Sinuses and Ants

Don't let perfect get in the way of good enough.  Writing this now because it's helpful, but won't be pretty.

Neti pots help here in Fiji if you have headaches triggered by changing pressure. I've seen them at the Sports City pharmacy, will keep an eye out for more.

Borax is available at Cost-U-More, can be put down across doorways and anyplace you have tons of Ants, works as a deterrent

Here's to strong women. May we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.

Fiji is far away from everything. I really feel it on days like this when I'd rather be in a small town in Northeast Tennessee than in the tropics. My friend Sam Jones is dying. To me, she has always been the embodiment of a strong woman. It's been a honor to know her, to become a stronger woman because of her advice and encouragement, and to see her raise strong women of her own.

Today I light a virtual candle in honor of Sam Jones as she prepares for the next step in her journey.

My candle is from earlier this year during Cyclone Zena when we used sea urchin shells on top of candles to keep the flames from going out in the wind. As the storm approached with only the glow of the shells lighting our meal I was entranced by the patterns coming though the shells. Similarly, the light shining through Sam has left an incredible imprint on the world she is leaving.

Dear Sam, I've learned so much from you. I love you and I'm incredibly thankful to have known you.

http://www.amerikaonline.net/2015/11/i-love-you-sam-jones.html

And just like I did when I learned of her cancer last year, I think I'm going to go cry now.

Fiji Sale Groups

After two years with much of our stuff in storage I'm finally able to unpack and consolidate and realize that in some cases we have THREE of the same item (the Fiji household, the NY household, and the stuff that was in storage) I've heard that it's pretty easy to sell via Facebook, so I started joining sales groups. There are plenty to choose from! Here are the ones I've found. There are some that have the same names but are completely different groups. Happy Sales! 

1. Best Deals Fijiwide
2. Buy and Sell Fiji Importz
3. Buy and Sell in Bula Style
4. Buy And Sell in Fiji
5. Buy and Sell in Fiji
6. Buy and Sell in Fiji
7. Buy and Sell in Fiji (Musical Instruments)
8. Buy and Sell in Suva Central
9. Buy N Sell (Fiji) 
10. Buy N Sell in Suva
11. Buying and Selling in Fiji
12. Ebay Online (Fiji) 
13. Fiji Buyers and Sellers
14. Fiji Classifieds (Free)
15. Fiji Computers and Mobile Phones
16. Fiji Facebook Market
17. Fiji for Free
18. Fiji Shop
19. Fiji Zone (Hot Online Sales)
20. Fijian Trader
21. Fiji's Best Deals - Buy or Sell
22. Fiji's Clothes and Shoes (2nd Hand)
23.  Free Ads, Buying & Selling Fiji
24. Freecycle Suva Group
25. Garage Sale Suva to Nausori
26. Genuine Traders Fiji
27. iPhone, Samsung HTC (Spidey)
28.  iPhones Samsung HTC 
29. Men, Women, Kids, Houseware 2nd-hand Items for Sale
30. Mobile Buy and Sale Fiji
31. Mobile Fones 4 Sale
32. Mobile phones 4 sale (spidey)
33. New n Second Hand Clothes, Bags, and Accessories for Sale
34. Online Bargains - Fiji Islands
35. Plus Size Lewas Nadi
36. Plus Size Queens
37. Suva Expats Market
38. Totally Mums
39. TradeMe Fiji

4th of July in Fiji is the middle of winter

Overnight the weather went from cool and sunny to rainy and cold (by Fiji standards). After a weekend with no sunshine I wanted to celebrate USA's Independence Day, but mimosas didn't sound so good without bright sunshine. In talking to a friend about winters we'd experienced I mentioned how cold and wet my winter in Germany was, and how much we enjoyed Glühwein at the December Weihnachtsmarkt. Aha! There's my celebratory drink. I pulled a classic recipe off the web, and Fijified it.

German Glühwein aka Mulled wine
Ingredients

2 cups mandarin orange juice (probably about 8 Fiji mandarins)
1/2 cup white sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
10 whole cloves
3 (750 milliliter) bottles DRY red wine
1 (3 inch) piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

Zest of one orange (optional - helpful if the beverage is too sweet)
1 cup orange juice (optional - helpful if the beverage is too sweet)

Directions

In a saucepan, combine the orange juice, sugar, and cinnamon sticks. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer. Remove the membranes from the peel of both halves of an orange. Push the cloves into the outside of the orange peel, and place the studded peel in the simmering water.

Continue simmering for 30 minutes, until thick and syrupy.

Pour in the wine, and heat until steaming but not simmering. Remove the clove-studded orange halves. Serve hot in mugs or glasses that have been preheated in warm water (cold glasses will break.)

Fijiterian Chili

Growing up in Texas I turned my nose up at chili that had beans in it. Then, life happened. I went from hardly eating beans at all (yes Dad, I know you tried HARD to get me to eat frijoles, I guess I wasn't ready for it) to trying to get 4 ounces of beans in every meal. Yeah. Ain't life a kicker?

July in Fiji is the middle of winter, and I found myself wanting to nest and snuggle up with a warm bowl of chili. I fiddled around with some vegetarian recipes until I came up with this one. It uses unsweetened chocolate - 2 ounces of Abuelita's if you can find it, otherwise any unsweetened cocoa powder will do, just add in some cinnamon. Since I can't find Abuelita's here, the recipe just has unsweetened cocoa powder listed.  

Fijiterian Chili

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon ground cumin/jeera
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 pound eggplant, peeled and cubed (or a pound of browned and drained beef mince)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
1 (10 oz) can Ro*Tel tomatoes with juice
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cubes vegetable bouillon
1 cup water
2 (15 oz) cans of your favorite beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup corn starch (optional)
1 cup cold water (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Heat the olive oil in uncovered pressure cooker over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and season with bay leaves, cumin, oregano, and salt. Cook and stir until onion is tender, then mix in the celery, green bell peppers, and garlic. When vegetables are heated through, mix in the diced eggplant. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 5 minutes.

Mix the tomatoes into the pot. Season chili with chili powder, cocoa powder, and bouillon cubes. Stir in the kidney beans, garbanzo beans, and black beans. Add one cup water.

Close cover securely; place pressure regulator on vent pipe. Bring pressure cooker to full pressure over high heat. Reduce heat to medium high; cook for 30 minutes. Pressure regulator should maintain a slow steady rocking motion; adjust heat if necessary.

Remove pressure cooker from heat; use quick-release following manufacturer's instructions or allow pressure to drop on its own.

Open cooker and add corn. If chili is thin, add 1/4 cup corn starch mixed with cold water. If chili is too thick, add water to thin. Stir to blend and heat through before serving.

My recommendation? Make it today and put it in the fridge, serve it tomorrow. The flavors just get better overnight. 

The Daily Debrief

About two weeks ago I needed a combination therapy/cup of coffee/put-on-your-big-girl-panties conversation, so I called up a friend who's been in Fiji for a long time and has ridden out the waves with grace and poise. Sweetheart that she is, she met me that very afternoon for a long talk.

While all of our conversation was helpful, the biggest gift that she gave me was some structure to my journaling. I'm a big believer in writing and try to do it regularly, but although I've used prompts I don't tend to stick with them. Enter (fanfare please) The Daily Debrief.

Written first thing in the morning each day, the debrief has three main parts - good things, bad things, and intentions.

• Good things (5) has overall mood and is ranked by benefit and enjoyment. Strive for five -- even after a rough day there are five good things to look back on.
• Bad Things (3 or less) can be skipped after good days. A key point here is to LIMIT the number of bad things written about and also to acknowledge mistakes
• Intentions (1-3) are the priorities for the day, the attitude adjustment to facing the world, the change to behaviors so mistakes don't happen again. This section is also limited to just 3 intentions for the day. This avoids analysis paralysis as well as that sense of guilt if the to-do list doesn't go to-done at the end of the day. 

I've been doing this fairly regularly for the last two weeks and it's been wonderful for me. There's something about seeing my worries in writing that makes them more manageable. I've been surprised by how few worries we actually have -- even though the ones we have are big ones -- and even after the roughest days how much there is to be thankful for in our lives. Simply getting it all out has definitely helped calm my mind. The very act of thinking about what I want to do next has helped me focus my time and be more productive.

Keep the boredom at bay

Summers growing up were long and hot. We didn't have a TV and the city pool didn't open until 3PM, so I learned at an early age that I needed to be good at entertaining myself. This has served me well over the years as I've had anywhere from a few hours of downtime to entire months. Here's a short list of things I've fallen back at different times on to keep my mind and body active:

- visit museums, libraries, galleries. Prep for the visit by reading up about what you're going to see. After the visit research questions you had and things of interest that you learned about on the outing
- take a local tour - none scheduled? Ask around, often there are people with specialties in the most surprising things that would be happy to show you what they know
- join organizations, like a library book club
- start an organization, like a geocache club
- check facebook events for things happening near you
- reconnect with old friends either in person or via phone
- ask a new friend out for coffee
- walk or bike around your current location
- plan meals with new recipes or special ingredients, make an outing out of finding ingredients, photograph each step of the meal prep
- go for body work - massage, facial, pedicure, etc.

Good luck!