Two Kisses

Just as soon as I got done typing my last entry, I call a call from Sis. McGoon:

"Aaron, did you leave yet?"

It was twelve-thiry, I'd told her I should be back by 11:30, and the girls were afraid I'd left them. The girls I was taking were her cousins, Masi and Malu (I need to check that name. I'm always scared of getting some word or name wrong and cussing, since Motete taught me a swear word and it sounds similar to goodbye, "moce") and their little niece, Vika, who is is two or three.

I picked up the girls, called the real estate developer to arrange our meeting time, and we were off. Tete cried.

All the little boys in the village will be sad to see the car go, since they thought it was a racecar. They come up and touch it and look and smell inside every time I come.

Since Mrs. McGoon won't tell me what I can buy to contribute for dinner, I've started buying desert and juice (cokes.) I had a bag of chips the day before yesterday and gave it to the boys in the village. They quickly dispensed with it, and I had to beg to taste just one chip. Yesterday the ones that were too small for school got their first taste of football, since I passed it around, gently since they'e only 3-5 years old. One of them know how to throw a football, and if not passing spirals, at least not ducks.

A little under two hours after leaving Suva, we reached the Maui Beach property, just past teh Warwick & Naviti resorts and just before Hideaway, which supposedly has a good surf break. There are a quite few very small surf breaks along the Coral Coast where they find breaks in the reef. They are typically very narrow, only one or two hundred yards out and usually quite narrow and shortlived, but averaging about 4' high. Hideaway is longer and stronger, but I only got a look at it from a distance at one of the properties for sale.

All the prices have gone up again, so a nice ocean view on a steep hillside runs around $100,000; a little more or less depending on the lot. That seems pretty overpriced, since it's in the middle of nowhere in Fiji, but it is right in the area of several high prices resorts. I think a good property on the outer islands with a truly spectacular view at a lower price might be a better investment, but it would definitely cost much more to develop since you have materials, semi-skilled laborers, and heavy equipment available of Viti Levu, that wouldn't be possible on the outer islands. Power, phone and internet are also available most likely only on Viti Levu, or maybe Vanua Levu.

I took some pictures of the properties, which would probably be good investments, even at that price, but I don't think I could do it on my own, because a payoff on holding the land would take a long time, and I don't quite have enough to build on it with my own reserves. Especially if I include living expenses.

I uploaded all my pictures yesterday, and deleted them from my camera, but I also deleted the ones I'd taken of Motete crying right before I left. Or tried to. He'd cry until I pulled out the camera, and then laugh. As soon as I start to walk away, he'd cry again.

"Moce, Tete. I'll be back tomorrow."

Only it looks like I won't be back till Saturday.

I dropped the girls off at Nosoto village just north of Nadi airport -- we had an adventure finding the village. Apparently they didn't know where it was either. They are both from Kadavu and are there for their cousin's wedding.

When we finally found it, they said thank you and goodbye.

Masi said, "I love you Aaron."

I said, "I love you too."

She said "I have to kiss you," and she gave me a kiss on the cheek.

If Kelsey's not jealous yet, wait.

I went to the hotel and ordered dinner and checked in to the dorm. I asked about my laundry bag and shorts. They gave up my bag reluctantly but could not produce the shorts. I didn't make a fuss about it, but I persisted. It will cost me $25 to replace them, and I'll have to get board shorts which I don't like because they don't have a good drawstring and are uncomfortable for sitting, or swimming trunks, which are too short. Or rugby shorts, which don't have pockets.

I had pasta with chicken sauce which turned out to be half-cooked thick spaghetti noodles with chicken (?) hamburger spaghetti sauce from a can that was way too sweet. Two out three bad meals for Wailoaloa. But the chicken sandwich was so good; or maybe it was just the first food I'd eaten in two days after being sick.

While waiting for dinner, I got a call from brother McGoon telling me that the girls wanted to invite me to the wedding tomorrow. A while later, the phone rang again and I thought it was Masi calling to invite me. No, it was her niece, Lisa (pr. Leez-ah) asking me if I wanted to hang out that evening. It was a very confusing call and at one point she was going to catch a cab to come have dinner with me, when eventually we agreed that I was too tired and I would see her tomorrow.

After dinner, I prepared to go to bed early, but decided to call back, because a Fijian wedding could be interesting, and possible a good way to pick up chicks, and besides the girls I'd driven over were from Kadavu and I wanted to visit there for the surf, but not pay the outrageous [reasonable] Nagigia (pr. "nangingya" with almost no vowels) rate of fifty dollars a night dorm plus $7.10 surfing fee plus $32 meal plan, plus travel.

So I called back, found out there was the festival in Nadi town, and Lisa wanted someone to take her. I agreed and said I'd be right over, hoping to make a short evening of it. She said to give her a half hour to get ready, so I took a shower and did my laundry in the sink, since I'd only brought one day's change.

I got lost a couple of times trying to find the place at night. I knew the way, but I made some wrong turns. Finally, about 9:00 I saw Masi and another girl on the side of the road.

With hardly any introduction, the girl plopped down in the passenger seat. I assumed this to be Lisa and introduced myself. Masi said she was staying, so we drove off.

Now every village along the highway has huge speed humps to slow traffic down. We bottomed out several times, even going less than the required 20km/h which is about 1/2 mile an hour. The national maximum speed limit is 80km/h, somewhere around 35 mph, and most of the time the condition of the road makes 60k/h a bit of a risk.

Nosoto has potholes instead of speed humps. It's just off the airport road, on a gravel road, but the holes make it painfully slow and dangerous for oilpans and transmissions and driveshafts, etc. even at a crawl.

So anyway, me and Lisa went to the festival. It's a small carnival with a lot of food booths and kava huts. People in the kava stalls sing:

"Come have some kava"
"Vinaka"
(which I interpret as "don't mind if I do.)

Vinaka means thank you and your welcome among other things. You can get by passably well with "bula" -- hello , "moce", -- goodbye (remember 'c' is a soft 'th' sound), "vinaka", and "io" -- yes. 'sega' (senga) means no, but why would you ever say that? In Kadavu, Lisa taught me, they have another word for no, which I don't remember, but it might be "mosi".

Finally, I talked Lisa into going on the big ferris wheel -- which goes quite fast and swings you backwards going down so you're tilted back more than 90 degrees. We had a blast, and I think she was more scared than me, until I realized there's probably nowhere near the safety precaution involved that would be in the states. And it did look quite rickety. I told her that if it crashed, at least we would be in the papers.

We had a cotton candy, called 'candy string' but we both only wanted a taste. It tasted like molasses. We agreed to find a little child to give the remainder to and were rewarded by seeing his eyes light up and nearly burst from their sockets.

After walking around a bit --it was a small fair so we saw everything twice-- we went home and that's where I got my second kiss. If Kelsey's not jealous yet, wait until she sees Lisa's picture, because she's quite a beauty.