Signs of Suva

This is one of my favorite signs that you see
all over Suva...The girl, Noula Sefiti, is in my
ward. I wish you could see her face! This is
an advertisement for Vodafone....a cell phone
company. Noula was one of the runner-ups
on the Fijian version of American Idol. She can
REALLY sing!


opps......how did I do that twice??????



These next signs are all up by the public
hospital, The Colonial War Memorial Hospital.
A dental office.




The Hospital





OBGYN office.....






Dr. offices







You come to this sign right after all the medical
signs. I am not sure how much confidence
this gives me in the medical help here! (if you
are having a hard time reading it....click on it to
make it bigger!)

Christmas on Denarau

I spent 5 days over Christmas with the Stenlunds,
Seares and Kastelers on Denarau on the
west side of the island. We stayed at the Radison
Resort and it was fabulous! I had a hard time
believing it was Christmas, even with the decorations
that were there. That, however, was ok with me as
I think I would have felt a bit homesick if it had
really felt like Christmas.



This was the first time I had seen the Fiji that
you see on the travel posters....white sand &
turquoise water!



I had to take a picture of this because it is so
"Fiji"........an Emergency Phone....with no phone!


This little bird on the black pole is called a kula
bird. They are beautiful. I have seen a few
here in Suva, but there were many more on
the other side of the island. They never get any
bigger than this one.


This guy lit all the torches every evening at the
resort.....definitely not as scary as he looks!


It was fun eating at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was
as close to American food as you get here in Fiji.
Even at that, it was the fijian version of American
food.


These beautiful trees are covered with red
blossoms just in time for Christmas!


Next to the Hard Rock Cafe they had island
dancers. It just seems so strange to see a
Christmas tree behind these islanders!


Here are a few pictures of this beautiful resort.
It had three swimming pools, but better than
that, it is right on a beautiful beach.

The cyclone hit Denarau harder than it did

Suva and they were still cleaning up the

aftermath. There were many tree uprooted

around the resort...especially on the golf course.

The Cyclone

A few weeks before Christmas I experienced my
first hurricane. Apparently a cyclone is a tropical
hurricane. It was officially called Cyclone Nick.
The outer edge of the storm hit Suva, so even
though I thought it was EXTREMELY windy, we
didn't get the worst of it. The storm went right
down the middle of the island and many homes
were destroyed and filled with mud and water.
It was amazing that only two people were killed.
Our flat, and the mission office, were without
power for two days. Many areas didn't have
water or power for over a week. I feel very
lucky, as I love electricity! We used every
towel in the flat to mop up the water that came
through the doors and windows. Things got wet,
but nothing was damaged....another blessing.

I kept looking out my window during the storm

because there is a big palm tree a few feet

from the window. I convinced myself during

the night that palm trees are very strong and

probably very flexible and probably don't blow

down. The next morning when I went outside,

I discovered that our neighbor's palm tree had

indeed blown over. Oh well that little bit of self

talk helped me sleep that night!

I live in a very nice flat.....but not a very "tight"

flat. The rain poured in from under the doors

and through the windows.