(I sit here writing this sitting in the cockpit under a very bright and almost full moon. It’s straight overhead just to the port side of the mast while the Southern Cross hovers in the sky over to starboard above the bow. There a gentle breeze tonight (a nice change from fairly boisterous winds the past week or so) nudging a few trade wind clouds across the lagoon. I can hear the quiet thunder of the ocean pounding against the reef on the other side of the motus that surround us. A true south seas paradise).

We did so much stuff today I didn’t know what else to call this post.

Is that clear water or what?

The day started (you know, “started” means “after coffee”) with a paddleboard ride around the motus. The wind was down for the first time in quite a while so Ann and I were eager to jump on the boards and have a ride. We had a lovely couple hour waltz around the area and then I stopped back at Charisma for some hammock time while Ann toured the local reefs for a while longer. It paid off as she surprised a large sea turtle.

Back on Charisma around lunch Mele, who is the Chief’s “right hand man” set up one of the outriggers with a sail and took off fishing in it. That was an exciting event as these are practically antiques – you see similar ones in museums in Suva and Wellington – made by hand out of hollowed out trees. Most of the villagers now use the more modern 18 foot “fibers” although since there is often no petrol, they can be seen pushing the boats with poles from reef to reef with the outboard hanging off the stern looking like a vestigial limb. Rumor has it that Mele has been working on building a new outrigger. Seems as he found a suitable tree, felled it “a while” back (no one can say how long ago including Mele), has been hollowing it out with a large adze and may be dragging it out of the jungle this week. We’ll see about that. If it happens, it will be a huge event.

Mele sailing one of the older dugout canoes.

Between coffee and lunch a fiber poled past Charisma with a group of young men who had been out all night fishing. They looked suitably cold but proud of themselves as they caught a LOT of fish. Ann called them over and gave each a granola bar which were eagerly consumed and they gave us three large fish that looked like small tunas (they aren’t but that’s the best description I can give for now). I gutted them and put them in the fridge with the intention of frying them in coconut oil this evening, but…upon going into the village Ann was presented with the largest lobster either of us has ever seen. It weighed at least 5 pounds and was cooked so we didn’t need to do a thing. Surprisingly it was also the most tender lobster we have ever tasted. One of the young village men speared it today and somehow it ended up with us. We’re going to try and find out how that happened when we’re in the village for church tomorrow. Amazing! (Update: we had half of it for dinner, but the whole tail is now in the fridge probably to be turned in a lobster and pasta dish one of these nights.)

A good fishing day.

Monster lobster.

This afternoon I stayed on Charisma and worked on my bowl. I have to sand it (and sand, and sand…) so it’s ready on Monday for Joe to put a pattern on it to carve. I might have to stop counting the hours I’m putting into this thing other than to show how long it takes to make something like this with relatively primitive tools. I dropped Ann ashore and she walked into the village where she immediately became a “kid magnet”. Always happens on Saturday when the kids are not in school. They adore her. One in particular wanted to make sure that Ann’s going to be at church tomorrow as she’s going to wear her new dress that Ann helped her Mom sew. She also wanted to invite us to join her family for Sunday dinner to celebrate but Tau would be offended. So Ann was honored by the request but had to politely decline. Penina, the little girl, understood.

Onward through the village on a mission – to show Alfredi and Bali how to play “Fulunga Train”. That’s what we’re calling Mexican Train now that Alfredi has carved us a Fulunga platform for the game and six little turtles to use as game pieces. We’re going to give the original train pieces to the village so they can play it as they love having new games.

On the way back to Charisma Ann was shanghaied by Tau, our host family patriarch who would let her go until “the bread is done” so she could send a loaf back to the boat. Yikes – we just thought we were running out of food. Anyway, what does Ann do when confronted with a wait like this? She pulls out a game of Pocket Farkel then proceeds to teach our family – Joe, Tau, Jasmine and Samu how to play. She left them still playing their new game once the bread was done and came back in time for sundowners with our new friends Graham and Diane on Maunie, one of the boats here that hails from the UK.

So, sorry for the long post, but it’s been a Fulunga day and hard to single out just one thing to write about. We’re always exhausted by the end of the day and wondering how being in paradise can be so tiring.

These dishes are part of what we’re calling the Fulunga Diet. It pretty much consists of what is being cooked when we’re in the village and when we’re on Charisma we cook whatever looks like it’s going to spoil next.

We left you yesterday with the picture of Mata hiking back to the village with a 50 lb load of octopus after spending nine hours in the water hunting them. Today at lunch time she looked chipper as ever and was serving the most delicious plate of octopus either of us have ever had. Cooked in the in ground lovo oven in coconut milk (what else), it was so tender with just a hint of a smoky flavor. Yum.

Back on Charisma this evening it looked like the pumpkin that I partially used last week before I came down with my um, disorder, was starting to mold and the tuna we froze from a couple weeks ago was coming due. No problem, thaw the tuna (not sushi quality anymore, but acceptable) and cut the mold off the pumpkin. Then add an onion, some vegetable broth, coconut milk and green curry paste and voila, you would have fish curry over rice. Pretty good too.

In between lunch and dinner Ann tooled around town with “her ladies” getting to spend some time with a variety of families just enjoying sitting out back and chatting while Joe found me and said we would continue to work on the wooden bowl.

The good news here is that it looks like a bowl. The bad news is the amount of sanding it takes to bring it up to finish standards. Joe is really looking for a high quality bowl so we spent at least two hours sanding today with 80 grit sandpaper and my homework for the weekend is to continue to sand with 150 grit and then 320 grit. Then Monday he will put a Fijian pattern around the lip and I’ll get to carve the final detail. He’s really putting in a lot of time helping me learn how to carve the Fijian way. We’re at something like 8 hours at this point. For me it’s a lot of fun. The other carvers are kidding me that I should just make it on a lath. My comment back to them is that yes it’s faster, but then you can’t hear what the wood is telling you. Lots of “io’s” on that (“yes” in Fijian) and knowing glances.

Ann also has homework. She is working on a couple pandanas weaving projects and brought back a bunch of the material to work on. The ladies really love her company and enjoy taking turns critiquing her work. Conversely Ann caught one of them making a goof the other day. Oh there were howls of laughter that a Pailangi corrected the master weaver!

We also had chats with a couple friends who are heading this way. Bright Angel thinks maybe a couple weeks and same with Orcinius.

Can we hold out that long? I’ll tell you one thing. There’s not a lack of things to keep us very, very busy.

Stay tuned (but send beer)!

Yes, living in paradise can be hard work. I’m continuing the Cipro for another day to make sure my intestinal disorder (to give a simple name to a beastly condition) is well behind me – so to speak. AND tonight I had to add three aspirin to counter todays’s aches and pains. Yes, I sat cross-legged for five hours straight and carved a bowl, Fijian style.

Getting started.

Here's the adze we used. The beginning of the bowl is in the background.

My hips and back are aching! How can these guys sit and do this all day long? I didn’t start until 1200 and I’m a wreck. OK, enough complaining. Bottom line, it was really fun. Basically we were sitting under a rudimentary structure – four tree branches holding up a corrogated tin roof. We’re sitting on top of a woven mat which is in turn on top of a mountain of wood chips from the carving. They carve bowls, masks and such and send them to Suva for sale to tourists. Fulunga is actually one of the best known areas for carving in Fiji. They give each piece that they carve to the store and get “credits” with which to buy commodities such as rice, flour, onions, etc.

Back to the bowl. Our host family patriarch, Joe – who is a few years younger than I at 50 – was my mentor. He picked out a gorgeous piece of vesi wood, a tree that to my knowledge only grows in Fiji and is more beautiful that mahogany or teak. Then we decided to just carve a simple bowl. This made him happy as I think he thought I wanted to carve a kava bowl which has three legs and takes quite a bit more effort. Nope. Just a bowl. I was really after the experience of carving with “the boys” and if I ended up with a serviceable bowl of beautiful wood, so much the better. Next he showed me how to lay out the shape with a compass that they created out of a pair of dividers, some string and a pen.

OK, the shape was drawn on the wood, time to hack away. And hack it is. They use a homemade adze about the size of a large hammer. Made from the crook of a tree branch, it holds a chisel and you basically “hammer” away to cut the wood. We used two different shapes of chisel adze. A flat one to do the rough cutting of the outside shape and a curved one to cut the inside “bowl” shape. You know, we would use a lathe, but given no electricity that’s not possible and it was really enjoyable to carve a bowl “the Fijian way”. And it looks great! (Confirmation from Ann-it is really lovely!)

Roughing out the bottom of the bowl.

Using all your fingers and toes to carve the detail.

Tomorrow, maybe, I get to carve some designs on it. With Joe, you’re never quite sure. He’s a man of few words. For instance – after carving for four hours he said, “Tools down”. Everyone dropped their tools and walked away. Joe said, “Come”. I followed. We walked down to the beach where the village was preparing a lovo, which is an in ground oven. Once we got there he said, “First you eat lovo, then go back to boat”. OK…That’s sort of how it goes with Joe, but he’s really a nice guy and we’ve been enjoying having him and his wife Tau as our hosts.

P.S. A little extra story I can’t help but convey. On the trail on the way back to Charisma around 1700 we ran across Mata. Mata is a 54-year old woman who we saw around 0800 in the water (with a spear!) walking neck deep along the reef looking for octopus. She was wearing a dress and had a snorkel and face mask and was often completely submerged with a five gallon can cut away on top to hold her catch on a string floating behind her. Fast forward to 1700, a full nine hours later – we crossed paths as she was coming up the hill. She was carrying at least a 50 lb. load of octopus on her back and was still wet from being in the water for nine hours!! The most amazing part was she was smiling and asked if we were going to be in town tomorrow as she wanted us to have some of the cooked octopus. Her only complaint was that she said she was cold.

Mata with 50 lbs of octopus on her back and still smiling.

From Ann – my day went like this: stop and visit with Batai (the nurse) doing some brainstorming with him, go eat lunch with Koro and Qele (my weaving/quilting friends), have 4-year old Lavinia escort me to Chico’s to drop off some empty bottles – just in time for a slide show of a fellow cruiser’s wedding, wander over and hang out with the women preparing the food for the feast that went with the lovo (and there was a lot!), wander back to my weaver friends and learn to weave a small basket and a bird. I was the Eloise of Fulunga!

Oh, and they made sure we sat and ate dinner before heading back to Charisma. Tough day, I know. But I do have homework…weaving practice!

How can we leave this place?

Yup, I’ve had a bad case of intestinal disorder. It didn’t respond to bland diet (BRAT) or huge quantities of Immodium, so we finally realized it as a bug of some sort, probably from the water in the village since there has been something going around. Anyway, once it was clear that simple measures wouldn’t suffice, we bombed it last night with Ciprofloxen. 12 hours later I’m finally on the mend. Not too much fun, but a couple days of rest.

Today we stayed on Charisma. Ann made bread and did some clean up, I pretty much just read and laid in the cockpit. Tomorrow though we’ll go back in the village. Ann to do some more weaving and sewing and me hopefully to do some carving under the tutelage of one of the village carvers.

JHAM posed a question yesterday that I thought I’d respond to. He asked; “Is there just no strife, anger, sickness, or negativity”? I would answer to that; “Yes. There is”. This is paradise through our eyes as it’s a simple way of life that’s so uncomplicated that it’s a delight. The strife, anger and negativity that exists is not distorted by politicians and interest groups and then all blown out of all proportion by the media and turned into entertainment and profit making. It’s a simple human condition. We all argue, get angry and such, but the nice thing here is it doesn’t go anywhere or get taken to extremes. People get over it.

Sickness is an exception. Life is great here until you are sick. Then it becomes misery since there is very little in the way of infrastructure to support medical care. There is one nurse who takes care of everything and they didn’t even have a nurse last year. He has access to the mainland for consultation, but not a lot of tools to handle pain, infection or an acute accident. Dental care is non-existent. If you have a tooth go bad, it’s going to come out. Very few folks here have a full set of teeth and some have only a few left. For major illness you wait for a boat to Suva (maybe once a month, but there’s no fixed schedule). Once in Suva you rely on extended family for a place to stay because this is a subsistence economy and Suva takes money. Two different worlds.

But despite the hardships (including having to gather food every day in order to eat) these are very happy people and we are enjoying being accepted as friends in their world even though they know we can leave at will and go back to ours. The goodbyes are emotional. The bonds formed are unique.

(by Ann)

For the second day in a row Bob has been feeling poorly. There is something going through the village and the boats in the anchorage. We call it the Fulunga La Funga. Not fun. The good news is that after two days of quiet and relaxation on the boat, while I went off and played, Bob seems to be recovering. Hard to be sick in paradise.

You might recall that we met an adorable 4-month old puppy named Lulu when we helped with the health screenings in the “third village” – Naividamu. Lulu is at that chewing stage but when Lisa of Lisa Kay (a dedicated dog lover) tried to play with him with a stick the dog cowered. Obviously sticks are not to be fetched in Fulunga. When Lisa heard that some of us might head back over to Naividamu to do sevusevu with Chief Moses she brought me a ball and a sock with a knot for little Lulu (they left today so could not attend).

Lulu!

When we were invited to join Graham and Diane on Maunie in a trip to Naividamu hosted by their “family” who grew up there, we were in. Well half of us anyway, because Bob was not 100% and the idea of a kava party full of polite, “No thank you, I am not feeling well”, by Bob, did not sound fun. So I jumped ship and took the Maunie ferry to Naividamu and back.

As we found out the last time we were there the village is full of delightful people thrilled to have cruisers paying attention to them. At our sevusevu the chief informed us that today they were celebrating a birthday and we were invited! When I asked whose birthday it was he replied, “A cousin in Suva, but we will celebrate without him!” I like their style. Ironically it ended up that it truly was the birthday of Baki, in fact his 50th. We had befriended Baki during the health screening so it was appropriate that we attend. It must be noted however, that Mattei was very disappointed that Bob was sick. Actually I was getting a little tired of having to disappoint Bob’s friends by telling them the sad news.

Sevusevu with Chief Moses (on right).

This kava party included the Pailangi women (i.e. cruiser women). The local women stayed in the house cooking a fabulous meal for us and playing with the babies. You know me, I jumped between parties. Oh, and played fetch with Lulu. He was very happy to bring back the ball repeatedly. Only the little boys in the village were disappointed because the ball was not for them. Some you win, some you don’t.

If there is one word that everyone uses when describing the people of Fulunga it is generous. Almost to a fault. But they love to do it. And frankly we love it too. But today I turned the tables on them…I gave a special gift to them.

Here're the mini quilts Ann presented to her friends.

You have read in prior blogs about the project I have been working on for the women I have been playing with every week. These are the ladies that have patiently been teaching all of the cruisers how to weave. And it has been wonderful. When they were interested in my quilt blocks I was thrilled to introduce them to quilting. When they expressed a desire to sew clothes I was happy to teach them how to cut out patterns and assemble clothes. But it wasn’t something I made just for them. I love making things with specific people in mind. They are in my thoughts as I work and it makes me smile.

Here's the special quilted sign now hanging in Koro's house.

Detail of the quilted sign.

I have spent the last few weeks hand stitching ten different quilt squares as examples. I brought these pieces in to show the girls because I knew they would visually dissect the squares to see how they were made. Now they are all part of a sign/wall hanging to be put up at every weaving session. And now quilting session too as each session starts with weaving and becomes a group of girls laughing and giggling and quilting. So the wall hanging proudly announces the Weavers and Quilters Club. I included all of the squares and one of the woven pieces that I made with their guidance. They loved it. My eyes filled with tears as I gave it to them and they all joined me. They were overcome with emotion and were initially speechless. Receiving is hard work.

I took it one step further too. I made individual small wall hangings for each of the 10 women who I have played with most often. These wall hangings were one simple square surrounded by lovely batik borders. The square is known in my house as “Bev’s Star” and was a square that my sister, Bev, and I loved to make. These women have become my quilting sisters so this seemed perfect. I shared the story of Bev’s Star with them and they each lovingly accepted their wall hanging anxious to put it up in their own houses. Forever these wonderful ladies of Fulunga and I will be joined.

Lots of smiles, lots of tears. Receiving is hard work. Turning the tables is lots of fun.

Not a lot to report today. There’s a big high pressure system way south down by NZ that is causing high winds up here in Fiji. It’s something like a 1032 high which is compressing the trade winds, so we are sitting at anchor here in our little bay getting buffeted by 25 to 30 knot winds and the associated choppy water that goes with that. So…it’s a boat day.

Ann finished the special quilt she’s been making for the weaving ladies. More on that Monday when she presents it to them and we’ll have the appropriate pictures to post when we’re back in internet land. I’ll just say for now, it’s quite pretty and very creative.

I spent half the day processing pictures from yesterday’s event. I brought in the long zoom lens and got some really stunning portraits of folks and wanted to take the time to do them justice. It’s been worth it as they came out really well.

Tomorrow is church, so Ann is making a pasta salad to take in and share with our host family. We often feel like such a burden and want to bring something. The reality is that they love to have us as their guest and cook a ton of food for Sunday feast anyway, but we want to make the effort.

We’re running down to our very last favorite supplies. From here on its canned and dry food unless we can trade for some fish and/or veggies. The villagers are very generous with the fruit (bananas in particular, but we get papayas as well) but suffice to say we’re going on a diet. We’re down to about six cans of beer, a couple bottles of wine, two carrots, six potatoes, some eggs and a couple apples. We won’t starve as we have canned/dried foods that would last for months, but dinner will certainly be more of a challenge to make taste “fresh”. Tonight I cooked the last two eggplants with 1/3 of a pumpkin the villagers gave us in a coconut/curry sauce and we had that over rice. Ann’s comment was she was surprised at how good it tasted.

At this point we’re guessing we’ll likely stay here another couple weeks (visit the other village across the lagoon – explore a bit once the wind drops) and then take another week or so to visit a couple islands on the way back to Savusavu to resupply – then back out for some more adventure.

Add Lady Godiva to boot and you’ve got some idea of how today went. Or not.

We were presented beautiful lais for the party.

Today was an event for the cruisers put on by the ladies of the village. They were also hoping to raise some funds for a flush toilet. They need this. Currently the path to relief is out the door and behind the banana trees. Not so bad if you are a guy, but these women desire more.

They have been practicing songs for several days and they built a special structure that everyone could fit into just for “the show”. The structure was made from small trees that held cross beams that consistent of more trees as well as a very long pipe that looked scavenged from a ship. The whole thing was covered with corrugated tin and held down with large rocks to keep the roof from blowing away. The floor was woven pandanas mats, so we were not sitting on the dirt. Musical instruments included guitars, ukuleles a loli (wooden drum) and other percussion instruments including a cardboard box, a coconut shell and a meter tall section of 6 inch PVC pipe.

Jasmine as "The Myna Bird"

Bill as "Lady Godiva"

Here's the outdoor theater set-up.

The ladies were all dressed up for the event.

There was some beautiful music as well as silliness. The beauty came in the form of an invocation started in falsetto by the children, several songs about the island of Fulunga (and how you’ll lose your heart there – so right!) and a goodbye song to end the evening.

The centerpiece of the event (besides the food – see below) was the silly song about the myna bird, etc. Four of the women dressed up in myna bird, gorilla, goat and chicken outfits and pranced and danced to the hoots and hollers of all present. It was hilarious and felt like summer camp! Then one of the young men came out dressed as a woman (Lady Godiva) and the place fell apart.

Since it was all in Fijian it was impossible to tell what the song was really all about, but given the costumes and silliness it was pretty easy to join in the overall fun.

There was also kava (of course) and food. After numerous rounds of kava, the feast began. Octopus, crab made several different ways, whole baked fish, fried eggplant, cassava root, and roti (a Fijian tortilla). Needless to say, Ann and I have skipped dinner after this sumptuous feast.

There were also some heartfelt speeches from the village elders and then a call for the cruisers to say something. Before anyone could decide who should speak , Tai called out Ann to say a few words. She has become very close to many in the village so there were lots of affirmative voices calling for her to stand and speak which she did – and Ann did us proud. Lots of “vinakas” and clapping.

I could go on and on about these wonderful people but I guess I’ll let the fact that we’ve been here for four weeks today be testimony that this place and these people are unique, special, wonderful – you can choose so many other adjectives but we’ll just say that we are also proud to call them our friends.

A quiet day today. We’re in a three or four day windy period where we can’t do much other than work inside or go ashore and since we’ve been working the clinic for the past two days we were pooped!

I used the last of the clams Joe dug for us and made a great (according to Ann) batch of clam chowder. Yum. Ann is finishing the quilt she’s making for the weaving ladies. We had one of the other boats (Graham and Diane from Maunie – a lovely couple of Brits) over for a Charisma and we were having such a delightful time we invited them to stay over for chowder. They reciprocated with freshly baked rolls which were perfect!

So, it’s late. I’ll leave you today with another little anecdote. The Three Loves.

Ann was trying to teach the little girls in the village some English words and in return seeking to learn more Fijian. She was trying to get the girls to teach her the proper word for “beautiful”. There was quite a back and forth, but no progress. They didn’t seem to know the English for “beautiful”. Finally one of them said; “Rairai vinaka”. Ann was pleased to learn a new word, but was thrilled when the girls looked at her tattoo with the three hearts stacked inside each other on her ankle, (each heart signifying one of her children) and said, “That’s your three loves. It’s very beautiful”.

It is official…we have spent another incredibly fulfilling day as assistants to Batai, the island nurse. That hardly describes what Batai provides to the three villages of Fulunga. Last year there was no nurse here. Batai has been here since last November and the villagers love him. There is a lot to love about this 25-year old guy who is doing it all with no real time off. (Yesterday I found him asleep in the middle of the floor in a villagers house—but everyone knew where he was when I asked.) 24/7 Batai is on call.

So when Batai said he needed to continue the health screenings in the “third” village we were very happy to help. Yes, we have seen the third village. The interesting part about this village, Naivaduma, is that it is the only village visible from anchorages. But it is not the main village, Monicake, which has the school, the Fulunga Clinic and the head chief. Even though this is our second trip to Fulunga we don’t know anyone who actually has been to this village. Boats come in through the pass and head to the main village anchorage and don’t stop. So this was a treat.

We had heard from friends that tried to get to the third village by dinghy that it was difficult due to reefs. You can walk to this village but it is a rugged hike lasting from 1.5 to 2 hours (Batai can make it in 30 minutes!). We got lucky today. Batai coerced Ed and Nila from Quixotic into joining the crew that had helped the day before so we needed a fiber (panga-type boat) to carry all of us. Good thing because the winds are up and we stayed much drier in a fiber than we might have in a dinghy.

Our “taxi” picked us up at the beach at7:30am (ouch) and dropped us gently off right in front of the village. We were greeted by Felipe and Buna, the village health workers and wandered through the village to the community hall to set up. Now that we have been to each village we have seen that each village has a distinct personality. Naivaduma is incredibly well kept. Flowers bloomed in gardens around the houses. The beach was clean, but windy and in front of some of the huts the sand was raked. There were even ducks floating in the surf!

Tau, our host, is from this village and she told us stories about growing up there with her father as the most talented carver in the village. Although he has passed his legacy lives on in the church. The rail across the front of the altar is supported by intricately carved war clubs. Seriously. It is a comment by the church on how far they have come…no longer warriors but now a loving community at worship. Tau’s father’s was the centerpiece of the rail and it is beautiful. We are so glad we knew to go look.

The villagers were very pleased to be the center of attention and happily came in for their screenings. We managed to see all 25 adults (and four darling toddlers). Yesterday we were missing three adults. And these folks were characters. Our bulas and smiles were met with bigger bulas and, of course, some silliness. One of our favorites was Mattei, Buna’s father, who immediately set about causing trouble. He thought maybe he should just sit on the scale. Bob met his teasing with some of his own immediately instructing Lisa to do some extra blood sticks to make sure we had his data and the laughter continued. Oh, and Bob got invited to come join the men in a kava party as soon as he was done!

The village chief, Moeses personally thanked Bob for our participation in the church fundraiser a few weeks ago, where Bob reigned as guest chief. Very thoughtful. And of course, breakfast of bread, crackers, oranges and tea was provided afterwards. They really wanted us to stay for lunch too but we all decided that we would like to hike back over the hill and so time was limited.

The hike back to our dinghies took us up to higher lands where we saw many plantations, back down along the mangroves and finally ended at the second village where we had been yesterday. It was sometimes challenging due to the sharp lava rocks that are the path in some places. What a great way to complete the circle back to the main village. And just in time for school to let out…swamping us with all of our little friends creating a bit of a parade back to the dinghy.

Another great day in Fulunga. But tomorrow we are sleeping in!

From Bob: A short anecdote. Yesterday when Tau and family were on Charisma for dinner, we watched the new moon come up over the island. It was just a sliver and it was “upright” shaped like a bowl. Tau glanced up and said it was going to be a dry month. “Why”? we asked. She said that when the moon came up shaped like a bowl it meant that it was holding the water, that none would spill out. Just a little folk wisdom from Fulunga – where we’ll see over the coming weeks how the prediction for less rain plays out.