clairejenna

We are here in Fiji, at last. Took us 4 days to get here - flew from Toronto to London, London to Singapore, Singapore to Sydney, Sydney to Nadi. We arrived yesterday evening (we are a day ahead of you all) and we were picked at the airport by a family friend of Claire's. Our arrival could not have come at a worse time -- torrential downpour has been the forecast for the last two weeks, and the entire city of Nadi is flooded. The man we are staying with, Azeem, cannot get to his office because of the flooding. There have been Hurricane warnings but nothing has occurred yet. It has literally not stopped raining since we got here and the winds can be pretty bad. Today we went into town to look at the damage caused by the floods. We couldn't get into the city because of police barricades. There is a curfew in effect at the moment to prevent looting and keeping people off the streets. The asphalt is ruined because of the water. Despite of this, the country is still beautiful and the people are so incredibly friendly. Everyone has a smile on their face and we watched kids playing in the water, up to their waists. We haven't done anything overly exciting yet because of the weather, but we did head out with Azeem to a few grocery stores and checked out some resorts in Fiji. There is a real difference between the town and the area where the resorts are. Some areas are quite posh, while others seem rundown but still really nice. Claire is freaked out because no one wears shoes here. People walk the streets and the stores in bare feet. We are spoiled already because we are staying in Azeem's beautiful house, but we are looking forward to our dig in two days, where we will be staying in a traditional Fijian village.

We will be in touch!