No kidding, that’s what it feels like right now. We’re just having too much fun.

I got to spend some time with Mini watching him carve a Lali - the Fijian drum.

Today, after a very leisurely morning, we went back into the village. When I say leisurely morning I mean we stayed on board until about 1:30 PM. Why? If we go in any earlier we inevitably get invited to lunch somewhere. We didn’t want to impose yet again on such nice people so stayed until we felt all possibility of being invited to lunch was over. So, what happened as we were walking through the village around 1:30 or so? We got invited to stop for lunch. At least we were able to say we had lunch on the boat and politely decline. Wow, such nice people.

So, why was today like summer camp? Ann wanted to meet up with her weaving group again and I wanted to hang with the men who do the carving. Turned out the weaving group was in a different place just inside the village along the path, so I dropped Ann off there. As I walked a little further, Jasmine, who is part of our host family saw me and jumped up to join me on my mission to spend some time with the men who do the carving. Nothing I could say about knowing my way would dissuade her – she was going to guide me there. Once at the carving shed we found noone about, but ducked inside to find Mini, Salote and one other man who I didn’t know sitting and chatting. Mini was working on a drum – they call them Lali. It starts out as a solid rectangular piece of wood, then the middle is hollowed out lengthwise and they decorate the outside with Fijian symbols. Part of my mission today was to do a pencil rubbing of the carvings so I have some of the designs for future projects of my own when I’m back in the US. I asked Mini’s permission to do this and he was delighted and very helpful. I made about six pencil rubbings of the designs.

While in Mini’s house, Jasmine pulled out a kava bowl and started mixing kava. Oh my, this is the third day in a row of kava for me. Well, once again, I was the honored guest at a kava ceremony and enjoyed four or five bowls. Along the way, and this was the delightful part, Mini and Salote picked up guitars that were sitting on the floor, Jasmine grabbed a ukulele, the other man started drumming on a bowl and I grabbed a lali from outside and there was song! They sang and played such beautiful tunes. I wish I knew the words and/or had the music, but alas…that won’t happen. Just the memories will play on.

Jasmine mixing the kava.

Salote grabbed a guitar.

Meanwhile Ann had secretly brought some quilting project into the village. The weaving ladies told her to sit down and start weaving with them. After a bit, Ann asked them if they would like to see some quilting (she had talked about quilts at the last weaving session). Of course they wanted to see and she brought out a project she started over ten years ago and never got around to finishing. By the time I got back from my afternoon, all the weaving ladies were hand-sewing the quilt and Ann was weaving their mats. It was quite a role reversal.

Ba working on a quilt.

So, there you have it. Summer camp. Just plain fun working on projects. And for tomorrow…one of the young girls from school ran up to us as we were walking out of the village and invited us to school tomorrow to watch a play. We have no idea what that might entail, but you can bet we won’t miss it for anything.

On a different note: I have been feeling that there was a turtle in our anchorage. We saw one last year and I’ve heard what I thought might be one – they come up and exhale then inhale and dive again. Today, we saw him. He came over to Charisma and stuck his head up to have a look. Nice to see that turtles are alive and well in Fulunga.

Mr. Turtle swimming over to say hello.