Marata Village, followed by a Short Break

After a busy week of doing many eye exams, we spent a busy Saturday (without even a lunch break) seeing exactly 100 patients in the Marata Village, not far from our apartment in Tamavua.  It was once again extremely hot, and we came out of there, just drenched in sweat.  Many of the patients expressed their gratitude for our service.  It sure makes us feel needed, and loved, and makes it all worthwhile. 

I want you to meet my "Big" friend, Ropate 
from the Marata Village.  He's one I won't be 
challenging to an arm wrestling match anytime 
soon.  I'm just glad he didn't need any glasses, 
as we don't have any frames quite that large.

Just one of the 100 patients I
examined this particular day.

Although Ann is typically busy,
she does sneak in a few different
crafts or reading when she has a moment.

This 4 year old boy, Mateneh, really needed 
glasses badly. We gave  him -7.00 glasses, 
which is very high prescription for anyone, 
young or old.  It's difficult to believe that he was 
functioning without wearing any glasses, whatsoever. 

This past week, we did exactly what it says in the photo below, 
"Take a Break".  We took a ferry over to one of the Mamanuca Islands just west of the main island of Fiji, and spent a few days resting & relaxing, before we hit it hard again this coming week.

This is the Mololocat Ferry we took.

This is the name of the resort we
stayed at on Malololailai Island.

This is the Bure we stayed in, right on
the ocean front. A stunning location,
but very hot, with no air conditioning.  
We borrowed a fan from the laundry lady to 
put beside our bed, allowing us to sleep at night.

These next 3 photos are the view from our Bure.
It was great to wake up to that in the morning,
and to watch the sun set in the evening.

I did hold a 1.5 hour long staff meeting via
Skype one morning, while sitting here overlooking
the ocean. It was great to hear and see all of  my
staff back in Glenmore Landing, and to feel their
wonderful spirits and humor, again. It was
reassuring to see that they hadn't burned down the
office in my absence. I really do have amazing staff.

And no, that smooth surface is not ice!

We went on a couple of different amazing
snorkeling trips while we were there.

This was the boat we used to get us to this
little sand bar to snorkel.  This little sandy
island actually disappears at high tide,
so we had to time our trip just right.

Getting ready to leap out of the boat.

Here are some photos showing some of the amazing
fish, starfish, and choral we saw under the water.
It was simply remarkable!

Such an amazing variety of colors.

Stunning Blue Starfish!

I found Nemo! There were many Clown Fish.

We were surprised to see that someone
was having a real wedding on this
sandbar out in the middle of the ocean.

They had Fijians singing & dancing for the wedding

This was the boat that carried the
wedding party to and from the sandbar.

Ann & I also attended a Fijian Cooking Class.
We learned to make Kokoda, which is an
amazingly great tasting raw fish salad.

We now have a nice shell collection.
Ann took the lead in this project.

My father was a great carver of wood,
so I took the opportunity to try it myself.
It's early in the process, so I'll have to
show you the finished product, later.

We finally had a cloudy day, that was cool
enough for us to go for a walk around this
small island.  There were some spectacular
views from the top of the hills.

More Bures for guests to sleep in.

There was even a small church on the island.
We were told that if the tsunami siren went
off, we were supposed to run up the hill
to this church.  I'm glad we never had
reason to do that while we were there.

Because the air temperature was so hot,
even at night, the water temperature of
both this pool and the ocean was like a
warm bath.  It was difficult to get some
 relief from the intense heat.  I sense
I'm not getting any sympathy from you
back in Canada during this winter.

It was a fun few days in these islands, 

now we are ready to hit it hard  again!   

It is so nice to be able to schedule

ourselves so that we can work real hard 

and then be able to explore and play in this 

beautiful area of the world! We are so blessed!!