Diwali

The past four (or five?) days in Fiji have been occupied by Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.

Being the traveling family with a three-year-old, we didn't get adventurous and head into Lautoka at night to immerse ourselves in the festivities.  But upon learning that fireworks were a major part of the holiday, we added "pyrotechnics that might be illegal in either of our home countries" to the shopping list for Alisa's big bout of provisioning a few days ago.

That's me, last night, in the delight-of-anticipation preparatory phase.

And me in the launch phase:

The real pieces of resistance were the two stand-up bomb throwers/rocket sparklers/noise bangers that I lit and set adrift in a plastic tub tied to the stern of Galactic.  Turns out that after you light the fuse it actually takes longer than you expect to get the darn thing set in the tub and pushed away.  My maniacal laughter at the display had a hint of nervous relief at not having the things go up in my face.

Alisa, preoccupied with the boys and the question of whether I was going to set the boat on fire, didn't manage to get a pic.

But she did get Elias' reaction: