Bau Island

  This past week, we were privileged to do eye care on the very historic small island of Bau.  The island is full of history of many wars, bloodshed, cruelty & cannibalism, and ghost stories.  This is where the first Head Chief of all of Fiji lived, and is still today considered to be a very Chiefly Village.   No tourists are allowed to go there, and you must get permission from the chief, and come with someone who has lived on the island, before.  Josese & Aliti Tagicakibou (seen below) from our stake, arranged our visit with the chief, and then came along as our guide for the day as this was the island he was from.

Here we are at the Ferry Landing

We loaded our glasses & equipment into the boat for a 7 
minute ride to Bau Island. It cost F$4.50 each way .

We were glad it was a beautiful sunny
day to ride over to the island.

Our boat driver got us there, safely.

As you can see, it's not a big island;
however it's beautiful.

Approaching the landing to get off the boat

After meeting with the chief of the village
for the traditional "Grog" ceremony, we
were given official permission to begin
our eye exams and providing glasses.

The photo on the wall is the original famous
Chief Cakibau of Bau Island, and we are
standing with his great grand daughter.

We had a very busy and very "hot" day
in the community center providing eyecare.  It is
hard to describe the heat and humidity to anyone
who has not experienced it, before.  

Right beside us was the first, and oldest
Methodist Church in Fiji, from 1854.

Chief Cakobau was converted from Paganism
to Christianity by the missionaries in 1851.

This is the inside of the Methodist Church

The Pulpit...

This is the famous "Killing Stone",
now used for baptizing infants.

Rick had to try out the "Killing Stone" of course!
The Cannibals would have the victim place his
chin in the indent, and then take a huge club
to smash the skull, and then eat the brains that
 would spill out.  I'm glad we got out of here alive!  

This is the Community Center where we performed 
eyes exams and gave out glasses.  It was one of the 
nicer and bigger buildings we have worked in.  

The Chief was kind enough to take us on a
walking tour of the island, something that
is rare.  We felt very honored and blessed.

It started to rain during our tour and we were totally drenched by the end of it.

This is the one remaining Pagan Temple.
The stones from the other 5 temples were
used to build the Methodist Church.

Despite the weather, we had such an interesting
and fact filled tour.  The history is just remarkable.

Inside the renovated Pagan Temple,
now used as a general meeting place.

This is an upside down cooking pot
that the cannibals used to cook in.

More of the island, it was very well kept.

This is the famous, and mysterious "Rain
Tree", where unusual deaths have occurred

At the end of our tour, the Chief asked us to come in
for a moment.  I thought he was showing us how
they weave and what they make but he ended
up  giving us two of these Fijian hand made mats,
made from the leaves of banana trees.  He told us
that this wasn't just a gift from him,  but also from the
Head Chief of all of Fiji (who couldn't make it today).
  Once again, we felt very honored, and will treasure this gift.

As we went to leave the island, we found some
people having fun swimming in the ocean.

The children wanted to say good-bye to
us as we loaded up our things on the boat.

We want to thank Josese & Aliti Tagicakibau
for the amazing day in Bau Island.  This was
a rare and special day, that many tourist would
die for.  We are being so blessed with one great
experience after another during our time in Fiji.

Happy New Year!

On our last few days here in Hawaii, we enjoyed our time visiting different parts of the island, Oahu.  One of those days was at the Polynesian Culture Center, which features the different South Pacific islands.  We felt right at home as we visited the Fiji village.

My grand-daughter, Dakota, was happy to pose with Rick, in Fiji...

Getting ready to watch the amazing evening Lauai Show...

The Loewens, some with face tattoos from the Fiji village.

Each country had their own float. This boat featured Fiji.
The young boy was a hit, as he kept up dancing with the adults.

Here at the Samoan Village, we learned to weave some angel fish.

This snowman made out of sand, was a creation by Lee & Tamara.
It was a popular attraction, as several people stopped to take photos.

Rick & I went for a walk along the beach, when we came across this sleeping
Hawaiian Monk Seal.  They often come up on the beach and rest for hours.

These seals are now on the endangered
species list, so they are protected
on what ever beach they decide to visit.

On another day, we found about 7 large turtles in Paradise Bay. 

 We had a blast, as they would swim right by us, 

and even bump into us.  What a unique experience. 

We also had an outstanding time on all the variety
of water-slides at the Wet'n'Wild Waterpark. 

We brought the new year in, with a few thousand other people, at the Ko Olina beach, watching the most amazing fireworks show I've ever seen.  



Happy New Year to all of you.  It's been a great 2015, and now we're excited to return to Fiji to continue our humanitarian mission in 2016.  For your information, from mid October to mid December 2015, I performed 2705 eye exams, and we gave away 1602 glasses, and now we look forward to more in 2016.