Dear God,

I’m Sorry.

Be nice.

To Mommy and Daddy.

Amen.

Today we had a real surprise. I come into the computer room, and find legible drawings on two pieces of old A4 paper lying on the floor.

Joana has always liked to draw and paint. She just finished her Mom’s set of watercolor paints a week ago, and now has turned to a new set of crayons and colored pencils we got her a few days ago. However, all her drawings are just scribbles, or blotches of paint. She’s been getting better at filling all the white spaces on the paper with paint, but that was about it.

So, I’m staring at the two pieces of paper wondering who could have drawn the figures on them. Not a 2 year old that was drawing scribbles the day before.

I pick the two pieces of paper up, still puzzled and amused, and take it over to my brother Ben who is in high school. “Did you do this?”. His reply, “Mmmmm no…”. I take it over to Joana’s Nau (Grandma), “No”, same answer. Joana’s Mommy? “Nope…”. Now were all staring at the drawings…

Joana picks up a crayon, starts making lil’ spirals, all the while chuckling at the cartoon she’s watching. I ask, “Joana, whats that?”.

“Car…”

I’m back in Vuda. I just decided I couldn’t stay in Suva for another two days and came to the West early.

Today we just lounged under the coconut trees, while Joana explored the yard and did a bit of ‘vatatalo’ for the first time. Then in the evening we went down to the beach and Joana and I went for a swim.

It was a very fun day.

I brought my work PC over with me so I could so some work while here. Joana poured a cup of water over it. I have it drying out and I hope it is ok when I check it tomorrow morning.

Very dreary weather this week. I just got back from the West which had nice sunshine. There is an aspect of dreary weather that might appeal to me, maybe when I’m 80 and can’t walk. I could just sit out on the front porch and watch the thin rain stream down from the sky like an endless gray mist, hour after hour. But not today. The rugby field is muddy and no one feels like playing. The warm blanket on my bed is inviting, but I know that as soon as you get in it will get too hot. We’ll you’d think we’d be used to this by now.

I think I’m going to go club that screaming dog tonight. It barks endlessly day after day, night after night. Poor thing actually, it is the owner’s fault. They keep it tied down all the time. Imagine if you were tied tree or post. You’d probably start barking after a few days.

We’ll right now I’m tied to this computer screen. Been on this for the last 8 hours and counting. I’m debating going out to play rugby but I don’t want to run 2 miles to find out the field is still muddy. Actually, I could use the exercise anyway. Right after I hit save.

Joana was very sick when I was in the West. Poor lil girl. It is quite disturbing to watch your child desperately sick. Makes me wish I had chosen to be a doctor instead of a code puncher. She’s well now and since then I’ve taken up reading medical sites in preparation for the next bout of sickness. I’d originally thought she was immune to sickness, 2 years without so much as a cough. We’ll at least now I know her immune system can handle whats thrown its way. She’s doing a lot better now by the way.

We’ll, for that rugby game. I’m off.

I remember when I was a kid I’d have thousands of questions to ask my Dad each day. I can’t remember exactly what the questions were, but I know I had a couple thousand of them.

Now Joana is at the age where shes just starting to talk and has found out how to question. She has only one question for me every day, and repeats it a thousand times throughout the day.

Who’s this?

The question asks, “What’s this?”, “Who’s this?” and “Why is this?” all at the same time. It also comes out as a single word, “Whosis?”. A very efficient question.

I only wish I could devise such efficient questions and hopefully get just as efficient answers.

With each question, or each instance of “the question”, it would be followed by a point of the finger, a twinkle in the eye, and a face full of inquiry. At that moment, I knew the question was the most important thing in the world.

Amazingly each new instance of the question is just as exciting and just as important.

The best part is when I answer the question. In deep reflection and thought, the world stands still and disappears around her.

For me, it is another 5 minutes of work before the next question, hopefully a different one this time, but as long as “the question” is different for her, it’s fine with me.

Was most disturbed to see a mugging done in broad day-light.. outside the FIT hostel gates… this man was being assaulted by two fijian youths dressed in dark clothing.. huge jackets and one with a beanie to hide his face I’m sure.. Joana, her Nau and I were on our way to town on the bus to run some errands. The bus must have startled them because they both ran off and I saw one of them with a knife… this isn’t the Fiji I know… it’s a show of desperate times.. I don’t feel so safe walking home alone anymore.. this was done just down the street from where we live.

Am guest blogging on here and will be popping in now and then to ramble.. while I have my own site that has been neglected for almost a year.. this seems easier to do.. lol..

Well that’s it from me tonight… I have a long night of wow ahead of me.. wewt wewt

We spent the whole week in Vuda. What a nice break from Work and Suva.

Vara and Joana have been here since Friday last week. I came in during the week. We managed to get down to the beach, and swim for a while. Vara and Robbie had taken the lead, behind them, Joana and I nearly got lost trying to find a new path to the beach. The whole time Joana was saying - it’s kokay. I’m not sure who she was trying to reassure, me or herself. I don’t blame her, she was on my shoulders and I was lost in tall grass. If there happened to be an onlooker all they would have seen is Joana floating above the grass. Would have made quite a perculiar sight.

It’s approaching mango season again and the mago trees in the compound here are heavy with mostly green mangoes. The night I got here, which was around 12PM ’cause I caught the last Viti Minibus from Suva, a mango nearly fell on my head. I had told the Minibus driver to just drop me off at the turn in, and there I was walking along with absolute nonchalance when suddenly there was a loud thud right next to me that made me jump right out of my skin. It took me half a second to realize it was a mango, but too late, the mango had already skinned me - pwned.

We made a swing for Joana in the tree at the back of the house. She loves it so much you kind of get tired of pushing her while shes on the swing talking away, naming the objects around her - bird, tree, tractor. Yeah, tractor, they plowed the whole field by the house that Simon is developing. Joana and I took some sandwiches that Tiare and Vara had made over to the tractor drivers and Joana was quite facinated with the burnt sugarcane, plowed earth, tractors and all. Yesterday she was asking for the tractors again.

Well, Steven probably wants to get on and play some WOW, so I’ll get off.