Fiji Lovin!

World Family Day!

Today was so fun! Me and my group were invited to go to a celebration for World Family Day! One of our partner's, a non-profit organization called Friend Fiji, held it in the Noviano village, just outside of Laoutoka. They invited our group to come and celebrate with them! We were driven to the village, and were led into the main meeting room, which was really just a hard-tile floor with hand-woven Fijian mats laid out to sit on. This village was very poor, like all villages here in Fiji. The people were so sweet and inviting. When we were waiting for the head chief to come in, all of the villages (we met in Noviano, but there were 3 other villages there) started singing! When they were done, they wanted us to sing! (Us as in me and 5 other volunteers!) It's sad how we couldn't think of a group song we all knew right off the bat, so I suggested “I am a child of God.” We sang and I seriously almost started crying. The spirit was so strong. These people love God so much and worship Him so well. We went back and forth singing different songs, dancing, laughing, and clapping. It was amazing!

The festivities started out with the Head chief giving a spiritual thought and the prayer, and then we had a guest speaker from New Zealand (who works for FRIEND Fiji). He spoke about families and the importance of spending time together. Again, I almost cried. I miss my family so much and have realized even more how important they are to me, so when he was speaking, I really connected with what he was saying. After the talk was given, the games begun! We started with bobbing for apples (which is totally not the same version as it is in the states, by the way!) Then we had a sack race, tug-of-war, and marble race! We had 4 teams, and the 6 of us from HELP were one team, so we all joined in on the friendly competition. It was so fun! The last event of the day was volleyball. Okay, so along with rugby and soccer, Fijian's are insane at volleyball! Yeah, we got schooled all 3 times we played, but we had so much fun! I even had a few older women from one village sitting in the mud next to the white chalked lines which were the court, cheering me on! It was encouraging, since everyone else would just laugh when I would do something stupid! It was such a great day. I got a lot of sun and a lot of new memories!

When we met back together to close the events of the day, the people from FRIEND gave out a 24-case of Fiji water as the prize for winning each event. Well, one village got 2 cases and when it came to the end for everyone to leave, the oldest lady from the village came and placed one of the cases of water in front of our feet, as an offering to us. My first instinct was to say, “Oh, no thank you! You are so sweet, but really, you have it!” I was quickly told by a local that I should accept the gift. Apparently, it was her way of showing her love and respect for us. That really touched me. Again, the tears almost came! Who knew that World Family Day could be such an emotional time for me? :) I just felt awful because I knew that she and her whole village could've used that water so much. The people are just so generous and loving here, it's truly amazing.