Fiji Regional Conference - Day 8: "Life In the Margins!"

This was our last day of our staff conference...Next week starts our biblical studies.  While it's been a wonderful conference, full of inspiration and encouragement, I thought maybe you'd rather first be filled in on our wider experience here.

Lillian with our housemate!

We live in rooms of a house occupied by three generations.  There's a grandma who owns the house, about 3 daughters, I've seen one husband, and there's at least 5 children, all boys, two of which are just learning to walk.  (I played "Round and Round the Garden" with one of the toddlers at least 10 times before heading to the office.  He kept sticking out his hand to me!)

The women prepare our breakfast before we leave to the Fiji office building.  Breakfast consists of bread (from the Hot Bread Kitchen) with a choice of butter, peanut butter, and jam... and tea.  Sometimes there are bananas, too, right off a tree. 

We have lunch at the Fiji office, then return home at the end of the day and the women again fix our dinner.

Just down the street within easy walking distance is a new shopping complex where we can buy credit for our phone, get snacks from the grocery store (We bought coffee to drink in the morning), buy a coffee at Gloria Jeans coffee shop, or get ice cream from the nearby McDonalds.  Some of these places are air-conditioned and feel wonderful to walk into.

To get to our room in the house we first climb the steep driveway.  After catching our breath, we climb up maybe 10 stairs to get to the main floor of the house.  After catching our breath again we climb another staircase to get to our top floor room.  Laurie, you should be proud of all the exercise I'm getting.  Even though the shopping complex is within easy walking distance, it requires commitment just to get to and from the street!