Leslie & John in Fiji

The End in Pictures

2010-07-13T15:18:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it is the end. Here are the pictures from our last few months in Ra. The pictures are ordered from most recent to oldest.

Enjoy!

Washing clothes in our shower/toilet for the last time!!!

Receiving my farewell gift from the Business Incubation Center.

The Namuaimada village clean-up crew.

Children helping at the beach clean-up.

Dirty child cleaning up the dirty, Namuaimada beach.

The parade to celebrate Rakiraki becoming a town on July 1, 2010.

Candles made in Namuaimada village.

Taking out the first candle. Me and Sai.

Showing the women how to thread the wicks through the candle molds.

The first angel from the Nagoro training.

The training group in Nagoro posing with the days work.

Sa oti!

2010-07-11T15:06:00.000-07:00

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.

A Month to Go

2010-06-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

John and I are wrapping up our work here on the rock. As of today we have one month left in our village. Even with such a short amount of time left we are finding plenty of work to keep us busy.

The Ministry of Fisheries is coming to the village to do a Marine Protected Area workshop. This workshop will educate villagers on Marine Monitoring and discuss the rights and responsibilities of the village in regards the "tabu" they placed last month. John has been working to organize this training for months now.

I have completed my first candle making training with the PCPP purchased, beekeeping equipment I ordered from the States. The training was last weekend as was held in Rakiraki town. The majority of the participants were Indo-Fijian women, the same individuals I worked with in the very beginning of my service. It was wonderful to see all of them again. The women loved the angel mold and everyone got to take one home. The next candle making training is TBD but will be held in my village in conjunction with a small business workshop.

I am continuing with aerobics classes in the village. We now hold the classes outside on the "rara" or community green area. All of the kids in the village join us which is usually okay, although sometimes they drive me crazy and I have to chase them away. It is fun to have everyone together to dance for an hour, especially since dancing is usually "tabu" in our village. In addition to dance classes I am also running every morning (it has finally cooled down!) to get ready for SE Asia. I am trying to get into the habit so John and I can stay in shape while traveling for four months. This week we started an 8 km route.

The first of many farewell dinners took place last week. It was at my old counterpart's house in town. I started my work in Fiji with her and her women's group. When John and I moved to the village I made a point to try to work with them as much as possible. Their group is the only successful beekeeping women's group in Ra. They are doing great! I will have a farewell lunch with the whole women's group at the end of June which I am really looking forward to. I have another farewell lunch this Saturday at one of the communities I wrote a Rotary water grant for. They project was funded and completed this year. Our village farewell is on the 10th of July. They have already made it clear that they will not let us sleep, that we must drink grog with them all night. We'll see if that actually happens....I am going to fight it. After two years I still hate grog!

Busy, busy, busy.

Advanced Open Water in Leleluvia

2010-05-07T16:05:00.000-07:00

So Leslie's brother, Matt, and his girlfriend, Kristen, are in Fiji right now. They arrived May 1. We had been looking forward to their visit for a while since they are the last visitors we anticipate having before leaving the country. Matt, Kristen and I just returned from a trip to Leleluvia island for a PADI Advanced Open Water Course. Leslie was planning on coming as well but she was stricken by a horrible illness, the details of which I probably shouldn't post on this blog. So Leslie was stuck in Suva while the three of us were enjoying fantastic diving off Leleluvia. The Advanced Open Water course was, in my opinion, a bit of a joke since we really didn't learn any new skills, but the dives were a lot of fun. The best dive, by far, was a site known as "The Market". We saw at least 6 or 7 white tipped reef sharks, a grey reef shark, a hawksbill sea turtle, and a group of about 5 massive bumphead parrotfish. This was the first time I had seen bumphead parrotfish as they are highly endangered. Matt an Kristen seemed to really enjoy the dives.
I am hoping to take Matt out on the Dadakulaci (my boat) but the wind has picked up considerably in the past week so we may not be able to.
I don't know if Leslie mentioned this in her last post, but we have a definite date for Close of Service (July 14) and have already bought our tickets to Southeast Asia. The plan is to travel for about 4 months to Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia before heading back home. We are going to visit Phoenix, Portland, and Dallas when we return to the U.S. so we should be able to visit most of our friends and family.
Here are a few fish pictures I took during the dives:

Freckled Hawkfish

Regal Anglefish

White spotted Grouper

Close of service and things to come

2010-04-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

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!

Booty Shakin' Good Time

2010-04-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

So this post is a long time coming. There was not much to report after returning from New Zealand. Other than cyclone Thomas that spared most of Fiji and my mysterious sickness. The first half of March was pretty uneventful.

Update on the sickness: I am pretty sure my respiratory issues were caused by a food allergy. I have now been on a restricted diet for two weeks (of six total). I cannot eat wheat, dairy, meat, sugar or salt. I have been devouring beans, nuts, fruits and veggies. Thank goodness it is avocado season! The diet is not as restrictive as it sounds and the best part is that I feel much better. I have a family history of wheat allergies so I am pretty sure that wheat is the culprit.

Now onto more interesting news. At the end of March John and I traveled to Leleuvia Island off the Eastern coast of Viti Levu. Since our last trip to Leleuvia management has let things go a bit. The food was not as good as I remembered (could have been the diet) and the dorms seemed run down. The weather did not want to cooperate either, it rained every day. We still had a great time though. Four of the Suva volunteers joined us on Saturday. Mid-morning on Saturday we went for a SWEET dive and saw 12 sharks, 3 turtles, a Napoleon Wrasse, and beautiful Gargonian Fans. It was one of my favorite dives in Fiji. The dive totally made up for what the resort lacked. The snorkeling is also great just off the beach. John saw a bunch of Eagle Rays and some huge fish while snorkeling. We are planning to return to Leleuvia in May to complete our Advanced Diver Certification.

I have started a Dance/Jazzercise/Tae Bo/Yoga fusion class with the women in the village. Last night was the first class and it was a big hit. There were about 15 - 20 women and girls in attendance (even my Bubu came!). By the end of class everyone was sweaty and happy...yay for endorphins! I used my American Heart Association donated pedometers so the women could count their steps and figure out how many calories then spent (roughly). Before each class I present five foods and their nutritional content so that the women can also see how many calories they consume.

Yesterday was a busy day. In addition to dance fusion, I also went to Lautoka with my counterpart from the Business Incubation Center to pick up our beekeeping training equipment from customs. To our disappointment we were not able to pick up the equipment. Turns out there is a TON of paperwork you have to fill out in order to clear $4,000 FJD in goods from customs. Peace Corps is currently helping me process that paperwork so I don't have to pay import duties. We should receive the equipment by next week. This is perfect timing as we start the final round of beekeeping trainings on April 19th.

Finally, our village has an "official" marine tabu (MPA). It took a year-and-a-half to get to this point but it finally happened. We had a bose va koro (village meeting) on Tuesday and the tabu was voted in unanimously. John is excited to bring out FLEMA and the Ministry of Fisheries to train the village. Hopefully the UNDP grant will also come through to help with the tabu. John is crossing his fingers on that one.

Next week is our Close of Service Conference (COS) in Pacific Harbor. All of the FRE 6 volunteers will be there. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone. We are planning some fun, after session activities including the Rubrics Cube game and Pirate dress up.

New Zealand in Picutres

2010-03-04T13:04:00.001-08:00

On the ferry to Waiheke Island.

Crazy dancing skeleton at SPLORE.

Dancing at the mainstage.

Craters of the Moon.

Cliffs near Napier.

Excited to Luge in Queenstown.

Miter Peak in Milfor Sound.

Snow and rocks.

Looking up at the mountains.

The valley crated by the Fiordland glaciers.

Kiwi Adventure

2010-02-28T16:11:00.000-08:00

We are on our third and final week in New Zealand. Leslie and I just finished a three day hike on the famous Kepler track in Fiordland National Park. The hike started just outside of the town of Te Anau before circling Te Anau Lake and climbing high into the mountains. The weather was colder and wetter than we expected. It is, after all, the hottest month of the year in New Zealand, but we were still shivering at various points along the trail. We had planned on spending three nights in the wilderness but ended up booking it yesterday in order to make it back to the trailhead a day early. We are currently waiting out a rainstorm in Te Anau.

Before coming down to the South Island Leslie and I spent about a week and a half traveling around the North Island. We rented a car along with Lydia and Natalie, two other Peace Corps volunteers. Our first stop was Taupo, located on a massive lake right in the middle of the North Island. We ended up staying with a couple of really cool guys, Chris and Mike, who frequently host travelers through the Couchsurfing site. In Taupo we did a bit of hiking, hit some golf balls into the lake- a tourist activity, you win $10,000 if you make a hole in one, and browsed through the many outdoor stores. About one in every three shops in New Zealand is an outdoor supply store, and they are all extremely expensive.

After Taupo we headed to Napier where we did some wine tasting and a bit of hiking. It was significantly drier on that side of the island, which makes sense for a wine-growing region. After Napier we drove all day to make it back to the north part of the island where a music festival was about to start. We stopped again just outside of Taupo to hike Craters of the Moon national monument, a park full of boiling mud holes, geysers, and all sorts of geothermal activity. We spent the night in Thames on the Coromandel penninsula. The next day we arrived SPLORE, the three day music festival that was being held just outside the town of Orere. Everyone attending the event had to camp, so a massive grassy field turned into tent city in a matter of hours. It was a bit chaotic, all these tents literally inches from each other. The atmosphere was extremely relaxed and friendly, though, and we all had a good time. The music was mostly electronic- some rap and some techno. It wasn't exactly the sort of music I would choose to listen too on my own, but it was exciting to feel the energy of the crowd at the mainstage. At the end of the festival we were all pretty tired and dusty. Natalie and Lydia flew back to Fiji after the festival was over, but Leslie and I still had two weeks of travel time. We took the ferry to Waiheke island where Graeme, a friend of ours whom we randomly met in our village in Fiji, was living. We spent a couple of very chill days hanging out on the island, doing some fishing, eating some great Argentinian food courtesy of his roomates, and even skinny dipping at a nude beach! The weather was warm and dry, just what we needed before heading down to cold rainy Fiordland National Park.

We've got about another week here before returning to Fiji. I'll post some pictures when I get the chance. Leslie is currently posting some photos on Facebook.

Talking Business (and Coral)

2010-02-13T13:53:00.000-08:00

John and I just returned from a very busy and productive week in Suva.

John participated in a free workshop on Coral Identification at the University of the South Pacific. The workshop was four days long and included two snorkeling sessions. The training was designed to test a new scientific manual focused on coral identification. John's fellow trainees were Marine Biology professionals, students, and independent researchers....so he got to meet a lot of people just like him!

I was in Suva to co-facilitate an Alternative Livelihood training for Peace Corps volunteers and their community partners. There were twenty four participants from all over Fiji. John Caldeira and I designed the training based on our experiences in Ra. We incorporated a lot of the same materials and lessons that we have used to train beekeepers in business management. The first day of the training covered brainstorming and developing business ideas into financially viable business opportunities. The second day focused on business plan development, while the third covered basic bookkeeping. Each of the participant groups left the training with a financial plan and business plan for their communities. The businesses developed in the training ranged from bread kitchens and piggeries to coffin boxes and virgin coconut oil. John C. and I had a great time facilitating the training and learned a lot about the different Peace Corps projects going on in Fiji. To unwind after the training I joined the rest of the volunteers in Suva for a night of dancing. I had a little trouble getting into to one of our favorite dance clubs because the bouncer decided to be mean to me - he wouldn't let me bring my empty water bottle in! As an apology the manager gave me a pitcher of pink-colored booze! Score! All-in-all a pretty good week :)

Tomorrow John and I leave for New Zealand for a three-week vacation. Updates and pictures to come.

Making History

2010-02-03T14:06:00.000-08:00

So according to the Fijians in Ra, the Peace Corps Volunteers (+ one visitor) in this region made history last month by swimming across Viti Levu bay! The swim was exactly two miles. We paddled John's outrigger to a small beach on the other side of the bay where five of the volunteers met us. Once we were all assembled we swam to the other side. We swam in two groups of three. Each group had a boat spotter, the boats carried life jackets, water and sunscreen....better safe than sorry. Lydia and I made the swim in one hour and thirty minutes, with John coming in just behind us. The other three volunteers finished in two hours and forty minutes as they decided to chat for most of the swim :)

Here are a few pictures from the swim.

The Ra Group (from Left: Joe/spotter, Lisa/spotter, Victoria/spotter, Natalie/swimmer, Lydia/swimmer, Me/swimmer, Kara/swimmer, Choney/swimmer, John/spotter. The low, grassy hill across the bay was the point we swam to.

Still got the form :)

John spotting me from his kayak (note the extra life jackets strapped to his kayak).

I have started writing the Fiji Beekeeper's Handbook. I have finished the first draft of part one. I am hoping to have the book finished in a few months. John (Caldeira, not husband) and I are preparing for the Alternative Livelihood training we are leading for Peace Corps next week. We are using the same format for this training that we used in April for the beekeepers. Hopefully the Peace Corps Volunteers and their community partners will find the information useful and at least remotely interesting. It is hard to make bookkeeping fun....but John and I are sure going to try. While we are facilitating the business training John (husband) will be attending a workshop at USP (University of the South Pacific) on Coral Identification. He is attending the advanced session. He is really excited because the training includes a free dive. I am a bit jealous.

Two days after our respective trainings John and I head to New Zealand for a 20 day adventure. I can't wait to get out of this heat!

Ask and you shall receive!

2010-01-20T17:21:00.000-08:00

I asked for life in the village to start moving again and it is....a bit too fast though! This always happens, I will have no work and be dying of boredom for one week and the next week I won't have a minute to catch my breath.

The village has decided to try to organize another clean up. They scheduled it for a day that I will be in Suva working. The villagers also placed a tabu (no fishing zone) on the reef in front of the village. John has been trying to get them to agree on this for a year now and they just decided Tuesday at a meeting. John has completed his proposal for funding from the UNDP Small Grants Fund to help train the village in maintaining and properly marking the tabu. He should receive the funding in the next few months. A portion of the fund will also go to alternative livelihood projects, specifically beekeeping development. This helps me!

My PCPP (Peace Corps Partnership Program) is completely funded as of last week! Right before Christmas I received a large donation from Friends of Fiji, a group of returned Peace Corps Volunteers who served in Fiji. While the remainder of the funding came from the North Texas Peace Corps Association, a group of returned Peace Corps Volunteers who served all over the world but live in Texas (yay Texas!!!). I am so excited to move forward with this project. Next step is to place a large order for beekeeping equipment from Mann Lake Ltd. Then we will catalogue the equipment and it will be managed by the Business Incubation Center and the Ministry of Women. We should then have three series of trainings (1 business and 2 technical) before John and I close our service. A lot of the trainings planned out in my project timeline have already taken place, so the majority of our work is behind us.

Next week I will be in Suva writing a beekeeping handbook for Fiji that will be translated into Fijian and Hindustani. I will also be meeting with customs concerning my Mann Lake order. Finally I will be preparing materials for the Alternative Livelihood training that John C. and I are facilitating in February for Peace Corps Volunteers and their counterparts. Busy, busy, busy. Praise Jisu!!!

Wawa Mada

2010-01-15T17:25:00.000-08:00

One of the things John and I have mastered in this country is the art of waiting. We are smart to wait for all sorts of things: buses, the water to come back on, the electricity to come back on, the tide to rise, mail, meetings to start, meetings to be rescheduled, night to fall, etc. Currently we are waiting for life to start moving again. Everything stops during the Christmas/New Year's season, meaning that life in Fiji is even slower than usual. No meetings are taking place, many offices are still closed and school is still out.

Villagers spend this time visiting with family and friends. Kids are sent to visit grandparents and other relatives. There are always new faces in the village now. As these faces are new to John and me, so too are our faces new to the visitors. As a result, almost every day there is a pack of children in front of our house staring in at us. Usually one of the kids from our village is their escort. I imagine that the kids from our village are saying to their cousins, "Hey, come check-out our white people!" I thought we were passed this!

There are many other behavior changes that I have observed in the village during this holiday season (side note: we did not live in the village at this time last year). 1. Villagers are allowed to make noise, a lot of it! Every night since Christmas the youth have been shooting bamboo guns (same concept as the potato gun, except the point is just to make a loud noise). I was telling one of them about how in America we have the potato gun. He was shocked that we would shoot a potato out of pvc pipe instead of eat it....."Americans are wasteful" was my response. 2. Young people in the village openly drink alcohol and roam around the village drunk. They drink methylated spirits, i.e. rubbing alcohol (for the poor youth this is the preferred alcoholic beverage). John has explained the health risks of drinking rubbing alcohol. The argument he gets back is...."yes, yes, but Jone it is the holiday and we are young". 3. The village is one big water fight! Maramas, turagas, gones, and youth alike wield make-shift water guns (usually just pots filled with water) and are allowed to soak anyone in their path!

I have enjoyed being in the village for all of this, it is very different from our experience last year. However, I am ready for life to go back to normal. John and I only have six months left in Fiji and we still have so many things we (and the village) would like to accomplish.

While this may seem contradictory to what I just mentioned in terms of getting stuff accomplished in the village, John and I just bought tickets to New Zealand!!! We will be there from Feb 15 - Mar 6. It turns out three other PCV's will be there for part of that time as well. We are all going to meet up at SPLORE, an outdoor arts and music festival near Auckland. In addition to SPLORE, John and I have made reservations for a three-day 60 km hike in the South island.

Christmas/ New Years

2010-01-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

Leslie and I just got back from a week and a half long whirlwind tour of coastal Viti Levu and the Lomaiviti group. Our traveling companions were Nuper (of course) and Kiva, a volunteer from Lautoka. Our travels began on December 26 since we decided to spend Christmas day in the village this year. I had my doubts about staying in the village for Christmas day since Christmas is generally a "party day" in the village, and village "party days" usually involve sitting around motionless and drinking buckets of grog. There were certainly people sitting around all day drinking grog, but I was lucky and found the group of people sitting around and drinking....BEER! Yay! The beer drinking actually took place just outside our village in this "nightclub" like place that is only open during Christmas. To make things even more interesting, most of the people drinking were women! In between takis (shots) of beer I would be pulled up by some marama to dance. Leslie, Kiva, and Nuper likewise were asked to dance multiple times. It's amazing how just changing the beverage being consumed can completely alter the mood of the party. Of course, grog is probably better overall for the Fijians to drink since beer is expensive and often leads to brawls. On that day, however, it made for a lively party.
The day after Christmas we waited by the main road for the bus that would take us to Korovou from which we would take a taxi to Natovi Landing, from which we would catch a boat to Naigani. While we were waiting for the bus we saw a couple of young men from the village dragging a large pig by its hindlegs. The pig was squealing loudly and bucking its head violently in an effort to rip someone's kneecaps out. I moved in to watch closely. About three guys held the pig down. They all seemed nervous while doing this, probably because the animal's three-inch long yellow fangs could easily do some serious damage. Once they had the pig immobilized, Dan, the matador for the day, pulled out a twelve-inch knife and sank it between its ribs. You can't imagine the terrible scream that came out of the animal. I couldn't believe what happened next: Dan drew the large knife in and out thus enlarging the wound in the pig's chest. He then plunged his hand into the opening and twisted it's heart to kill it! Altogether the slaughter took about two minutes, even though it seemed like a long time - to me and certainly to the pig. Talking to other volunteers it seems that this is a unique way to kill pigs. Most villages slit the throat or bash the head in. From what I hear, these are much quicker ways to get the job done. Nuper, Kiva and I enjoyed the opportunity to witness the pig slaughter, it was after-all a cultural experience, but Leslie was not amused. She sat on the side of the road, ears covered, eyes closed, rocking back and fourth. What a wimp!
The bus ride to Korovou was quick and uneventful. The trip to Natovi Landing ended up taking most of the day, however. According to the people in town there was a bus that regularly came through Korovou on its way to Natovi Landing. Though we ended up waiting about two and a half hours in town, the bus was constantly " about 15 to 20 minutes away" the entire time. Eventually, we broke down and hired a taxi to the landing. At the landing we waited for another hour and a half for the Naigani boat to leave. A group of Australian tourists who had rooms booked on Naigani were driving around Viti Levu hopelessly lost, making our boat late.
Naigani island ended up being well worth the effort it took to get there. The island itself was beautiful- hilly and mostly forested- and the snorkeling was phenomenal. The only place I have experienced better near-shore snorkeling was in Waitabu, Taveuni. We saw sharks, sea turtles, Napoleon wrasse, blue spotted ribbontail rays, and a whole mess of other fish. I'd list the species but I think that would be boring for the non-fish dork. We affectionately titled Naigani, "fat camp" because we started each day with yoga (lead by Leslie) and then proceeded to snorkel the rest of the day. We were also forced to eat from the resort's meal-plan which did not satiate our Peace Corps size appetites.
After Naigani it was Levuka, the old capital of Fiji. This was the one place on the trip that was unequivocally boring. We were there for a public holiday and literally everything was closed. Ovalau is a nice enough looking island, but there really isn't a whole lot that makes it different from Viti Levu. We decided that one night in Ovalau was enough. We could now check it off our list and head back to Viti Levu.
Transport to and from Ovalau is a bit tricky. There is only one scheduled ferry, which leaves Viti Levu at 10:00am for Levuka and leaves Levuka for Viti Levu at 6:00am the next day. We had no desire to get up this early in the morning and load onto a slow and crowded ferry so we looked into other options. We ended up finding a village boat that would take us from Rukuruku on the West side of Ovalau back to Natovi Landing in the afternoon for LESS than the price of the ferry. This was almost too good to be true. All of us had our life jackets so we had no qualms about taking a small boat across the relatively calm strait between Ovalau and Viti Levu. The boat ride was fast and scenic- way better than chugging along in a big ferry. We had even more good luck when we arrived in Natovi Landing and found a taxi driver who was planning on driving back to Suva. We paid him what bus fare would have been and enjoyed fast, private transport all the way back to the Peace Corps office. It was a day of easy transportation....a Christmas miracle!
We relaxed for the rest of that day and most of the next in Suva and then proceeded to Club Coral Coast in Pacific Harbour. The next day (New Year's Eve) was the highlight of the entire trip...the SHARK DIVE! Steve, a volunteer from the coral coast joined us for this, making us a group of five. We had managed to get a discount rate on this dive from Beqa Adventure Divers. The dive takes place inside a Marine Protected Area owned by Beqa island. The Dive company has been chumming this site with dead fish for years to attract big fish. When we got in the water we couldn't believe the abundance of large predatory fish we saw. At times it seemed the water was just a churning mass of teeth and scales. The giant trevallys and the red snappers were the first on the scene. On the outskirts of the feeding frenzy were smaller fish species like scissortail sergents and ruddy fusilers. After a few minutes the sharks came. We saw bullsharks, blacktip reef sharks, whitetip reef sharks, and grey reef sharks. When the big sharks would circle around and come in to feed the smaller fish would quickly dart out of the way. There were times when I swear I could feel the vibrations through the water. Unfortunately, the tiger shark that sometimes appears on these dives did not show up. We did see a giant grouper, which was larger than any of the sharks and is probably the largest fish I have seen to date. The thing was at least 12 feet long and sat lazily on the bottom the entire time. Sarah Taylor, another Peace Corps volunteer, was kind enough to let us take her underwater camera on the dive. Unfortunately I do not have the pictures with me right now, but I will post them as soon as I get ahold of them.
After the dive we loaded back into a bus for the short trip to the Beachhouse, near Sigatoka. Here, we were met by a group of about ten other volunteers who had come to have a new years celebration. I can't really talk too much about this night since this is a public blog. Let's just say that Peace Corps volunteers know how to have a fun (AND SAFE!) time.
That ends our last Christmas and New Year in Fiji. 2010 is the year we return to the land of unemployment. Yippee.

Swim to the top of Fiji

2009-12-12T15:35:00.001-08:00

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 Mick 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

2009-12-04T14:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-10-08T15:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-09-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

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.

Busy as a bee

2009-08-07T18:15:00.001-07:00

It is August! That means so many things for John and me: 1.) We have been at our site for a full year, 2.) I have completed phase 2 of my Beekeeping Development Project focused on Small Business training for beekeepers, 3.) my water projects in the Indo-Fijian settlements are finished 4.) John and I have received funding for a water project in our village (funded by Rotary Pacific Water for Life) and construction of the new pipeline begins this month, 5.) and finally, we are taking our first real vacation.....we are going to AUSTRALIA!!!

I am excited to have finished my business trainings. This was a first for me; I had never before taught adults. The trainings were organized by the Business Incubation Center in Rakiraki town. I facilitated the training with John Caldeira, a friend and retired Peace Corps Volunteer who lives here in Fiji. My role in the training was to teach the "Managing Your Money" portion of the training. This section of training focused on personal finance, goal setting, prioritising, and saving. Day two of the business training focused on Business Finance. John taught the majority of this training section. John and I planned the training to be as interactive as possible. Participants completed income and expense worksheets, wrote up a personal savings plan, put together a financial plan for a business and participated in a few small games. In total the training reached six communities (5 villages and 1 settlement) in six different tikinas (districts) and over 120 participants. I like to think that the participants enjoyed the training and learned something useful.

The water project in our village was a surprise. We did not think that it would ever happen due to lack of funding. The issue in the village is that many faucets are broken and constantly leak causing low pressure for the village. In addition, the pipe bringing water to our village is shared by three other villages, one of which operates a fish pond. As a result, very few houses in the village are allowed to have taps, while the ones that do have inadequate pressure. There are no shower heads in the village and no sinks. All taps are low to the the ground so dish washing, clothes washing and showering is done using a series of buckets while in the squat position. The village planned a soli (fundraiser) for new piping, only serving our village, and to fix the broken taps. As we guessed, the soli had a low turn-out and did not raise the required funds. John and I were very disappointed by this but not surprised. The only fundraisers that raise significant funds in the village are for the Methodist Church. Well, the day after the soli I attended the grand opening of my water project in the Volivoli settlement. After the ceremony, trying my luck, I asked the director of Rotary Pacific Water for Life if she could help us, telling here that we are about 6K short of our goal. To my delight and surprise, she answered that she would be happy fund the remainder of the project. Construction is set to begin in the next few weeks and should be complete upon our return from Australia.

These last few months have been busy with visitors and projects. Now, it is time for a break, Australia here we come!!!

Leonards visit

2009-07-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

Just about a month after Leslie's parents returned to America, my parents along with Kelly, my sister, arrived in Fiji. They stayed at Volivoli Beach Resort most of the time and did some diving. Kelly actually completed her scuba certification here, so she got to go on her first dives in Fiji. The weather literally couldn't have been better the whole time they were here. The wind which had been blowing nonstop for the past few months let up a bit while they were here. We went on some great dives. On one of the dives we managed to see six sharks!
We left the Ra area for a few days to see a few other parts of Fiji. My parents, Leslie, Kelly and I all piled into the Rav-4 rental and headed down to the Suva area for a few days. We spent the first night at Raintree Lodge and went for a long hike in Colo i' Suva park the next day. I had been to Colo i' Suva park before but had not managed to find the pool with the famous ropeswing. This time we did manage to find that pool and spend some time swing off the rope into the water. At around noontime we headed to Suva for lunch, had some fish and chips, and then headed toward Pacific Harbour to do the zip line. The zip line was a lot of fun. The guys running it were really friendly to us and let us go down all the lines twice. My parents got some great pictures from it that I will have to post at some point. Both Leslie and I were sad when they left. Hopefully my brothers and her brother can save up some money and come here at some point!

Random Stories

2009-06-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

Man, we are really bad about posting. I'm in the Peace Corps Office right now so I guess I can make this a long post. A few funny things have happened this past month. None of them really have anything to do with each other, hence the title "Random Stories".

1) Vinaka Dadakulaci

So I finally went fishing at our new village. I went out all night with two other guys: Gavota and Jeremia. We motored just a couple of kilometers or so offshore, into Viti Levu bay, and dropped anchor. The last time I had been night fishing we had gone out much farther offshore. We started off fishing for salala or striped mackrel, a fairly common fish that isn't worth very much in the market but makes good bait. Once we had a few of these guys we baited the bigger hooks and waited for the big guys to bite. While I was still struggling to set my hook on time and getting my bait stolen constantly, Gavota had hauled in two massive Walu or spanish mackrel. These are some of the most sought after fish in Fiji. They have lots of meat and taste great. He had to bear hug one of them to prevent it from flopping around the boat and biting us, and jammed a knife into its brain. By about 10pm that night I had caught a good number of salala, saqa (trevally), silasila (barracuda), and qitawa (cresent banded grunter). At this point I would have been happy to head back to shore, shower off and get a good night's sleep. This is, of course, not how things are done in Fiji. Night fishing means all night. We didn't return to shore until about 7am the next day. By about 2am I was really struggling to stay awake. As my bait fell to the water I would start to doze off, only to be awakened by a fish tugging at my line. The burst of adrenelin caused by having a fish on my line would wake me up and I would pull it into the boat and repeat the process. After a while I started to realize how truly disgusting fishing can be. When you see pictures of guys on boats holding massive fish it certainly looks appealing. But the one thing you miss out on with the pictures is the smell. Fishing boats reek. By this time of night the boat was drenched in fish blood. Luckily it was a cool night otherwise the stench would have been horrendous. Towards 3 or 4am the fishing started to slow. At this time we noticed a black banded sea snake swimming towards the boat. These snakes are one of the few things Fijians do not eat. In fact, they respect them and have all sorts of superstitions about them. " Oh this is a good sign." said Jeremia "Seeing a dadakulaci like this means we'll catch lots of fish." From that point on, both Gavota and Jeremia were offering prayers to the snake to deliver us lots of fish. Sure enough, we started catching some saqa. With each fish caught, Jeremia would proclaim, " Vinaka, Dadakulaci! Vinaka na ika!" (Thank you black banded sea snake! Thank you for the fish!) Eventually the catch slowed again, but Jeremia still persisted in pleading with the snake to send us more fish: " Kerekere, Dadakulaci. Dua na Walu!" At some point Gavota let out a righteous fart to which Jeremia responded " Vinaka Dadakulaci! Vinaka na cagi!" (Thank you black banded sea snake! Thank you for the wind!)
Fijians love inside jokes, so every time Jeremia sees me he shouts, " Hey, bula Dadakulaci!" It never gets old.

2) Goosebumps

Leslie and I are doing some work with a nearby primary school. The school has a library which is in total disarray, so we volunteer once a week to help organize it. We are trying to create a system so that kids can actually check out books and take them home. I was at the school one particular wednesday, with a couple of Fijian kids helping me organize books. One of the kids, a boy also named Choney (my yaca), was alphabetizing books and came up to me with a look of terror in his eyes. He showed me the inside cover of a Goosebumps book. Inside was a warning that said "Warning: Do not under any circumstances read this book from front to back. Doing so will produce extreme terror..." or something like that. This warning, of course, is a joke merely meant to entice kids to read the entire book by giving them the idea that they are doing something dangerous or illicit. To Fijian kids, who have the utmost respect for authority, the warning label is truly terrifying. I explained the joke to the kid, but he still seemed eager to get the cursed book out of his hands as soon as possible.

3) A Ghost Story

An old man died in our village last week. We had the funeral on Saturday. On Monday Leslie and I were trying to sleep but the freaking dogs would not shut up. They were howling away like crazy that night. The best thing anyone could do for Fiji is to exterminate all the dogs. They are a horrible nuisance. Any visitor to Fiji who stays in a village or settlement will not get a minute's sleep because of these repulsive creatures. So anyway, I couldn't sleep so I grabbed my machete and headed outside to chase them away. I wasn't really planning on killing them, I just wanted to throw my machete at them. That scares them more than throwing rocks. Since it was the middle of the night I didn't feel any need to put on pants. I managed to scare away a few of them, running around in my underwear, throwing my machete at them. I noticed a few flashlights moving around. Some other people were also chasing away the dogs. When they approached me I recognized them as some of the village youth. They asked me what I was doing. I said I was trying to scare away the dogs because they were making so much noise. Marika, one of the guys whispered to me, " The dogs are barking so much because of the death last week." I remembered then that Fijians have all sorts of superstitions about ghosts and figured out that the villagers were probably attributing the dog's behavior to the presence of ghosts. " Have you been to the burial site?" he asked me. " Yeah, I was there during the funeral." " The youth are standing watch there right now." he said, " Come, we go now." Really, I thought, do we really have to go right now? Can't I put on some pants first? Something about his tone told me it would be best not to argue and to just go with him. When we got to the burial site I saw virtually every male youth from the village solemly sitting next to the grave, with a bonfire going. There was a bowl of kava on the mat beside them but nobody was drinking it. When they saw me several of them stood up and folded their arms. I glanced down at myself. There I was in my boxers with a machete in my hands. I felt ridiculous. Marika explained that I was out that night because I was trying to scare the dogs away. The guys seemed satisfied with this explanation and sat back down. On the way back Marika explained to me that when a person in a village dies the young men of that village will keep watch over the grave for five nights to make sure that no evil spirits steal the person's soul. Marika's concern, evidently, was that the ghosts would either harm me or that I would be mistaken for a ghost- running around in my underpants waving a machete around. As I went back into our house where Leslie was sleeping Marika told me, " If the dogs bark again, don't leave your house. Wait until tomorrow morning when they are sleeping and then kill them."

Leslie's Parents

2009-05-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

Leslie's parents recently came to Fiji for a two week vacation. They spent most of their time here at Volivoli Beach Resort, with a short, 4-day trip to Taveuni. It rained non-stop in Taveuni, but it was cool to see Niko, a volunteer working in an undisclosed location on the island. We really enjoyed having them here, as it gave us an escuse to spend practically every day at the beach. Leslie's dad did a couple of dives. Unfortunately he didn't see any sharks. Interestingly enough, while he was diving, I was snorkeling above him and I saw a shark! I guess they'll have to come back to Fiji now.
Not a whole lot else has been going on lately. Our work in the village has been blocked by the 1 week (3 weeks Fiji time) Methodist extravaganza going on in our village. Now that eternal salvation has been secured for every man, woman and child in the village I am hoping that we can focus a bit on more earthly matters, like sending kids to school, properly disposing of rubbish, making money etc.
I am really looking forward to seeing the new group of volunteers that will be coming in on Thursday. My request to help with training has sadly been rejected by the powers that be in Suva. It is really strange to think that my group of volunteers are now the "experienced" ones. Ha! We still don't really have this whole thing figured out. I feel I should warn any single males in the incoming Fre 7 group that the girls in my group have been scouring the internet looking for pictures of them and licking their chops lustfully. You see, my group has a high girl to guy ratio, and after a year in the bush you can imagine how desperate they can get for some fresh meat.

(Once again, this post reflects the opinions only of John Leonard and or Leslie Currie and not the U.S. government)

Work and Play

2009-05-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from a week-long trip to Suva for a Financial Literacy Training of Trainers. I was able to bring a counterpart from my village. Milika has come with me to other Peace Corps workshops but I think this by far was her favorite. Peace Corps staff and volunteer facilitators did a great job organizing and presenting the material. We practiced listing income and expenses and then moved onto setting savings goals by using a "savings calculator". After the test-run we counseled real clients from a local women's group. Thanks to the workshop Milika and I feel confident that we can help couples in our village set budgets and savings plans. We are currently working with the Chief to schedule workshops for the village.

Last week was a slow but loud week in the village due to a huge Methodist conference that was taking place. Amps were out and the talatalas were passionate. We did not get anything done .....we also got little sleep. To get away from the noise we went for a dive on Saturday morning. This was by far the best dive we have been on. We went out to the Vatu i' Ra passage. We saw six sharks and the most beautiful soft coral ever. It was wonderful! That evening we stayed with Tara and enjoyed the company of other Peace Corps volunteers.

My parents arrived on Monday, May 4th at 5 a.m. Updates on their visit coming soon.

Nananu again

2009-04-23T17:12:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be aware that there is a bit of a political situation here in Fiji right now. I probably shouldn't say exactly what the situation is- you can read all about it online- but I just wanted to let everyone know we are fine. Everything is normal in the village and we don't feel threatened in any way.

Leslie and I celebrated Easter weekend with a trip outside our village to Nananu i Ra island, our favorite nearby getaway. This is probably the third time we've been to the island. I guess we should start trying to see some other places, but it's just such a fun and laid-back place that we keep coming back.

About 13 of us met on the island, bringing all our own food and, of course, beer. Everything on the island is expensive so bringing your own is a good idea if you're on a Peace Corps budget. We went out snorkeling and fishing with our good friends John and Judy the first day there. That night we had a good time, eating Tara's and Sylvia's excellent cooking and my excellent home brew. It's called "Dr. Choney's Elixer of Love". I'm working on patenting the recipe.

The next day we all woke up a little late and a little hung-over. It didn't take long for us to rally, and before noon the entire group of us was marching through head-level grass on a cross-island trek. Leslie and I had done a similar hike with Ahndree and Nuper during the dry season. It required quite a bit of bush wacking. This time, however, it was all bush wacking. It dumped rain on us during part of the hike, we had to all cross over a barb-wire fence, and the final hike down to the beach involved plowing through a thick tangle of trees. The real element of danger was introduced when Leslie stumbled into a wasp nest and was stung 10 times. I was stung once on the leg. We scattered into the bush when this happened and very slowly made our way around the wasp nest. We were expecting to come out at a secluded beach on the North side of the island. It turned out that in walking through the woods we had veered a little to far to the South and ended up on "mile long beach". The developed beach on the island where our hotel was located. We were literally 5 minutes from the hotel.

Pictures

2009-04-03T14:45:00.001-07:00

Here is the inside of our house in the village. The picture was taken in the doorway. In the foreground is our living/dining room and behind the curtain is our bedroom. The floor is a layer of sand, covered by a layer of coconut branches, covered again by mats or ibes. Thanks to the Leonards for stocking our bookshelf! Thanks to the village maramas for ALL of the bula material.....it covers every bit of our walls!

This is the back of our house. John is the the garden doin some teitei. We planted tomatoes, beans, cucumber, mellon, cilantro and the basil that my parents sent.

This is a vasua or giant clam. I think they look funny.

These are Threadfin Cardinalfish.....according to Choney. I call them Precious Blue-Eyed Cutiefish! There are tons of these little guys!

John caught a Squirrelfish. It is so pretty......and delicious.....and filling! Doesn't Natalie look like a character from a Dr. Seuss book?

So much going on...

2009-03-25T19:43:00.000-07:00

So it is official, John and I are village volunteers. We moved into a village in Ra (the name we cannot disclose to the public) on Saturday, March 14th. We live in a small tin house. It is one room with a curtain room divider that separates our "bedroom" from our "living/dinning" room. We have an outdoor area for the kitchen, toilet and shower. The water pressure is very low in our village so we take bucket showers. In order to really feel clean, I lather up the soap and let it sit for a while before I dump water on myself. It is a very different life than the one we were living in Rakiraki town. Our house is dead-center in the village and is right next to the church. Hooray, we get to hear 5 a.m. prayer every day! Our new family is really wonderful and have made us feel very welcome. The children in the village are relatively well-behaved, though exhausting. They are just so many of them! I have befriended most of the pre-teen and teenage girls and they come to the house most nights for help with homework. The packs of half-naked 4-5 year-olds are the only children that scare me.....they truly run wild and do whatever they want. As Amy (another volunteer) warned us recently, they seem to throw rocks for no apparent reason. You can just tell, as they pass by, sticky and covered in sand, that they are up to no good. The village has been wonderful at respecting our space and giving us "alone time". This is something that many of the other volunteers have struggled with. I don't know if it is because John and I are married, but our village seems to understand our need for privacy.....to some extent......there are a few exceptions.

On a different note, I am finding myself very busy with work lately. I have started teaching a business class once a week at the Penang Sangam Vocational School. I am teaching a class of 14-19 year-old Fijian and Indo-Fijian boys. I am so thankful for my experience with Young Audiences of North Texas.....thanks to the Creative Solutions program I know how to work with adolescent boys. I really enjoy teaching. I have aligned myself with the BIC (Business Incubation Center) and NECSMED (National Center for Small and Micro Enterprise Development) so that at the end of the year each of the boys will receive a recognized certificate of "Business Training Completion". This is significant because with the certificate and the business plan I will help them write, some of the boys may be eligible for a small business loan. Aside from my teaching, I am also gearing up for my water projects in Volivoli and Nanuku. They will start in April. Additionally, in June I will be teaching Financial Management skills in various villages around Ra with honey farms. This is a program that I am doing with the BIC. I have been attending technical beekeeping trainings in the villages to get to know the people. The Financial Management portion of the training will coincide with the first honey harvest of the season. The idea is to strengthen Ra beekeepers so that their honey farms can perform as successful businesses.

John is working with FLMA (Fiji Locally Managed Marie Areas) to set up a Marine Protected area around our new village. Right now the struggle has been to get everyone involved and in favor of the idea.....this is very difficult to do in Fiji! John is also working on fixing the water pressure in the village and getting ready to organize a village trash pick-up and recycling program.

That the update for now. We will post house pictures as soon as possible. We are waiting for a sunny day (it has been dumping rain lately).

Here is Taveuni....

2009-02-15T14:28:00.001-08:00

Okay, here are our pictures from the Garden Island of Fiji. Hopefully we will have pictures from the reef monitoring workshop soon.

This is a killer reef off of the coast of Vanua Levu. I wanna get up in that!

John walking through volcanic rocks on the Costal Walk from Lavena.

Swimming to the falls outside of Lavena Village.

In the upper right-hand corner of this picture you can see me jumping off of this HUGE waterfall. It must have been at least 50 ft. high. To the left are John and Natalie.

The clouds over Viti Levu....amazing!

The Update

2009-02-13T19:37:00.000-08:00

This is going to be short.....pressed for time. John and I are back from our trip to Taviuni Island for the Reef Monitoring workshop we participated in. We had a great time with Grace, Rachel, Natalie, Nic and the local volunteers. In total we spent four days in the water practicing various reef monitoring techniques. We spent an additional day at Nic's village checking out the village-based tourism project he working on. We jumped off of a 50 ft waterfall. In fact, I was the first FRE-6 Peace Corps volunteer to take the plunge :) I still hurt from the jump. I am pretty sure Natalie will never be the same. Expect pictures and maybe even a video soon.

The big news is that we are moving to a new site. I will not go into the details of why; it is a long story. The village we are moving to is in the same province we are in now so our address will remain the same. We are still Ra Volunteers. We expect to move by the end of the month. We are excited for the move to the new village but plan to still work with our original communities until our commitments are fulfilled. John plans to complete a compost piggery for his previous village and I will complete my two water projects in the settlements.

More recent pictures

2009-01-20T19:20:00.000-08:00

These pictures are much more recent than the last batch. They range from mid November to December. This first picture was taken right before my birthday.

Woo hoo, I am now scuba certified! Not my best look, but hey, it was a good day. I finished my certification on this final dive. No sharks but still a ton of fun!

These two pictures are from two of the Indo-Fijian communities that I work with. I worked with the Social Welfare office in Rakiraki to organize a workshop for the International Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse. These pictures are from the workshop.

Our Thanksgiving feast. From front: dark-chocolate brownies, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and fried fish. Ahndree and Nuper celebrated with us.

This picture is just funny. John is grating onions for our salsa (we don't have a blender) and his solution to watery eyes was to wear his scuba mask. This IS a good look for him :)

Picture Time!

2009-01-20T18:44:00.000-08:00

Okay, first of all, sorry for taking so long to get these up. It is practically impossible to upload pictures in Rakiraki, the connection is just too slow. These pictures go all the way back to October!

This is a picture of John's friend Sikeli. During most of the year Sikeli is in the Lau group but he returned to Vitawa for the holidays! He, his wife Una and two of their sons lead us on a climb of Ulu ni' Vatu, the peak that separates Narewa and Vitawa. The hike was a lot of fun and was more like rock-scrambling than walking. In this picture Sikeli is marking our accent to the top with a nice red sulu! Vinaka Sikeli! In the distance you can see Milake Island.

This is the view of Vitawa from the top of Ulu ni' Vatu. In the distance you can see the Nakovadra range. We hope to tackle those peaks next :)

The day of Diwali Nuper, John and I went to the beach. I got super sun burned, as you can see in the picture! We spent the evening of Diwali in Nagoro, a neighborhood near Rakiraki town. My friend Sandiya invited us over for fireworks and yummy Indian treats!

To walk off all of the Fiji Gold we consumed the previous night, a group of us decided to check out Colo i' Suva Park. It was great and we would recommend that anyone passing through Suva make time for a quick hike through the park. There are multiple water-holes, waterfalls and trails to explore. There is also a rope swing somewhere.....we never found it....isa! Pictured (from the left): Amy, Nuper, Sarah, Heath, Grace and me.

This is the previous night :) Before Heath left us for the States we took him out to karaoke and dancing in Suva. I have no idea what we were singing but I can tell from this picture that it must have sounded AWESOME! Pictured (from left): Heath, Nuper, me, Sarah, and Ashley (aka Gashley)

A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall

2009-01-11T15:17:00.000-08:00

Rain, rain go away.......no wait.....come back we still don't have water! Ahh! This was our mantra during the four days we were without water or electricity in Rakiraki. A big-fat tropical depression hit Fiji on Thursday and did not let up until Sunday. I have not seen or heard rain like that in my whole life and I am from one the the rainiest states in the US. John, Natalie (aka Nuper) and I were stuck in the house during the storm. We did not even step outside the house unless we needed to take the daily rain bath. It was raining too hard to leave cover in anything other than a bathing suit. For now the rain, wind, thunder and lightening have stopped and we are in town stocking up. Another system is expected to hit on Wednesday. Peace Corps has issued a "Stand Fast" for all volunteers in Fiji. This means, stay where you are until notified that is again safe to travel. We have heard from the locals in town that this is the worst weather in over 30 years. It seems like record breaking weather is following me around the world. In Oregon we were hit with the worst snow storm since 1938.

Christmas and New Years

2009-01-01T19:24:00.000-08:00

First of all, sorry everyone for not posting in over a month. A lot of things have been going on lately, and it has been a while since we've made it to the internet cafe.
Leslie had to travel back to the states for Christmas because her grandmother recently passed away. She is sad, but told me she was happy to see her family and friends in Oregon. I am looking forward to her returning to Fiji tomorrow. As you can imagine I miss her a lot.
Since Leslie was in the U.S. for Christmas, I ended up traveling with Peace Corps volunteer Nuper, our adopted daughter in Fiji. We left on Dec. 24th on a ship called the Westerland, sailing overnight from Lautoka to Savusavu. Remembering the Peace Corps motto "Be Prepared" (or is that the boy scouts?), we smuggled a 5th of Bounty Rum onboard with us. The boat ride was 12 hours long, getting into Savusavu at 5am Christmas Day. We did not have anywhere to sleep on the boat, so we found a nice spot on the deck, poured the Bounty into a Gatorade bottle, and did our best to make the journey fun. We did a pretty good job having a good time until about midnight when we were just too damn tired. We made friends with some locals (not at all hard to do in this country), drank some kava, played a guy's guitar, and made a drinking game out of a video game on our cellphones called "snake". In the end, fatigue got us and we had to pass out on the deck along with everybody else. We probably got about 2 hours of sleep.
When we arrived in Savusavu we headed to the house of some other Peace Corps friends who agreed to put us up for a couple of nights. We spent two days in Savusavu, snorkeling at least 5 hours both days, and then headed to Taveuni. The nearshore snorkeling in Savusavu was impressive. I saw a lot of fish species that I only see on offshore reefs in Rakiraki. Savusavu itself is a very nice and tidy town. A lot of yachties come here and never leave.
Savusavu was nice but Taveuni was amazing. The first place we headed was a small village on the eastern side of Taveuni whose name I probably can't mention on this blog because of Peace Corps' policy. The village name literally means "forbidden water" (look it up if you have a fijian dictionary) and they have one of the oldest and best managed marine protected areas in Fiji. The difference we saw when snorkeling between the village fishing grounds and the Marine Protected Area was stark. The fish inside the protected area were enormous! We saw massive schools of harlequin sweetlips, giant sweetlips, bluefin trevally, peacock grouper etc. We also saw several sea snakes and two hawksbill sea turtles. The villagers were very welcoming and did not charge us to use the MPA since we were staying with a volunteer and therefore entered the village as guests rather than tourists.
From the village we also did the Tavoro waterfalls hike, taking time to swim in each of the three waterfalls. The water was cool and clean. I spend so much time swimming in the ocean that I was surprised at how much less bouyant my body was in fresh water. I had to tread water to stay afloat.
After three nights in the unnamed village we headed to a camp ground in the touristy northern part of Taveuni to celebrate the New Years with a bunch of other Peace Corps volunteers. We had a very wild, but safe, time. There must have been about 20 volunteers staying in the camp ground. It really was a lot of fun, and the only thing that could have made it better would be if Leslie had been there.
I am now back in Savusavu and will be heading back to Viti Levu on Sunday. Leslie will be back in Fiji at that point. Well, that pretty much sums it up. I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year.

Finishing up November

2008-11-30T13:51:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-13T18:54:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-09T13:46:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

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!

From Nadi to Suva

2008-10-30T16:44:00.000-07:00

Last week was a week of traveling for me. On Wednesday afternoon I traveled to Nadi with six Fijian ladies, in the bed of a truck, sitting on ibes (hand-woven mats). We were making our way to Rural Women's Day in Viti Levu's most tourist laden city. I attended as a representative for two Indo-Fijian communities. I brought with me tamarind chutney to sell for the Indian ladies in the clubs. Unlike Fijian women, Indian women find it difficult to leave their homes for more than a day. As John and I have explained before, Indo-Fijians live in settlements (neighborhoods where they own their own compound) while Fijians live in villages where almost everything in shared. This village lifestyle lends itself more to a sense of security. The Fijian ladies I traveled with were from three different villages in the Ra Province and were going to sell ibes, baskets, brooms, fans, and honey.

In Nadi there were women from all over Fiji selling their handicrafts and treats. It was very interesting to see the different styles of mats and fans that were sold. Every Fijian woman knows how to make the two items but the style in which they are weaved and the materials they use depend on the area of Fiji they are from. Rural Women's Day not just a fun place to buy handicrafts, it was also a good opportunity for the visiting women to get ideas from each other. For example, there was one group of women from Vanua Levu selling coconut oil.....not an unusual product but the way it was packaged was very different. The women used recycled Bounty Rum (yucky rum!) bottles for their oil (also not unusual) but instead of leaving the label on the bottles like most other women do, they took them off, polished up the bottles, and covered the lids with nice pieces of bula material and bows. Now, I really don't have any use for coconut oil but I was tempted to buy a bottle just because it looked pretty and professional :) I took a picture of the bottle to show the women back in Rakiraki.

After Rural Women's Day ended I made my way to Suva to meet John and Natalie. A large group of volunteers met in Suva to say goodbye to every one's favorite FRE-6er - Heath! Unfortunately Heath was Medically Separated from Peace Corps Fiji after having to be sent to Australia for surgery. He did not want to leave but did not have a choice. He plans to contest the separation upon his arrival back to the States. We are rooting for him!

I like to think that we sent Heath off in style. We hit up karaoke and did a lot dancing at Traps! We even made time for a hiking and swimming day at Colo i' Suva park.

As a side note: it is HOT AS BALLS in Fiji right now! To fight the heat John and I finally found a fridge (the most wonderful invention in the history of everything!). We have been putting our clean underwear in the freezer which offers a nice, cold, tingle when we put them on in the morning. We also freeze bottles of water and stick them down our shirt, pants, skirts (as a reminder John wears skirts too). The ice thaws on our skin and then we drink the cold water. God bless the fridge. AMEN!

I will post pictures from Nadi and Suva as soon as possible (if you're lucky, I might even post a picture of our fridge).

Trips and Training

2008-10-21T15:25:00.001-07:00

Looking at Nananu i' Ra from the highest point on the ridge trail. It was a windy, cloudy day but the view was awesome!

This is an eel swallowing a crab whole along a rocky part of beach in Nananu i' Ra. As John and I walked along the coast line the crabs would jump off the side of the rocks into the ocean to "save themselves" from us. This poor guy would have been much safer on the rock :(

Aw, precious family time! Ma and Pa Smurf and little Nuper pose before the Rubics Cube game during All-Volunteer Training in Nadi. Special.

I know that Peter and John will not be happy when they see this picture posted but I could not resist. The Rubics Cube game went a bit off course.

Us on the white-sand beach of Leleuvia.

Early Service Training

2008-10-14T16:06:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Sorry for not posting in such a long time. Leslie and I have had a busy couple of weeks. Last week all Peace Corps volunteers in Fiji met in Nadi for "All-Vol" day. The Fre 6s (my group) came a few days before the All-Vol day to do some training, and the Fre 5s (group that has been here one year) stayed after All Vol day for their training. The sessions were actually a major improvement over Pre service training. They emphasized practical skills we need to do our jobs rather than abstract concepts like "integration". We spent a lot of time learning about how to get funding, which is something that is on all of our minds. We stayed in the very nice Tokatoka hotel, near the Nadi airport. The hotel had a fantastic pool and the rooms were air conditioned. It was quite a shock.
On the night of All-Vol day the Fre 5s and the Fre 6s had a party and played a game called "Rubric's Cube". The idea of this game is you come to the party wearing clothes of 6 different colors (I forget the colors but they are supposed to be the six colors of the rubrics cube). You then swap clothing with people until all your clothes are of a single color. Nobody got too crazy with it, but we do have some very funny pictures. I will have to post these next time.
After All-Vol day the environmental volunteers, plus a few others, headed south to the Shangri-La Resort to learn about coral farming. We were taught by an energetic 60-something marine biologist named Austin. Coral farming is pretty straightforward. Basically you snip little pieces off live coral, and let them grow on a steel grate. The growing colonies can then be used to repopulate bleached or otherwise damaged areas. Of course, if the corals in an area are damaged because of water pollution, as is the case in my village, you need to deal with this first before you plant corals.
We got to do some snorkeling around the resort. Shangri-La has a Marine Protected Area, so we saw quite a few large fish.
After this, Leslie and I headed first to Suva and then to Leleuvia. Leleuvia is a tiny island near Ovalau with white sand beaches and abundant corals. It is what comes to mind when people think "Fiji". We spent two nights here in a simple thatched bure, snorkeling at least 5 hours each day.
We are now back at site and are eager to actually get some projects going now. Leslie is working on grant applications for some borehole projects that will deliver water to some settlements in very dry areas. I am still pushing the marine conservation and piggery waste thing. Progress is very slow here. We will do our best to let everyone know what is happening.

Nananu i Ra

2008-09-28T14:37:00.000-07:00

Leslie and I took our first weekend leave last week to go to the nearby island of Nananu i Ra. We spent two days on the island, and one night in the hotel. The owner of Safari Lodge gave us a pretty good deal on the room so we are likely to go back there. The weather was pretty windy the whole time we were on the island. One of the guests at Safari Lodge was taking kiteboarding lessons and was absolutely loving the wind. It is pretty impressive how fast you can go on those things. I really would love to give it a try but it is a pretty expensive hobby. At this point the last thing I need is something else to spend money on. Leslie and I did our best not to spend money on the island. Instead of going kitesurfing we walked partway around the island and did a bit of snorkeling. At one point, as we were hiking around a rocky cliff that jutted into the sea we saw a large brown eel devouring a crab. The crab seemed way too big for the eel, but the eel managed to get it down its throat by means of a lot of writhing and flopping around. They eat these eels here, although I have not yet tried it.
This Friday all the Peace Corps volunteers in Fiji will be meeting in Nadi. We will have a few days of training and a big party. I am really looking forward to it. After the big gathering the environmental volunteers will be headed to the Coral Coast to learn about coral farming. Coral Farming is basically a way for communities to make cash while taking pressure off of the coral reefs. They grow the coral on iron grating near the shore and sell it in tourist shops. This keeps them from harvesting to coral on the actual reefs.
A couple of weeks ago I went scuba diving again. Leslie and I walked to Volivoli beach first thing in the morning and went out with Ra divers. The first dive we did that day ranks as one of the best dives I have ever done. We saw three sharks: a blacktip reef shark, a graytip reef shark, and a bull shark. The bull shark was probably 10 or 12 feet and came within about 20 feet of us. It was quite an experience.

Changes Ahead

2008-09-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

It looks like things will be changing quite a bit in the near future. Leslie and I just had our site visits, and the decision was made to change Leslie's assignment. She will still be working with some of the women's groups with whom she has established a relationship, she will just no longer be working for the larger network of women's groups. Her new official host agency will be the Women's Interest office. In addition, we will be moving to my village in the next few months. Although the house we move into in the village will, no doubt, be a step down from our current house, I think this really makes the most sense. As it is, I'm missing out on a lot of village gatherings because I am never in the village at night time. We have a huge Peace Corps gathering coming up in October. I think everyone is pretty excited about this. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the current volunteers.
I have been talking to my village a lot about cleaning up the piggeries in the village. I am hoping to get some compost piggeries built in the next few months. I am also looking into biogas digesters, which are quite a bit more expensive to build. If anyone knows anything about biogas digesters send me a message.

John stabs mouse

2008-09-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

I tried to think of a clever title for this post but I think this one gets the point across. We have been having mouse problems in our house. Our produce occasionally gets nibbled on and we often find little shits in our kitchen. We put out traps and poison, but the little bastards seem to survive. I got up one morning and saw one of the mice hunching behind a papaya on our counter top. He didn't see me as his head was down behind the papaya. Slowly, I crept over to the other side of the counter where we keep our silverware- including a very sharp knife. I grabbed the knife, crept up to the mouse and swung the blade down on the little shit-head. I felt the knife penetrate soft flesh and come to a stop on the wooden countertop. The mouse squealed loudly. I had him pinned to the countertop. I searched the counter for something to dispatch him with. I spotted the wine bottle that one of our fellow Peace Corps volunteers had given us. I brought the bottle down upon the mouse's head and it immediately went stiff. My heart was literally racing. I didn't feel the slightest bit of pity for the filthy little creature. Rather I felt proud and triumphant. Leslie and I had just finished reading Lord of the Flies and I couldn't help thinking of the chant, "Kill the pig, eat her flesh, spill her blood." The way I see it, if I'm becoming a bit of a savage it just means I'm adapting well.

A Waqa named Saqa

2008-09-09T19:58:00.000-07:00

I caught a fish. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I built a small boat with the help of some people from the village. The boat is made out of a single 12-ft piece of corrugated roofing tin and is called a bavelo. By itself the thing is extremely tippy. A few days ago one of the guys from the village helped me make an outrigger for the boat out of a thick piece of bamboo. With the outrigger attached, I was able to paddle the boat on the ocean and easily handle moderately sized waves. For any Peace Corps people reading this blog, I always wear a lifejacket when paddling my bavelo and I stay very close to shore. Well, I took my waqa (Fijian word for boat- pronounced wanga) out on it's maiden voyage a few days ago and trolled a hook baited with some fish behind it just for the heck of it. I didn't have a paddle at that time so I just paddled with two plastic plates. It was very hard work. As I was returning to shore I noticed that the boat was handling very strangely. It was difficult to paddle and would not follow a straight path. I pulled on the fishing line that was stretched out behind the boat. It was tight. I assumed that I had snagged a rock. I gave it a tug, and it tugged back very hard. I fought the fish over the next half hour. The line I was using was only 10 pound test and was wrapped around a Fiji water bottle, so I had to play the fish very slowly. Several times I had the fish close to the boat when it decided to run and I had to let it take the line out. Finally I played the thing to exhaustion and pulled the fish up to the boat. It was a big, 24in saqa (pronounced sanga- bigeye trevally). I plopped it into the bavelo and headed back to the village. I received quite a welcome when the villagers saw my fish. The guy who helped me build the outrigger announced that the name of my little boat would be "Saqa".

More Pictures from Fiji

2008-09-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

The volunteers in the Indo-Fijian settlement learned an Indian dance for the Swearing In Ceremony. I was as red as a tomato during the entire dance.

The Environment trainees in the Fijian villages learned a "Meke" for the the Ceremony. The group in the background are singing while the "warriors" do their dance. This picture shows John fighting off the vicious warrior Garrett! Can't remember who won.

Self-Portrait in the ocean!

Our house. Yes, it is VERY green! Ahndree thinks we should name it the "Pineapple Paradise" but we aren't too big on naming inanimate objects like cars or houses. We can see the ocean from the porch!!!

Another self-portrait at our favortie beach just outside of Rakiraki town. It is a 15 minute bus ride from our house.

Circus Mission

2008-08-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday (Siga Tabu) Leslie and I went to my village to go to church. Yes, I have become quite the church-goer lately. After the church service we went over to one of the houses in the village for lunch. We found out that there was a sort of party going on that day and a big feast had been prepared. I asked (in Fijian) what the celebration was for. I was told (also in Fijian) that the feast was for one of the boys in the village who was returning from the hospital. I am still learning Fijian, so it took me a while to figure out exactly what was going on. I made out that a 13 year old boy from the village had been in the hospital for the past four days, something was cut, and he's coming back today. The man telling me all this kept sticking his index finger out and drawing the finger from his other hand across it in a cutting motion. " So he cut his finger off?" I asked. " No, his penis!" was the reply. " He cut his penis off?" I asked, shocked. " Yes, just the tip. He is better now. It is our custom." Then I understood that a circumcision had taken place. Here in Fiji circumcision is kind of a coming of age thing and takes place when a boy is 12 or 13.
After this strange conversation we sat around on the patio to have lunch. The boy walked out of the house bow-legged with a sulu wrapped around him. He was holding the front of the sulu about a foot away from his crotch. He looked really embarrassed. All eyes were on him as he sat down to eat. I was glad that I was not in his place.

Cool Pictures Now

2008-08-31T15:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, I promised Leslie I would post the people pictures first. Here are the photos I've been dying to post. School of blue green chromis.

Crown of thorns starfish. This guy was the size of a large pizza. They are poisonous and eat coral. Very scary.

Tomato anenomefish. Always fun to see.

Some kind of parrotfish. I'm thinking turquois-capped.

Whoa! Holy crap a shark. White-tipped reef shark. He was only about 4 ft long. I think Leslie peed in the ocean when she saw it, though.

Pictures finally

2008-08-31T15:10:00.000-07:00

The choir in Vitawa

Nearly blind kid helped by the free glasses program

Mrs. Krishna's birthday party. (still during training)

Site announcements. Leslie and I are standing on a big map of Viti Levu. This was a pretty exciting day

Leslie and Toad

2008-08-24T18:23:00.000-07:00

I don't have a whole lot to talk about today, but I thought I'd share with everybody a few funny stories. The first one is about the cane toads that occur in plague proportions throughout Fiji. Leslie had painted the back door to our house and had left the door open so the fresh breeze would help the paint dry more quickly. We were in our room reading for a few hours as the paint was drying and I walked into the kitchen to get a snack. I saw a big fat cane toad on our kitchen floor, hopping around. I went to pick it up and the thing literally exploded with urine. I mean it was a LOT of freakin' piss. The toad was about the size of a baseball, yet it seemed to produce about a full liter of toad piss. My shorts were soaking with it, and there was a big puddle of it on the floor. Luckily for me toad tinkle doesn't really cause warts....I think.
The second funny story is about Leslie (yay! funny Leslie story!) As some of you may already know, Leslie is quite the sleep talker. I have had lengthy conversations with her while she was fast asleep. Well, this particular conversation was really unusual. I woke up in the middle of the night to hear Leslie mumbling some sort of gibberish. She actually sat up in bed, opened her eyes and said, "John! Will you please pick that meat off the floor? It's going to stink." I didn't know what the hell she was talking about. Meat on the floor? I asked, " Really, meat on the floor. Huh. How do you think it got there?" "It fell off the truck." she replied, in a very annoyed tone. How else would it have gotten there? " So, some meat fell off the truck and landed on the floor. Interesting. Do you want me to eat it?" "No! I want you to pick it up. Stop being patronizing!" Leslie has quite the vocabulary when she is sleep talking. After that she dozed off. I told her about it the next day and she had no recollection.

Getting Involved

2008-08-22T15:53:00.000-07:00

My primary project is very slowly starting to pick up. I have visited the club's bee farm to check the status of the hives. We will have our second harvest next month. Checking the hives was terrifying though. During training I just watched as the hive-managers pulled out the hives to check for honey production. This time I had to help! I was the one in charge of the smoke and the bees don't like this person, that is for sure. I was dive-bombed by bees the whole time, yikes. It was pretty exciting though, so much energy buzzing around me, I couldn't hear a thing. Next month will be all that much more exciting as we pull out the honey. I am going to do some research on making bee's wax candles so maybe we can make some extra money at Diwali time.

I am also making myself available to the other groups in Rakiraki. I have joined the Ra District Hospital Board as the Acting Secretary. I have also joined the Inner-Agencies Committee for the Protection of Children and will be helping them as they plan a fundraising dinner and auction......this must be my calling in life. They are thinking about auctioning off some wine from New Zealand and Australia and it wasn't even my suggestion. Finally, John and I have both joined the Fiji Red Cross Society. With them we will visit neighboring villages to talk on our respective specializations. John will do workshops on piggery clean-up and proper rubbish disposal, while I will talk about money management and budgeting. I am excited about this new secondary project as it is something John and I can do together.

Here in Fiji, I have also become an avid reader. Not having any other form of entertainment, books have become my salvation. In the past four(ish) months I have read more books than I read all of last year. Time kept me from getting involved in a good book back in the States. When every minute of every day is spoken for, starting a book is a big commitment. Now, I have nothing but time! The favorites so far have been The Poisonwood Bible (this was a second read), The Namesake and The Red Tent. I started reading Eat, Pray, Love, as many people recommended it, but could not get past page 75. It is the most shallow book I have ever attempted to read. Her style of writing also bothered me, it was much too casual, like we were buddies. After giving it many second chances I decided to put it down for good. Please share any book recomendations you have as John and I are always on the lookout for a good read.

John and I are planning a trip to either Suva or Lautoka in the next few weeks and hope to upload pictures while in one of the two big cities. The internet here in RR is WAY too slow.

2008-08-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody. Sorry for not posting in a while. Things have been pretty busy lately. I've been going into my village almost every day, and Leslie has been working at the local hospital. A group of doctors from the U.S. were doing eye exams in town and Leslie was helping with that. I guess the Lions Club collects used prescription glasses for these programs. Eye exams are only a dollar, prescription glasses are two dollars, and cataract surgery is 30 dollars. Some people were pretty bummed about the glasses they got since some of the donated glasses were truly ridiculous. But I guess for 2 dollars you really can't expect too much. I helped out with this on Thursday. It was pretty hectic. The line of people was out the door.
I've been doing a bit of snorkeling recently. I've been taking a lot of underwater pictures of fish and then trying to identify them back at home. I'm definitely getting hooked on these coral reefs. I'll post the pictures once I get to a fast internet connection. Those of you waiting for pictures will have to bear with us for a few weeks, but once we are able to get to a big city we'll try to upload a lot of photographs.
I built a boat this week. Well, really I watched as one of the guys from the village built it for me. It is called a Bavelo, and is basically a 12 ft canoe made from a single piece of corrugated tin roofing material. It is the most ridiculous looking boat you can imagine. I haven't taken it out into the water yet. I'll probably build an outrigger for it before I take it out. I will, of course, not take it farther out than I can swim and will ALWAYS wear my lifejacket.
A lot of people in my village are excited about getting an ecotourism project going. I think the village is well situated to take advantage of the tourists visiting the north coast of Viti Levu. Of course, my main concern is not really whether or not we will be able to make money, but what the village hopes to do with the money. I'm hoping that I'll be able to convince them to reinvest it back into the community through scholarships and other things.

One Week Down

2008-07-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

So we have officially spent one full week in Rakiraki. We have spent this first week setting up house, starting our garden and getting to know our respective counterparts. I am pretty sure that Thursdays are going to be my new favorite day of the week. Thursday is the day when people from neighboring villages in the Ra Province come to Rakiraki to do their shopping. RR has pretty much everything you need. There are at least four grocery stores, a Rupes Big Bear (where we got our bikes), a post office, three different banks, hardware stores, three internet cafes and a hand-full of other little Fijian shops. The open-air market here is great. It is open every day and is packed with local produce, kava, and handmade brooms and mats. It has been the place I use my hindi most as a lot of the produce vendors are Indo-Fijian. It is super fun to surprise the locals with my killer language skills. Note: my Hindi is actually not that great I just really paid attention to the lessons on shopping....surprise :) Anyways, because villagers come into town to do their shopping on Thursday so too do the Peace Corps volunteers in our province. This means that we get to see a few more of our Peace Corps friends. Today John and I had lunch with Tara (stationed here in RR), Ahndree (village near the bay), Natalie (village across the bay), and Sylvia (stationed in Nadi but homeless right now so chillin in R-town) and it was so great. Thursday lunch has been a tradition for the volunteers in the area so Tara and Andree seemed happy to have four new lunch buddies. The six of us looked pretty ridiculous walking around the two streets of Rakiraki but we were so happy to see each other it was easy to ignore the stares.

At Site

2008-07-27T18:17:00.000-07:00

Well, training is officially over! Our group swore in on July 24 and quickly loaded up into buses to be shuttled to the far corners of Fiji. The day before swearing in we had about 8 hours to kill in Suva. I went to meet with Helen Sykes, an environmental consultant based in Suva. After that, I met up with some fellow trainees at a bar. After having completed 8 weeks of training we were all in need of a drink. Some of the wilder volunteers had 2 drinks! After that, we were shuttled back to the campus at Nadave where we went to bed early in order to be well rested the next day. Despite this precaution, we all seemed to be particularly groggy on the 24th.

Leslie and I spent the first night at site with another volunteer in the area named Tara. The next day we moved into our new home, and began furiously cleaning. There was a dead rat in one of the cupboards, but before either of us could clean it up a cat raced into the house and munched it down. Both Leslie's host agency and my host village have been very generous in donating furniture for our house. We still have a list of things we need to buy, but are not in too much of a hurry. The house has electricity and running water, and you can just barely see the ocean from the front patio. We don't have a refrigerator at the moment, so we have been doing our shopping day to day. It is actually not as hard as it sounds.

My village has been very understanding of our need to spend a few days getting the house ready before we start work. They actually suggested that I not go to church with them on Sunday but instead take the day off. With that in mind, Leslie and I rode our bikes (oh yeah, we bought bikes in Suva) to Volivoli beach (mentioned in another posting). My bike broke down several times on the ride, but we made it. At the beach Leslie and I happened to meet the group leader for some sort of high school group doing a study abroad in Fiji. She invited us to go out snorkeling with them. The guys at Ra Divers, the dive shop on Volivoli beach, were really cool and had no problem letting us tag along for no charge. They took us out about 6km to a small seamount with spectacular coral cover. I took a ton of pictures with our underwater camera which I will be sure to post at some point. We saw a white-tip reef shark!

We should be able to post regularly as our house is fairly near an internet cafe. Keep in touch, everyone!

Finishing up training

2008-07-18T16:12:00.000-07:00

Training is quickly coming to a close. We have our final Language Proficiency Interview on Monday. Before heading out to site, everyone is expected to be at the "intermediate-low" level in their respective language. Supposedly, those who are not at this level will stay in Suva for an extra week of language training before being sent to site. I will be suprised if anyone ends up doing this.

Last night was cultural night in the Indo-Fijian settlement. The Hindi class learned a dance and a song, and a few of the teenage girls from the settlement performed a couple of dances. There was a massive quantity of really good spicy food and plenty of yaqona.

Yesterday I went to USP in Suva to meet with a woman doing turtle conservation work on the north coast of Viti Levu, near my site. I will probably be helping her a bit in communicating with the villages in the area.

Tomorrow, Leslie and I will celebrate our one year aniversary. We really do not have any big plans, since our options are much more limited here, but we are planning on going out to a nice restaurant and having some wine. Thank you everyone who has sent us letters/packages. We really appreciate it.

Site Visit!!!

2008-07-11T20:40:00.001-07:00

The road leading into Rakiraki town!

John's training village just outside of Rakiraki.

Looking at Rakiraki from Volivoli Beach Resort.

John playing in the sand with his new "nephew".

Trying out the under-water camera!

2008-07-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

Hub day at John's training village - I am an
honorary member of the village as John's wife!

The monipusi (mongoose) dance. Those who know
John will recognize his sweet dance moves :)

We got a lesson in Beekeeping.
We survived without a sting.

Hub day in the Indo-Fijian settlement.
Pretty sarees!

Site announcements. We are standing in
Rakiraki - our new home!!!

Doing Site Visit

2008-07-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

Leslie and I are doing a visit of our site in the Rakiraki area. I'm actually not supposed to disclose the exact town on this blog, but I think all of our friends know it already. This part of Viti Levu is beautiful. There are mountains to the south of us, and the ocean is very close. The diving in this area is supposed to be world class. This week we are staying with a current Peace Corps volunteer. The Peace Corps has not yet found a house for us, so we have been looking for a place to rent. Leslie will be taking over another volunteer's job with a local Indo-Fijian women's organization. I will be traveling to a nearby village to do environmental work. I will find our today a little more about what projects the village is looking at. A lot of times the host agencies have a misunderstanding about what Peace Corps does, so it will be nice to meet with my village and answer any questions they might have.

Sites Announced!!!

2008-07-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 4th was a big day for the FRE-6 trainees. We found out where we will be assigned for the next two years. The day started with a surprise Emergency Action Plan run-through that started at 6 am. Mahen (my language teacher) came to our house and knocked on our window before sun-up. We had to grab our emergency bag which contained clothes, dry food, water, medical kit and our life vests. We spent two hours sitting at the hub office drinking coffee in our pjs. Good times. After our consolidation training we planted trees at our host homes to celebrate the 4th of July and learn about native Fijian vegetation. At 11:30 we headed to Lomanisau (one of the host villages) for the big announcement and 4th of July celebration. Currently serving Peace Corps volunteers mapped out Fiji on the grass. As our names were called they took us to our assigned area in Fiji. John and I are going to spend two years in Raki Raki (Northern Viti Levu). John will be commuting to a neighboring village to help the community set up a Marine Protected Area as well as Mangrove planting, waist disposal and other fun environmental stuff. I will be working with an Indo-Fijian Women's Group. The group is an NGO and they have asked for help with small income generating projects, basic bookkeeping and budgeting skills, marketing, and general women's outreach. I am taking over an existing project. The current volunteer will end her service next week so we will have a chance to chat before she leaves. John and I are both very happy with our assignment. We will live in a rented flat and will have electricity and running water. We will also be a mere 3 hours from Suva and Nausori so we will be able to visit our host mom and the "big city" very easily. We are also super stoked about how close we will be to the ocean. Raki Raki is surrounded by some great scuba sites! It won't be long until I'm certified, until then, John will have to scout out the reefs for me :) We leave tomorrow for our Counterpart Conference and then Tuesday we go to Raki Raki for a week to check everything out.

2008-06-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-06-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

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

Pre-Service Training

2008-05-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

Bula and Namaste!

We have been in Fiji now for two weeks. During our first week we stayed at a training camp in Eastern Fiji called Nadave (pronounced nandave). We stayed in bures (dorms) with the other 30 Peace Corps Fiji volunteers. Boys stayed in one bure while girls were split into two. It was very much like college which was fun since John and I have been out of college for a good four years now. We enjoy all of the other volunteers; they are great individuals. Most of the other volunteers are in their mid to early twenties (I am actually the oldest girl at 26....crazy!). There are two "senior" volunteers in their 50's. They are both men and one is actually from Kodiak, Alaska (holler!). While at the training camp we had no access to email or phones. We spent our days in language and cross-cultural classes. In the evenings we enjoyed multiple kava sessions with our trainers. These sessions would last well into the wee hours of the morning. I have not acquired a taste for kava yet, it has the flavor of a dirty root. It is a huge deal here though so I am sure I will learn to love it soon. John already thinks it is great :)

On Wednesday we moved to our host villages where we will spend the next three months of Pre-Service Training. We live with local families in the Nausori area. John and I are living in an Indo-Fijian settlement with a very nice Indian widow. She has given us the Hindi names Gisel (for me) and Anmol (for John). Peace Corps has me learning Hindi while John must travel to a neighboring Fijian village to learn Fijian. We are experiencing the best of both worlds here. Tonight we will be attending our first Hindi wedding and we are very excited. One of the other host moms will be dressing me in a sari for the wedding! Tomorrow we will be going to the Fijian village where John studies for a "Welcome" church service that they have planned for the Peace Corps volunteers. Most Fijians are Christian and church on Sunday can last over two hours. After church the village will prepare a feast....I am not joking.....there is TONS of food. They make fish (all different kinds) usually cooked or fried in coconut milk and wrapped in taro leaves. They also prepare cassava, bread fruit and taro (those are staples at every Fijian meal). There will no doubt be plenty of singing and dancing as well. The Fijian people love music.

So far, John and I love this country. The people are so generous and kind. The Fijian host mothers hug and kiss you and tell you they love you after your first encounter with them.....they are very welcoming. We have yet to visit the beach but have a trip planned next Friday.

We will post some pictures on our next trip into town.

In New Zealand

2008-05-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

We just arrived in New Zealand. The overnight flight was surprisingly painless. The airline we used was Air New Zealand. The food was good, the seats were comfortable, and each seat had its own video screen. Two thumbs up for that airline. I probably won't have time to individually email everybody today, but I figured this post would be a good way to keep a lot of people up to date simultaneously. We fly to Fiji this evening. We've got some time to kill in New Zealand. I'm not sure what we'll do.

Trip to Sunriver Oregon

2008-05-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

Skiing on Mt. Bachelor in May...beautiful.

Leslie, John, JP and Matthew on Mt. Bachelor

The whole gang and the Lava Lands National Park in Central Oregon.

Posing at the High Desert Museum...John, Matthew, JP, Kurt, Summer and Leslie.

Leaving in 12 days

2008-05-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

Leslie and I are currently in Beaverton, Oregon, waiting to depart for Fiji with the U.S. Peace Corps. We have accepted an invitation to serve in the Integrated Environmental Resources Management project. We have no idea where in Fiji we will be working, or what exactly we will be doing. We hope to use this blog throughout our assignment as a way of keeping in touch with family and friends back home.
I'll use this first posting to give a bit of background information about ourselves. Leslie and I both graduated in 2004 from the University of Dallas. Leslie's major was painting, mine was biology. After finishing undergrad, Leslie went on to get her MBA from the University of Dallas, while I am just now finishing my Master's Degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences from Texas A&M University. Leslie has also spent the past three years working for the American Heart Association in Dallas.
If anyone is considering joining the Peace Corps and would like to know more about it, feel free to send us a message. At this point, we really can't say much about what Peace Corps service is like, but we can answer questions about the application process. My advice to anyone considering Peace Corps service is to begin the application about a year before you will actually be available to leave. The application takes a very long time. It involves interviews, many many written personal statements, and a thorough medical screening.
At this point, the days are going by very quickly for us as our time in the U.S. is coming to a close. On May 18th we fly to Los Angeles for staging, and on May 19th we fly to Fiji. We have an 11 hour layover in Auckland, New Zealand on our way to Fiji, so hopefully we will have some time to see a bit of the city. Once we arrive in Fiji we will begin training. We will not officially become Peace Corps volunteers until late July when we complete our training. We will do our best to keep this blog up to date. Since we are sharing this blog, some of the posts will be from me (John) and some will be from Leslie.