First day in Fiji. Traveling from Nadi to Nadave.
















Precious children from our first village visit.







FRE-6: 32 Volunteers in total. States represented: Maine, Wyoming, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, Arizona, Oregon, Alaska, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, California and others I have forgotten. Ages range from 21 to 50's.













Indo-Fijian settlement volunteers. First Hindi wedding. Leslie, Keondra, Sara, Jessica, Christa, and Dristica (Keondra's host sister)












Nope, we're not missionaries :)

1 month of training complete

We have been in Fiji one month now. Both Leslie and I have made quite a bit of progress in the language. Today we had a scavenger hunt in Suva as a way to familiarize ourselves with the city. I think my group came in last. We spent too much time in the University of the South Pacific's book store looking at the coral reef books.

So far I have been in the ocean twice, and Leslie has been only once. They keep us on a pretty tight leash during training, and prefer to keep most of the training inside village community halls. Last week the environmental volunteers got to take a trip to Kiuva to do some snorkeling. A few researchers from USP taught us the basics of transect sampling and took us out to the reef to try it out. When we got out to the reef everybody decided that it would be more fun to just snorkel around and look at the fish, instead of trying to lay a transect. The reef was degraded in certain areas, but was still beautiful. We saw a sea snake, a few clown fish, a moray eel, one of those rays with the electric blue spots, and more species of fish than I could count.

Fiji definitely has some environmental issues that need to be addressed. For one, waste management is a severe problem. Most of the villages lack trash pick-up services of any kind, so they resort to burning the trash (plastic and all), piling it up, or throwing it into the river. Piggeries, also, usually empty directly into the river, with the feces-laden runoff causing the coral reefs to become overrun with algae. Unsustainable fishing practices are also common. Villagers in some areas use dynamite fishing and fishing with poison. In many areas, simply too many fish are being caught. Another major component of Peace Corps' work in Fiji involves setting up Marine Protected Areas.

Leslie and I will know exactly where we are going in two weeks. We are extremely excited to find out. If anyone is considering applying to the Peace Corps, post a comment and I'll tell you more about it. Training is difficult for reasons I never anticipated. Once again, I'm sorry for not posting photos. Maybe next week, rairai beka.

I haven't done this yet, so let me get it out of the way now: This blog does not reflect the opinions of the U.S. Peace Corps or the U.S. Government. The opinions in this blog solely belong to John and/or Leslie.

Ok, I'm glad that's out of the way. Leslie and I are settling into a routine here in Fiji. Leslie's Hindi skills have improved quite a bit in the past week, and I am feeling more and more comfortable with Fijian. We are staying in a settlement, which is basically like a small town. Leslie stays in the settlement to learn Hindi, and I walk to a nearby village every day for Fijian lessons. On the weekends, we try to divide our time equally between the Fijian village and the Indo-Fijian settlement. People are very welcoming and hospitable in both communities, though there are noticeable differences between the two cultures.

The Fijian village is highly communal. The houses are close together, and everyone knows everyone else's business. There is a chief to every village, whose position is entirely hereditary, as well as a Turaga ni koro (man of the village) who is elected. All Fijians are Christian. The denomination varies depending on where you go, and many villages have a few different churches. The most popular denomination in Fiji is the Methodist church. Church services last about 2.5 hours. They are full of firery sermons and singing. Fijians are able to harmonize beautifully. A lot of the volunteers are having issues with the lack of privacy in the village. While the Fijians are extremely friendly and hospitable, they don't really understand the concept of "alone time".

The Indo-Fijian settlement is a little more spread out. There are a few shops and, in general, the houses have more ammenities than those in the villages. There is a lot more privacy and religious freedom in the settlement. I think most Indo-Fijians are Hindu, though many have converted to Christianity, and our host mom is Sai. I don't know much about the Sai religion yet, but I do know that they try to unite all major monotheistic religions, emphasizing their similarities rather than their differences. We went to a Sai center last Sunday. It basically involved meditation and a brief introduction to the religion and to its founder, Sai Baba.

Both the Fijians and the Indo-Fijians live drinking Kava (aka Yaqona or Grog). For the Fijians, drinking yaqona is highly ritualized- you have to clap (Cobo) before drinking your shell (bilo) of Kava. The Kava is made in a large wooden bowl called the tanoa. In the settlement, yaqona drinking is much more casual. People will often drink out of ceramic cups while watching T.V.
Leslie still doesn't like the taste of Kava, but I love it. If you drink a lot- about 12 bilos- you definitely feel it. I've heard that it is much stronger in Vanuatu. It never leads to violence like alcohol sometimes does.

Yesterday, we went to the beach for water safety training. Basically we put on life jackets and jumped off a boat to make sure we could float in the water. It was a bit silly, but it was nice getting to go the the ocean. Now we can go to the beach as long as we can convince someone from the settlement or village to accompany us.

The environmental volunteers recently had a talk with Randy Thaman, a professor from University of the South Pacific (USP). He obviously had a lot of passion about conservation in the Pacific, and was a great speaker. The business volunteers recently visited an ecotourism and culture-revitalization project in a neighboring village, as well as the UNDP office in Suva.

In case anyone was thinking of asking, we still don't know where we will be stationed. It could be anywhere in Fiji. We will know on July 4. Sorry for not posting any photographs. The internet connection at every cafe we have visited so far has been extremely slow. We will have to wait until we go to the Peace Corps headquarters in Suva.

Sota Tale!

Jone' ( pronounced Chonay)

Beach Day Canceled - Boooo!

I swear that I saw a single tear fall from John's eye yesterday when they announced the cancellation of Beach Day. It has been raining and windy (not cold but very humid) here all week and so the Peace Corps staff decided that we should not go to the beach today (Friday). Rain has never stopped me from enjoying the beach so I too was pretty bummed by the news. Three weeks and counting and still no beach....crazy! On the upside, our Hindi language class let out early and we were able to take a trip into town.

There is not much to post, life as a trainee is proving to be pretty boring. We get up and go to language class, have lunch, go to tech class, return home, have dinner, take a bath and go to bed (usually no later than 10 p.m.). I have been getting up at 6 a.m. each morning to help my host mom make the curry and roti for breakfast. I am getting pretty good at rolling the roti. I have yet to make a perfect circle though...most look like profiles or maps. Roti is like a tortilla. While a lot of the trainees in the Fijian villages are tired of their food, John and I are still loving the roti and curry.

We are going into Suva (Fiji's capital) tomorrow to look for a second-hand guitar and a saree. We will try to post pictures while we are in town as I again forgot the camera...oops.

Fir Milegaa,

Leslie