Two Weeks in Short Spurts

Brilliant frangipani flower.
My beautiful beach, just a 10 minutes stroll from my house.
The view through our "ship" rock formation. This is one of the places I go when I want to meditate.

Kara Comes to Visit

I am working on inviting everyone from my area to visit my village. Kara, who got here at the same time as me last year, finally made her debut. We had a blast hiking the waterfalls, snorkeling my reefs, and eating my Yaca’s (Y-ah-th-ah) famous dhal soup. I took a few honey bee pictures up at the waterfall. About a year ago from today I was visiting these falls for the first time and one of these little suckers stung me on my big toe. They sure are beautiful though.
The honey bees drinking fresh water flowing over the rocks from the large waterfall.

Miss Hibiscus and Festival

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This past week I headed down to Suva for a medical check-up and the Hibiscus Festival. It was a good trip. A little busy doing other people’s work, but I enjoyed sitting up front and center at the Hibiscus Queen talent show.
I brought Filo along and she is seriously considering entering next year! How exciting would that be!
The Hibiscus Festival is the largest festival in Fiji, but doesn’t even come close to a small town fair in America. Everything here is just miniature compared to developed nations.













Fijian Raka (Rugby)

On my way back up to the village I stopped at a 7s Game at a local primary school. I had three teams from my area competing against 30 other teams from around Fiji. Lydia joined me in watching the boys fight to the finish.
One of my teams.
My favorite boys.

The boys from my village split up into teams from nearby villages, so out of my three teams, two made it to the semifinals. I am so proud of them! Considering they only practiced for two weeks leading up to the tournament, they did well!
See the cow head, the day before a little 7 year old was sitting on it near the water, as if he was riding a bull.

The team from Lydia's village, with four of my boys - the cute ones :)

Virgin Coconut Oil was Approved!

My VCO project was submitted to the Commissioner West by Integrated Human Resources Development Program last Wednesday and was accepted! We will be receiving government aid to build a “mini” factory, buy machines, basins, bottles, labels, and training. I am stoked. Now it is time to see how serious the village is about this new business. I am hoping all of my efforts pay off by helping them to become financially stable. Things are just coasting along over here in paradise!

Footpaths

So, I have spoken a few times about my footpath project in the village. I am currently asking Americans to open their pockets and give a little to my footpath fund. The village is on a steep hill and during the dry season rocks come out from under you and in the wet season mud encompasses our feet. The children have some kind of scabies issue on their feet and dog, chicken, goat, and pig feces are scattered all over the dirt paths. Please, if you have an extra minute and a few extra dollars, consider giving to my Peace Corps Partnership Grant at https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=411-146. We really appreciate your thoughts and generosity. A special thanks goes out to Lue Anne Lott, her friends, and Physicians Mutual employees.

My sissy comes again in TWO WEEKS!

Having our favorite cappuchino ice cream on one of our regular Thursday outings.

Still Coastin Through My Days in Fiji

My savior, Mogli, anytime I am lonely she is there to talk to!

They are finally catching on to pet care!

I now have wireless broadband internet in my remote village in Fiji. It is strikingly odd considering I don’t even have cell phone service, but here in Fiji the wireless is operated via land line towers that transmit wireless landline service, which happens to work in my bure!

August 2 – 15…

Since my last post I have gone to Vatu-I-Ra Island (bird island, last visit was in May with Mom and Sis), dove near Nananu-I-Ra Island, and scoured my bure of dust and spiderwebs, as well as replace dust-ridden fabric.

Bird Island

Just arriving onto the smelly shore.

You would not believe how many volunteers it takes to put up a one man tent.

My recent trip to Vatu-I-Ra was much more inviting that my family’s previous trip. The sun was shining, the reefs were teeming with brightly dappled fish, and the wind was welcomed on the white sands (to drive the poop smell elsewhere). Five Peace Corps Volunteers plus our ex-patriots and I all headed out on Friday morning, returning on Saturday afternoon from an eco-adventure rarely experienced by others. If anyone is planning a trip to Fiji and would like to visit this 5 acre island, feel free to notify me and I can set up the details.



I played with this sea cucumber until he expelled his intestines to make me leave him alone. I kinda felt bad.

My favorite sighting of the trip. A beautiful anemone!

Clean-up

My newly remodeled house.

Tuesday, from 8 AM to 6 PM, I cleaned fabric, scrubbed walls, collected leaves, sunned mats, and hung fabric around my house. The only reason I mention this is because it is such a big part of Fijian life to remove all of your bedding, plus your floor coverings, pillows, and fabrics and “sun” them for several hours, usually every few weeks. I, on the other hand, only like to spend my entire day cleaning every several months, so when it does happen, the result is unfathomable.

Diving

Friday, three Peace Corps volunteers, our ex-pat friend Judy, and I went on a private two-tank dive out to the island of Nananu-I-Ra. The reefs weren’t really teeming with fish, but with soft corals and nudibranchs. Both dives consisted of several bommies with tight valley-type cave systems which were covered in yellow soft coral. The first dive, Tequila Sunrise, blew my mind. The yellow soft coral (Dentronephthya sp.) outlined by the preceding dark blue waters were perfectly depicted as the name foretells. There were huge gorgonians (fan corals) covered in multi-colored feather stars and a polyclad flatworm (Pseudobiceros sp.) that closely resembled a Spanish Dancer nudibranch.

A polyclad flatworm. I wish I took this picture.

As the dive master softly nudged the flatworm he disembarked from his coral and swam through the water in majestic waving actions, much as a flag blowing in the wind. I also found an anemone shrimp that was completely concealed with his clear body except for tiny purple and white spots on his head and tail. The only color within his carapace was near his anus, quite a unique creature when you see right through it, but don’t spot organs or blood. I spotted a moray eel, a lionfish, tube worms that resembled species from deep sea vents, and I found an empty Cypraea argus cowrie shell. I think my favorite sighting of all was a huge colony of red bulb-tipped sea anemones with pink clownfish protectively guarding their potent home. The reason I was so impressed with the sight of these common Entacmaea quadricolor anemones was because during my college days at Auburn I did a research project on “The Effects of Light on the Bulb-Tipped Anemone, Entacmaea quadricolor”, but I never knew that a red variation existed and they were quite a beautiful sight.

The red anemone. I did not take this picture either, but this is what they looked like.

Pushing along the boat in shallow waters.

A beautiful rainbow with a pot of gold in my bay!

Oso ni Gauna

Town went well. I still have not gotten my Connect Internet hooked up on my computer. I am supposed to have internet access here in my village, eventually…
While in town I did get to talk to my Bestie, Kate! It was so good to hear from you and all about your new job! Congrats!

Early Childhood Education Week


Natalie's village kindergarten.


Lisa's village kindergarten.


We helped with the facepainting booth. What a brilliant idea!

Friday I went with my kindergarten to a local Primary School for Early Childhood Education Week. Last Saturday, in Suva, I saw a huge gathering of parents, kids, and kindergartens at a local park having a blast playing games and watching entertainment. I thought ours would be something like that since it was for about 20 kindergartens, but no, there were no games, only about 3 schools performed, and the children were actually quite bored. I wish it had turned out to be a “fun” event, but I guess it was good for the kids to get out of the village setting and see other children their age.


Lots of kindy kids show up for Early Childhood Education Week


Yummy, milk pops.


The rain comes and goes.

Fundraising Event


My Bubu Moli traveling down memory road.


Attended in 1935 - 1945 They were so cute!

Saturday was filled with our local Primary School’s Fundraising Event. Their 75th anniversary! People came from all of the surrounding villages, plus all over Fiji, and possibly a few from overseas. The old scholars lined up behind a sign that revealed the years they went to the school. It was so cute to see the 1935-1945 group marching around the circle, several of them getting assistance from classmates. Towards the end of the line were the children currently at the school. Pretty neat! So the fundraising (soli) brought in approximately 10,800 F$. The school was elated!


The students and some alumni performed meke. It was quite entertaining.


Giving their hard earned money to help the next generation.


They are currently trying to add an extra classroom so that students can spend Form 3 and Form 4 (grades 9 and 10) at the school as well, thus helping those who do not have enough money or family living in a city where the secondary schools are located. They are also wanting to build a new two story dormitory for all boarding students as the current facilities are made out of bamboo siding and are quickly deteriorating.


Lydia and I. Both of our villages are on the coast and our village's children have class together!


The current students marching along.

Sunday Fun Day

Lydia came over for Sunday Fun Day. Because everything is “not allowed” on Sundays, she and I are going to try to get together and make fun! So during our first Sunday Fun Day we headed to a nearby settlement and my white sandy beach. From about 2 PM to 6 PM we were hiking around the next bay over, admiring orchids and rock formations, eating stewed pumpkin leaves, slurping scavenged papaya with sun bleached shells, and chit chatting with the locals. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Fiji is just too easy.

Eventually Lydia went back to her village and I was left alone to finish the second Harry Potter book and start on the third. Slowly, but surely, I will get through the series.

Chronicles of a Fijian Life

Sorry I have not received my camera in the mail yet, so I will be telling a short documentary this week.

The HIV Tattoo.


The boys in the village feel that it is necessary to give themselves tattoos. This is all fine and dandy until you see the needle used to permanently mark themselves with their aspirations and screw ups. Here we have a typical Fijian tattoo machine. It consists of a sewing needle, a piece of this wire, a pen without the ink tube or the end cap, some tape, a button, two wires, and a piece of copper. Now, if it were me I would never have been able to come up with this kind of contraption. For the youth Fijians, I think they are naturally mechanically minded and destructive.





So the boys connect three D batteries, end to end, then connect the red wire to the (+) end and the black to the (-) end, the button starts turning, causing the needle to move rapidly up and down as well as side to side. The boys press it to their skin and wait for the blood to start oozing. My main concern, sharing needles is no joke. HIV was non-existent in Fiji about 10 years ago and is now spreading rapidly with a lack of education, high sexual activity, and limited access to condoms. No wonder Peace Corps has a large impact in Fiji, our health sector has a lot of basic information that the Fijians have not yet been taught.


Weighing Cocoa Beans on the beach

Visited Lisa


Uniforms travel to the interior, the awefully long bus ride to Lisa's village


Lisa making a Rocket Stove... let's see if it works!