Sunday, December 25, 2016
Monday, December 19, 2016
Monday, December 12, 2016
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Baby Bananas
So after TC Winston there was a banana drought in Fiji....as in for a good 2 or 3 months NO bananas anywhere. It was so weird....since growing up you always could get bananas. Apparently the storm badly damage the trees and wiped out any fruit that was growing on trees. We even had some growing when we moved in that was bad. Bananas started coming back but prices were insane at first ($20FJD for half a hand of bananas).....thankfully they are back down to $5FJD for a hand of bananas!
The yard at our new house has a number of banana trees, so we patiently waited for something to occur. Finally, in the beginning of September we had a bloom.
Up close of the bloom (9/3 actually)
The next day the bloom was starting to open!
On 9/7 - you can already see two hands of bananas
On 9/9 - looks like about six hand of bananas already! Everyday more petals are falling off.
On 9/15 - the flower continues to open but the little miniature bananas just fall off. I guess our tree doesn't have enough root fuel to produce any more hands.
Same day, just a different angle.
On 9/22 - still dropping petals and miniature bananas. The other hands of bananas continue to grow.
On 11/3 - oops....I have failed to take any banana shots in October, not much excitement going on. The bananas have continued to grow and more petals have fallen off the flower.
Close up of the beauties....dreaming of all the smoothies we will make.
On 11/25 - the day before our gardener cut the bananas down! He then put the bananas in our shed in a plastic bag so the gas they give off would help speed up the last of the ripening. He then dug up/took out the rest of the tree.
On 12/9 - though not super yellow they are ready to eat. This is our first crop (less two hands...one that we'd already started eating and one we'd given to Malika). So once we spot a bloom, we now know it will be about 3 months till we have banana overload!
The yard at our new house has a number of banana trees, so we patiently waited for something to occur. Finally, in the beginning of September we had a bloom.
Up close of the bloom (9/3 actually)
The next day the bloom was starting to open!
On 9/7 - you can already see two hands of bananas
On 9/9 - looks like about six hand of bananas already! Everyday more petals are falling off.
On 9/15 - the flower continues to open but the little miniature bananas just fall off. I guess our tree doesn't have enough root fuel to produce any more hands.
Same day, just a different angle.
On 9/22 - still dropping petals and miniature bananas. The other hands of bananas continue to grow.
On 11/3 - oops....I have failed to take any banana shots in October, not much excitement going on. The bananas have continued to grow and more petals have fallen off the flower.
On 11/12 - still very green bananas. Not much flower left. As you notice, the banana tree itself is starting to die. Once a banana tree fruits, it dies but it has sent how rhizomes that grow into new trees.
Close up of the beauties....dreaming of all the smoothies we will make.
On 11/25 - the day before our gardener cut the bananas down! He then put the bananas in our shed in a plastic bag so the gas they give off would help speed up the last of the ripening. He then dug up/took out the rest of the tree.
On 12/9 - though not super yellow they are ready to eat. This is our first crop (less two hands...one that we'd already started eating and one we'd given to Malika). So once we spot a bloom, we now know it will be about 3 months till we have banana overload!
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Travel Photography Opportunity....
So I subscribe to an expat listserv. It is typically most interesting when we have just received our assignment and we can see questions/answers about the country we are moving to. I think on one occasion I have been able to answer a question someone asked about Georgia...but most days I skim and delete. Well one day, I see an offer for a free photo shoot....what! Family photos...I'm there!
There is a company called Travelshoot (who knew!) that will take photos of you when on a trip/vacation in exotic locales or with an iconic landmark in the background....(thinking if we ever make it to Paris....Eiffel Tower here we come!). Part of the company's interview process is a test photo shoot with a potential photographer. So we had to assess the photographer in return for some awesome photos (and giving them permission to use our likeness on their website)....sounds like winning all around....and who doesn't like being a winner!
Up to no good.....
When she wants to turn on the charm, she can really do it!
There we go....we can frame this one!
Daddy and me.....
I think she was singing here.....
I'm laughing because Clarissa is singing the mommy and daddy sittin' in a tree K-I-S-S-U-N-G song (yes, she misspells it every time).
Photobomber....okay, so maybe we got it so she was too comfortable with the photographer....lol!
Vinaka Vakalevu..(Thank you very much in Fijian)..for the photoshoot!
There is a company called Travelshoot (who knew!) that will take photos of you when on a trip/vacation in exotic locales or with an iconic landmark in the background....(thinking if we ever make it to Paris....Eiffel Tower here we come!). Part of the company's interview process is a test photo shoot with a potential photographer. So we had to assess the photographer in return for some awesome photos (and giving them permission to use our likeness on their website)....sounds like winning all around....and who doesn't like being a winner!
We lucked out in our photographer was a young woman. Clarissa has always had an aversion to having her photo taken by strangers, but girl power will sometimes prevail over that....so we started talking about her about a week before, so by the time we met our photographer we kind of "knew" her and so Clarissa cooperated for the most part....
The boys acting if they owned the beach or something....
So if you visit Travelshoot's Fiji location page you will see our lovely faces there (kind of cool too). We don't get anything for the link....we just have to give them credit for taking the photos...(part of that winning thing I mentioned). If you are on our Christmas card list you will be seeing some more of our smiling faces coming to your mailbox soon. I'll add a few more here for Bushia/ grandparents/ anyone worried we aren't doing well to have their worries put to ease....honestly there were so many great shots it was hard to pick a favorite and we will definitely be printing and framing several for our walls.
So I guess Mason does look a little bit like me....
Up to no good.....
When she wants to turn on the charm, she can really do it!
Vote time.....I like the one above more, it shows her missing tooth...documenting a rite of passage. Richard likes the bottom one better.....which one should go on the wall?!?!?
Sigh....he just had to "dab"...
There we go....we can frame this one!
Daddy and me.....
I think she was singing here.....
I'm laughing because Clarissa is singing the mommy and daddy sittin' in a tree K-I-S-S-U-N-G song (yes, she misspells it every time).
Photobomber....okay, so maybe we got it so she was too comfortable with the photographer....lol!
Vinaka Vakalevu..(Thank you very much in Fijian)..for the photoshoot!
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
The little elementary school that could.....
So I try to blog in a relatively chronological order...but sometimes I get really far behind or get started on a post that I never quite finish....this is one of those. Back in mid-October, I had the opportunity to visit a school up in the Ra district. If you recall, back in February Tropical Cyclone Winston hit Fiji and hit it hard (that was another one of those posts I never got to but we did move a month or so afterwards and then life kept me busy). So I'll give it a bit of wall space on the blog now....
So Richard grew up in South Carolina and survived Hurricane Hugo in 1989 which was a Category 5 hurricane with wind speed speeds topping out at 162 mph and lowest pressure of 918 mb. I went to college in Florida and survived Hurricane Opal in 1995, which took the prize of being the only Category 4 hurricane with getting as low as 916 mb (wind speeds topped out at 150 mph) (thanks Wikipedia for the historical factoids!). I didn't realize how nasty Opal was until it brought up in the news when Katrina was barring down on the Gulf Coast. So when Tropical Cyclone Winston start coming around Fiji, Richard and I kept are eye on him and started watching the weather. TC Winston had a peculiar track line.....it kept swinging by us....first went by us to the west, then went past us to the south, then it did a 180 turn, and put Fiji in it's cross hairs and came directly at us (that's when we started to worry). I found this map online and it shows the whole track line.
We hypothesized that in the US, due to the big landmasses storms get slowed down and fall apart typically, here in the South Pacific without any big land mass nearby, TC Winston must of hit some pressure change that caused it to turn but nothing to ever slow it down/stop it, hence all the stalkerish drive-bys. TC Winston was the strongest cyclone to make landfall in the southern hemisphere in recorded history....as a category 5, with peak wind intensity of 230 km/h (145 mph) and lowest pressure of 915 mb (again, thanks wikipedia).
TC Winston was a beast of a storm. It hit February 20 and I went to visit this elementary school in October....eight (8) months later....you read that right. As you drove close to the school, you could see people still had tents in their yards. The school we visited still is missing a roof over several classrooms (and it is not the only one)!
Facts tables separate the temporarily roofed classroom from the unroofed one...
Luckily a number of AID organizations have donated tents for the school to use in place of the missing classrooms.
I went to photograph the inside of classroom tents....one group was shy as it appears I interrupted their morning tea.....
Another class raced out to have their photo taken!
They were all Year One students.....so they were 6 & 7 year olds....I told them my little girl was 6 and showed them a picture of Clarissa.....we were then friends and started taking selfies....
So my main reason for going up there was a friend of mine is working with a local rotary club. They are helping the school rebuild....and one 'project' we did was help some with the library.
The school was able to save some books in plastic tubs prior to the storm hitting but wind and water were not nice to a lot of the library (also following TC Winston, when trying to dry everything out, TC Zena came by and dropped a lot more rain on Fiji). My friend had collected some donated books and art/school supplies and we were delivering them to school.
We also took the some snacks up to the teachers for a morning tea treat (one of the male teacher's wife was out of town....he really appreciated the food too!).
While we were at the school, an aid organization that has finally made it through all the paperwork arrived and hopefully construction of the roof will be completed soon....as the next cyclone season has begun already. It was a lovely day and great to see a little elementary school that is still chugging along without a roof but the kids were happy and learning....I'm also excited to know that as Clarissa becomes a stronger reader and outgrows the early reader books we own I have a wonder place to donate all those books to (and save us weight on our next pack out!).
So Richard grew up in South Carolina and survived Hurricane Hugo in 1989 which was a Category 5 hurricane with wind speed speeds topping out at 162 mph and lowest pressure of 918 mb. I went to college in Florida and survived Hurricane Opal in 1995, which took the prize of being the only Category 4 hurricane with getting as low as 916 mb (wind speeds topped out at 150 mph) (thanks Wikipedia for the historical factoids!). I didn't realize how nasty Opal was until it brought up in the news when Katrina was barring down on the Gulf Coast. So when Tropical Cyclone Winston start coming around Fiji, Richard and I kept are eye on him and started watching the weather. TC Winston had a peculiar track line.....it kept swinging by us....first went by us to the west, then went past us to the south, then it did a 180 turn, and put Fiji in it's cross hairs and came directly at us (that's when we started to worry). I found this map online and it shows the whole track line.
We hypothesized that in the US, due to the big landmasses storms get slowed down and fall apart typically, here in the South Pacific without any big land mass nearby, TC Winston must of hit some pressure change that caused it to turn but nothing to ever slow it down/stop it, hence all the stalkerish drive-bys. TC Winston was the strongest cyclone to make landfall in the southern hemisphere in recorded history....as a category 5, with peak wind intensity of 230 km/h (145 mph) and lowest pressure of 915 mb (again, thanks wikipedia).
TC Winston was a beast of a storm. It hit February 20 and I went to visit this elementary school in October....eight (8) months later....you read that right. As you drove close to the school, you could see people still had tents in their yards. The school we visited still is missing a roof over several classrooms (and it is not the only one)!
Facts tables separate the temporarily roofed classroom from the unroofed one...
Luckily a number of AID organizations have donated tents for the school to use in place of the missing classrooms.
I went to photograph the inside of classroom tents....one group was shy as it appears I interrupted their morning tea.....
Another class raced out to have their photo taken!
They were all Year One students.....so they were 6 & 7 year olds....I told them my little girl was 6 and showed them a picture of Clarissa.....we were then friends and started taking selfies....
So my main reason for going up there was a friend of mine is working with a local rotary club. They are helping the school rebuild....and one 'project' we did was help some with the library.
The school was able to save some books in plastic tubs prior to the storm hitting but wind and water were not nice to a lot of the library (also following TC Winston, when trying to dry everything out, TC Zena came by and dropped a lot more rain on Fiji). My friend had collected some donated books and art/school supplies and we were delivering them to school.
We also took the some snacks up to the teachers for a morning tea treat (one of the male teacher's wife was out of town....he really appreciated the food too!).
While we were at the school, an aid organization that has finally made it through all the paperwork arrived and hopefully construction of the roof will be completed soon....as the next cyclone season has begun already. It was a lovely day and great to see a little elementary school that is still chugging along without a roof but the kids were happy and learning....I'm also excited to know that as Clarissa becomes a stronger reader and outgrows the early reader books we own I have a wonder place to donate all those books to (and save us weight on our next pack out!).
Monday, December 5, 2016
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