And…Fiji Water problem continues…

This is the latest update on Fiji water shortage.
It’s been 3 days no water in our area and I haven’t had shower for two days.

Me stinks!

Water tank comes just after when we got back from work.We were hurried carrying buckets of water to fill the bath tub, washing machine, pots and every single continer that you can think of.

Lucky for Aung, the guys are so nice to let him take a shower right on the road. I was so jealous I want to shower too. Well, the guys did ask me too but ofcos I can’t shower on the road!

Anyway I can’t help it but to ran and get camera to take a shot of Aung showering.
He was just showing off and making faces at me that I just want to throw stones at him.

Anyway this is how lifes on our island on my favorite day of the week.
Friday evening, chilling out, feeling stink, holding back the business, just what I like about my fav day. (NOT!)

It was such a joy to see the rain yesterday cos’ we got water cut and was praying for the rain. We got quite a lot of water cut last year and this year it’s starting again. Most of the time our area got water problem due to too much leakage, broken pipes, low pressures and many other unknown reasons. Last year it was about 2 months without water and we have to depend on irregular water tank supply. It’s so hard to live without water. Think about daily drinking water, cooking, toileting, bathing, washing, man just can’t live without water.

This week it’s been too low pressure, turn on one tap, nothing come out from the others. Wednesday afternoon it’s totally off. Lucky we saved some drinking water and a few for cooking. But Thursday was worse, no more water left in the house and called the water truck but that damn thing never comes so we pray for the rain and thanks to all the gods it rains.

What an irony living on an island without water. Life sux!
Ok, that’s it, I’m bored typing this useless post, gonna sleep now. Bye Bye.

This post has been sitting as a draft for quite a long time and finally I got to write about it.
Have you ever wondered the luxury of lazing on the beach, under the sun, reading a favorite novel and drinking fresh green coconut juice?

When I started school here in Fiji Form3, my class mates asked me whether we have any coconut trees and cows back in Burma. I was gonna say “The what?, I’ve never seen/heard of any coconut tree or cows in Burma, and it’s the first time ever to see them in Fiji”, but then they’re just some simple curious kids so I answered them truthfully that we have those back in Burma. Ofcos we were laughing our heads off when I tell my family about it.

(more…)

My favorite photos of the week. Just relaxing in our front yard.
Such a sunny hot day. It’s so suffocating inside so we all chilling out under the mango trees.

Oh yah that’s my mom making faces at my brother. She always joke around with us. She’s such a nice mom as well as a great friend to us.

P.S. Don’t joke with my dad, he’s no fun. Only when he’s in good mood then good to tease. Otherwise you’ll get a yell.
He seems pretty good mood then in the picture tho.

Some of you might remember, sometime back I’ve written about “Indian Engagement Party”, and guess what, now it’s their wedding.

It’s all started with Sarnil fall in love with Krishma (or the other way round/vise versa, I really don’t know) and left us muddling with projects back in office. Inspite of some of us desperate attempt to hold him back in the office, he got it through and finally tied a knot with Krishma. I was honored to attend to their wedding. It was quite a memorable event and I would definitely remember for sometimes.

It was a beautiful, sunny gloomy, rainy, cold, wet, cloudy morning. I really hate going out in the rainy, wet weather and I almost decided not to go to the wedding. But the rain was in my favor and stopped for an hour, so I rush there around 11:30am. The wedding was supposed to be at 11am but as usual everyone’s on Fiji Time and when I got there, not much guests have arrive yet.

I had a bit of problem finding where/who to give the wedding gift to as the gift table was quite hidden by a group of ladies doing “puja” (I think that’s what they call it).

Note 1: Nobody bother receiving the gifts or welcome the guests in.

Well, I had to blame my four eyes for not looking properly but those eyes did quite well in finding the gang from work. Thanks to Jason and Alesi’s matching outfits.

Note 2: Those outfits, WOW! Very flowery, very distinguishing.

I started taking photo of Sarnil receiving “Puja” with some $$$ in his lap. Then I went out to take a quick snap of the temple and the car. This is the first time I been to Hindu Temple (rather the compound).

Note 3: I see…quite a few $2 notes, I waited for a while hoping to find $5/other notes drop to his lap. Nope. I see only $2s.

The guests started arriving and the wedding was about to start so I went back to my seat and had a bit of nose around about the new face. No doubt, the new guy was Jason’s brother and Mr Sheehy having a bit of problem introducing him, I had to ask first.

Note 4: Oh so that’s #2 out of 6 bros. Look alike but different.

The priest started praying for the groom in the “Mandut” and after a while the bride showed up. There were about 100 or so “Ohn … BaGaWar, etc” prayers, pour some water here and there, spraying rice or some yellow flower petals over the couple heads and the family gave some kisses to the couple.
I couldn’t see all those processes from the back so I went in front to sit with some Indian ladies and had a few chat about :

• What’s the priest doing?,
• What’s the significant of the leaves in front?,
• Why they always use the elephant god image in wedding cards and ceremonies/why other gods not present here?,
• Are you the relative of bride or groom?,
• Where/who are their parents?,
• Why the groom’s mother not present?,
• Why they always do 3 days ceremony?,
• Why are they burning woods?,
• What is that stuffs they mixing to put in the fire?
• And many other stupid questions.

Poor lady couldn’t concentrate on the wedding and had to answer my questions.
I’m not sure she got annoy with some of my questions or she just doesn’t know how to explain so sometime she just give me very unresolved answers like “That’s the way it is”, “We always do like that”, a short “Yes” with no other explanation, etc.
Thank god, the lady didn’t sheeww me away. I can be very annoying sometime. LOL

I just found out that Indian weddings can be very Smokey. You know they had lots of stuffs to burn. I think some scent wood (smell like mixture of sandal wood, KaRa’Mat, NaThaPhyu…I think) were burn up first and when the fire growing, they mixed rice, pop corn? A few things I don’t know and burn them all. The smoke and the smells are incredibly eye tearing.

After those burnings, the couple started going round about. I’m not sure how they do that in Fiji but I’m pretty sure I thought I seen they tie the groom’s shawl with the brides, then the groom walk in front and the bride follow, in most of the Indian movies I’ve seen. But then I might be wrong, I don’t know.
Check out this picture, not quite right … I think.

Note 5: I just think the man usually walks in front and the lady follows. May be “Lady’s First” here.

Now the most memorable thing about this wedding was that we had a bit of tragedy. No, nothing happened to us but the unfortunate bird got its wing and feathers ripped off by the ceiling fan. That little bird has been woozing about in the hall and finally there go a loud puff. I think he might have been drunk or blind I don’t know but the bird just collided with the fan and the feathers flew off everywhere. Everyone attention was now on the bleeding bird, which was just right in front of the Mandut where the couple were started to do their 7 round of walk. If I was not mistaken, it happened on their 2nd round of the walk.

Sarnil gave a big frown to the bird and carry on with the walk. You bet, we all got a bit of shock. It happened just above where I was sitting and I really wanted to take a picture of that bird but everyone was watching and feeling bad about the event, it would be very unwise and rude to go take picture of it. First I stood up, just to go take that photo but I stopped myself and went to sit with our group at the back. According to the witnesses, the poor bird didn’t get killed but couldn’t fly and walked out for the hall itself. Unfortunately I didn’t see the bird, the only thing I saw was lots of feathers and some blood under the front seats.

Note 6: 2 loud bangs(somewhat like car wheel busting), 1 big busted balloon, 1 injured bird. Hmm…something to think about.

Before the ceremony was over, we got hungry and decided to take an early lunch. We were the very first group to eat and some of the meals were still preparing.
Ok now…how should I say…if I say I enjoyed the lunch then I would be lying. Let just say, lunch was alright, others seem to enjoy it quite a lot and even taking another serves. I think my taste bud is different, I didn’t like any of the food there. May be I’m not use to Indian curries. There were about 5/6 different varieties.

• Tomato Chutney
• Beans Sprout curry
• Palau (“Dan Pout” kind of Spicy Rice but totally different from Burmese “Dan Pout”)
  It’s vegetarian Palau, but no vegetable or what so ever in there except for some green peas. Brown cook rice with lots of “Masalas”.
• Tomato and yellow bean curry
• Some sweet round things(which should be more like dessert than proper meal)
• and Puris (but that’s optional – it u take palau then no puri)

It was really hot, I do eat hot stuffs but that was just too hot for me. I can’t eat at all and I took only 2 – 3 bite on potato then me done there.
Man the worst thing is nobody to see to the guests…may be I don’t know anyone there and if you’re relative or indian friends then I don’t know. People were coming to eat and you take your own plate to the back and wash it. I always have a problem with eating hands and I seriously wanted to wash my hands so I took my plate to the back, wash the plate and wash my hands as well.
This was the first wedding where I have to wash my own plate hehe

After the meal, we took some photos with the couple and also as a group. Oh yah the bride cannot come out from the room after the wedding, I don’t know why. So we can only take with one of them each time. There were alot of smiles that day and hehe I just can’t help noticing some of the smiles.

Just another Colgate Ads. Can you guess which is which?

When I got home, I was so hungry and had proper lunch with my fav fish curry, sour leave soup and mixed veges. My mom was shocked to see me so hungry

Final Note:I like Ian’s Shirt, Selena’s Shoe, Alesi’s Dimples and Daniel’s Smile.

There, that was my experiences on last saturday wedding.
I just pray that Sarnil doesn’t get mad at me for talking a bit of cow $hit here.
More photos: Check out the Gallery

Over at Arloo blog, Wai Pyo has compiled a neat note on short chat/interview of mayvelous blog and well yah abit of me.

Last week I interviewed “Mayvelous” about her blog and her opinions on blogging. Actually I had been trying to interviewed her since the 1st week of November but didn’t have a chance since I was quite busy playing poker(just kidding!). At last, I finally met her on Yahoo last week.

Check it at Arloo.

Interesting enough, someone with very amusing mind must have pulled the wire this morning.
No internet in our island for 2 hours.