Sharon and Mick

Yesterday we had a visit from Sharon and Mick, who are originally from Chicago but have been living here in Fiji for 15 years. They are friends of our neighbor Paul, who thought Sharon in particular would like to meet us as she is also an artist in the surrealistic style. Despite their status as Fiji veterans they were amazed at the magnitude of our local mosquito population at the house (they have been particularly bad the last few days). After numerous interruptions to the conversation to point out mosquitoes parked on Mick’s arm or Sharon’s forehead, Deborah offered to just spray them both down with bug repellant. This successfully allowed us to continue conversing with less slapping, flicking, and swearing.

We talked a lot about art and how to make do with the limited artist’s supplies available in Fiji. It was also interesting to get their perspective on living here on the island. Obviously they like it well enough since they’ve stayed here for 15 years, but they liked it better when they only had one neighbor. Now they have eight, all Indian, and they have strained relationships with some of them. They’ve thought of selling their home but this isn’t a good time, both because of the depressed market and because of potential capital gains taxes. We were also surprised to learn that they had been burglarized several times, although mostly small stuff was taken. We haven’t had any problems and have felt very safe here, but we live up on a ridge at the end of steep 4WD road whereas they live right next to the main road. But white people from a rich country living in a Third World country will probably always be a target for petty theft.

Sharon and Mick agree with us that living here on the island has definite limitations. The small quantity and low quality of roads means you can’t drive far, and when you do drive it’s always on the same few roads. The goods offered in the stores are inexpensive but of generally poor quality (Deborah calls this the Dollar Store Island). And cultural opportunities are sorely lacking – no concerts, no museums, no theatre, the only cinema is in Labasa. Sharon and Mick are actually going back to Chicago for 5 weeks in June to get a cultural fix. We are definitely feeling the need for that as well, which has us thinking about Europe for our next winter trip. But for now we’re still enjoying the sunshine and the friendly people and the rich experience of living in a foreign place. We just aren’t so crazy about the mosquitoes.

Inexplicably, Deborah tries to look even more white.