Some of the people we met are Dickie...Rick and Chel's right-hand man. One day he and Rick opened these containers that had been sitting for a couple years and all these cockies (cockroaches) and spiders (the size of a small plate!) and lizards came crawling out EVERYWHERE....it was sooooo disgusting and creepy....Dickie picked up this little lizard and pretended to eat it....maybe he would if he was super hungry! HAHAHA. He helps with the work and watches the farm while they are away. Margaret is Dickie's sister and she cleans the house 
and cooks for us when we're working...she made donuts one day...we could smell something when we were downstairs working...saying "mmmm...what is that awesome smell....????"....we just followed our nose and found these beauties! She made me a huge mat to bring home...made from coconut palm fronds. She made it in less that a week...on top of working at the farm...amazing. The baby girl is Angie, Dickie and Julia's daughter. She is gorgeous! There we are in the boat going to Taveuni with David, Margaret's husband. He hunts wild pigs and fishes daily. That's all he does. I asked him what he used to hunt the pigs and he said "I have my spear and my dog." Den and I looked at each other like....the only dogs we saw were small mangie things with fleas cowering around the house with their tails between their legs....so that spear must work really good...because he got one during the week we were there and they cut it up and cooked and brought some over for us for dinner (have to admit I wasn't keen on it....skin and all left on...and they cook with curry a lot, which is not my fav.)...but Chel and Den and Rick said it tasted great! The other pics of Margaret are of her grating coconut to make coconut milk for our dinner (she cooked the fish in it) and her doing our wash. Yup, a basin, a board, a brush and a little soap...that's it. She is truly amazing....we are actually trying to get her here to help with the little ones...she LOVES kids and can't have any of her own. She's never been off the islands, so it would be a real adventure to remember. Oh, and can't forget to throw in a couple pics of some "cockies"....they are HUGE! They were literally falling on us one night because I sprayed the room for them...which attracts them and THEN kills them...so Denny was swatting them all night...and then in the morning I found one under me...dead....of course...but it was soooooo sick I screamed like a crazy person! (oh ya, I am crazy so that would make sense!).
and cooks for us when we're working...she made donuts one day...we could smell something when we were downstairs working...saying "mmmm...what is that awesome smell....????"....we just followed our nose and found these beauties! She made me a huge mat to bring home...made from coconut palm fronds. She made it in less that a week...on top of working at the farm...amazing. The baby girl is Angie, Dickie and Julia's daughter. She is gorgeous! There we are in the boat going to Taveuni with David, Margaret's husband. He hunts wild pigs and fishes daily. That's all he does. I asked him what he used to hunt the pigs and he said "I have my spear and my dog." Den and I looked at each other like....the only dogs we saw were small mangie things with fleas cowering around the house with their tails between their legs....so that spear must work really good...because he got one during the week we were there and they cut it up and cooked and brought some over for us for dinner (have to admit I wasn't keen on it....skin and all left on...and they cook with curry a lot, which is not my fav.)...but Chel and Den and Rick said it tasted great! The other pics of Margaret are of her grating coconut to make coconut milk for our dinner (she cooked the fish in it) and her doing our wash. Yup, a basin, a board, a brush and a little soap...that's it. She is truly amazing....we are actually trying to get her here to help with the little ones...she LOVES kids and can't have any of her own. She's never been off the islands, so it would be a real adventure to remember. Oh, and can't forget to throw in a couple pics of some "cockies"....they are HUGE! They were literally falling on us one night because I sprayed the room for them...which attracts them and THEN kills them...so Denny was swatting them all night...and then in the morning I found one under me...dead....of course...but it was soooooo sick I screamed like a crazy person! (oh ya, I am crazy so that would make sense!).The dogs...one of my favourite parts of the trip...meeting Lamoni and Grommet...they slept close by (but were no help when it came to the cockies!)...but they do guard the farm and nobody would dare come aboard with those 2 growling and barking...but they are really just big ole teddy bears.
Well, I could go on and on....about the coconut plantations and all about cococuts...and Denny and Ricky and Dickie having Kava with the cheif and village men one night...and the mud wasps and the deadly fish that swim in packs...and the blue star fish and sea cucumbers. But I'll leave it for now and next time fill you in a bit on our Australian adventures....much more low-key, but beautiful and so fun to hang with our friends in their Ozzie land...picking up the lingo and having some really great laughs!
Bye for now!
1 comment:
I absolutely LOVED reading that! It was like living it all over again! You are a good writer with a good memory...and I can tell that Fiji and Oz has really stuck in you forever...too good...
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