A new nest

2.9.2011

A beach house with the view of the Pacific, waving palms and falling coconuts. Instead of alarm clock a noise of Pacific waves. We are in Fiji. We have only local people in our neighborhood, no tourists. This is our place to live for the next 5 weeks.

After many hours of travelling we reached our destination. Tired and hungry we prepared the first shopping list. There were usual items there like butter, milk, fresh chicken, maple syrup (!) and much more. We went to the city, 15 km form our place, which was supposed to have the best supply. We were surprised to find out there was a shortage of milk products on the island for a long time. How was it possible that there was no milk, no butter, no cream, any cheese and yogurt? There was no fresh meat and nor any other products from our list! We came back home with a few kilograms of potatoes, bags of flour, 2 dozens of eggs and the basic question how we were going to eat here.

The next morning Wojtek bought some eggplants from the farmer by the road. They looked so poor that I had to think what to do with them. To my surprise they turned out to be great with garlic and tomato souce! The following day my husband brought the whole backpack of food from the Fiji capital, Suva. The hope came back, the fridge was full again! Yet we were still without the cotttage cheese. So, I started thinking what to do to have one. I remembered that as a 9-year old I used to make it when there was almost nothing at Polish stores during Marshall Law. I heated up sour milk, and then sieved the milk and voila. We were so happy! We also planted onions to have fresh chives Uśmiech . It tastes delicious together.

We have also done our first hiking in a bush. Our hosts, Patsy and Geoff, were the guides. We were carefully stepping through high, sensitive grass and trees for more than two hours. We were muddy and proud of ourselves. We did it!

Little Wojtek has made friends with Geoff and helped him to plant a few palms and banana trees in the garden.

After a few days here we feel we have made a nice and cozy nest for our family. We have got the old rhythm back with some space for exercising, reading, talking and drinking tea in the afternoon. We have also resumed homeschooling. We start at 9am and finish around 2pm including lunch. Wojtus has got two new subjects i.e nature and history. Ania continuous her integrated education.

We live in a calmer way again. After three intensive months of camping in North America we really appreciate this time now. Our daily rhythm is dictated by sunrise and sunset, low tide and high tide. We know when to go for a walk along the beach. The kids know when they can play with other kids. Every morning we buy fresh milk straight from a cow brought by Singh, our neighbor.