Sa oti!

Leslie and I just moved out of the village for good. It was an emotional time for all involved, with people giving gifts, women crying, and endless speeches. We received several small pandanus mats from various people in the village as well as a few quirky souviners. A few days before we were scheduled to leave the village a group of Australians arrived in the village. They were a group of gap-year students who were doing some sort of church program and were spending one month in Fiji. This annoyed us a bit at first since we felt that this would take away from our last week in the village in some way. The aussies ended up being really friendly and were eager to learn everything they could about our experience in the village. As part of their project they distributed bibles and conducted bible studies with the kids. Now, if you ask me, conducting bible classes in Fiji is a bit like importing coconuts to the country. Fijian villagers spend probably around 20hrs a week doing something church related. It seemed, however, that the visitors were promoting a more liberal and peaceful interpretation of the bible than that provided by the local pastor so I encouraged them.

Two weeks before our departure, we had another visitor to the village- a Fiji One news reporter. Fiji One, the major network in Fiji, decided to do a 30 minute special on the Peace Corps. They attended a training with the FRE 8 volunteers in Nausori, and visited our village as well as another one across the bay. Ruth, our Country Director, called us up a few days before the visit to see if the reporters could come to our village. Leslie ended up rescheduling a candle-making training so that it would coincide with the visit. The special turned out nicely in my opinion. They showed some good footage of the candle making process and interviewed Leslie and me for about 5 minutes each. My only criticism was that they didn't interview any villagers to see what their opinion of the Peace Corps was. The special was aired on July 4 at 6:30 pm local time. I doubt it's available online but we will try to secure a DVD of the program for the people back home.

July 4, by the way, was quite a fun day for all us volunteers in Ra. John and Judy had a barbecue for all the volunteers in the area. I went on my last snorkeling trip in Fiji in the morning that day. The weather was cold and very windy, so it definitely wasn't the best snorkeling trip I've ever been on. The food was excellent though, and the booze...well... plentiful.

I apologize for this stream-of-consciousness post, but my mention of my last snorkeling trip reminds me of another noteworthy event. About a month ago Leslie and I went out on John and Judy's new boat. They had just bought a beautiful 19ft, 40hp aluminum boat and wanted to test it out on the local waters. We went to one of the small reefs east of Nananu i Ra island for some snorkeling and fishing. I brought along John Caldeira's spear, which was a hawaiin-sling type, to do some spear fishing. I speared three small parrotfish and was in the process of putting a stringer through their gills in order to hold on to them when I noticed two white tip reef sharks circling me. Now, I'm used to swimming with sharks and being near them in the water usually doesn't faze me, but because of the speared parrotfish there was quite a bit of blood in the water. It was clear that the sharks were not just swimming around randomly but were interested in the fish I had. A few times they swam to within a few feet of me and I had to chase them off with my spear. I made a point of holding the stringer of fish as far away from my body as possible. I didn't think they would attack me, but I didn't want the fish to drift against my leg where it might get included in the meal along with the fish. I started swimming towards the boat. The current was behind me, pushing the stringer of fish out in front of me so I could see it. One of the sharks swam beneath me by about 10 feet, disappeared into the blue water in front of me. It then turned around and made a beeline for me. It bit onto one of the parrotfish (about 3 feet in front of my face), ripped it off with a vigorous head shake, and swallowed it in a few gulps. It circled around to get another, but this time my predatory instincts took over. These were MY fish damnit! I shook the spear in the sharks face and scared it away. I quickly swam towards the boat, threw the fish on board and jumped into the boat myself.

On that note I think Leslie and I will end this blog. We are now in Suva doing our COS (Close of service) paperwork, and will be flying to Hong Kong on the 17th. I don't think we will be updating this blog while we are travelling since Leslie frequently posts pictures and stories to Facebook, and almost everyone we know seems to be on that now. Leslie may have something else to say, but now it's time for me to say Moce Mada.