Close of service and things to come

April is quickly coming to a close. It is amazing how fast time is flying! My bro will be here in one week!!!

Early in the month I started my dance classes with the women in the village. I originally planned to run one session a week, thinking that would be what the women would want, but it turns out they want to dance every day. So, as a compromise, because I have other commitments in town, we train three days a week. The average turn out for the dance classes is about 12 women (plus way too many children). The average age of the women who participate is 35 (we have a few teenagers and a few grandmas who really skew the average). It is great to see the young women and the older, distinguished, maramas come together and have such a good time. It is hard to hear the music above all of the laughing. The men in the village thank me on a regular basis, saying that their wives and mothers are feeling better. I cannot take credit for the success of this project. The women in my village asked me to start a class because Lydia (a volunteer across the bay) had started a class in her village. She started a trend in Ra. Natalie (aka Nuper) is starting a training class in her village on Monday. Also, the two villages that neighbor ours want me to come and give classes with them. Lydia should be super proud of herself and her village for setting such a positive example!

Yoga to help stretch before dancing.

Tae Bo kicks.

John and I recently spent a week in Pacific Harbor for our COS training. The training focused on preparing volunteers for life back in the States. We fine-tuned our resumes, received our exit dates, gave organizational feedback, and talked about dealing with reverse culture shock. The conference was full of very useful information. The most exhausting session was the feedback session. Our group has been very unhappy with the office for a while now so there was a lot of feedback and requests for clarifications and policy changes. The session was handled professionally but it took two hours. When we were not in session we enjoyed the luxury of The Pearl Resort. We swam in the pool, did beach-side yoga, dressed as pirates at a bonfire and used the media room as our own private Rubrics Cube party location. It was a bittersweet week: hanging out as a group again was wonderful but saying goodbye (for good in many situations) was very difficult. I did not realise what great friends John and I would make in these two years.

Peace Corps Fiji 2008 -2010

The day after arriving back from Pacific Harbor I started the final round of beekeeping and small business sessions for my service. The trainings are two days long with a mix of technical beekeeping skills, personal finance, business finance and basic concepts in small business. The first two trainings went really well, in fact we had over 40 participants at the Namara training....our biggest group yet! The first training was in Narewa village, on the Western side of Ra. The training came at the perfect time as our beekeeping equipment, purchased with the PCPP funds, arrived from America on Monday! The potential beekeepers of Narewa village were the first to use the bee suits on Monday afternoon. The handing over ceremony for the equipment is this next Monday, April, 26th.

Me teaching personal finance in Namara village in the interior of Ra.

Finally, John and I have confirmed our schedule for our travels after we complete our Peace Corps service. We are going to spend four months in South East Asia: Hong Kong, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysian Borneo, and Bali. We plan to return to Oregon on November 12, 2010. From there we will visit John's family in Phoenix for Christmas and our Dallas friends for New Years. Mark your calendars.....the 2010 holidays are going to ROCK!