boys boys everywhere boys!

boys boys everywhere boys

robbery 101 bring shovel.

Last night we went up to Gary and Giseles place for dinner. Had a wonderful time until we heard someone yelling for ‘GARY’ He went out to check what was up, it’s not like we know anyone here! A few minutes later he came in, asked Gerry to go with him and grabbed a shovel on the way out the gate! (Gary is an ex cop of 26 years, swat, homicide division, you name it) when he grabbed the shovel, our eyebrows raised. They went down the hill to look into an apparent robbery that just occurred next door to our place, and coincidently, the house we used to live in for a year and a half. The Police we already there, they even had sniffer dogs…. There are so many inconsistencies here. Just last week, or so, I called the police to help a person in dire straits, being ganged up on by 4 other guys. No cops. Last night, they showed up before even the residents did! The people who live in that house go out every Thursday night to a JW meeting and came home to dogs, cops, flashlights waving and neighbors wielding shovels. I always thought that house was light Fort Knox. The thieves cut through the chain link fence, never thought to douse the security lighting all around the place, and then took some sort of heavy object, sledgehammer maybe, and knocked the padlock off the burglar bar doors, went in, stole a dvd player, 2 winter coats, 2 premade lasagnas (from out of the oven!) and emptied the freezer, also taking some costume jewellery and music cd’s.
Apparently some other neighbor kid saw a suspicious guy standing by the fence with a fresh hole in it and saw another guy on the other side, he ran home and called the cops.
Did I sleep last night? Nope. I had visions of people hiding in my house and placing herbs around our beds to induce deep sleep and then pilfer everything (this is not my imagination, the herb thing actually happens/happened to an acquaintance)
I can’t wait to go to bed tonight. yawn

Fiji Times...page 4

Got some sad-ish news today. Our good friend Giselle will be leaving on Fri to return to Winnipeg. Her Mother has taken a bad fall and broke her hip. She also has a heart aneurism which makes operating difficult in successful terms. She will be leaving permanently on Friday to determine with her siblings a DNR for their Mother. She doesn’t want to leave her husband Gary here as they were only just married in January and isn’t looking forward to the 2 months apart until his notice is up at work. Neither one wants to leave Fiji this early (even though we all spend a lot of time yawing about the politics here and the garbage – that’s kinda the same thing hey?!) Well, we want Giselle to be with her family for the decision making and hopefully some comfort for her Mom. But, we want Gary and Giselle to stay here. They are the only ones we trust to look after our kids. They are our best friends here and quite possibly, anywhere. They are a genuine couple and we enjoy their company. They will be missed.

On the news pages, the man who abducted a tourist couple last week has been sentenced to 20 years jail and caning. Not to sure if this is caning for 20 years or just once or monthly or what…In the country where time is NOT if the essence they sure found this guy guilty fast. The gov’t like to keep it’s tourist quotient up and the reputation it has for valuing its tourists up as well. I think they just like to keep the ‘rep’ up as the human value doesn’t really jive. Here’s why I think that. On Page 4 of the Fiji Times, (the above news story was from page 1) a man who pleaded guilty to murder and robbery has his lawyer asking for leniency as “he feels haunted by his actions” and “he has 2 small kids and a wife”!!! His murder consisted of stabbing a German businessman in the face until he was dead and then robbing the wife, with the help of 1 in the house and 2 on lookout. His lawyer doesn’t like the 15 year jail term his client is looking at and is requesting leniency…ohh poor guy, feels haunted because he stabbed a man in the face until he was dead…I wonder what the deceased mans wife is haunted by. The human value doesn’t match. 15 years and less for brutal murder and robbery while the man who assaulted and raped somebody gets 20 years, right off the bat oh yeah, don’t forget the added caning. Who gets that?

2pm Fijian time.

We have no water. Not the biggest of deals really, it happens regularly, at least this time we had some warning to stock up.
Too bad Alec and his tummy bug weren't aware of the lack of water and he has spent the last 2 days vomitting all over the place. He always apologizes for throwing up in my bed, or his, or the car, or the driveway, or all over the bathroom floor. Believe it or not, he mostly hits the toilet but he is just really sick. His biggest concern right now is that God won't give him his powers back. You see he is a robot that has been born from God (his words) and he's so worried that this sickness means that God is taking away his robotness and his powers. What's a robot boy to do? He won't take medicine (little tough guy - must have some northern blood in him)

So, we have bad smelling laundry stacking up and the water is off for 10 hours. They shut it off on Saturday and turn it back on Monday. This algebra they do here doesn't jive with mine. 3 days equals 10 hours. Have you heard of Mexican time? Well, you've never experienced Fijian time until you are waiting for a 10 hour job to be done in 72. And that's quick! A few weeks ago an aquaintance of mine was told that the police would come by to investigate their break-in at 2pm. (yes, plenty of break-ins)
I guess that 2pm time is a code, for 'NEV-AH'

Elias and all his 'peeps' There's hardly room for him when he gets himself sorted off to sleep. What a bubby.

Ahh, crap, we had a rough night on Friday night, next door they are building a new house. Most exterior is finished and they have power there. On Friday night some of the builders were having a 'good' time at the expense of someone else. They were beating the "pain" (as Alec says) out of this one Fijian guy. We called the police in Namaka(2 minutes by goat!), they said they would come by. They never did. I phoned again a 1/2 hour later and they never came. The people across the road called the police, they never came. Not at all, not the whole night. I know, since I was up for it. I stood there with my eyelids glued back witnessing this thing, they were screaming and yelling and kicking (4 on 1) the guy on the floor and throwing punches on him while he was laying in the floor. I prayed, 'God send an intervention, make this stop.'(of course I was frightened they would see me peeking out at this and would then turn on us.) I was silent. Elias sparked up since he had to go and make a pee and my head swung around to see him and give him my attention as I didn't want the builders to hear him crying and guess that we were paying attention to what was going on. I helped him get through his midnight (2am) pee and when I came back to my perch at the window, the fighting escalated to a point where I thought they might toss the guy out the 2nd floor window, just after they killed him! (keep in mind, it's 2am, I haven't slept, I can't understand the language they are using and I have a vast imagination) Thus the intervention, prayed to God from my lips, came from my own mouth. I yelled out "STOP" trying to sound as non-north American as possible "LEAVE NOW" and then the whispering and the shuffling of the beat-up guy to another room and more whispering and then they replied "YES!" and several words from a language I don't speak and "Police", One even pretended to be the Police and say 'you have the right to remain silent etc' to the other guys and finally they yelled out "OK, we cut out this bull**** we go" and they tore out of there in their work truck like speed demons and left the guy screaming about his eyes and yelling for George and many other things in a language that I don't speak. He hung around that house, throwing rocks or something at the house for hours, wandering up and down Beverly Hills until 5am. Yelling for George each time he came back to the house.

The next day the building crew showed up for work and it was stone cold silent ALL DAY. Gerry went over there to talk with them and told them it was completely unacceptable behaviour or something to that degree and then he told them that if they ever heard that kind of stuff from our house he hoped they would call the cops and make sure they came. They all apologised to him and told him they were only having 'fun' !!! I think at least one of them wasn't.Well, I spose I'm a little off of this country this last week. 2 nights later someone else was partying in that empty house but it was a laughing party, not a 'kick the crap out of someone' type of party.

That was a week ago. It feels like something has changed in this area, several people I know have suffered break-ins. Some near us and some in a 'protected' area with security etc. The concesus was that the police never showed up because, 1) they were scared - no firearms, no protection for themselves and 2) they have no transportation.

The vibration that used to be comfotable in this country has now changed to make me feel like a true unwanted outsider. I drove down the hill to our house and a large group of kids threw a few little rocks ot my car. I stopped and for 'some' reason not one of those kids looked my way. With about 25 kids there I saw no point in making a scene. It just drove the point home to me that I really am in a foreign country. 2 nights ago some tourists (a couple on their way to dinner) were walking from their hotel (it's assumed anyway) and they were picked up and the man taken somewhere, beaten and tied and the lady driven off to a very rural area and her future is now destroyed. At least mentally. One of them is in the hospital, the other one reeling from what happened. When my friends house was broken into the police couldn't come by to investigate as their one and only vehicle was out in that rural area until that investigation was over. My friend offered to go and pick up the police but they declined, she offered to sent a taxi or carrier van to pick up and even pay for it...again, declined. These last 2 events happened very close to where we live.

Just when tranquility arrives and I am feeling more like I am at home in this country....what does it mean? Don't get to comfortable? this world is not my home? and, of coarse, at the back of my mind in the impending birth of my last little baby (most likely anyway) Do I really want to take a chance and deliver the bubba here? surrounded by people like this? more on that later.

And did I mention the new bill the parliament want to pass? it will give amnesty to anyone (past, present and future) who was involved directly or remotely in any political ramblings or coups. About a hundred or so crims are just itching to get out of jail so they can overthrow the gov't once again and we are entering an election year... more on that later too.

So, lock your doors, say your prayers

and "let it rain..." (Michael W. Smith song)

Alec, Angel and Elias

Ahhh Mawwaige, Twue wove fowevah.

We celebrated 6 years of marriage on Sunday by driving to Suva. It’s only 3 hours away on a twisty road with twisted drivers ahead and behind us. Only partially nerve-racking, I don’t think my Mom would have enjoyed it at all. Once you get past the careless drivers (they thrive here) you get to enjoy the ‘Coral Coast’ It’s a beautiful coastline dotted with villages and white sandy beaches. We went to Suva to look into the Private Hospital. It checked out all right, there is a pediatrician attending each birth, should the child be unwell after 3 hours, he/she would be transferred to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital(specializes in Pediatric care). This is the hospital that regularly loses newborns due to infectious equipment. We didn’t find the comfort or confidence we were hoping to find in the Suva hospitals. So, we hit the Holiday Inn and were thrilled to find that we were getting a weekend rate of 109.00 per night, instead of the week day rate of 220.00! We enjoyed a swim at the pool, actually felt a little like a tourist! Took the boys to the McDonalds (where else when you are a tourist with kids!) They have a wonderful play land; it’s the best ‘park’ in all of Fiji. After they were played out and Elias had his fill of terror from the clown that was attending someones b-day party, we went back to the hotel. The attempt was made to settle the boys in for the night so we could at least have a quiet anniversary dinner, but the boys ‘1’ parents ‘0’ for that endeavor. They watched us eat in an almost pitch black environ and complained about being hungry the whole time! Finally we chucked that idea out the door and we each snuggled in with a boy to get them to sleep, then hoping to visit on the verandah and remember the last 6 years with smiles. It was 7am when I woke up with Eli. Shortly after that, Ger and Alec woke too. Ahh, such is real life! After breakfast and three-thousand pee breaks for the boys, we hit the COST-U-LESS! This is what makes living in Fiji all worth while. I browsed around that store for almost 2 hours! We bought ceiling fans and peanut butter. They even have BISQUIK there! After we paid our bill, we went next door to McD’s again and after that, headed home to Nadi and a pizza supper.
Happy Anniversary Gerry.
You, with your quiet ways, and big green eyes, have always won my heart.