The Burial of a Sacred Man

This blog is the debut of my new kitten, Mogli (you know, from the Jungle Book). He is calico, tiny, and so far a good cat. He cries just about every three hours for food, but follows me everywhere, so well worth the few extra cans of tuna and eggs! Since the first day, he comes when I call him.



August 23, 2009

My days are starting to slow down quite a bit. There are still those moments each day that take my breath away, usually a 2 year old playing with a machete, but still. Today I am heading to the mainland to a ceremony for the school’s netball and rugby team.

Well, I am back home and I must say, we went to cook lunch and dinner for the teams and there weren’t more than 10 kids there. I spent most of my day in the Headmasters house watching movies. No complaints, I had lots of bread, butter, and tea! There is also this mountain peak called “Koro Tiki” that I am determined to climb. It turns out a few of the volunteers climbed it last Saturday. My turn!

August 24, 2009

Today I woke up early and went hiking through the woods to find flat stones for my footpath. My feet are not like Fijians’ strong, trained soles and every little stone or peace of coral hurts… so my coral footpath was killing my feet and I would walk into the mud to avoid it. Now, I have footstones! Woo Wooo! I learned something about the kids though. I found the stones all by myself, hiked about half a mile up the hill to bring the stones to the footpath, then a boy decided to help me carry them around two houses to my house. I gave him a lollipop for helping out of the kindness of his heart. Then, the next day him and another boy bring me two more stones and drop them at my front door and just stand there like a lump on a log. I could not believe it, those smart little buggers. They expected lollipops. Of course I did not give them one because they were only helping me for their own rewards and expectations, but still, they made it so hard for me to say thank you and ignore their silent begging.

August 28, 2009

Sorry for the long delay in blogs. I have been extremely busy… something usually unknown for Peace Corps volunteers in Fiji. A lot has happened! All good. My aunt and uncle’s church has offered to support my village’s kindy and donate several items from America!!! I am so glad that the children will have a good inventory of supplies to begin learning from to start them off with a positive outlook on school and learning! Thank you so much for your generosity, concern, and time given to the children of Fiji. (I would like to announce the church, but I need to ask permission first)

Fiji is a third world country and school is sometimes put on the back burner… most often because of testing. There are tests throughout their school career that determine whether or not they can continue to the next grade. Hopefully the Fijian school system is changing, but as of now, children are forced to drop out of school for not passing the exams. Children are also not forced by parents to attend, oftentimes given the choice to go to school or not. Over time I hope to explain how important an education is and how it is the adult’s responsibility to make sure the child goes to school. The kindy will be fun and encouraging and I cannot wait to start it up in January. Our teacher, Sisi, is having a blast at attachment and even wants to attend another school’s kindy to learn other creative ideas for projects, songs, and lesson plans! Yay! An enthusiastic teacher!

Another note, last Wednesday (August 23) I had a company (CBS Power Solutions) come out and survey the village to give their advice and a quote on sustainable energy. Their opinion was that we should install two windmills on top of our grassy mountain (well, if you had to walk up it every day you would call it a mountain too)! Windmills provide energy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, mainly because the wind never stops. So, my job is to walk to the top of the mountain to the proposed site three times a day for a month and measure the wind speed (well, estimate on a scale of 1-10). I get my exercise everyday no matter how much bread or how many fmf breakfast crackers I eat. I am planning on staking a tarp at the site so that I can have picnics or star gazing where our future windmills will loom. Soon I will have a price quote for that project and possibly get a grant written at the end of September!

Side note: After the survey, I rode the boat with them men to Lydia’s village to let them meet her and ask a few questions about her village. I Lydia got five times more questions in than they did. Her passion is alternative energy so she was enthused! I decided to stay with her while the boat went on to drop the men at the boat dock then come back and get me. Well, much to my surprise he did not show up until almost 6 hours later (it should have taken him 30 minutes). Because of the funeral, he needed to wait at the landing for guests coming to my village. So, at 8:30, in the dark and huge waves, a boat of 8 people and lots of stuff arrived at Lydia’s village to get me. Crazy! No worries though, I was warned that this is what happens in Fiji. At least I was at a volunteer’s house!!

After electricity comes Virgin Coconut Oil! Wooo whooo! I have such high hopes for this village! It will all happen! The crazy thing about the Virgin Coconut Oil is that there is a man who hires farmers to collect 500 dozen each week which he sells to an individual in Nausori. This individual is from America and is putting all of these coconuts into a storage building until he comes back to start up his virgin coconut oil business. We are going to sweep his business right out from under him because we have the coconuts and he specifically said he wants to get his coconuts from our area because the meat is so thick, which means more virgin coconut oil per nut. Exciting! We have all of the raw material, my job is to bring the machinery! No problemo. I am on top of it. A Peace Corps volunteer that works for IDHRP is planning to help us get going, from training to buying/donating the machinery. We will see how it all turns out!

Thursday was town. I received a package from mom that had everything I could possibly need! Nice sponges, new Victoria’s Secret underwear, dried fruit, a dvd rom to play movies on my computer, my North Face backpack, a veggie peeler, and a See You at the Pig t-shirt (for those of you not in the south, the shirt is from a grocery store called Piggly Wiggly). The kids will love it! Thank you so much mom! You save my life every time you send me something!

Tevutevu (Tay-voo tay-voo)

Today was the funeral of the head of my Mataqali (Family – consists of ancestors, daughters, sons, aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, the list goes on and on, but imagine 200 people that are related, the head is the eldest). He had been in the hospital in Suva for about a month so it was an expected death, but one whom everybody knew and loved, so a difficult loss. Funerals in Fiji proceed much the same as they do in America, except many things are donated to the deceased and the funeral. Four cows, 21 chickens, 7 pigs, too much taro root and cassava to describe and lots of other food were donated to the feast after the burial. In Fijian tradition, before a person dies, the family buys mattresses, pillows, blankets, mosquito nets, woven mats, dressers, bookshelves, etc. as a last gift to the one who is passing away. These gifts go to a granddaughter or grandson who married most recently. There were 52 pillows, 12 mosquito nets, 12 woven mats, a dresser, a set of mattresses, a bookshelf, and 12 blankets given to the grandson. I feel like this is a pretty neat tradition. It serves two purposes, a last gift for the dying as well as a gift to a newly united couple. Hmmm, well, I guess I will post some pictures now. Talk again soon.

If you wait long enough this video from the funeral ceremony will load.