off to Samoa!

My Mom, who took the picture:  You look like an interesting family
Me: Mom,  we ARE an interesting family.
Mom: well... (remains unconvinced.)

On Monday we leave Fiji for Samoa!  We are fairly sure we will be in Samoa until December, and then return to Fiji for 2017, but us + planning ahead = HAHAHA

Anyways.  It has been such a wonderful few months in Fiji.  I think this time abroad is exactly what our family needs.  This summer Daniel and I will be married 8 years, and this is the first time we have been out of Belize for an extended time.  Every aspect of our lives has been different here--  city living, a big house, no getting up at 5am to milk cows..... we were living under so much pressure, which we didn't even realize until we left.  Farm life is nice in some ways, but it is also unrelenting, Now we have a chance to put our heads up, take a deep breath and look around.

We have found Fijians as a whole are so friendly, but when Fijians find out we are traveling to Samoa, they all say we will love it there because Samoans are super friendly. I'm expecting some epic levels of friendliness.  I am going to miss Fiji, but I am so excited to be able to visit another island in the South Pacific.  My serious lack of geographical knowledge means that I keep getting surprised by countries.  Someone will mention they just came from Kiribati, or New Caledonia, or Vanuatu, and I have to google it.  I'm also spending time googling small local airways, looking for bargain fares between islands, because even though we have no budget for side trips I am dying to experience some of these places.  How fun would it be to visit a country you didn't even know existed a few months ago, right? Crossed fingers.  

I am sad that we won't be in Fiji for the Olympics though.  This is the first year that rugby will be an Olympic sport, and the #1 ranked 7's rugby team in the world is.... Fiji!  Rugby is SO major here, that even I follow it now.  It's hard not to when you have 2 tv channels, and 85% of the time both channels are showing rugby.  People here follow rugby the same way Belize follows the World Cup:  when a game is on, you don't need to watch it to know the score, because you can hear the cheering/ groaning from everyone else up and down the street. We live right up the street from the stadium, and know whenever the team is on the move because they get an official police escort, including sirens on and speeding through red lights.  Anyways, we are going to miss a major party in August, but we will be cheering Fiji on in Samoa!