water filters
12:46 PM
I’ve been far too busy living out the experience that we are having here in Fiji to update this or to even check anything online, but I wanted to try and get some pictures or something out at least. Today was amazing and to try and capture it in words or pictures would be beyond impossible. However, of course I spent the whole day just trying to capture a brief moment of what we were seeing and experiencing on film. The past 3 days we have gone out to different villages (Nsolo, Sorokoba, and Nvala today) and into each home to show them how to use the water filters we are giving them. Each day we have left knowing an entire village now has access to clean water. It is an amazing feeling. What is even more incredible is that this organization (Give Clean Water) in a very short timeline, can tangibly provide clean water to every person that lives in Fiji and that is their plan.
In the past 3 days I have played soccer with the kids in the village, sat on countless woven mats on the floors of homes, heard “Brittany Spears” screamed across a village so that I would come eat the sugar cane or drink from a coconut. I have been given a necklace of shells as a gift by a girl that didn’t want me to forget her; and in return I gave her my bracelet. I have sat with an entire village for a meal as they sang to us and offered their food. I have prayed with families, drank filtered water from a river, been asked to marry a families’ son (they were joking), sat inside a Fijian home by myself with only the pastor and the family and talked about differences in life, and faith, and culture. Then today’s experience was beyond words. We went into a village that pastors haven’t been allowed into for over a hundred years but we were welcomed in to bring clean water to them. This village looked exactly what you would picture of Fiji, complete with straw huts and incredible mountains in the background and a river flowing through. I am in awe and still can’t completely take in this experience.
This week I have met amazing people in the villages and have made new friends in the team that we are working with. All the while I have been continuously reminded of my family in Australia and my own family memories as I look up into the sky and see the southern cross again and walk into a grocery store to see all of the things that I would have with my grandparents on my visits to their home over the years.
Tomorrow is our last day of installing filters and I’m sad that this part is ending. I have been reminded that I never want to be a tourist at a resort or on a bus taking pictures as I pass by. I would much rather be sitting on a grass mat on the floor of a hut with a child in my lap while sharing stories and laughter and praying together as we help them to be healthier for the rest of their life. I want to hear my name called in a village over a game of rugby because the chief’s family wants me to come and see the drum that is used to call the village together.
I hope to get up pictures soon although I haven’t even had an opportunity to go through and look at them myself. The time change is exhausting as it is 4:30am El Paso time right now and I’m about to go to sleep. Continue to pray for us as we go out to help another village tomorrow. I know we will have many more adventures to come. It’s been an amazing trip so far.
BULA
In the past 3 days I have played soccer with the kids in the village, sat on countless woven mats on the floors of homes, heard “Brittany Spears” screamed across a village so that I would come eat the sugar cane or drink from a coconut. I have been given a necklace of shells as a gift by a girl that didn’t want me to forget her; and in return I gave her my bracelet. I have sat with an entire village for a meal as they sang to us and offered their food. I have prayed with families, drank filtered water from a river, been asked to marry a families’ son (they were joking), sat inside a Fijian home by myself with only the pastor and the family and talked about differences in life, and faith, and culture. Then today’s experience was beyond words. We went into a village that pastors haven’t been allowed into for over a hundred years but we were welcomed in to bring clean water to them. This village looked exactly what you would picture of Fiji, complete with straw huts and incredible mountains in the background and a river flowing through. I am in awe and still can’t completely take in this experience.
This week I have met amazing people in the villages and have made new friends in the team that we are working with. All the while I have been continuously reminded of my family in Australia and my own family memories as I look up into the sky and see the southern cross again and walk into a grocery store to see all of the things that I would have with my grandparents on my visits to their home over the years.
Tomorrow is our last day of installing filters and I’m sad that this part is ending. I have been reminded that I never want to be a tourist at a resort or on a bus taking pictures as I pass by. I would much rather be sitting on a grass mat on the floor of a hut with a child in my lap while sharing stories and laughter and praying together as we help them to be healthier for the rest of their life. I want to hear my name called in a village over a game of rugby because the chief’s family wants me to come and see the drum that is used to call the village together.
I hope to get up pictures soon although I haven’t even had an opportunity to go through and look at them myself. The time change is exhausting as it is 4:30am El Paso time right now and I’m about to go to sleep. Continue to pray for us as we go out to help another village tomorrow. I know we will have many more adventures to come. It’s been an amazing trip so far.
BULA
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