Fiji (AMOR)

Nathan and I felt humbled and honored to go along with Paul and Amy Ross, as well as 9 Dordt students on an AMOR trip!

According to Dordt, AMOR which stands for A Mission OutReach, is a vision trip: The goal is to see what God is already doing in another part of the world, because we believe that Jesus and the gospel go before us. AMOR is also an opportunity for students to gain cross-cultural experience, to apply their majors and unique gift sets to glorify God and serve others. 

On Monday the Dordt students arrived and Paul, Amy, Nathan and I drove from the Wananavu resort to meet them. We received initial training on the filters, heard about the plan for the week and also did some grocery shopping. We stayed at a motel on the coast in the city of Lautoka near a cruise port. It was a much different feel to be in a busy city which had some modern amenities, but also was quite a bit 'behind' a typical American city.

On Tuesday, we began four days of visiting households and installing water filters. Our group broke up into four groups of 3-4 students, one adult and, often, one translator (Avinesh or David, from the GiveCleanWater charity in Fiji, or someone from the Fiji ministry of health).

Days were spent walking from house to house, introducing ourselves (usually with a rousing "Bula" - a traditional island greeting, which communicates warmth, life, hospitality and a genuine, all-encompassing welcome), getting brief survey information and training the household members on the filters. We visited 100+ homes during the week, and in every case people graciously accepted the gift of a free, clean drinking water system. Before leaving a home, we had at least one member of the home demonstrate how to use the system, by pouring their drinking water (often from a contaminated source) through the filter to remove bacterial and other contaminants. Members of the home also demonstrated how to clean and maintain the filters, which should last 5-10 years.

Day 1. Tuesday. Visited Indian and Fijian homes in a 'combination' settlement. Ate sandwiches for lunch. Children often were very excited to see us!

Fijian hospitality often meant getting offered tea and cookies before we left.

We rode a bus down some pretty narrow and bumpy roads.

Day 2. Wednesday. At this hut, the mosquitoes were very bad. This was a migrant farming family who rented the hut from the farmer who is pictured here. This was a one room hut for a mom, a toddler, an infant and the dad who was working in the fields when we visited.

The farmer, who was Muslim and celebrating Ramadan and so couldn't eat with us, still offered us snacks for lunch along with our sandwiches.

Homemade 'mosquito' net to keep the bugs out for the twins.

Beautiful sunset from the hotel where we stayed each night.

Day 3. Thursday. We were done installing filters in the combination Indian/Fijian village and so visited a traditional Fijian village with a chief and traditional customs. We were welcomed with an elaborate celebration even though the village hadn't known until the night before that we were coming. We received Kava, singing, dancing and large feast for lunch.

Baby powder was used to celebrate. I'm drinking Kava!

Training on a filter in a traditional Fijian hut.

Our feast! The women were shooing the flies away until we arrived. It is customary for guests to eat first while everyone else watches and sings to you.

Lunch consisted of cooked whole fish, lots of root vegetables and some greens.

Kids made their own marble games in the dirt.

Back in Lautoka for the night, we went out for Chinese food.

Joanna from the Ministry of health traveled with us most of the week.

Nathan and Davida from the ministry of health spent the week working together. Davida had an infectious laugh and loved to have fun.

Day 4. Friday. We visited another traditional Fijian village which was much smaller, more remote and with much less infrastructure. They also treated us very well including serving us a lunch of fish that their young boys had speared the night before while swimming with flashlights.

Darryl and Sherry Larson are the founders of Give Clean Water and they traveled with us all week.

For our final afternoon installing filters, we traveled to some very humble locations where conditions were extremely poor with people walking many miles for water.

At this home, they had run their own pipe from a spring in the middle of a sugar cane field. These water sources can be muddy and contaminated, especially at certain times of year.

We came across many wild dogs and even some new puppies.

We realized the kids knew how to play rock paper scissors and after that they also taught us how to play marbles.  As we were leaving they also showed us how they made a hopscotch board on the dirt using ashes.  It was a joy to play with them!

Another beautiful sunset across from the hotel.

Day 5. Saturday. On our day away, we took a ferry to a small island off the coast with all-inclusive meals and activities. It was fun to relax in the sun after a week of work.

The group from Dordt consisted of: Nathan and Lisa Tintle, Sarah Goyne, Keegan Morren, Steven Amin, Paul and Amy Ross, Dylan Runia, Franklin Reiners, Caden Zonnefeld, Emma Boven, Aunna Weinert, and Makenna Van Dyke.

Day 6. Sunday. We attended the church that was a primary sponsor of GiveCleanWater. The church is primarily ethnically Indian and incorporated dancing, bright colors and loud music.

How many miles we flew!

Back in Sioux Falls on Sunday night after more than 24 hours of travelling.

Vinaka vaka levu (Thank you very much!) for reading this post long after our trip was taken.  And also many thanks to Nathan for writing most of it!