Fiji: Nadi Town

Bula!

Currently in an internet cafe in downtown Nadi which is the town where the airport is in Fiji. After sleeping for most of the second leg of the 10 hour journey we came into Nadi at 8:30am and were welcomed by ukelele players! Went through immigration and customs fine since we have an immigration letter stating why we're not leaving till December and confirming from the government that we're volunteers.

The Lattitude country representative David Kirton picked us up from the airport and we went to the hotel we'll be staying in till Sunday for the orientation. We were the second group to arrive and throughout the rest of the day the rest of the volunteers are coming in so we're free today to get our bearings. It's 2pm now and by 4pm, the last Australian group will have arrived and the orientation can start! It sounds really exciting and I hope I have time to write about it after. We'll be put into groups of 4 and go with a local guide with tasks to complete around town to get us to interact and start talking in the local market. After buying traditional dress we'll be going to a nearby village where David is related to the families to take part in a Kava ceremony and hopefully learn the customs (or rather, what NOT to do!) sooner rather than later in our host villages.

It's around 25 degrees and humid in Nadi. It's very overcast but I prefer it this way since it means we can walk around easily. When the plane was landing it was amazing to see the spread of islands in the water and to see how hilly it was. Some of the islands were tiny with only a few trees and others had huge hills and lakes.

Looking forward to meeting the rest of the volunteers very soon and starting the orientation!