Settling in..

Well, another week has gone by and classes have begun and we are beginning to feel our new normal.  Sabbath was such a delight, even much more so than the preceding one because most people had returned from holidays so this week they had a pianist (and he was a joy to listen to) and a Beginner/Kindy Sabbath school class that was captivating in its own way.  The class was led by Pr Anthony (one of Brent’s lecturers, and a kiwi) and his wife Sheree and they had the kids do all the song actions as well as story ones – hammering and sawing the ark together, being animals hopping/trumpeting/squarking their way onto the ark, etc.  Lucy was mostly interested in eating things off the floor (I’m sure it’s just a stage), but Reggie is slowly warming up to the newness of it all and I think he’ll get right into it before too long.

We spent the Sunday half of our weekend engaged in manual labour (or at least watching others engage – in the morning our lawn was mowed by a team of four or five guys harnessed to what they call weed whackers and I don’t know what we call; those sticks with strings spinning at high speed on the end of them that we’d do the edges with ordinarily).  Brent has volunteered his assistance to the maintenance crew here and now the supervisor has him and Tony replacing a rotten kitchen in one of the staff houses, so Reggie went along to watch them use the tools.  I gather that Brent is the only person participating in this project who has actually built a kitchen before, but it seems to be coming along fine which is fortunate for the family moving in.  Reggie contributed by sweeping half a pile of sawdust into the dustpan.  We were back at our house by the time the lightning flashed and the thunder crashed and the strong winds blew.  The copious rain formed a river through our freshly-mowed front lawn.

On Sunday evening they held a consecration ceremony at church for all the students.  We sat with all the others studying theology and met many of their families.  Our neighbour Pr Osea preached about how God is not content to see us do what we’ve always done; He wants us, by faith, to reach for bigger and higher things.  Everyone was given a candle on their way in and at the end, Pr Osea invited us to light it and make a commitment, in a nutshell, to our relationship with God.  It was quite the sight; everyone’s little lights flickering in the pitchy darkness.

Classes began on Monday.  Brent seems more excited about the approaching year the more classes he goes to, so I think that’s an excellent sign.  They had, on the timetable, an hour marked ‘Chapel’ yesterday morning, so I loaded the kids onto the pram (it’s a one-person pram but Reggie has decided he’d rather have Lucy curl her legs around her neck so he can sit on the footrest and be pushed around like royalty; lucky babies are flexible) and headed up to the school.  It turned out that on this occasion it was actually the inaugural meeting of the cultural clubs.  I came upon the kiwis standing outside the library while the most majestic singing from the other groups floated across the campus and I couldn’t help but giggle to myself.  This kind of thing has never made me feel very comfortable.  (I remember going somewhere when I went with Brent to South Africa and they wanted us to do a haka because we were from New Zealand.)  We were duly found a room – with air conditioning, bonus – and met the rest of our group.  Aside from Brent, Rowan, Tony and Kris, there is also Marko from Christchurch, Manolo and Brasilda from Albania, and Victoria from California.  So, basically, everyone not from an island.  Fortunately, it seems that not too much singing will be required of us and mostly we exist to have worship together every Wednesday night and plan the occasional picnic.  Sounds good to me.  (Except I somehow managed to get elected secretary and I’m not even a student..)

We had a bit of an adventure with the college’s blue pickup truck on Monday.  It was meant to take Brent to the airport at two o’clock to collect some boxes mum had shipped, and at three o’clock there was still no sign of the truck and it was beginning to rain.  It arrived at half past three, delayed by the application of a tent-like rain cover with flaps for doors, meant for keeping the water out.  Rowan went too, and I understand they arrived at the collection centre with not too much time to spare before closing at four thirty.  Meanwhile, at home, the power went out.  (I didn’t mind too much because both kids were asleep at once, a miracle that has probably only occurred three times in their lives, and it meant I couldn’t make dinner, so I read a book.  Perhaps this is why people come to Fiji for holidays.)

Brent phoned me a while later to say they were almost back, but there’s a ford in the road just before the College entrance which is usually dry, and the rain had caused it to flood so they had to wait for the water to go down before they could pass.  They were able to cross before too long though and we had everything offloaded as it was getting dark.  Then the truck went to drive out of our front yard,  But its wheels just spun in the mud and the more it revved, the deeper it sank.  So the tractor came down, with mower still attached, to haul the truck out backwards and now we have a lot of stomping to do to make our yard flat again.  Reggie, as you might imagine, adored the whole saga.

And finally, because even partial victories are worth celebrating, I’ll mention the ants.  They were there to greet us the moment we walked in our door and have not stopped being interested in us and our stuff ever since.  (I flick one off my toe as I write.)  They are tiny, almost translucent, and don’t seem to be the biting kind.  You can’t just keep food sealed away and they won’t bother you though, because these ants like: books, crawling inside bags, clean nappies, clean washing, walking on the stove while the elements are on, the cap from my insect repellent (??!!), trying to run into the fridge during the split second you have the door open, and the glue on empty toilet rolls.  So, basically, it’s difficult to keep them away.  But mum had sent ant bait in the boxes, so we put some out yesterday morning, and twenty-four hours on, I will venture to report that it might be working.  At least, the ants are VERY attracted to the toxic jelly, so hopefully that means good results soon!

I just want to end by saying that we were so delighted by all the comments on the last post; we really had not expected so many people to read and leave messages, so thank you so much. It’s good to be reminded we have such a wonderful big loving family.