Merry Christmas! Christmas Eve, my favorite day of the year. It's bloody hot. I'm en route to church, which I'm spending with the Catholics in town. Our choir has been practicing for a few months now.

Apparently the Prime Minister said that starting in January, all girls either in town or the village, have to wear long skirts, down to their ankles. No pants/shorts at all, no tank tops at all (in the village these things are taboo anyway, but allowable in town).

My Fijian parents have gone to Suva for the holidays leaving this other gentleman that eats with us, me, and my brother alone. They asked another grandma/grandpa to stay with us but really she and i are doing all the cooking. It's such a big job. I've known how much work the women do, but it wasn't until it was my responsibility that I realized just how much work the women do. I mean, they are busy busy all the time. Cooking, eating, cleaning, cooking, eating, cleaning and in between they make mats and wash all teh clothes and go fishing and take care of the kids and do everything else. Cooking with the fire is time consuming, as is preparing all the food (everything's fresh). Then preparing to eat and cleaning up after eating are big jobs, too. It's exhausting and I don't even do that much- most of the preparing/cleaning.