June 1, 2013

It has rained most every day this week; the rain has been especially hard at night waking us up with its noise.  Today the wind and the rain were so hard it reminded me of the weather we had when Cyclone Evan came through--lots of noisy wind and torrents of rain.  I actually did not get to the institute until ll:00 as I was not willing to be soaked all day.  In this kind of weather umbrellas are useless.

It is so interesting to me that two weeks ago it was 26 degrees Celsius and we had the air conditioner on all night.  This entire week it has been 26--all day and all night and we, well I, are cold.  I have slept with a blanket two nights, and have worn my heavier sweater everyday.  Scott says he is not cold, but I noticed this morning that he had pulled the blanket over himself some time during the night.  Men!  The Fijians are wearing hoodies, winter coats (did you realize there is no word for winter in Fijian?), and knit ski caps.  One would think from looking at them that it was Utah in November.

I wish I had studied so many things when I was at university.  Since I have been here in Fiji I have wanted to know botany so I could identify all the wonderful trees and plants, to know meteorology so I could understand why the temperature gets cooler at night all over the USA and it does not here in Fiji, to know oceanography so I could name the sea creatures we have seen, and while I am wishing I would also like to know cultures and customs of the world.  My master's degree stands for very little from the seat in which I find myself sitting.  SIGH!


I have not had time to shop for Scott's birthday.  To be truthful I remembered his birthday about three weeks ago, but forgot it until last night.  We shopped for his present and then did the food shopping.
I called the Hogges and the Wellses and invited them to dinner tomorrow to help us celebrate his birthday.  It is so nice to have close friends here.

Showed a movie tonight which was attended by 35 YSAs mostly people we have never seen before or who seldom come.  We are always excited for new faces, and to see old faces back.  Because I sit outside the movie to greet late comers, I worked on this blog.  I only got did two posts in over two hours.  Ugh!