Irreconcilable Differences

Despite the many prayers that the issues with the Ministry of Health would be resolved, it turns out that the problems were too severe to be overcome. These issues combined with the two cyclones that barely miss hitting the island clearly suggests that God has other plans for me which do not include medical volunteering in Fiji. Because of the way that the Projects Abroad staff handled the issues my family and I have also decided that it is probably not wise to travel to the middle of the African jungle with this company either, so unfortunately there will not be a mytanzanianadventure.blogspot.com. Despite all that has happened I have had an amazing time on the island and have determined that I will be back at some point later in my medical career. Hopefully I will be working legally when I come back! Luckily my adventure here is not quite over. My mom arrived safe and sound in Nadi two days ago and I have been showing her around the town. With another shark dive yesterday and a coral dive scheduled for tomorrow, there is still a lot that Fiji has to offer the two of us. The dive yesterday was especially fun. One of the other medical volunteers had gotten so excited by my tales from the previous shark dive that he took the abundance of free time that we all had to get his diving certification. After his four open water certification dives, his first dive without his instructor present was the shark dive. Being my father’s spitting image I had to take the opportunity to mess with him a little bit. On the boat ride out to the dive site (once he was fully committed to the dive) I began exaggerating how close the sharks got and how big they were. I could watch as his eyes began to get bigger and bigger the closer we got to jumping in the murky water. Once he actually got in, he was a natural and looked like he had been diving for years. All of the hesitation and fear were immediately gone and he had an amazing time. I have never seen a bigger smile once we got out and started talking about all the cool stuff that we had seen. As much fun as it was to dive with my volunteer friends I am really looking forward to diving with my mom tomorrow. After that we have a goodbye dinner with my host family scheduled. It was extremely hard to tell my 10 year old host brother that I would be leaving to stay with my mom in Pacific Harbor (which is about 45 minutes away from Suva). The whole family was prepared to put up with me for another month and a half, and Tony didn’t really seem to understand why I had to leave so early. Having been the little brother my whole life, it was fun getting the opportunity to see it from the other side and play big brother at least for a while. The whole family welcomed me into their home instantly, making it that much harder to say goodbye. I can’t really imagine how hard it is going to be when I have to say goodbye for good. It is amazing how fast and how strong all of my relationships have grown during my short time here. I am sure this whole experience has permanently changed my life and my world view. That’s all I have for now, but I will try and put up at least one more entry from Fiji before I head home. I tried to uploaded a few more pictures for you to look at, but the internet connection was way too slow and would have taken a couple of hours. I will upload them when I get back to the states and have more time and better wifi. I can’t wait to get back home and see you all and tell you more about my adventures. Hope all is well.

-Jason