Swim to the top of Fiji

Mountain Foliage

Yoga at Fiji's highest point

The carrier ride to the interior

Yesterday Leslie and I completed one of our major goals while in Fiji: Climbing Mount Tomanivi (aka Victoria Peak), the highest peak in Fiji. This may not seem like such a major accomplishment since the height of the peak is just over 4000 feet, making it more of a hill in continental terms. However, the weather during the trek made the climb a major undertaking. Rain was pouring literally the entire time we were hiking. The trail to the summit became not so much a trail as a rapidly flowing stream leading Nuper to quip that we "swam to the top of Fiji". Additionally, the second half of the climb up was more rock/mud scrambling than hiking so we really put the upper-body muscles to work. While the hike was difficult, spirits were high the entire time. The view from the top was basically of clouds and rain so we only hung around long enough to take a few pictures. On the way down, Leslie was the only volunteer who hadn't given herself "mud butt" (a term we created for the resulting muddy stain left after falling on one's backside). The three streams we crossed on the way up were rivers on the way down.

Overall the most difficult part of the hike was the organization of it. The mountain is located 2 hours interior of Tavua so you have to hire a carrier (truck with tarps over the bed, passengers sit under the tarps) to drive you inside (there are no buses). Once there we stayed at the Emperor Guesthouse owned by the Vatukoula Mining Company. The house had plenty of beds for the nine of us and even had a fireplace. It was definitely not the typical Fiji experience to be bundled up in a jacket sitting by a roaring fire, but it was a nice change of scenery. They told us the price was $50FJ but when we got there they tried to charge us an additional $10 per person for electricity. We got them down to a flat $5 total, which is good seeing the electricity only worked for about an hour. We had to go through the village to hike Mt. Victoria so first we were required to seek permission from the chief. We bargained with the Turaga ni Koro (village head-man) for a group rate as none of us brought enough cash to cover the $20FJ they originally asked. We were fortunate to have two Fijian boys with us, friends of ours, so we didn't need to hire guides, that would have been an additional charge. An elderly man from Navai village was a bit hesitant to let us do the hike without guides from his village. To impress upon us the danger of getting lost in the forest he told us a story of a policeman who went hiking solo and turned up two weeks later, almost dead, and in nothing but his tighty-whities. " His shoes were gone, his shirt was ripped, and his pants were gone. All he had left was his sapota (underwear)." I have no idea how this guy lost his clothes but a few other people told us the story as well, and they all were very impressed by the man's near nudity. Obviously we felt a bit "nickel and dimed" by the locals in the interior, but overall it was a great experience.

To the subject of work, Leslie and John C. just completed their last beekeeping training with the Nagoro Women's Group, an Indian Women's Group near Rakiraki town. Within the last year they have managed to increase their hives from 3 to 19. One of the women in the group now has four of her own hives. These women are a success-story for beekeeping in Ra. Next week, Leslie and Judy are preparing to do a Gingerbread-cooking workshop in the village with the women. The women in the village have really enjoyed Leslie's baking lessons so far.

We just received a cyclone warning for Ra. Cyclone Nick (how appropriate....St. Nick...Christmas) is expected to hit Northern Viti Levu in the next 24 hours. We are on Stand-fast and cannot leave our site until directed by Peace Corps. Needless to say, I will not be doing any fishing for the next few days. Since I will be stuck inside my goal is to complete my GEF grant and get this MPA moving (financially speaking).

Let the Hoildays begin

It has been over a month since our last post....oops! The past few months have been relatively eventful for me and Choney. After our Kayaking trip with John and Natalie went straight to work in the village.

John C. and I had four weeks of beekeeping technical trainings that we starting right after the trip. We worked three days a week. Some days in more than three apiaries. That is a lot of bees. I can say without much hesitation that I am glad that that string of trainings is over. Beekeeping work is exhausting...much more so for John and the local trainers than me as the men don't let me do any of the heavy lifting. I work the smoker for the most part. In the third week of training I had an "ah ha" moment: I realized that I understand beekeeping well enough that I can split a hive on my own. Doesn't sound like much but I was pretty proud of myself.

Since the beekeeping trainings I have been trying to spend as much time as possible in the village. I spend the majority of my time with three women: Ruci, Milika and Sai. They and Judy (John C.'s wife) helped me organize a Pumpkin pie making training for the sogosogo vaka marama (women's group). Before we started with the mixing and baking I talked a bit about Thanksgiving and why it is celebrated in the US (goal 2 of PC!). The training was a success, not just because a good number of women attended but more so because women are now making the pies on their own and asking for more cooking trainings. It is great to see Fijian women excited about trying new things with the foods they grow and I love helping them find their creative sides. Recently Ruci started a small business in the village selling "fudge". I taught her to make peanut butter-chocolate-oatmeal, no-bake cookies....a personal favorite...and no need for an oven. About a week into making and selling the "fudge" Ruci said to me, "Hey Leslie, you know what I have realized? I have realized, that business is just about being creative." I think I will always remember that moment.

Pumpkin Pie training group (minus a few women)

John's Donu (Salmon Cod)

John has been spending the majority of his time fishing with his friend Utom. Utom is married to the women's group president, Sai. He is the only Indo-Fijian living in the village. He is a great fisherman and he is teaching John a lot. They usually go out to fish early in the morning and come back at mid-day. John almost always comes back with a bag of fish....he takes the ones Utom cannot sell. Fish was John's contribution to the Peace Corps Thanksgiving. He has also been spending a lot of time in the Dadaculaci, exploring the reefs (always with his life jacket). It is usually one of the village youth who accompanies him but sometimes I get to go too. We found a great little beach really close to the village that we paddle to sometimes. It is great to have an escape when things get to loud or rowdy in the village (or when there is a church function!) John has also started building smokeless stoves for the women in the village. Joe (third year PCV) taught John to make the stoves. They are great because they use less wood and produce a lot less smoke, making cooking with wood healthier and easier for women. The women who have started using them love them, we hope the new design will catch on and spread through the village.

At the end of November we went down to Suva for Thanksgiving. Julie (a first year PCV) hosted an awesome Thanksgiving dinner at her amazing house. I made two pumpkin pies with Nuper....they were a hit! I also made Tara's broccoli/cheese casserole....it was the first dish finished at dinner! Almost every volunteer on Viti Levu was present and it was great to see everyone. There was so much food that we ate leftovers for lunch the next day....even after that there was still food left! We went dancing every night too.....keeping those holiday pounds off :)

December and January should be equally busy months (if we can help it) so that we don't miss our families too much.

86km sea kayaking trip

Leslie and I just finished a 4 day, 86km sea kayaking trip with John Caldeira and Nuper. We started in our village (which must, of course, go nameless on this blog) and paddled east, visiting two other volunteers along the way, and then turned around and headed back. The wind in Fiji blows almost constantly from the southeast, so we started the voyage going directly into the wind. We had to get up very early during those first days since the strong winds generally start at around 9am. Despite getting up as early as 4:30am we still found ourselves battling 25knot winds for several hours at a time. Day two was the hardest part of the trip by far. We covered 25km, paddling directly upwind for 10 hours straight. We had to tie ropes between the kayaks to prevent ourselves from being separated. We struggled with all our might to make even the slowest progress upwind. Our boats were constantly being filled with water by the massive waves. The way back, on the other hand, was a breeze. The wind did most of the work for us. We spent a good part of the trip back relaxing in the boats, letting the wind move us to the west. We got to practice a kayaking technique called surfing where you paddle hard to stay between wave troughs and then ride the force of the wave forward. It is a good way to go fast in a kayak without using too much energy. Day three was probably the most fun I've ever had in Fiji. Considering the difficulty of the trip I think we all did an amazing job.

Now the pictures...

Choney is always touching things.

Christmas tree coral (this is as close as we will get in Fiji)

Puffer fish (sokisoki)

Boobie!

Me on Choney's boat

Just a little update and some pictures

It has been so long since I have posted anything on our blog that I hardly know where to start. I am not going to back-track, instead I will just bring you up to speed on the last few weeks.

We, the FRE-6 Peace Corps volunteers, just completed our Mid-Service training in Nadi. It was so great to see all of my fellow volunteers. Training focused on project reporting, tracking and sustainability. I think most of us came away with the feeling that we need to do more to make our projects sustainable. I know that I am guilty of letting the aggressive, American side come out a bit too much. I take control of many of the projects I am working on instead of allowing a host-country-national the opportunity to lead and manage a project. This is because I believe that I can do it better and faster. So my goal for the remainder of my service is to slow down and give up control a bit. Anyone who knows me will understand the struggle this will be for me :)

After training ended John and I planned to do the Beqa Shark dive but instead ended up in Suva for a week with boils! Yuck! I do not wish boils on my worst enemy, they are truly awful. John and I both got them on our faces. I had three small ones (praise Jisu they will not leave scars!) and John had one huge one on his lip. John's was far worse than any of mine and much more painful. He had to take antibiotics via IV it was so bad. There is no way of knowing how we got the infections. The bacteria that causes boils is always living on our skin and in our bodies. There are many triggers that bring about boils, not the least of which is weather and overall humidity of the tropics. It is my opinion that lack of sleep,"moderate" drinking, and being around 26 other volunteers all played a part in the formation of our boils. We are not dirty people (I feel like I have to say that for my own dignity). That is enough about boils.

We hope to return to the village by Tuesday at the latest. John is looking forward to continuing his work on the village MPA (Marine Protected Area) and I am looking forward to a new round of beekeeper trainings and getting back to my business class at the vocational school.

The New Boat!!!

Those of you who have been following this blog for awhile may remember that in my old village I had a small outrigger canoe built out of corrugated roofing iron. The name of that boat was the Saga and it was truly a piece of crap. Don't get me wrong; I loved that boat, but struggling to paddle it only short distances only made me really want to build a truly seaworthy boat. Luckily for me, Leslie and I are good friends with an expat named John Caldeira who builds beautiful wooden kayaks. His friend Gary Dierking, who is visiting Fiji for a few months, happens to be an expert at building outrigger canoes and has even written a book on it. The two of them agreed to help me build the boat pictured above. It is 16ft long, has an outrigger made out of bamboo, and is made out of only three sheets of marine grade plywood. It's name is the Dadakulaci. There is an earlier post on this blog explaining the significance of this name. I have already been on several large trips with it, having crossed the bay even in strong winds. This boat has completely changed my experience here. It really is nice to be able to go out to sea any time I want. I think Leslie has posted some more pictures on Facebook. I'll try to post some pictures of the Australia trip.

Australia

Leslie and I just returned from a two-week trip to Australia. We flew in and out of Sydey and spent all of our time in New South Wales. Unfortunately I am using such a crappy internet connection that I won't be able to upload any pictures today. Leslie has a bunch of photos posted on her facebook page.
Since Australia is a very expensive place to travel we decided to try something called "couchsurfing" so save money. Couchsurfing.org is a nonprofit organization that basically functions as a social networking site for people looking for a place to stay while traveling. You sign up, establish a profile, and then browse for people offering up their couches in the places you want to travel to. We used this website to find Chase and Natasha Johnson, a really nice couple in Sydney. We stayed at their place the first 3 nights of our vacation and then the last two nights of our vacation. Chase took us for a walk around the beaches of Sydney.
Being in the first world was quite a shock after being in Fiji for so long. The one thing we noticed was how different the fashion was. In Sydney there were literally hordes of beautiful people wearing the trendiest and most expensive clothing. Leslie and I felt like a couple of unsophisticated grungy backpackers (which is exactly what we are).
In Sydney, we did the walk from Cudgee beach to Bondi, took the ferry to Manley Beach, and took some pictures of the Opera House. Other than that, we didn't do too many touristy things in Sydney- just walked around and stared at things.
After a few days in Sydney we headed north to the Ku-ring Gai Chase national park. This park is just north of Sydney, but getting there using public transport takes half a day. We only spent one night here, at the Pittwater YHA. This was, by far, my favorite place on the trip. My only regret is not staying here longer. At the YHA we saw several wallabies and a few kookaburras. We borrowed the hostel's kayaks for an afternoon and ended up kayaking with dolphins! At one point we were within five feet of them.
After Ku-ring Gai Chase we headed north to Newcastle. Newcastle itself was not too impressive, but we intended to use it as a jumping off point to visit the Hunter Valley. We again couch surfed in Newcastle with Ellie Hammond and her roommates. We again had a great experience couchsurfing. Her roommates were a lot of fun and we enjoyed the bohemian vibe of the place.
Next we went to Cessnock where we did a tour of the Hunter Valley wineries. Not much to talk about here other than we got to taste a lot of good wine and developed a nice midday buzz.
After Cessnock we took the overnight train up to Byron Bay. The train ride, like all overnight train rides, sucked. We managed to get a bit of sleep but we still had to take a nap once we arrived in Byron Bay.
Byron Bay is a major tourist town. The weather happened to be great while we were there and we arrived on a Saturday so the town was absolutely packed. After taking our nap we went for a long walk on Belongil beach, avoiding the naked old people sprawled our like elephant seals on the beach. It was a beautiful place with a lot to do.
After going on a short day trip to Nimbin we headed to Murwillambah to climb Mt. Warning. Mt. Warning is a popular climb in northern New South Wales. Due to its height and proximity to the ocean, it is the first place in Australia to see the sunrise each day. Because of this, some people get up at 3am to climb it in time for the sunrise. There was no way in hell we were doing this. We climbed it a 10am like normal people. It was a pretty nice climb- not too extreme but very pretty. See Leslie's blog for pictures.
On our way back to Sydney we stopped in Bellingen, another picturesque town. We did another hike here in nearby Dorrigo National Park. Bellingen isn't famous for much, but the owner of the youth hostel told us that the movie "Danny Deckchair" was filmed here. Also, the musician that the movie "Shine" is based on lives here.
Not much else to report. We are back in Fiji now. Our village has started building the new pipeline, and Leslie's PCPP funding request has been approved and posted online. If anyone wants to help her (and the people of Ra) out you can visit https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=411-142 and make a donation.