Homeward Bound

As my time at Peace Corps comes to a close, I am realizing how invaluable this experience was and how it will affect the rest of my life. I have learned more than I would have ever expected about myself, my country and how individual lives can affect this world. I hope that once home, I am able to share this experience with anyone who is interested in listening and engaging in constructive discussion.

Many say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I would love to share my photographs and experiences with you. Please feel free to contact me for more information on my photography or if you would like to know more about any one of my prints.

Vakamau!

I had the amazing opportunity to be in my friend Asenaca's wedding on Kia island last week. I had been to a Fijian wedding before, but this time it was way more memorable. Not only beacuse I got to wear the traditional masi cloth, but because a good friend was getting married. A whole bunch of us from my village piled into 3 boats to go to Kia island for 48 hours where we drank kava, swam in the ocean, danced and got very little sleep. We had so much fun that our boat must have sensed that we didn't want to return and decided to catch on fire. Never fear, my ever resourceful host father had it fixed and we were on our way only 3 hours later.
Besides the wedding, things are normal here. Still waiting for my footpath and UNDP money to come through. Both projects have had the "Funded" stamp of approval since July but we have yet to see any money enter our bank account. Pending a phone call later today, I could be starting with a 3-day waste management workshop on Sept 8-10. I haven't started planning so if we get the money today I will be uber busy until then, but then again we could not get the money and I will have another month of occupying myself with fishing, card games and village fun. So thus is life in Fiji...although I'm not technically busy yet the prospect of work is stressful. Time is flying by and nothing has started yet...things are looking like I might be here longer that I originally expected.

Outside My Kitchen Window

Until today I never really thought about the view out my kitchen window. This is due to the fact that Peace Corps Fiji requires all volunteer houses to have mosquito netting, hurricane screening and anti-theft barriers on all windows. I guess I just always focused on the layers of steel between me and the view to give it any thought. Today was different. For whatever reason, I was thinking of an old commercial about a builder deciding how to orient a house so the best view was out of the kitchen window. That prompted me to notice the difference between this particular kitchen window, in a tropical paradise, as compared to the few I’ve previously had in Mediterranean SoCal. While nothing spectacular when compared to some of the sights to be seen in Fiji, my view is good enough. At dinnertime, you can see the sunset through a grove of coconut trees in the background, and duly located in the foreground is my neighbor’s shed used for drying coconut to make copra. Some days there will be goats grazing, something I really look forward to because my neighbor is also a “goat talker” and they often bleat in beat. And now I must stop my window into the life of a PCV (pun intended) because all this content contemplation has caused me to burn my rice. Coupled with the bean dish with an excess amount of salt, I’m not looking forward to dinner...so much for flying solo and not consulting a cook book.

One year down...one (or two) more to go!

The past month has been super busy. I was in the capital, Suva, for a few days helping with training for the new volunteers and then I flew back to the US for a surprise visit to my sister and brother in law’s graduation from medial residency. I got to spend 11 lovely days with my family (meeting the newest addition, the loud but beautiful Phoebe) mostly hanging around the house, swimming and eating my year quota of nectarines in a week. When I got back to Fiji, Suva trapped me with its big city charm and ability to get a months’ worth of work done in 5 days. Teri, a volunteer in the capital did a very good job of entertaining me…we went zip lining and sailing for the weekend. During the week, I finalized our budget for the UN grant and made up a timeline with a rep from WWF. We should be started with the 37,300FJD project by the time this is posted. Getting this done lifted a big uncertainty weight off my shoulders but placed a new “I hope this project goes well” weight, which is considerably heavier, back on. The first thing on the agenda is a workshop explaining how to manage and evaluate a project of this size. Next will be a 3-day workshop on waste management, facilitated by myself. I am really nervous about this one since my technical Fijian needs improvement.

After an extended time away from the village, I really wanted to get back. Luckily Air Fiji, one of the domestic carriers, is about as reliable as, well, anything else in Fiji. After missing one flight, I had to wait another 24 hours to catch the next one. Once on the plane I was so excited to go home, I could barely look out the window to see how much longer we had to go. Problem was it felt like we were flying in circles…I forced myself to look out and in fact we were circling the Labasa airport. I could recognize the mountains that lay just before my village, I was so close! But the airline failed to clear the flight before leaving the main island so no one was at the airport to clear us for landing. Just like that, 10 unhappy passengers were on their way back to the main island to spend the night wishing they had caught the ferry instead. The next morning we all got to the airport at 4:30am to try our luck with the first flight. Thirty minutes after we were supposed to take off, we boarded the plane only to be told to get off because they couldn’t find the switch to turn on the runway lights. The next time we boarded there wasn’t anyone there to sign off the plane…finally the third time we boarded we took off and landed 36 minutes later at our destination, a full 15 hours later than we were supposed to.

It was great to get back to the village. After a long kava session, I knew I was back when I had to force down the sheep neck stew that was placed in front of me for dinner. If that didn’t tell me I was back home, the shock of my first cold shower in 3 weeks brought me back to the village lifestyle. Since then, I have been having meetings with the leaders of the community to get ready to start this project. But as always, its more play than work and I was able to go out fishing and test out my new water proof camera. So I’ll leave you with a selection of photos and I’ll be back soon with more Fiji adventures to report on.

Druadrua

I just got back from visiting another volunteer’s site on Druadrua Island. (If you want to see this island just watch “Survivor: Fiji” since this is where it was filmed…and they say it’s a deserted island!) The purpose of the visit was to see the composting toilets being built, but we got in some quality ocean time as well. I did some of the best snorkeling ever right off the island and when the cold currents forced me out of the water, I showered in a waterfall and then warmed up in the sun sitting on a white sandy beach contemplating life while sipping on a coconut. It was exactly what I thought I would be doing as a volunteer in Fiji. Well, it has only happened once so far, but it was well worth the wait.

The highlight of the trip was by far catching an octopus. We went out with a spear looking for octopus, not really expecting to find any since they are kings of disguise. I ended up spotting three, only because I wasn’t really looking, and after watching a Fijian lady spear and pull one out of a rock we decided to try it ourselves. Well, we were by far less graceful in the attack. I think the doomed octopus lost one or two legs thinking it could hide away in the rock. What the poor thing didn’t know was that two white girls were determined to show off to the villagers. I don’t know how long it took us, but by the time we got the half-dead octopus, sans ¼ of it’s appendages, out of the rock we had our fair share of battle wounds. In the courageous struggle (two humans against one rather small octopus) we got pretty cut up on the coral. It was all worth it when we dined on fresh “calamari” for dinner.

Almost as good as catching the octopus was the return to my own village. Rather than stay in town an extra night and hang out with other volunteers, I opted to go back home and see my family. There’s nothing quite like a return to the village after some time away. I don’t want to be too mushy, but seeing the kids and my family/friends makes me happy and I can tell that they are happy to see me.

Good news! Our proposal through the United Nations Development Program got approved! This is a yearlong project titled “Towards and Environmentally Sustainable Community” and it will include several projects. I will be in charge of the composting toilets, waste separation piggery and grey water wetlands. I am lucky to be involved in such a significant project. As for the footpath project, we need about $3,000 more dollars before we start. If you are interested in donating please contact me for information. Any contribution would be very much appreciated.

Sereki

Rain has marked the end of the school break and the beginning of Term 2. Thus, I have regressed back into my house and therefore have time to update my loyal blog readers. Speaking of, is there anyone out there?
As I mentioned before, our Earth Day Celebration was a hit. It made the past 9 months of relative inactivity worthwhile…the whole event was on time (what? No “Fiji time”?) and about 85% of the village came out to participate. I believe it was so successful because the youth group in the village really took the idea and made it their own. We broke up the group into three teams and each team was responsible for presenting a topic to the village on the big day. We had presentations on composting, coral reef ecosystems and mangroves and the youth were able to field questions from the audience. It was clear that everyone learned something about the environment and how to protect it. After the presentations we had a meke competition. A meke is a traditional dance, so we essentially had a dance off…Fijian style. As if that weren’t enough, the kids and youth and even some older ladies went out to the village green to play games for the rest of the day. After 5 hours of playing a game called pani, where we throw tennis balls at rusty cans and then at each other, I still don’t get the rules. Everyone truly had a good time and the village wants to make Earth Day a yearly event. Even the old grumps who sat around the kava bowl all day complimented me, although I feel like this was a truly community event…I just got the ball rolling.
The second week of the school holiday I had two other volunteers come up to put on an HIV/AIDS workshop. After putting on a similar workshop on Mali Island, we talked to Korotubu’s youth group about STIs and safe sex. The PC office was worried about three kaivulagi (white people) coming into a village to talk about taboo topics, but I think it went really well. The youth weren’t bashful and asked honest questions. I really believe this is because I have formed a relationship with them and they trust me. Anyway, my job for both workshops was to translate what I could into our dialect of Fijian. It was nice traveling to a new island and meeting new people, but I what I think was my first experience with an intestinal parasite made me miserable for the whole week.
Since school is in session again I will start going back to the primary school to paint the world map…after the rain stops that is. Other than that I am just waiting for my footpath proposal to go through. Everything is moving right along…albeit according to Fiji time…and all is good. Well, except for the fact that my best friend in the village just left to live with her boyfriend. That was a bummer…and she isn’t allowed to come back to the village until his family makes an offering to her family. Oh, how different things are here! Right when I start to feel like I fit in there is always something to remind me I don’t really know what’s going on!
Learning about coral reef ecosystems.Earth day fun!

Pictures from Kia Island

Hello! My Earth Day Celebration was yesterday and it went amazingly. I need more time to process all the great things that went on but as soon as I do I will write a post that will hopefully show why this was such a great day. Last weekend I went with some girls from Korotubu to Kia island. The school was having a bazaar and I hadn't been to the island I sometimes stare at from my coastline, so I jumped on the opportunity (or the boat rather) to go. It was absolutley beautiful. The island is what you picture when you think of Fiji, the "real" Fiji since there were only very traditional villages and no resorts. The trip made me realize how good of friends I am making in the village, although one of the girls is getting married next week and will be leaving. (I am really bummed about that because she was the closest friend I had in the village.) So I will leave you with some pictures to enjoy...


Filipe, a hula dancing expert (he performed for us at Earth Day), playing on the beach.

I was very entertained watching the women play volleyball in full length traditional dresses.

Emi, Filipe and I on a short morning walk up the beach.

The group from my village on Ligau beach.

Here we are with Vanua Levu (the island I live on) in the background.