Top Five Lists for Fiji

Deborah and I are back home now. We are slowly, sometimes awkwardly, slipping back into our old lives. We struggle to remember where in the kitchen we kept the measuring cups, how to work the scanner, and which buttons to push on the remote to watch a DVD. Eventually it comes back to us. And, as was the case last year, I have a mountain of paperwork to go through, which makes me instantly nostalgic for the simplicity of life in Fiji.

Here now, as promised, are our top 5 likes and dislikes for Fiji as we experienced it during the last five months. Keep in mind that this is based only on our experience on our island. For different people on different Fijian islands at different times of year the lists would be very different.

TOP FIVE “LIKES”

1) Friendly People – We’ve met many friendly people in our travels, but none more warm and welcoming than the Fijians. They live simple lives in a poor country, but they are happy and it shows.

2) Fresh Food – We loved the papayas, mangoes, pineapples, and many other fresh fruits and vegetables, including many new ones to us like the various wild greens, ferns, duruka, and of course fresh squeezed coconut milk.

3) Low Cost of Living – At least for basics like fresh produce, fish, clothing, restaurant meals, utility bills, health care. Some things like automobiles and consumer electronics are expensive, but that didn’t really affect us.

4) Interesting Flora and Fauna – Everything from leaf insects to fruit bats to tree ferns and barking pigeons, with a 365 day a year growing season the place was lusciously green and bursting with life.

5) Sunshine – Even though we were there during the rainy season it seemed the rain fell mostly at night, so we had plenty of sunshine while it was dreary and cold back home. This does wonders for my mood.

TOP FIVE “DISLIKES”

1) Humidity – The drawback to going to Fiji in the rainy season is the high humidity, which drains your energy and makes everything feel and smell damp. And it didn’t do Deborah’s hair any favors either.

2) Ants and Mosquitoes – We eventually learned to minimize mosquitoes bites with timely application of repellant and closing the doors at the right time of day, but they were still a constant annoyance. The ants, though, were unstoppable. Food had to be put away promptly after each meal or they would start carrying it away. Any tiny spot missed while cleaning the kitchen counters would quickly be surrounded by dozens of tiny ants. Keeping them off my wet paint surfaces was a challenge also.

3) Limited Entertainment Options – Being culture junkies this was especially hard for us. No museums, no concerts, no theatres, no libraries, painfully slow dial-up internet. Even no television or radio at our house. We had to rely on our limited collection of CDs, pirated DVDs and the limited offerings at the local laundromat book exchange for our entertainment.

4) Crappy Consumer Goods – Quality kitchen appliances, tools, pots and pans, etc. were not to be found. Deborah called it the “dollar store island.”

5) Claustrophobia – After awhile we began to feel sequestered up at the house. The wilderness came right up to the decks so there wasn’t really any yard to hang out in. We could walk down the steep dirt road into town and then up and down its one main street, but there weren’t really many other good walking options. Even when we still had the car the lack of decent roads meant there weren’t many places to go. It felt like a small, confining world.

Despite the ups and downs, despite the humidity, despite the disagreement with the homeowner over the car repair, despite the ants and the mosquitoes, we are both glad we came to Fiji. Although we never really considered it a likely future home for us, we always wondered what it would be like to live on a tropical island. Now we know. It’s been a great adventure and we’ve learned a lot about what we do and don’t want in a place to live. So the search continues. Next year? We’re leaning toward Europe, especially around the Mediterranean. But anywhere is possible.

So that’s it for this year’s blog. Thanks for following along. I’ll add one more post just before we leave again in November or December 2010 to let everyone know our plans, and the address for the next blog.