I created this blog as an easy and convenient way to keep in touch with people back in the States during my 27 month experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji. I hope this gives you some insight into my job, life, and experiences in the South Pacific. Thanks for reading!
So my 27 months as a standard PCV are over, and now begins the extension year bringing my service up to a total of 38 months which ends August 3, 2014.
Enjoy the blog, its a mish-mosh pile of projects, activities, recipes, and mindless rambling. Please send me a message or comment if you have any questions regarding anything at all in Fiji. After being here for 2+ years it’s getting a bit more difficult to figure out what to write because it’s not as new and exciting to me anymore… things I saw with a new set of eyes when I first stepped off the plane here have become my “normal” so please, ask away! I love answering questions and if it helps you understand the Peace Corps, my Village, Fiji life, or anything else better, I will feel like this blog served a purpose.
Thank you kindly to all those who have followed this blog!
From Mushrooms to Mangoes 
Hey Samantha! I’m leaving for Fiji in May too! How excited are you? Because I can barely sleep. Love your blog! See you in 49 days! :)
I’m so stoked, I can’t wait to meet everyone and get started in Fiji! Ah, 49 days is so soon!
Samantha,
sorry, I am just trying to get in contact with some PCVs in Fiji. My wife and I are Peace Corps volunteers in Vanuatu, we are finishing up our service in October and will have a few days in Fiji on our way back to the states. We would love to meet up with some PCV while we are there if it is possible. Could you give out our contact info to any volunteers that might be interested in meeting up. We will only be in country for a few days, so will probably only stay in the Nadi and Suva areas.
Thank you,
Alex and Lucas
lucas_obringer@yahoo.com
Hi Samantha, Thank you so much for your Skype presentation — we were all so inspired by you and it made our celebration of Western graduates serving in the Peace Corps come to life. Please email me at Susan.Anderson@wwu.edu and send me your parents mailing address because I would love to send them the article from the Seattle Times that featured you — I’m sure they are so very proud of you. Wish you the best! Susan
Hi Samantha.
Your blog is great fun. I am an RPCV from Cameroon 03-06. My brother is traveling to Fiji next week and was hoping to do some volunteer work. He had made contact with an RPCV who does some beekeeping but then found out his contact is going to be out of town and he was trying to help out with a basketball camp or something. I know how nice visitors can be (even strangers) and thought getting him hooked into the PC community in Fiji might help him find a project he can help with.and really experience Fiji. He’ll be there for about a month.
If you have a suggestion for him for a contact or if you would like to meet him, let me know the best way for him to contact you.
Thanks and enjoy your last months.
Heidi
hjmiller@gmail.com
Hi Samantha I have been following your blog and love it. I nominated you for a Versatile Blogger Award for all the hard work and effort you put into your blog content and pics. Well deserved Congrats! 😀You can collect your award from the following link:
Hi!
I’m an RPCV Madagascar ’09-’11 and am traveling to Fiji and Vanuatu in February/March 2014. I’m going to be learning about the local culture in Vanuatu with some of the Peace Corps staff and would love to connect with some PCVs in Fiji as well. If you have time to share some advice, please email me at alisonthieme@gmail.com. Also the local RPCV group RPCVLA is working on a care package project which would help connect RPCVs to PCVs via letters and packages. Let me know if anyone would be interested.
Good Day Samantha!
Sorry to bother you. My name is Ray Blakney and I am a RPCV from Mexico. I am working on a 3rd goal project with the PC regional offices and the main office in DC to try to create an online archive to keep the language training material made all over the world from getting lost. I have created a sub-section on the website my wife and I run – http://www.livelingua.com – with all the information I have been able to get to date (from over the web and sent to me directly by PC staff and PCV’s). I currently have close to 100 languages with ebooks, audios and even some videos.
The next step for this project is that I am trying to get the world out about this resource so that it can not only be used by PCV’s or those accepted into the Peace Corps, but also so that when people run across material that is not on the site they can send it to me and I can get it up for everybody to use. I was hoping that you could help getting the word out by putting a link on this on your site at:
https://bulasamantha.wordpress.com/
so that people know it is there. There should be something there for almost everybody. It is all 100% free to use and share. Here is the specific page of the Peace Corps Archive:
http://www.livelingua.com/peace-corps-language-courses.php
Thanks for any help you can provide in making this 3rd goal project a success. And if anybody in your group has some old material they can scan or already have in digital form, and want to add to the archive, please don’t hesitate to pass them my email. Thanks and have a great day.
Ray Blakney
blakney.ray@gmail.com
Ray, does your page have the Fijian language manual used in training? This is a wonderful resource and third goal activity, you should be proud! What an undertaking! I have an electronic copy of our language manual and can forward it to you via email if this would help!
Regards,
Sam
Hello Samantha,
I was wondering if you could email me. I was nominated from Fiji, leaving August 31st, 2015. I just had a couple questions and don’t want to ask them on here. It would be wonderful to get these questions answer. Ive had fun reading your blog.
-Jessie
jeswaner@gmail.com
HI Samantha!
I am a soon to be graduate of Washington State University currently apply for the peace corps.
My e-mail is michelle.burns@email.wsu.edu, I would greatly appreciate it if you could get in contact with me. I have some questions I would like to ask before submitting my application!
Best,
Michelle Burns
Dear Ms. Russel,
Thank you for such a wonderful blog. I saw your blog by chance and really enjoyed reading about your experiences living in Fiji. Feels like I visited Fiji myself. Thank you again!
Derry.