Whether I'm trying my best to not fall off an Icelandic glacier, or standing in an ice-cold stream in Austria, or watching a lioness snack on a zebra on the African plains, or (more often) just sitting at my desk overhearing 16-year-old girl gossip, every day's a holly-day for me.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

It's Been A While

I'm resurrecting my Holly Days blog after a long hiatus. My last international trip with students was to Fiji in 2015, and I did a horrible job of blogging throughout the trip. I noticed that I stopped blogging after we arrived to the Notokalau village and stayed there for five days. We had limited access to power/electricity and no wife access, but more importantly, I felt like nothing I could've written would have adequately described the experience. Suffice it to say, it was an authentic and life-changing experience, just as the other trips I've taken with Nat Geo have been. I will post a few pictures from our stay in the village, but they're just a few iphone pics. The thousands of pictures I have from my real camera are...somewhere. Wish I knew where that somewhere was. Maybe when I retire in ten years, I will get all my travel pics organized. Until then, let me tell you about a recent development that goes back to my time spent in Fiji.

We arrived to the village in the middle of a monsoon in the dark. I don't know if they're called monsoons in that part of the world, but it was rain falling from the sky at speeds and quantities that defy logic. We rolled up in two vans with an embarrassing, decisively American amount of luggage. We had to park across the road from the village because the hill that would've taken us directly to the buildings where we were staying was too wet and slippery. So we fell out of these vans and were immediately greeted by what seemed like 20 young men who literally loaded our ridiculously heavy bags on their shoulders and RAN up the hill in the rain as we watched in awe. We followed up the hill, soaked to the bone, to then be greeted by a welcoming committee that I can't even explain. The entire village turned out to welcome us. In the rain. They sang, danced, introduced themselves, prayed for us and fed us. Complete strangers doing this for complete strangers whose lives could not be more different. Within minutes, however, we were no longer strangers. We were family. And that's pretty much how the rest of the week went. The villagers went out of their way to make us comfortable and spent their time and money to make us feel welcomed. Let me just summarize by saying the week was wonderful and when we left, there was not a dry American or Fijian eye in sight.

The first full day at the village, I was talking to some pre-school aged kids who were playing at the edge of the village, near the hill that led to the road. I quickly figured out they were there because they were waiting for the bus to bring the school-aged children home. Within a few minutes, several kids were coming up the hill and one little girl walked right up to me, took my hand and asked my name. I introduced myself and asked her how school was and if she had homework. Within a few minutes, Janet and I were working on her English homework.

Janet has one of the sweetest, most engaging smiles I've ever seen. She was a fan favorite of all of ours, and she and I spent a lot of free time together. I also spent quite a bit of time with her mom, Illy.


By day two or three, it came up that we would both love for her to be able to come to the U.S. one day. My head was telling me that the odds of that were very slim, but my heart was wishing we could somehow figure out how to make that happen. Illy told Janet that maybe she could come when she turned 14. We made a video before we left, where Janet mentions coming to visit.  Illy let Janet go to school late that day so she could have a little longer with the group. Janet mentioned again that she wanted to come see me, and I assured her that I would do what I could to get her to Texas. We then hugged goodbye and off she went to school. We loaded up the vans, had another amazing ceremony with songs and prayers to send us off and lots of hugs and tears. This is one of my students saying goodbye to one of the women in the village. Lots of goodbyes like this one.



I promised Illy and Janet I'd stay in touch, and we have done just that. The villagers have phones and periodic access to internet and Facebook, so I have messaged with both Illy and Janet, among others. over the years.

On Jan. 1, 2017, my phone rang around 3:00 a.m.. I looked at my phone and saw a very long, very unfamiliar number. Half asleep and not thinking, I answered the phone and heard:

"Miss Holly! This is Janet! I am 14 today so now I can come visit."

Not the least bit surprised that she hadn't forgotten, I told her we would figure it out. I wished her a happy birthday and a happy new year, and we hung up. Then I laid awake for an hour wondering how in the world I was going to get a 14-year old Fijian child who had never left her island on a plane to Houston, TX.

Lots of messages, phone calls, internet searches, discussions with the consulate and Fiji Air and several Western Union transfers later...JANET IS COMING! She will arrive in LA on April 21, and I will be there to meet her and fly back to Houston with her. She's never been on a plane. Never been anywhere outside of Fiji. I've tried to send pictures and describe to her what to expect, but I can't even imagine what it's going to be like for her. I explained to her that Houston looks VERY different than Fiji and that we have "lots of cars and buildings and people and restaurants." She replied, "what do you mean by restaurant?" She thinks I'm "rich" (her word) because she saw that I have a two story house and a car.

I don't know who is more excited about her trip - me or her. I don't think she has a clue what she's in for, and I don't think I have a clue how hard it's going to be to put her back on the plane to Fiji. Nevertheless, we are going to chronicle her trip here. Should be an amazing experience, for both of us. Stay tuned. (And please send some good vibes/prayers on April 20/21 that she actually makes it here without any complications!)

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