A few months ago we took a freediving course here in Savusavu to learn a few tips/techniques for going deeper. On our last day we were all hanging out in the water when the instructors dove down and tried to blow bubble rings. Neither one of them could get it. At least not with any consistency. This drove me to Youtube to see if I could learn a trick or two, which I then promptly forgot about. Then a few days ago while we were out swimming around I remembered and got to work practicing. It didn’t take long to start getting them, and now a week or so later I can blow them pretty consistently. The kids still haven’t nailed it, but a little more practice and I’m sure they will, too.

I’m probably way prouder than I should be over this admittedly minor accomplishment, but I can’t help it, it’s fun. It’s also sort of mesmerizing. Dive down about fifty feet and blow a perfect bubble ring on your first try. Then, float up alongside it as it grows wider and wider and enhances that outer space weightlessness you feel as you slowly run out of breath, while at the same time your body reaches for the surface buoyed by the little bit of air remaining. And of course they are just fun to try and dive through, as well.

Not a whole lot happening right now as we wait out cyclone season and adjust to a slow, hot, humid, pace of life. Still tightening up the new trampolines. I think I’m about ready to cinch up the knots for the last time.

Exciting times in Savusavu as another grocery store opens up. There is another one that will open in the next week or two as well, making four grocery stores of roughly the same size, carrying almost exactly the same items, within a block of each other.

I was talking to the lady at the meat shop next door about this one and she was telling me that it will also have a “cafeteria” on the second floor. She shook her head as if that was ridiculous, “How many cafeteria’s does our small town need?”

I joked, “Just wait, it won’t be long and they’ll be putting in a McDonald’s.”

Her eyes popped open wide, “Oooooh, I would love that!”

I thought to myself, “That’s what we all think, at first.”

It does have to be weird, though, spending your entire life on an island somewhere, seeing commercials through television and movies for all sorts of things that you might never even come across in real life. It must all look so delicious, so luxurious, so glamorous, so easy.

Fiji won a gold medal in rugby at the 2016 Olympics and the government promptly celebrated by printing a $7 bill. Back then the locals clamored to collect them, and some were selling for north of $50 online. In 2020 they won Bronze, and while that’s not a gold, it was still a great excuse for government to sneak some more money into circulation. Inflation be damned. Well, the bubble burst on the $7 bill and now people seem pretty happy to unload these annoying bills that don’t have a space in the cash registers.

I was told that if you stand still for five minutes in Fiji at this time of year you’ll turn green. It’s certainly true for the boat. It takes some pretty hard, pretty regular scrubbing to keep the green at bay.