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| Baby Elliana's first picture |
So it has been awhile since my last blog, and since then, life on my island has been crazy busy but fantastic none the less.
For starters, we have a gecko that pays us regular visits in our house. Since he (I am guessing "it" is a "he") eats mosquitoes and cockroaches, we don't mind him hanging out, (lots of bugs here in the tropics) and since we have no "bug issues" I assume he has been doing his job. The problem is, perhaps he is doing his work too well. Why, you ask? Well he has recently been walking across the exposed beams through out the house and dropping "bombs" in random places. To be fair, I guess I always new geckos pooped, I had just never seen it, and until I had to clean it up, I really did not pay much attention as to where this function was taking place. But now, all that has changed. It is full on war, I am hunting geckos, and so far, (as Charlie Sheen would say) I'm winning!
When I am not doing my Elmer Fudd imitation and chasing small lizards around the house, I have been working on my basketball project. My goal is to build courts and introduce basketball to the kids of western Fiji. In an area that Rugby is basically the only sport that is played, it has been tough, but this past Thursday I had the best turn out I have had yet. Over 50 kids showed up to play. We have two hoops (If you can call them that) and the five basketballs I brought for "practice." About half the kids have no shoes, but their enthusiasm for sports is amazing and their desire to learn makes it such an exciting process. Building the foundation of this program will take time, but by the time it is done I would love to be able to field a few teams and help kids gain exposure and education through athletics. I have also been working with the Fijian government trying to get permission to build and basketball complex in an old park. It is going slow, and I will have to come up with the money as this country is poor and the government will not pay for it, but I am confident that it will all come together. If you or anyone you know is interested in being involved, let me know, I can use all I can get.
So that covers the Gecko poops and basketball hoops, so now onto birthdays! I am one year older today, and while for the past 37 years that would have been reason enough to celebrate, this year I have far greater reasons to be happy and count my blessings. I recently found out that we will have a baby girl joining us in August, and that is a "birthday" that is in my mind 24-7. It is funny how the concept of time changes over the years. When I was a kid, if someone told me about an event that was to take place in four months, it would have seemed like a lifetime, but with the news of the baby, it feels like the time is flying by and there is so much to take care of every day until she arrives. (Especially when living on a remote island in the South Pacific that doesn't have places like "BabysRUs or Target.) That being said, it is still MY birthday, soon I will log off and hop in the pool and reflect on how much has changed over the past year and contemplate what I will be writing at this time next year. Of course, I cant tell the future, but hopefully it will involve a happy, healthy little girl, a growing basketball club, and a house free of of Gecko poop.
Hope all is well in your lives, cause life on my island is GREAT!
