PiCtUrEs

Tuesday, January 26, 2010



Well, the kindergarten was supposed to start today, but most parents were taking their kindergarten age children with them to the primary and secondary schools to drop off their older children. So, maybe tomorrow. Honestly, we would have a must better success rate if we just started a fresh week, on Monday next week because the parents have to pay dues per week and we have not organized a opening ceremony with the vakatawa (priest).



As soon as I found out kindergarten was not starting today I hopped on the boat with my family to go to town. Ta was taking all of the primary age kids to school along with their parents then heading to town because my little brother is sick. When we got into town I blogged, bought some veggies, and picked up my Christmas present from Mom! Thank you Mom! It is everything I wished for and more! The Christmas tree Little Debbies definitely did not last long. I ate 3 out of 4 today! Mmmm mmmmm. It turned out that the private doctor was not open and for some reason Na would not take him to the public doctor (for free). Who knows.



After waiting around town for hours, Ta finally showed back up from a nearby town where he sold 120 sasa brooms to an Indian man. I try to tell him that he is selling them for too little, just 2 F$, when the Indian men take them to Lautoka and Suva and sell them for 4 F$, doubling their money. First Ta spends 1 F$ on the coconut leaves for one broom, then spends money on inner tubes, nails, and his own labor, plus money on gas for the boat, then transportation to get the brooms to the town past Rakiraki, and finally sells them at 2 F$ each. I have not figured out the math yet, but honestly, he cannot be making a profit worth all of the trouble. Also, cutting down the coconut leaves is reducing the amount of coconuts per tree, putting a damper on the virgin coconut oil business that will be coming in March. One thing after another.


Bottom of my village.

When we finally left the boat dock we headed to the primary school. I realized as soon as we got there that Na and Ta each had a meeting. Oh my goodness. The women’s meeting was over pretty quickly, but the men’s meeting is never over quickly. After about an hour I went to sit on the boat and take a nap. I didn’t sit there too long before some of the kids came over to talk. After they left I ate some dried fruit and frosted flakes. First thing I have eaten since breakfast and it was going on 6:00 PM. Finally, around 8:00 PM Na, Ta, and the other villagers came out to the boat to head back to the village. At home I made a vegetable salad and watch half of “The Kite Runner”. Moce mada.


The kids watching Ice Age.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Well, I guess kindergarten is not starting today either. Either that or the teacher just did not come by my house this morning before heading up. I think the decision was made yesterday to start on Monday, I just wasn’t around to hear the news. No problem, I need to work on the “Choices” program anyways.

Goal 3: Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Town – everyone came to town today! John is back from America and Lisa had a visitor from America and Joe showed up! It was great. I also got to talk to my sis and her bf on Skype again! Thanks sis for making such an extraordinary effort! After lunch John and I discussed a program called “Choices” presented to low-income schools in America. We are going to tweak the program a bit and conduct workshops with class 7 and 8 here in Fiji. It is a program that strives to teach young adults about why they should stay in school and get a higher education and how many more opportunities they will receive with a high school diploma or university. We are planning to launch in early March and IHRDP already said they would help fund the program! Yay! Things are coming together!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Tomorrow I am going to Suva! Yes! Marica came to my house this afternoon to see if I wanted to do something. Of course! I have been pretty bored lately! So, we decided to walk to a settlement. It was low tide so we walked along the beach. I was remembering these crabs that we saw when I came for my site visit in July and I have not seen them since I have been living in the village. They were a little smaller than a fist and when they pulled in their claws they looked like a perfectly camouflaged rock. No one eats them so maybe they are a seasonal animal and they will come around again in May or so??? I am pretty devastated about it because they were the neatest little buggers.

At the settlement we visited the boys who are busy building a new house. Only two out of seven were working, so we headed over to visit Sisi, the kindergarten teacher. She was so rambunctious today! She was running around laughing like she had a new love in her life. She had just cooked some dhal soup and fried up some fish and invited us for lunch. Oh my goodness. Some people can really cook! She made dhal soup, but added pumpkin, pumpkin leaves, eggplant, tomatoes, and some amazing natural herbs. She also had breadfruit and cassava prepared. It was an amazing lunch out in the middle of remote island Fiji. What a good life!

After returning back to the house I cleaned up, packed my bags, ate some hashbrowns and an apple with peanut butter and raisins (thought of my sis), and headed to bed.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Suva here I come! Hopped on the boat at 7:15 AM, got dropped off at the road, and caught the brand new “charter” bus to Suva! I had an entire three seater to myself! It was heaven! The weather was perfect, I had a new National Geographic to read, and I was on my way to a hamburger!


Boat dock in Suva

Upon arrival in Suva I ran several errands including getting a poster laminated for my bure. It is a really neat poster that has different trash items shaped like sea creatures and describes why the trash is harmful to the animals and how long it takes for the trash to decompose. I love it! I also found a really cute sulu at the flea market for 5 F$! Good purchase!


Suva market... Mom you would LOVE it!



After shopping I asked my counterpart who is going with me to training this week if I could come to his house and meet his family. Of course they would love to have me! Who wouldn’t… lol. He came into the city to pick me up (by bus) and we headed over to his house. I had brought his mom a bouquet of flowers, the American way, but what I missed was the Fijian tradition of bringing yaqona. Ooops. My issue with yaqona is that I don’t drink it, it tastes like dirt, the Fijians spend way too much time and money sitting around drinking just to get tired, it causes them to smoke more, and it keeps me up at night until four in the morning when they are singing at the top of their lungs in the village. Although, I was definitely in the wrong by not bringing any to a house that I had never visited. I just thought, because the house was in the city they go by city rules. I was wrong, but it turned out not to be a big deal. They had plenty to last from 5 PM to 2 AM. Of course I ended up sitting there almost the entire time just trying to figure out what they were saying in Fijian and avoiding the smoke if at all possible.
I played cards, watched a Philipino soap opera, and spoke to one of his brothers about registering the village and what ancient laws still stand based on traditional tribal lands. He had documentation printed from a book written in 1869 by an English man. I am assuming Fiji did not know how to read or write in these times and so an Englishman had to write their laws for them. Almost every Fijian word was spelled wrong. Lol. I also walked with one of the cousins over to the University of the South Pacific and we got ice cream at McDonalds. Overall good visit, but it made me miss my family!

Sunday, January 17, 2010


A Fijian hair salon.

I ended up staying the night. In the morning I went for a walk with two of the brothers around the neighborhood. In Fiji there is low income government house right up next to Fijian level mansions and then you walk into a village, with nothing separating these areas. It was so bizarre to see women and children running around dirty, to others getting in their nice SUVs and leaving their gated home, to the “ghetto” where boys are seen playing touch rugby in the middle of the compound. I am glad I explored the neighborhood.

When we got back to the house I realized it was really close to time for Avatar in 3D to start at the movie theater so I invited my counterpart to go to see it with me. We both felt really silly wearing the glasses, but the movie was probably a better experience in 3D than regular, so I am glad we got to go! It really reminded me of one of my favorite cartoon movies as a child, “Fern Gully”. The only thing missing was Batty. I am almost positive they got the idea for Avatar. After the movie we got pizza from Pizza Hut! It was his first time to have pizza from a restaurant! Pizza Hut of Fiji is delicious, but that may be because I have lowered my standards a bit. I am really glad I treated him to pizza and a 3D movie! Fun!


The gang.

Back at his family’s house I took a nap on the porch, then packed up to meet up with the volunteers in Suva. Around dark I arrived at a married couple’s house where we relaxed and told stories reliving our past few months. I love catching up! Everyone is doing well and really enjoying Fiji as far as I can tell. We still have 4 months before the newbies get here, but we are really looking forward to the new group! Although, sad that certain people from the group before us will be leaving in July.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Today was a total work day. I have to get registered to teach (or really just to be in the classroom) through the Fiji government, which involves a very complicated process. I had to do a character check, police clearance, health check, proof of identification, pay processing fees, get passport pictures, have headmasters sign the application and fill out a needs report, as well as turn it into the correct house in Suva. All in all I had great directions from a Peace Corps volunteer so it made the process much smoother than if I had no directions. I also had to speak with Bob and Sai at IHRDP. When I stopped by in the morning they were making final decisions on whether or not they would select my proposal. Within ten minutes they were discussing bringing in the Virgin Coconut Oil trainer to set up a week for her to visit the village. Later in the afternoon I met back up with them and the trainer and we decided on a time frame and an execution plan. It is really going to happen!!! They are going to assist in getting machines, VCO training process, business technicalities, supplies, labels, and the market. I really hope everything comes together the way they have described it to me. I am so excited and cannot wait to bring the message back to the village!

In the evening I met up with most of the Suva volunteers and others in town for a beer at Mad Dogs. It was more catching up time as most of the “others” were from Vanua Levu and I had not seen them since moving to site in July. Several of us ended up eating dinner together at Maya Daba, the best Northern Indian food around. I mean, I do not like Indian food, but I can never pass up a meal at this place! Mmmm. After dinner we split and went back to our hosts’ houses.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Today I finished up my teacher registration forms, got work done in the Peace Corps office, and headed to the only museum in Fiji. I really enjoy being counted as a local in Fiji. The entrance fee was only 2.20 F$. After touring all of the old canoes and bamboo rafts I headed into the ice cold gift shop. Soon the doors opened up into a nice museum of old artifacts and detailed descriptions of Fijian history. I would like to list a few of the things that I found to be of importance:

The traditional use of yaqona and the arrival of the grog bowl into Fiji


The arrival of tobacco in Fiji, although, they may have been smoking Fijian tobacco before the Europeans brought it in the 1850s.



This is a killing stone from Namosi. It was used to kill victims captured from war. The victim’s head would be put on top of the stone then bashed with a club, mashing the skull and often decapitating the victim.


I taube lubeniwai – A necklace made from whale’s teeth, stained with kura scrapings and lime. Enemies or commoners were thrown alive into holes dug for house posts as part of an old belief to strengthen and uphold the foundation of the house. This necklace was hung on a house post to keep the human sacrifice quiet.


There are three prominent religions in the Indian culture here in Fiji:

Islam
Muslims believe that Muhammed was the last in a line of prophets beginning with Adam and including Moses and Jesus. Prophet Muhammed brought the message of God to the people in a pure and uncorrupted form. This message was revealed in the form of the Holy Quran and is supported by the Hadith, which are the records describing Prophet Muhammed’s actions and words, thereby providing guidance for a purposeful life for all followers.
The three fundamental Islamic beliefs are in Tawhid, the oneness of Allah; Risalah, prophethood; Akhirah, life after death.
The basis of Islam is total obedience to God. There are five pillars of Islam:
Shahada – the profession of faith and belief in the oneness of God or Allah and the prophethood of Muhammed
Salat – the prescribed daily prayers
Zakat – welfare contribution to the needy
Sawm – fasting during the Islamic month of Ramadan
Haki – the pilgrimage to Mecca
Islam Celebrations
For Muslims, the most importance time of year is Ramadan, a 30 day dawn-to-dusk fast. It was during this month that the prophet Muhammed received his revelation from Allah. Ramadan starts around December or January.
Id-ul-fitr celebrates the end of Ramadan. Special dishes are prepared and alms are given to the poor and presents to the children.
Id-ul-adha commemorates the devotion of Prophet Abraham. Sacrificial meat is shared among the relative, neighbors and poor.
Milad-un-nabi commemorates the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammed.
Islam in Fiji
The indenture system brought many Muslims from India to work in Fiji. The early immigrants joined together to preserve their religious interest and welfare and formed the Muslin League in 1926 as a national umbrella organization for Muslim interests and the various Muslim groups.

Hindu
The Hindu religion originated in the Indus Valley 2500-1800 BC. Life is perceived as a cycle of life, death, and rebirth – samsara, in which all deeds were repaid in kind karma.
The four main aims of life are:
dharma – right living leading to religious merit and higher rebirth
artha – wealth acquired in an honest way
kama – satisfying legitimate desires
moksha – liberation from the cycle of rebirth through merging with the Brahman (supreme soul)
Hindus pray at home inviting pundit (priests) to conduct puja (religious rites) for them.
The Hindu religion is polytheistic, a belief in many deities. The gods Vishnu and Shiva are of particular importance. Vishnu took human form to enlighten civilization during times of moral decline. The most important of the incarnations are Rama and Krishna, about whom the great literary epics Ramayana and Mahabharata were written.

Hindu Celebrations
Navratri occurs every six months and is celebrated for nine days and nights.
Diwali, the festival of lights, is an end of the year celebration during which prayers are offered to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. While the festival signifies many things, the most popular describes the return of victorious Rama from killing Ravana. Additionally, all household lamps are lit to celebrate the return of the sun which a water spirit had hidden during the (Indian) rainy season. Diwali, usually in October or November, is a national festival and holiday in Fiji.
Holi, held in March, celebrates the exploits of Krishna, with the throwing of water and colored dyes. Janmashtami, the anniversary of Krishna’s birth occurs in August or September.

Hinduism in Fiji
The caste system in India divides the Hindu society into classes based on hereditary occupations and rank. It has become meaningless in Fiji although many customs and taboos persist, and orthodox is apparent. Many people still prefer to marry within their caste.
The religious organization of Arya Samaj (Sanskrit for noble persons) was formed in India in 1875 for the revival of the vedic religion based on the ancient sacred writings of Hinduism. The society was formed in Fiji in 1904 and now all of its thirteen branches come under the Arya Prathinidha Sabha in Fiji.
The other major Hindu group in Fiji is the Sanatana Dharma (Sanskrit for Eternal Religion).
The Hindu Society was established in 1976 as an affiliation of many different Hindu organizations, including the Arya Samaj and followers of Sanatana Dharma.

Sikh
Sikhism, an offshoot of Hinduism, is an eclectic monotheistic religion. Sikhs have their own temples, gurdwaras, where they carry out prayer meetings and read their holy book, the Granth Sahib.
The Sikh religion was founded by Guru Nankdeva during the period of religious revival in the early 15th century. He emphasized the fundamental truth underlying all religions. The religion is non-sectarian and promotes harmony with secular life. It is a religion that is not based on image worship but bestows ultimate reverence on the sacred book. Sikhism is a conduct-based religion.
There were ten gurus who succeeded Guru Nanak, the last being Guru Gobind Singh who introduced a special type of baptism called khalsa after which the appellation of Singh was suffixed to a devotee’s name.
To defend the faith, Guru Gobind Singh trained his followers to be brave and courageous. He commanded that they should wear kaccha – breeches, kesa – long hair, carry a kangha – comb, a kirpana – sword, and a kara – steel bracelet.

Sikh Celebrations
Sighs celebrate Baisakhi, the founding of the Khalsa in April or May. The Granth Sahib is read in its entirety at gurdwaras, followed by a procession and then with feasting and dancing in the evening. Also in April or May, Nanak Jayanti, the birthday of Guru Nanak, is celebrated with prayer readings and processions.

All of the above information was taken directly from the museums archives. Please note that it is verbatim.

After the museum I found blackboard paint and brown rice, ate the most amazing Kabob King grilled wrap, and met up with the volunteers and my counterpart to head to the Coral Coast. When we got there we set up tables and waited on dinner. After dinner a few of us walked down the beach getting eaten alive my mosquitoes.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

First day of Life Skills training. I was up at 5:00 AM to work out with Melissa, which killed me since I went to bed at midnight. We were supposed to get up at 6:00 AM for a morning walk, but it was raining and people decided to sleep in, so breakfast at 7 and class at 8:30. We opened with a welcome speech, guest speaker, and vote of thanks. Then we were off to learning about the problems in the villages with the youth and communication methods. The day was very interactive and had good information.


Fijian counterparts

At night we went to The Pearl to hang out on the comfy couches at happy hour.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

More training. Several of us actually got up and went on the walk. I found some amazing shells on the beach! We sat for a few minutes and listened to one of the trainers play the guitar then we were back to the camp to have breakfast and start class. A few policemen came today and a woman who discussed drug abuse statistics in Fiji. The policemen were asking us to list all of our issues in the village and I just hope they were not doing it for Intelligence work. Yeah right. Anyways, I learned from the Fijians how the elders expect a lot from the youth, and the youth are never given a break. I have noticed in the village how when I mention something that needs to be done I hear the men say “Tell the youth to do it”. I never put together that everything is left to the youth. Even at yaqona sessions the youth are responsible for mixing the grog, pounding the gorg, bringing water to the drinking location, and sitting in front of the grog bowl distributing it all night. For some reason I though they wanted to do this service, but apparently it is because they have to. Also, the youth were complaining about how the elders have not been teaching them traditional/cultural skills, talents, and knowledge. The elders require them to know it, but are not sharing the information. This is a huge issue that I was not even aware of for the past 6 months. I will always be learning.


Lunch

Tonight I went to The Pearl again, dragging the Fijian boys with us. They enjoyed their time playing pool and eventually left to visit a nearby village and drink grog. Oh well, we are different cultures with different desires. They stayed out until 2 and 4 in the morning! Wow.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Wrapping up training. We discussed problem solving and resources available to youth. It was a pretty short day with a another message from the country director and certificates of completion handed out at the end.

For dinner we had a barbeque and I helped several of the Fijian boys ‘man the grill’.


At sunset I headed to the beach to enjoy the views, which is when the pictures below were taken.





After dinner I headed to The Uprising with the FRE-07s and had a great time hanging out with my Vanua Levu friends that I had not seen in several months. Good times!



Saturday, January 23, 2010

Time to head back to the village. I am not excited about going back… I guess because the holidays in the village were so stressful that I expect it to be the same way when I arrive.

So I left the Coral Coast around 8 AM, bus to Suva, bought some groceries, then the bus towards Rakiraki. While I was sitting on the bus a young man attending the South Pacific Bible College sat next to me. He was about my age so I started the conversation by the typical question “Where are you going”. It turns out his mother had Ciguatera poisoning and he was going to visit her. She was doing well and was going to survive, no doubt, but he wanted to visit her. Then, we got into the topic of religion. He was telling me about this professor named Charlie that was a “scientist” who preached about why science is never fact and that the Carbon 2 dating we have been using has proven to be false. He was saying something about a new Carbon 3 dating method that has proven many bones, stones, etc. dated tens of thousands of years old are now turning out to be about 1000 years old. I have not read this yet in any newspaper or National Geographic, so I am not so sure where his professor is getting this information. Who knows, it is next to impossible to believe strongly in science and religion. It is almost as if you must pick what is convenient for you to believe in. You could say that evolution really occurs, but that God meant for it to happen, but then where does Adam and Eve come in? Also, what about the hundreds of religions that came before Christianity or even monotheism? Are all of the people before the year of Christ wrong about their deity/deities and went to hell… for 250,000 years? Why would a loving and just God decide to save 2,000 years worth of people and not the 250,000 or so years before? Why does he kill thousands of people in the Bible if “Thou shall not murder” is one of the Ten Commandments? Why does he allow so many people to have many wives if “Thou shall not commit adultery”? I take a quote from Thomas Jefferson himself “I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence.” Also, as Richard Dawkins puts it in his book The God Delusion “Any creative intelligence, of sufficient complexity to design anything, comes into existence only as the end product of an extended process of gradual evolution. Creative intelligences, being evolved, necessarily arrive late in the universe, and therefore cannot be responsible for designing it”. I am not trying to preach to anyone, or question anyone’s religious beliefs, I just have many unanswered questions that leave me staggering in the dark. For now, I will believe in Darwinism until some miracle changes my theory.

When I arrived at the boat dock all of the Ra Peace Corps volunteers were there because they had just swam across Viti Levu Bay and had a picnic on the beach! How cool is that. Hopefully I will not miss out the next time they organize it. There were about 10 of us sitting on the beach waiting for a bus, the tide, or their ice cream to melt off the stick.



Eventually all waiting ceased and Lydia and I boarded our boat home. On the boat ride Lydia and I had a heart-to-heart and she said she was proud of me for how I have opened up to the culture since arriving in Fiji. I have noticed lots of changes in myself lately and all for the better! Peace Corps’ website and Peace Corps volunteers’ blogs were right when they said you will learn new things about yourself during the two years that you otherwise may not have ever learned.


View coming up to my village on the boat.

Back in the village I was welcomed home with open arms. Everyone seemed excited to have me back and life became normal and productive again. As soon as I sat down I got started on my trimester report for Peace Corps. I did not get one for the first three months of service so I am about six months behind. The more time I spend on it the more thorough it will be.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

They did not drink yaqona last night for the first time since before Christmas. It was so relaxing to go to people’s houses last night and visit without the smoke and yaqona bowl! I am hoping that the last several weeks were the way they were because of the holidays!

Nothing today but trimester report, reading, napping, cooking, and entertaining guests.

Monday, January 25, 2010

The bugs are awful! I came back from the Coral Coast covered in red mosquito bites and they are still itching, plus flies and no-see-ums everywhere. Oh the hot, wet season. The rain has helped my garden though! My basil plants are about two feet tall and I have cucumber, tomatoes, and long beans growing! It is fun to eat what you grow!

Today I sunned my mats, washed dishes and door mats, pulled an ample amount of weeds, and tried to get my bathroom drain unclogged. No success. We were supposed to have that meeting of the year (bose va koro) today, and again, it was not announced, so no meeting. I am getting frustrated because I cannot help or do my work without the enthusiasm or organization of committees. I need to reorganize the kindergarten committee and youth group as well as start a footpath committee. These things are being put off for weeks at a time because the village meeting has not been happening.

Waiting for excitement

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Something I forgot to mention last blog was the “qiri kava” in Lydia’s village. It turns out around New Years there is a tradition of banging tin drums with sticks up until a week after the New Year. For some reason my village did not participate in this obnoxious, but sometimes melodic form of racket (I can only assume it is because of the funeral on New Years and the 10 days of respect). It is a tradition held by the children and they get such a kick out of making as much noise as they can during the one week that it is not restricted. I admit that Lydia and I had our own little jam session as we belted out an American nursery rhyme. The children were soon all enthralled and insistent about showing us their talents. Here are a few pictures behind the curtain…


One of the drummers.


The crew.




Monday, January 11, 2010

I was really hoping for there to be a meeting this morning, but it turns out there wasn’t enough notice so the village rescheduled for the last Monday of the month. No problem, as long as I can attend it I am content.

Since there was not going to be a meeting I spent most of my morning cleaning up the house and watching Mogli eat lizards – four today!

I spent my afternoon up at my namesake’s house playing with the baby and baking banana bread. I followed the recipe exactly, but I can’t say I would ever make it again or recommend it to anyone. My namesake’s scones are sooo much better.

After lunch time I was so hot there was no way I was walking out into the sun. I stayed inside most of late afternoon reading “Brisinger”, “The Tenth Circle”, and “Marine Conservation Biology”.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Another day I was supposed to have a breakthrough meeting, this time a women's club meeting, and it didn’t happen. I am getting quit used to disappointments. There are two visitors coming from America that are going to be staying at Sio’s house and they are supposed to walk into the village sometime tomorrow. They work for an NGO for beekeeping in the US. I cannot believe an NGO can send people all the way to Fiji for two weeks.

We were also supposed to have a kindergarten committee meeting about the uniforms, start date, enrollment fee and term fees. Of course, this one did not happen either as the main people in the committee were not around to discuss the topics at hand.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Today is the day the volunteers/NGO visitors were supposed to come visit. I got a call last night letting me know that they were not coming. It turns out there were all kinds of plans made for them and then they dropped out last minute appearing to be more of tourists than NGO workers. Man, I was so excited to host some visitors and teach them about the Fijian culture! Oh well, definitely their loss. If I was going to a far away country I would be delighted if someone had made plans for me to visit the real culture of the land and stay in the homes of locals. They missed out on such a good opportunity!

So instead I went to the swimming hole. Floated in my raft for a while. Hiked up the river until I reached the big waterfall. Sat there and enjoyed the scenery for about an hour, then I heard some kids up above me giggling. I followed the sound and found Buka, Asina, and Pio playing in the watering hole at the bottom of another large waterfall. They were scared of the eel that lives in the pool. Lol. The last time Buka, Buka Jr., and I were up there we saw one circling the bottom. Anyways, I had brought up my pampason float and blew it up so the kids could float under the water fall. It was so neat to be out in the middle of nowhere with no worries but a harmless eel.

The next thing you know we are hiking up to the top of our mountain looking for the dam. I had looked back a couple of weeks ago and never found the end of the pipe. I was only about 15 feet from the dam when I had turned around and went back down! The dam is really neat. It was build over 20 years ago and is still holding strong. The water comes out of a natural underground aquifer/spring. It literally looks like the water comes out of a small rock. There are two filtration systems. One of sand and small stone, the other of small stone and large stone, plus the way it filters into the concrete dam somewhat assists in catching sand grain. It is such a beautiful thing. The only problems with our water are people wasting it as well as melted pvc pipes that we plan on replacing soon.

Hmmmm

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Town! Talked to mom, sis and sis’ boyfriend today! Yay! Thank you Rafael for helping her figure out Skype! It was so refreshing to talk to you! So nothing exciting happened in town. I have another package from my Bestie Kate! It is currently in Lautoka, so I am waiting for its arrival this Thursday!

In town I purchased Avatar and I was so excited to watch it. I asked the girl in the store if it was a clear version off of a legitimate dvd and she promised me it was. Nope, definitely filmed in the theatre as the color was off, the screen was out of focus and there were shadows. I could only bare about 5 minutes… this movie will be returned next Thursday! I ended up with Ice Age 3, falling asleep immediately.

Friday, January 8, 2010

I had a plan today to go out on my bilibili to my favorite rock. Well, I get down to the water and it turns out a boat was heading to my favorite beach, so Marica and I hopped on. We went around the peninsula and picked up my namesake at a nearby settlement and headed to the beach! I hiked around for a bit looking for some free food – papaya! I only found one good one and sat on the beautiful coast scraping ripe papaya out of its skin with an oyster shell. Yummy. Then I was off to snorkel a bit and sunbathe. My mistake – I did not put any sunscreen on so of course now I am burnt. Just in a few spots that never see the light of day in Fiji. Finally Ili had caught a few tiny fish and so the boys cooked them up on hot stones. They ate (I have begun to hate fish – too many bones and the fish are just too pretty) and we headed back to the village.

After arriving back in the village I cleaned up a little and headed over to a friend’s house to play vidividi (a table low to the ground with wooden checker pieces that you try to hit into the holes in the corner of the table – somewhat like pool, but with your fingers instead of a stick). Soon enough Ulamila wanted to go to sleep and it was too loud in the house so we headed back to mine and laid down to put the baby to sleep. My namesake and I stayed awake for a while talking… lol – gossiping. Always good times. There is some drama in this village! Finally, sleep.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Absolutely nothing accomplished today. Naps, stories, eating, sleep.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Today I headed on the Methodist boat over to Lydia’s village for church. Each month the churches of our coast get together for a joint sermon. Of course today was communion and so the service was three hours long. It is so hard to sit Indian style through a religious sermon in another language. Three strikes against me at one time. I survived and then went to the community hall to have lunch with everyone. Again, fish in lolo with bele – the typical Fijian meal. So, as soon as we got back to Lydia’s bure we made breakfast crackers with cheese, tomatoes, Italian seasonings, and mustard with tea. Thank goodness for the grocery stores that sell enough variety to invent good American food.

By the time all of this was through it was close to 5 o’clock so Lydia, Luisa, and I just sat and talked until the tide went out and the boat was ready to leave. Back in the village I showered, ate, and headed to bed. Somehow I get plenty of naps, but by 10 o’clock I want to go back to sleep again. It must be this heat.

Monday, January 11, 2010

The BIG day! We have the first bose (meeting) of the new year and I have been told that all of the committees will be re-elected. I am even hoping to switch out a few people in the kindy committee and start a footpath committee. It is also the meeting where we select a Turaga Ni Koro (the gentlemen of the village who is very important in Fijian culture). I am really fond of the temporary Turaga Ni Koro that we have had since I arrived in the village and I am really hoping that they pick him again for the next three years. We will see! So much rides on the outcome of this meeting. Especially when it comes to organization and how much work I will be able to get done. Currently the committees aren’t very organized and the roles are not being upheld. For example, the chairman is never supposed to touch the money, only the treasurer, but the chairman may be getting money from the committee and spending it for the wrong reasons. We must reiterate the purpose of each role and make sure the roles are not being bamboozled or else they will continue to crumble like they have been since I have been here.

Guess what, the meeting did not happen. It is rescheduled for Monday, January 25th. Hopefully that will be the big day!

My ReCenT tRaVeLs

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Wow. Long day. I walked around the coast at high tide to our beautiful beach. I think I might not be explaining this feat very clearly. This involves at least 7 miles through mangrove forests, deciduous forests, beaches, ocean, rivers, ponds, climbing over bulky coconut leaves, large, rotten coconuts, massive mangrove stumps, heaps of leaves, and deep hornets nests. So the walk took about 3 hours, for one because I was with an older, slower crowd, and for two, it was a treacherous hike. By the time I reached the beach, food was cooked, so I ate boiled fish and tavioka. I cannot eat one more fish, one more bowl of rice, or roro (taro leaves, like a nasty boiled spinach). Fijian food is just not to my liking. Anyways, got lots of good exercise, rested on a beautiful beach in Fiji with good company, and had some cross-cultural conversations. Mostly about how Americans do not like being called fat and the different between an American conversation and a Fijian conversation, being as vague as possible.



Tuesday, January 5, 2010

I gave my little sisters a choice, play cards, or go out on the bilibili (bamboo raft). Of course they chose the bilibili. After pushing my prized flotation devise into the water I noticed a sa musu na kau (break in the wood) towards the bow of my ship. I spent the next 30 minutes undoing my beautiful, intricate rope so that I could replace the wood. Finally I was done and we were off. The waves were crashing against us with the force of cyclone winds (ok, I am definitely dramatizing, just trying to make it interesting). We were fighting the current just a bit and using na cula (the stick used to push boats and bamboo rafts) was not working productively. Eventually I was in the water dragging the girls towards the settlement to visit the mangrove river. Upon arrival, inside the trees was frigid, but the coolness of the shadows was welcoming compared to the sweltering sun. I blew up my pampason raft and the girls played a bit while I snorkeled for fish larvae. I think because our mangrove forests experience the rise and fall of the tides they are not suitable for fish rearing. I only saw three adult fish swimming among the staggering mangrove (na dogo) roots.



Soon enough the girls were cold and ready to head back out into the sun. Easier said than done. We were fighting the current flowing into the mangrove forest in water deeper than I could touch, so dragging the rope was not an option. Eventually, between pushing with our stick and grabbing mangroves to pull our way through we made it to the ridge of the mangrove swathed coast. Moving along the coast back towards the village was invigorating. I was getting calf muscles while enjoying the company of my sisters, beautiful views of walled cliffs, and pure, flourishing reefs. Oh Fiji, maybe I should just build a house on the coast, buy a boat, and start a million dollar business. All of this is feasible and sounds like a good idea right now. Although, yes mom, I will come home and visit first!



After making it back to the village I showered from a bucket (water is not running again) and I read some of my “Marine Conservation Biology” textbook. Since I have all of this free time I have been devoting a lot of it to learning. Not sure what I will do when I get back to the states (or stay here ), but I am trying to prepare myself for anything I decide.


My cat, Mogli!

At night, the kids came over wanting to finish watching “The Little Mermaid”. I put in the movie while I ate a cucumber, carrot, and onion salad (with homemade vinegarette dressing) and did dishes. It ended, then I started Garfield for them. Both movies were a hit! Thank goodness for pirated movies (5-in-1 for $1 USD)!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Today was a lot of savasava… laundry. I cleaned my entire wardrobe plus both sets of sheets, all towels, and sunned my mattresses. Spent most of the afternoon “drying” the clothes by taking a nap kei wawa tiko ena siga katakata sara ga i (and waiting on the blasting hot sun to) maca na noqu i sulu (dry my clothes). Yes, you will start getting Fijian language lessons for all of those who I know will benefit from this knowledge for the rest of their lives. Lol. I wonder why I even attempt to learn it. I am told (by Fijians mind you) that over 75% of their conversations in Fijian are just “the weather is nice today” kind of conversations. From what I can pick up… 75% of what I understand is “she was seen with him by the river”. Oh goodness. Lots of laughter and happiness though!

Later in the evening when the generator came on I invited my younger sisters and brothers over to watch “The Little Mermaid”. They loved it and want to see the rest tomorrow night!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

It is much easier for me to type 2010 on my computer than 2009. 2009 always became 200- and I would have to fix the 9 each and every time. Thank goodness for a new year! Lol. Today I have been laying in bed all day long. Got up at around 9:30 am for tea, got back in bed, up again around 8:00 pm to make some dinner, of which was not very appealing. My family was very concerned for me today and I really appreciated the love and kindness they showed me. My Na was right there whenever I needed her, bringing me tea, company, and my Bubu, who massaged my belly with coconut oil. It felt so good. My Ta also checked on me a few times, making sure I did not need to go to the hospital. I told them I was pretty sure it was just a virus that I caught from a baby in the village. She was throwing up two nights ago and I had been around her a lot recently. I think it will pass by tomorrow. No worries. Thank you family for taking care of me!

I have been wanting to put together a list of cultural traditions (well, daily norms) beheld here in Fiji.

1. Closing your door is considered rude and not commonly done in the village.
2. People are welcome to walk into your house without asking. Sometimes without you even near your house. Oftentimes they won’t leave when you tell them to.
3. The village has a kerekere system. This involves a communal sharing of most objects and food. Even money is ‘borrowed’ from each other, but not usually paid back.
4. As a women you must wear a piece of cloth around your waist called a sulu. If you are not wearing a sulu then you are wearing a long skirt.
5. The women are commonly seen doing the cooking, laundry, dishes, cleaning, taking care of the children, making brooms, weaving mats, and telling stories with the other women.
6. Men are primarily seen at their plantations planting taro root, cassava, sweet potatoes, and kava kava. At night they are almost always around the kava bowl telling stories and smoking Fijian tobacco.

7. The kids are regarded as the prized procession. It takes a village to raise a child. Everyone gives up what they have for the kids. All food, candy, blankets, pillows, etc. are offered to the children first. Even at meal times the children often eat at the same time as the men. The women are last. It pleases the women to know that what they cooked is feeding their family and so they wait to make sure everyone else has had their fill.
8. Fijians are easy to please. They enjoy telling stories, swimming in the ocean or river, helping loved ones, listening to the men play music and sing, go boating, fishing, spear fishing, planting, smoking, shopping, weaving, playing, cooking and cleaning.
9. The children often help their parents with everyday chores. After the hurricane, my two eight year old sisters helped my clean my entire yard. They picked up mangoes, raked leaves, and disposed of the rubbish. They are often seen in my Na’s kitchen making dinner, often cutting vegetables for curry or kneading dough for roti. I have also witnessed them doing laundry on several occasions.
10. You are not to wear a hat indoors or in the village. The Fijians do not believe in placing anything on your head as it is a holy body part.
11. Get used to conversations that go in circles, repeat the same monotonous information, and never make you more intelligent for being a part of it. Today, I had a 10 minute conversation that went in circles about how I have shoes that are good for walking on the rocks and so my feet do not hurt, versus the boy I was with did not have any shoes on so his feet had pain walking on the rocks. This makes me faster. Again, I was wearing shoes on the rocks… and so on…
12. Last but not least, they are fascinated by: A candle, a cat’s purr, 16 lane interstates, how small Fiji is, my Skype dates, how I make toast (really, how I cook anything), my lack of vosa vaka viti (speaking Fijian), and my SCUBA booties.



Saturday, January 2, 2010

Today a boat load of people showed up from Suva to pay their respects to Ta’s sister who had just passed away. They brought all kinds of food. The Fijian custom is for the guests to bring the food and the host village to cook it. So everyone was set to their tasks. I gave myself my own task of taking pictures. I have a good reason behind this task.

Early this morning I headed up to the community hall to help Na clean the hall’s laundry. As we were washing, one of the boys came up with a bucket of water and splashed Na, soaking her cloths. This is custom at New Years. You are only supposed to soak your cousins, but I have a feeling it gets out of hand every year. This event alerted my senses that I need to find a reason for people not to dump nasty water on me today. First, I must get a few cousins drenched. My first victim was my cousin, Billy Moce. He was hanging around about to go into the woods and I was standing right next to a tap with three basins at my feet. What better use than to saturate a close friend. He did not get mad, just explained that I would see a day of pay backs. Hmmm, I can wait. Na showed back up and we headed down with the laundry to hang. Soon after, I found my bucket of water in my kitchen and attempted to soak another cousin, Tai. My Na knew the plan so right before I got to him she yelled ONZ, alerting him instead of me (since I am not yet attuned to their vocabulary), so he dodged just in time. I tried again about 2 hours later and he did not receive the soaking with such vigor as Billy. Why get mad about something so minor? Oh well, bump on a log.



Finally I decided to help cook, but doing good deeds do not always get rewarded. I was dragged to a faucet by two boys with a small red basin. Of course, I fought, and was soon drenched to the core. It was a hot day, our water had not been working in most of the village, so the clean, cold water actually did more good than harm. Although, soon I was following a triage of people down to the watering hole to take a shower.



After playing in the river a while, I headed back up into the village and began feeling a little wheezy. I woke up this morning with a dehydration headache so I just chalked it up to dehydrating and started drinking lots of water. I tried to ignore the onset of sickness, but it crept up like a roach in the night. I wanted to be a good sport tonight so I tried to hang out with everyone down on the party porch, but my head was aching from dehydrating and my stomach was doing somersaults so I headed to my straw hut. No sooner than I laid down did my stomach tell me to get back up. I opened the door and gagged myself until I got some of the pain out of my tummy. I still was not myself, but felt well enough to fall asleep.

Oh, and two people called me on my land line today! My mom from America! Thank you mom for the random phone call! It makes me feel special when I hear from people back home, especially my mommy! The other call was from Filo in Nausori! She called to wish me a Happy New Year and to tell me she had been thinking about me while she was in Suva celebrating the New Year Mardi Gras style! Cool! Wish I had gone to stay with them for the New Year. I think I wasted a lot of vacation days staying in the village. Oh well, the village is my family.

Friday, January 1, 2010



We were the second country to see the light of the new year! We did not really acknowledge it though. My Ta’s sister had been in the village for the past several days and she happened to have been discharged from the hospital after 10 months. She passed away while everyone was in town yesterday. So the funeral was scheduled for today. Everyone was looming about and not really in the New Year’s mood.


My baby!

Soon enough, I found out that the boys were going to a nearby settlement to kill a wild cow for the funeral feast. I asked if I could go along to take pictures of the process. They said sure and we were off. Well, I did not walk into the woods with them where the bull was supposed to be tied up because of my toe. The bandaid had fallen off in the ocean and I did not have tennis shoes, so I waited behind. To be honest, I wanted to stay behind. It turned out that as we approached the settlement I saw Sio’s boat so I knew he was at my friends’ house. I walked down to the house and they were all celebrating the New Year with Sio’s brother and family from Australia! There was even cold beer! I took several shots and enjoyed their company for several hours until they decided to head home. As we packed our things into the boat the boys came back down out of the woods with no cow parts, just a heartrending look on their faces. The ‘wild’ bull had run away and was nowhere to be found. So, they were off to a different settlement to find a different cow. I decided to head back to the village as I had not eaten a thing all day.



The hike up to their house was strenuous. I carried several of their things, plus my own, and the sun was shining hotter than possible in the US in July. My sweat was balling up on the tresses on my skin and teetering towards the ground. Blah. Salty sweat. Soon enough I recovered and headed down to my house to cook.



Later in the night I headed up to the community hall and visited with a few of the women, then went to a Bubu’s house where all of the boys were drinking grog and I said my farewells and headed to bed. Whew. They drink way too much grog! It turns out, the electricity came on around 10 PM and everyone headed to the community hall for more grog, music, and dancing. I of course was a party pooper and had already gone to bed. Oh well, next time.

Thursday, December 31, 2009



New Years Eve! Well, just another day in Fiji, just like Christmas Eve, although, town was not near as packed. None of the volunteers were in town today because they all had New Years plans somewhere in Fiji. I decided to stay back and save money so that maybe I can get a dive package soon. I guess I should get on top of that before my time in Fiji is up. Today I bought a settlement some new dishes, sponges, soap, and an air tight container for sugar. I don’t know what has come over me, but I have felt obligated recently to help people out with necessities. I know I am not supposed to be assisting monetarily, so I do it in the form of gifts. It has been making me feel better! I also bought an ice cream cone, which I die for every time I know Thursday is coming around. Then I saw a little girl in town from my village and she was eyeballing my ice cream cone, so of course, I gave it to her.

After coming back to the village a few of the younger boys came over and we watched The First Knight. I think they liked it, but Fiji’s taste in movies is quite different than mine. I have not figured out what kind of movies they like to watch besides Bollywood (for the Indians) and teenage movies like Clueless. While I was in town I also bought two dvds for the kids. They are often overlooked when it comes to movie time, so I got The Little Mermaid series and The Prince of Egypt series, plus Garfield as a freebie. The other day I was in a neighbor’s house and I asked about 30 people in the room if they knew who the character was draped over the arm chair in the front of the room. Not a single person had any idea… it was Garfield! So, maybe one night I will get the chance to show the owners who Garfield is.