we attended pre-Covid, we agreed to go with them, see old friends, and host them for lunch before they started the trip. It’s always a bittersweet moment to send someone home. We sure miss them.

Elder&Sister Roper(left)
Elder&Sister Hatch(right)

The week before Christmas brought some challenging health issues for 2 of our sister missionaries. I was spending a lot of time helping, and at one point, while I was meeting with President Marcus, I looked at him and said,

“You really need a nurse!”

He totally agreed, and since I was very willing, he sent the request to the area office in New Zealand. I figured nothing was going to happen “officially” until after the holidays. The next morning, I had an email from Mission Medical in Salt Lake welcoming me as the new “Mission Health Coordinator” for the Fiji, Suva mission, and granting me access to all the computer medical sites that I need to do the job. We think that I can fill that role and still be very active in the self-reliance projects, and Steve has been wonderfully supportive, and drops everything if a missionary needs medical help. He is a joy to work with. Glad I married him!

We advanced the request for funding, that Steve has nurtured so diligently, to the point of sending it to the area office in NZ the first week of December. We got word on the 13 Dec that the request has been granted, we have been named project managers, and all the funds that we have used so far can be redirected from fast offerings to our project funds. We were thrilled!

Elders Lipua&Martinez, Elder&Sister Walker
Elder&Sister Whippy, Uraia&Margi Levaci
The Billinghurst's from NZ
Steve and Mickey Hinkson
Lenord Whippy, Jarom and Israel
Sister Vakalata&Sister Kumar

We had a quiet Christmas. Went to the best local Chinese restaurant for Christmas Eve dinner with several other senior missionaries. We went to Verata branch for Sacrament meeting on Sunday Morning. After the meeting, the Patton’s (who are the other senior couple assigned to Verata branch) and we handed out a couple of bags of small gifts and toys to the children in attendance—there were about 35 children. We were so touched with their response, smiles, laughter, and general delight. Then, after a couple of rounds of loot, they started identifying the children of the families who were not in attendance. They wanted to make sure that gifts were set aside to give to them as well. We were humbled.

We took a chill day the rest of the afternoon. Our colleague and “boss” at the Fiji Country Office, Uraia Levaci, invited us and the Walker’s (our humanitarian couple) to his home for dinner, which turned out to be a sumptuous “lovo”, Fiji’s traditional pit barbeque. One set of elders and one set of sisters and a few extended family members were with us, and it was a very pleasant afternoon and evening.

Small circle is Suva, large circle is
Taveuni

I’ll cover our New Year’s trip to Taveuni here, because it began on 28 December, and it was so fun. Mostly, I’ll let the pictures tell the story. It was our Holiday splurge, and we booked at a resort called Coconut Grove in November. We also booked a snorkeling trip on a boat that goes to Rainbow Reef, a world-class dive site. It was wonderful to be able to look forward to the trip for over a month. In the meantime, when Uraia found out what our plans were, he said we could book an extra night and spend some time meeting with the district and branch leaders to talk about Self-Reliance.

!Didn’t have to twist our arms

!The perfect South Pacific View

I didn’t really understand the effects of the stress we’ve been working under until I walked out on the veranda of the resort and took in that perfect South Pacific view. I could feel my whole body loosening up and relaxing. The ladies that ran the resort were like a group of nurturing mothers! Anything we wanted from the resort, from a kayak to a massage in the bure on the beach. We ate wonderful food, beautifully prepared, and had time to just sit and enjoy the environment. What a great way to end one year and start the next