Wed 22-Sep-10 (Fiji - 2nd full day)

Gabi decided (in her sleep) that she liked my side of the bed, so she kept lying up against me or pushing me to the edge. I woke a few times as I was nervous we’d sleep in and miss getting Ben to Kids Club and Gabi to her hair braiding session.

The kids woke gingerly––a combination of the day’s events and late finish. Ben happily went off to Kids Club, making some mates on the spot. Gabi and I clandestinely met with our Fijian friend and walked up a hill to his home. There was a little open Bure area overlooking the water. “Mana”, who would braid Gabi’s hair asked, “Do you like the million-dollar view?” He was right about it. Apart from braiding, he has a massage table up there as well so you can enjoy the view while looking out over the greens and blues of the Coral Coast.

The braiding took over an hour and a half. She now has 30 braids in her hair, which led to some tears towards the end as she was over it and the hair-pulling does hurt (not that I can remember that far back). Gabi looks really cool.

In fact she reminded me of “Dre” from the Karate Kid, which I watched on the plane on the way over.

We walked back to the Resort and found Ben in the pool. The kids lunched and then were in the pool again. The day feels hotter than yesterday (which I thought was hot enough). I kept putting cream on the kids. Ben seemed to be burning a little, while Gabi is starting to go dark brown already!

When I went to change one of the kids towels I noticed a Bible in pigeon sitting in front of one of the staff (there were three there are the time chatting). We engaged for a while and I had a flick through it. The staff said it was there for staff to look through to draw inspiration from. It was well worn and marked with different highlighters. There are some churches in the nearby village (AOG, CMF, Methodist) so we might try one out on Sunday.

I stayed out of the sun for most of the afternoon, trying to overcome my own sunburn. I did another 2km run, but this time my leg muscles burned and I sweated a lot more. I might have a day off tomorrow unless my legs pull up ok. Not stretching yesterday didn’t help.

The kids made their own friends and swam with them while I laid on the sun lounge. At one point I noticed Gabi swimming past other kids playing in the water with their mums, looking at them longingly. I decided it was time to get into the pool myself for a while. She seemed to pick up.

We went back to the room and the kids quickly dressed and off they went to dine with their new friends. It gave me time to have a shower and lazily make my way to check on them. I got to chat with Gabi’s friend’s (Michaela) parents, who seemed quite nice. The dad works at the SCG for Cricket NSW and the mum has done work with the McGrath Foundation, inspired by the loss of a friend to breast cancer two years ago. Their friend left two young kids behind. I can’t seem to escape meeting people who have had or been closely involved with someone going through a journey like ours.

As the sun sets the wind picks up and the temperature drops (not cold at all), it becomes really pleasant. It’s nice now to have my routine of sitting at a table looking over Fiji’s Coral Coast, while I reflect on the day and journal/blog it.

Gabi came down with Michaela and a group of kids who ran in line behind the fire lighter, which they enjoyed immensely.

The kids watched some cartoons as part of the Kids Club evening session before table tennis.

A couple from Newcastle that I met by the pool yesterday invited me to sit with them during dinner so I didn’t have to eat alone. We had a nice chat and got to learn about each others’ families. Elaine had ordered a lobster, which came as three halves. They said (jokingly) that perhaps Fijians had trouble counting, whereas my view was that everything here (including the people and their smiles) is 50% bigger.