Last Days of Training

We finally got site announcements!  The staff surprised us with it a day early and it was truly the most exciting day in Fiji so far – beating out even the opening ceremony of the new US Embassy and meeting the Ambassador (last Tuesday).   It turns out that none of us are headed for Kadavu or the Yasawas or Lau.  The 25 of us are spread out over Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, the two main islands, with three on Ovalau, a smaller island between the two (and the site of the former capital of Fiji).  I’m right on the coast on Savusavu Bay (Vanua Levu).  I’m the first volunteer at my village (most people are replacing a volunteer), so no one knows anything about my site!

Embassy Opening - Some of my PC friends are visible in the audience.

This morning when I went for a long run (for which I got disapproving looks with pursed lips – girls aren’t supposed to run alone – especially when it might still be dark out), I headed up to Toboniqio where some other PC trainees live.  Dan and Colin had already left on their run for Naikawaqa Koro to watch the sunrise.  A week before they’d presented a Sevusevu to the village headman for the privilege of running there and watching the sunrise.  By the time I arrived, the sunrise was in full glory mode, shining rays of light through the clouds onto the ocean below.  We sat around on the cliff overlooking the mangroves the outer islands and the Pacific watching fruit bats glide down below and talking about leaving for our sites on Monday.  This was the last chance we’d have to visit this amazing place.  In a few minutes we headed back down the hilly, muddy track, just a twenty-minute run back to Toboniquio not looking back at the small town we may never see again.  We’ve been here only six weeks and I already feel like I’m leaving so much behind.

Sunrise in Naikawaqa

Yesterday I borrowed a phone and called Bubba.  He’s the Peace Corps Volunteer serving with his wife in a village near where I’ll be heading next week.  When I called he was on a bus with the village head man of my new village and had some news about my house.  Apparently they’d just finished tatching the roof and walls and were hanging the doors that day.  Bubba went to have a look today to make sure I’ll have electricity.  Most importantly, I hear there’s a beautiful white sand beach just 10 yards from my bure!

I’m being torn in two.  I can’t wait to get to site!  Can I take pieces of Naitasiri with me?

At a grog circle in Kasavu

Where the heck is Fiji, anyway? (and a few other stories)

The other day Sia came over to the house to hang out with my Na.  She is a really cool lady – originally from Kandavu, she moved to the United States for law school and passed the bar.  She moved back to Fiji, though, and is lawyer here, one of the best if you ask the magistrate I met in Nausori last week.  Anyway, Sia invited me over for drinks at her house and we got to talking about her experiences being the only Fijian in a big state school in Alabama.  She couldn’t believe the things people thought about Fiji.  Once a girl asked, “I know Fiji is a really small country, so do you all live in caves?”  Guess what?  Nobody lives in caves here, but Fiji is a really small country in the middle of a big ocean.  Sia couldn’t even find it on the map when she tried to point it out in class to her fellow students, so she had to draw it on!

So, here’s the map of the world that I use to show people where I’m from and where other places are.  See – Portland’s there!  (It’s got Eugene and Medford, too, but not McMinnville).  Can you find Fiji?  Here’s a hint: it’s more than 15˚ south.  Here’s another hint: the embassy in Fiji also serves as an embassy for Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Nauru.  Do you know where those countries are?  No?  Never heard of them?  That’s O.K. I don’t think they usually cover the South Pacific very well in High School geography.  A close up of my area of the South Pacific is down below.  It’s got all of them on there if you look closely enough.

Being in the South Pacific is awesome.  Really.  However, there are some things to watch out for.  The other day I went for an afternoon walk with Kim and Christine, two of the other Peace Corps trainees in my village.  I thought it would be a short walk down the road and back, so I just put on some flip-flops and headed out.  Soon, though, we were climbing a muddy trail up a steep incline through the jungle and the flip-flops had to go.  I hiked the rest of the way barefoot (and cautiously).  We figured we’d loop back to the road, so we kept on, up and up, further into the jungle, having a glorious time.  Along the way we met Ta Jack, an old farmer tending his cows.  He mentioned some people from our village were ahead of us, so we continued on.  Later, rather than sooner, we realized we weren’t going to get back to the road, so we turned around and headed back.  When we met Ta Jack again, he opened some young coconuts for us to drink from and invited us to come back some time, earlier in the day, and he’d show us the other trails.  We sang and joked on our way back, getting really muddy and having a blast.  It wasn’t until we reached home and related our adventure to our local friends that we realized the danger we had been in.  “The danger,” they said, “the danger is that it is evil!”  We hadn’t known that there are evil spirits lurking in that part of the jungle, lying in wait to possess young girls and turn them mad.  Needless to say, we’ve been forbidden to return to the jungle on our own.

Regardless of your beliefs, there are more tangible threats than spirits.  Yesterday I heard a story of a Peace Corps volunteer in this area being harassed by sharks while kayaking in a river.  Yes, bull sharks can swim up freshwater rivers.  People keep telling us that there are sharks in the Rewa River here by the village.  But that doesn’t keep us from swimming in it!  Actually, our first time in the water, Kim and I were more scared of bacteria than sharks, but it was hot and we jumped in anyway.  Yeah, the water was brown, but it was great!  We bailed out an old boat and rowed over to the opposite shore, Brian joined us, paddling over on a bamboo raft called a bilibili.  The shore was pure mud, the kind that you sink into to your thighs.  When a few more friends from the village showed up with a rugby ball we had quite a time thrashing around in the mud for a game of touch rugby.  Later we “cleaned off” by playing a very poor game of water polo before swimming back across the river.  What a spectacle we made!  Half the village must have come out to watch.  The other half asked if I really swam across the river.  Anyway, Kim’s been swimming in the river every day since and has yet to see a shark OR get sick.  I guess we’re just lucky.  :)

Life in the Koro

Would it be disingenuous to say life in Fiji is not that much different from home?  From outer space you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.  It's the day to day realities, big and small that set it apart.  I mean, did you know there's not one zoo in Fiji?  None of the kids here have ever seen an elephant, tiger, or any kind of monkey!  I get asked every day if those kinds of things are real (or Dr. Doolittle or vampires).

I live with a host family in a pretty decent sized village.  My Na (mother) and Ta (father) are a bit different than your average Fijian family: both have jobs (primary and secondary school teachers, respectively) and they're both in Master's degree programs.  I've got two host brothers (Tuvula - 13 and Tuisoa - 3), a host sister (Dilama - 11) and a cousin (Tubuna - 18) living in the house.  Each morning is a whirlwind of getting everyone off to school on time (which usually doesn't happen), getting Tubuna out of bed and to the teitei (small farm) and Una coming over to take care of Tuisoa.  Usually somebody - or everyone - is late - a symptom of "Fiji Time."  You get used to it after a while - even the Peace Corps events rarely happen when they're planned to - things just happen when they happen.

Our village has about 85 houses jam packed into seven acres.  That's 12 houses per acre, and that doesn't even count the church or the open space around the church!  Technically 500 people live there, but a lot have apartments in the capital, too.    We're lucky to have municipal water from Nausori.  It's always cold, but it's so warm here that cold showers are refreshing!  The pressure is more of an issue as it can vary wildly and your nice shower can become a trickle or a raging torrent in just a second.  There's not a waste treatment plant, so most people have home made septic tanks...  And grey water goes into drainage ditches around the village and out into the river.  The trash does pretty much the same thing...  Needless to say I'm a little hesitant to swim in the river!

We're also lucky to have constant electricity - that is - if you remember to "re up" your account.  It's similar to pre-paid cell phones.  Everyone has a tv, dvd player and radio.  Electric ovens, kettles, blenders, irons and washing machines are not uncommon, but they're often too expensive to use.  My family even has a computer, but they keep it locked up.  It's really hard to have stuff that's much nicer than the neighbors because of "KereKere."  Literally meaning "please," this is how people refer to the practice of indefinitely "borrowing" from family members - which could be anyone in a village or even visitors.  Most of the time the borrower doesn't even ask.  Luckily it usually doesn't extend to Peace Corps volunteers, but I do keep my peanut butter and coffee in my room, and sometimes my snacks for tea break, because if I don't they'll just all disappear before I get a chance to use them!

In the village family is very important, and all Fijians have to be tied to a village somewhere, even if they live in a city.  The way this works is through mataqalis (clans - pronounced matangali).  Our village has seven clans - the different clans have different traditional land holdings which cannot be bought or sold.  They have different responsibilities in the village, too.  They are part of the governing system of the village with each having their own head man who speaks for the mataqali in the village meetings.  Most people live around other people in their clan, so that's mostly who they interact with, too.  This system is partly responsible for a bunch of different extended family relationships that I haven't quite grasped: some people aren't allowed to talk to other people based on their family relationships, others are required to have joking/taunting relationships!  This extends to different provincial relationships, too.  I haven't got it all figured out, but I do know I'm in the highest cheifly clan in the village!

There are always a ton of people in the village.  Most people don't have real jobs.  They might have some role in the community, like taking care of other people's children or running one of the village stores (more like a very small, necessities only, market), but more commonly the women make money diving for and selling kai (freshwater clams) and men grow and sell dalo (taro), tavioka (cassava), roro (taro leaves), vudi (plantain), jaina (banana), ota (wild fern) or other vegetable, fruit or animal products.  There are youth (18-35) in the teitei, mowing the lawn with weed whackers or making a new volley ball court, children under 5 running around all over, women cooking in the houses, and men sitting around sharpening their isele (machetes) or telling stories.  Everyone knows everyone and everyone invites you over for tea.  It's a very interactive existence!  I'm doing my best to make friends: telling stories, drinking grog (kava), going swimming, playing volleyball and more.  I'm always hearing, "Milli!  Lesu mai vei?" (where are you coming from) or "Lako i vei?" (where are you going).  I've just recently gotten quick enough to respond!

Welcome to the Peace Corps

Months after my nomination to serve in North Africa/The Middle East I received a phone call from Washington informing me that my program had filled and could I swim.

A few weeks later I was invited to serve in Fiji!  I never really believed it until they sent me the information for staging in LA and the itinerary for the flight to Nadi.  But here I am, nearly a month "in country."

After a one day orientation session in LA we boarded a non-stop flight to Nadi, Fiji.  Arriving at 5AM, we walked off the plane to be met by the Peace Corps country director for Fii who helped us pass immigration and customs.  A long bus ride took us to Pacific Harbor and another 2 day orientation, immunization and water safety session.  On the afternoon of the second day we packed up again, this time headed for four days of training in Nadave, a technical (mostly ag) school near Nausori.

With all of the whirlwind training sessions, new friends, new foods and new environment, I hardly noticed I was catching cold until it kicked me on my butt.  Instead of meeting my host family that first Monday, I was the first in my group to travel to Suva and the Peace Corps office.  The adventure was a bit wasted on me, though, as I slept through the whole thing!

A good rest was all I needed and I headed to my host family's home and back to training the next day.  Since then I've been living and studying in a Fijian village by the bend in the Rewa River just a few minutes drive from the "city" of Nausori.

More soon!  Happy Queen's Birthday!