Finishing up November

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Here in Rakiraki we had a small gathering to celebrate and give thanks. Nuper and Ahndree came to hang out with John and me for the weekend. We created a Thanksgiving feast with a Fijian twist. We had fried fish (instead of turkey), mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie (from an actual pumpkin!!!), dark chocolate brownies (just because they sounded delicious) and cool glasses of Captain Choney's Pineapple Kacabote to wash it all down. Everything turned out perfect; the pumpkin pie even tasted like America......so I hear. Unfortunately for me I was recovering from some intense food poisoning and could not enjoy the dinner. It was all just too savory for my queasy stomach to handle. The night before Thanksgiving I spent in the toilet. I made some bad decisions the day before and paid the price.....dearly. What did it was one or both of the following food items: three-week old rice and/or moldy cheese. I know, you are wondering why I would consume either. Let me explain my rationale for consuming both: the cheese was for lunch and there was a bit of mold on one side so I cut it off and thought the rest would be good. You just don't waste cheese in this country, it is too precious. The rice was for dinner and honestly I was just too damn lazy to cook up another pot. So, yes, I made two bad decisions; I did it to myself.

By Friday morning (two days later) I was fine. So the four of us made our way to Nananu i' Ra for the rest of the weekend. Ahndree introduced us to a returned Peace Corps volunteer and his wife who have decided to retire here in Fiji. They very generously offered to take us to the island and then out to some reefs for snorkeling. After dropping our stuff at the resort, we got back in the boat and motored to the Northern side of Nananu and had a picnic and snorkel day. Nuper climbed a coconut tree and got us some bu (young coconut) and Ahndree husked them....all of them. Ahndree is by far Peace Corps finest coconut husker. The snorkeling wasn't great due to the strong current and heavy rains but it was still a good time. The next day we got up early and hiked the ridge trail along the top of the island. We hiked for about an hour and came to a dead end on top of the ridge. Hot and sweaty, we decided to bush-whack our way down to the beach for a swim. We got a lot of cuts and bruises but eventually made it down in four whole pieces. The beach we ended up on is called "One Secluded Beach". We decided to hike back to the resort along the coastline. As we began to walk it started to pour. We were all in our bathing suites at that point and the rain felt glorious against our saltwater-covered skin and cooled us off nicely. At one point in the walk we decided to swim along the coast instead of hike and found a really healthy reef in the process. When we finally made it back to the resort it was 1:00, the hike/rock climb/swim lasted about five hours. That afternoon it proceeded to rain non-stop. Tired and satisfied from our adventure we spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies in the main room of the resort. At about five we took the sea kayaks out for a night paddle. Needless to say, we all slept well that night.

John and Judy (the returned PCV's) met us on the island for our last day and again took us around for a picnic/snorkel trip. This time we snorkeled around Nananu i' Cake and Honeymoon Island (the islands next to Nananu i' Ra). The reefs were much healthier there as both islands are fully forested and relatively uninhabited. The best snorkeling of the day was on Honeymoon Island. It was there that we saw a black-tipped reef shark and that Choney saw a sting ray!

The trip was a great way to end a month that has been full of workshops, traveling and meetings.

Fiji Butterflyfish Count

Last Saturday, Nov 8, I had what I guess could be called my first real project. Helen Sykes, an environmental consultant in Suva, started this awareness-building activity called "The Great Fiji Butterflyfish Count". Basically, the idea is similar to Audubon's Christmas Bird Count. Resorts and villages register to do the count during the first week of November and are sent free underwater dive slates featuring detailed pictures of all 27 species of butterflyfish found in Fiji. Butterflyfish eat coral polyps, and are therefore only found on coral reefs. Their abundance and diversity are directly related to the health of the reef. As such, they are excellent indicator species for assessing the health of the reef.
I registered my village to do the count, went around the village promoting the idea, and then found a boat owner who was willing to take me. I then bought four gallons of outboard Premix fuel and came to the village early on Saturday to see who wanted to go. I really didn't have too many people committed to going beforehand, but on Saturday morning I got a pretty big group of people who decided to go at the last minute. A lot of people brought spear guns and fishing line. I asked them to not fish for the 30 minutes it took to do the count, after which we could fish to our heart's content.
Some of the people I went out with really seemed to enjoy identifying the fish. Just observing the reef without trying to harvest something from it was probably a new thing for them. When I collected the dive slates I saw a lot of wacky results. A lot of fish were marked that I'm sure were not there. Despite this, I feel the activity was a success.
I have been fishing several times in Fiji so far, but this trip was the first time I had ever used a speargun. Conservationist that I am, I have to admit that it was freakin' fun. I killed a couple of snappers (kabatia) and one lobster (urau). On the reef I saw a 4ft long nurse shark (qio), which I did not even think about shooting, as well as a few blue-spotted stingrays (vai), which I really did not even think about shooting.
Fijians have always used the reef for sustanence, so I had no problem taking them out on an educational trip and then killing a bunch of fish with them. I am hoping to use my two years here to help them realize that they can get more from their reefs if they practice a bit of restraint, for example by establishing Marine Protected Areas and obeying catch limits. As it is, the villagers will kill pretty much any fish they see whether it is a juvenile or adult, fish on all parts of the reef, and catch any sea turtle they see.
I think my village was actually the only one to register for this event- all other participants were resorts. I have told some of the other environmental volunteers about this activity, so hopefully they can get their villages to do it next year.

Fire!

We have learned in our six short months in this country that Fiji's national past time is not Rugby but burning stuff. The people of Fiji, young and old alike, will burn just about anything. They burn trash, sugar cane, cassava, mangroves, over-grown grassy areas......the list goes on. So last week John and I were not surprised to wake to the smell of burning plastic or as I like to refer to it, "the smell of cancer." What was surprising is where the smell was coming from and who was responsible for it. We looked toward the smoke and noticed that the fire was coming from the Methodist Mission School just above us and that the school children were tending to the fire. It was Monday morning at 8:00; school was in session. John marched up the hill to inform the head-master about the fire. As John spoke to the teacher he learned that the children did not start the fire for fun but rather at the request of one of the other teachers.....it was cleaning day! John then proceeded to tell the head-master about the dangers of burning plastic and how you should NEVER burn anything, especially plastic with children around. The response was, "Oh, yes, yes, yes, burning plastic is very bad, these are naughty children." John did not argue the point that the children were instructed to burn but simply proceeded to dump a bucket of water on the melting "Twisties" wrappers.

About two hours later we hear the second fire before we can even smell it. This time it is on the other side of the school even closer to our house. This looks to be a trash fire that has grown out of control. In fact, this second fire was coming down the hill toward our house! I ran up the hill to find a swarm of school children swatting at the overgrown fire.....not an adult in sight. I yelled at the children, "who started this fire? why are you by yourselves? where is the head-master?" The children stopped, looked at me for a second and then turned back to the fire, swatting at it with tree branches. I ran back to the house and started filling our laundry buckets with water. Some of the children followed me and grabbed the buckets. These kids were fire-control experts apparently......they too knew that water was needed. Soon all of the children on top of the hill were in our yard waiting to fill a bucket of water. I had just finished washing laundry......there were my panties dangling over the heads of the little school boys. Embarrassed, I ran around pulling panties and bras off the line.

Stop for a minute and get yourself a mental picture of this: sweating school boys running all around our yard frantically with me darting between them with an overflowing armful of intimate-ware pulling my remaining unmentionables from the line. I was bright red!

What was craziest about this whole experience was that the children were not in panic, they were having a great time, they were laughing. Soon I see John appear at the top of the hill with the head-mater. John is pointing at the fire and then at the house. The fire truck finally shows up and soaks the area. John trots down the hill and informs me that it was again the "naughty children" who started the fire. We both know they were again instructed to start the fire by another teacher.

That is not the end of the excitement though....just as we are leaving the house we hear it again. The fire is back up and burning. Again it is coming to our house. John has the fire department on speed-dial. They show up in no time and again put out the fire. This time the fire-marshal is pissed. I rarely see Fijians pissed so I kept my distance. Needless to say, John arranged for us to speak to the students and teachers at next week's assembly. The topic of our discussion: proper trash disposal (translation: don't burn your shit at school!)

The Big Day

So this is it, the final stretch. It is Wednesday, Nov. 5th, the US election results start coming in today at 11:00 am Fiji time. John, myself and some of the other Ra volunteers are going to a local hotel to watch as the polls close in the states (6:00 pm eastern time, Tuesday, Nov. 4th). Now a moment of silence for our respective candidates.........may the best man win!