Bula everyone !
I feel somewhat embarrassed as we have been back here for one month now and this is only my first entry for 2010 ! We have both settled back into the pacific way of life and cannot help but think how different it was for us both this time last year. Life here is wonderfully busy and passes by so quickly !
The weather here in Nadi is very hot and humid, however, we have only had a little rain, in spite of it being the WET season. The local people are complaining as it is so dry ! It is about 35 each day but feels like 45 ! Simon has only briefly ventured onto the golf course as it is just SO hot, even at 7.30 in the morning it can be 30 or more. Daylight saving ends here on April 25th and in Australia on 4th April ( Easter Sat) so for a few weeks there will be 3 hours time difference ! hard for skyping in the evenings ! The Government here have just altered the school start time from 8.00am to 9.00am as children were getting up for school and travelling long distances in the dark ! It will be interesting to see whether they introduce daylight saving again next summer. This was the first time that they have had it since 2000 as it was so unpopular here !
My students have all returned and are most eager to complete the course by June. We have an important APTC meeting in Melbourne in mid April, so will be home for about a week, Simon a little longer. Lauren and Christopher are both planning to "pop" across again which will be great. Other visitors are very welcome !
Our long time friend and now work a colleague at Box Hill Institute, Bambi, is arriving next Tuesday 23rd Feb. to assist with student assessment visits. This will be a great opportunity to see the work of the APTC project here in Fiji. Every morning when I leave for work, I whisper to myself, "another day in Paradise" and do have to continually pinch myself as to this incredible chance that I am experiencing here in the Pacific. I highly recommend a teaching "stint" overseas to anyone who may be contemplating it.
I have a contract until the end of June, however, we will see what happens after that. There is another Cert 3 in Children's Services starting with students coming to Fiji for 6 months full time from many other pacific islands. It is very tempting.
As I write this blog entry I can hear the numerous geckos making their " loud clicking" sound as they chomp away at the many tiny insects around the hotel lights. There are more geckos than guests ! and more cockroaches too ! They scuttle away very quickly when they see Simon approaching with the big red spray can of Mortein !
Our hotel is very quiet at present, with less APTC staff this year and less tourists at present due to the supposedly wet season and awful humidity, things are not as lively as previously. In several months the pool will be very crowded and we will be hoping for quiet again ! It is a treat to walk that 60 metres for a nice dip either before or after work in the evenings when the water in the pool has cooled down, other wise it is like having a warm bath !
As a part of our celebrations this week, we visited Vuda Point, 20 minutes north of here last Sunday evening. It is where I spent my first whole day in Nadi last year, after a luxurious, yet primitive, mud bath at Sabeto and then I enjoyed a crispy pizza with 3 work colleagues initiating me into teaching life with APTC. Memories are made of these cherished moments and I certainly have accumulated 12 months of these now. Enough to write a book......mmmmmm... one day perhaps in my retirement. If I were a civil servant here in Fiji I would need to retire this May when I turn 55 ! gosh Frank Bainimara must not have been discussing this with John Howard ! He had other ideas about our working life capacity didn't he ? ! 55 is way too young... I have so many things I would like to do in my working life as yet...... another country perhaps ?
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