Cooking class

On Monday this week we took our first cooking class. One of my goals on this trip is to try to take a cooking class in every country we visit.  In Savusavu I only found one cooking class offered and it was a Fijian Indian class put on by the Sea View cafe in town.  Our teachers name is Sarita and she was born and raised in Fiji and runs the cafe where she occasionally teaches cooking classes.  Our class consisted of 4 dishes, Boneless skinless chicken curry, Chutney, Roti, and the Festival dish or Bhagi. 

Adam and I sat in our chairs provided as we watched Sarita begin to cook in this tiny kitchen with one regular size cooktop stove. Soon we were up and cooking making the festival dish which is sauted spinach and eggplant along with roti which is like a much thinner naan.  As we cooked our teacher seemed very impressed by Adam, I on the other hand seemed to mess something up every time our teacher would look over and she would said, "it's ok, don't worry I will fix it."  Pretty soon she began to say to me "Adam will cook for you" and I think at that point I was being seen as a lost cause. Adam must have the cooking gift in our family.

In the end we enjoyed our beautiful dinner, paid our fee of about 7 American dollars and made the trek back home.  It was a wonderful day and we were full and tired.

Pearl farms and crazy rain

Yesterday Adam and I decided to have an adventurious spirit and walk to Savusavu (the tiny town by our apartment) and go on the pearl farm tour. After walking down our 300 ft drive way which, if you are going up is a pretty steep hike, we walked an hour on the dirt road to town.  In town we have found a small resturant run by the local dive shop that has a menu of some amazing fijian, asian, and indian cusine.  I chose the chili garlic chicken, which was amazing.  After our lunch Adam and I went on the J. Hunter pearl farm tour.

The pearl farm was pretty interesting, they have over a million oysters that they have specialized japanese technicians implant stones from the mississippi river into them to produce the pearls.  Every day the fijian workers clean the exterior of 1000 oysters to prevent disease or harm from sea life.  When about a year has passed and the japanese come back to harvest the pearls, which are then sold on the pearl market in japan.  Evidently only the japanese have the skills to implant and harvest the pearls without destroying the oysters.  The benefit to this trade is that because of the addition of the pearl farm on the island many fijians now have jobs. Also the company was able to help some of the small villages they employ get electricity.

Speaking of electricity, we found out a couple of days ago after having frequent blackouts that the whole island is powered by generator and when they switch over to another generator the users lose power for about a half an hour or so.

Today was a lazy day, it seems the Washington rains has found us as it poured all day making us stuck in our studio apartment, hopefully tomorrow the sunshine will find us again.

Fiji (Nadia and Savusavu)

Bula. (Hello),
We have made it to our first destination but not without some obstacles. Our first impression is that the sights are beautiful and the people are very friendly but our time in Nadi opened our eyes to how dirty it's here. I had always imagined it to be just like Hawaii with more tropics and better snorkeling but it seems that it's more remote here. I went to buy a medium size yogurt at the grocery store and was surprised that it cost 9 dollars US. While we were in nadi we rented a car and Adam was tasked with learning to drive on the other side of the road. Although it was scary at first as the drivers here are crazy, he became a pro passing the large sugar cane trucks with the rest of the locals.  While in Nadia we explored the island, going to Port Denaru, where all the resorts are, and all the way to lutoka, where Fiji's sugar cane processing plant is. While we were in Nadi we had our first experience with the geckos and the frogs (which only come out at night). We are now learning to adjust.

On Thursday we flew to the island of Vanau levu to our first homeaway condo overlooking Savusavu bay, it's beautiful here. The picture attached is from our deck.  Since we have been here it has rained a bit but we spent one day exploring the town of Savusavu.  We visited a large fruit and veggie market, it was full of beautiful fruits I had never seen before. Our condo owner ( who lives above us) told us today that the reason why so many figians don't work is because everything grows here and they can live off the land.  They are able to easily grow anything here.  He said (in his very stong german accent) "you just put a branch in the ground and it grows you need no water or fertilizers as in germany."

Well that is all for now, hope everything is going well.

Love,   Kaitlin and Adam