“Oh The Places We Go”

For those of you who don’t know me through Facebook I have a little update and present for you!

 

I stumbled across a photography contest a few months back put on by DefeatDD (or Defeat Diarrheal Diseases) the aim of which was to promote the variety of the toilet internationally.

 

Their organizations goal is to promote sanitation and health issues revolving around the every humble loo, and to make it a more central part of peoples lives, recognizing the importance that toilet construction has on village health in the developing world.

 

So, as a long shot, I submitted a photograph I took of three shack toilets on a hill in Nagado Village (about an hour and a half interior of Nadi town past Sabeto and the Garden of the Sleeping Giant). I was visiting another volunteer and on an evening walk we came across these toilets, so perfectly perched in the mountain overlooking the interior of Viti Levu that I just had to snap a picture. Glad I did!

My photograph for the calendar. It is the month of February and has been cropped in the final calendar down to two of the toilets to create the illusion of a “couplet” theme for February (the month of Valentines day).

 

The calendar was released on November 19, World Toilet Day.

 

It is available here as a PDF that you can download and post in your bathroom, office, living room, wherever!

 http://www.defeatdd.org/oh-the-places-we-go-calendar  This link with get you to “DefeatDD.org”

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fqymwyu2a1xy9k6/Oh%20the%20places%20we%20go%2011×17.pdf and this is the link to the PDF form of the calendar- they recommend printing it on 11×7″ paper

Please download the calendar and spread the word about “The Places We Go” and remember that sanitation and sewage treatment are important problems in the developing world.

When the going gets tough.

Yeah. It’s been a while. Apologies for my lack of postings since being back in Fiji.

 

Being in Fiji for 2 1/2 years I feel like I have updated this blog with everything, the good, the bad and the ugly, but have refrained from posting while I’m in the midst of a rough spot. I have found that after a while, hard feelings dissipate and I can think things through in a clearer state of mind. I think that’s a good rule for everybody.

 

So where to begin?

 It’s hot as hades, stink bugs infested my bed, a centipede crawled by my foot while I was using the bathroom, a rat ate 6 of my (expensive) apples, and I’m getting a boil on my butt. Does that give you some perspective?

I have been back in country for exactly 4 weeks now. It has been the hardest 4 weeks of my service, hands down.  I have seriously contemplated going home at various times in these 4 weeks, which is something I have never done before.

 

I started applying for jobs back in Washington, hoping that I would have a plan if “shit hit the fan” here.  I think the main reason I haven’t gone home is my financial situation. Without a job, I really don’t have the ability to “make it” in the States for very long, given the ever increasing debt I’m in from student loans.

Main Problem?

Village Politics. This is an incredibly sensitive issue that I refuse to partake in and become an accessory to. Basically what happened while I was back in the states was that 2 families in the village wrote a letter to the Commissioner Eastern (a high up government official for the division of the country our island is in). The CE was out, and so the Roko Tui (the local high up government official) didn’t forward the letter on. This letter essentially stated that the two families believe they were the rightful Chiefly family and that the current Chief in our village was put there by manipulation and incorrect interpretation of the lineage.  What does all that really mean for the village? Well, if the letter is forwarded on to the CE, the government comes into the village, shuts down all the funding, all the projects, and everything here until the settle out the leadership issues. Essentially sending that letter would be sending me back on a plane to America. (No projects= no use for a PCV). At the moment, the families have been pacified and will not request that the letter be forwarded to the CE. Problem solved, right?

 

Wrong.

 

That letter was written the first week of October. Since the letter was written until Monday of this week, work on the piggery shut down anyway. That’s 6 weeks of no construction. Imagine my dismay, coming back to the village expecting construction on our main project to be finished only to find out it has stopped completely. Now, before I left we hadn’t received our second allotment of money for the piggery (the money is deposited in 3 stages), so I paid $645.75 of my own money to purchase the materials needed to FINISH construction on the pen while I was gone, so there would be no lapse in construction and things could continue here. Frustrated is the kindest word to describe my feelings.

The piggery, 80% complete… no work in 6 weeks.

 

Second problem. One of the families that wrote the letter, the elder man in the family is the foreman on the piggery project. Seriously. So the guy we have entrusted construction to, is actively working towards stopping the project for personal gain.  Awesome.

 

Lack of communication. Due to the way Fijian culture works (they are very beat-around-the-bush type people) and the high sensitivity of the issue, no one was talking about anything. There were no meetings called regarding project development, village issues etc. and everyone was left in the dark regarding the future leadership of the village, my ability to stay here, and the fate of the projects we have lined up.

My Aunt Lite at a Funeral. Really has nothing to do with the lack of communication- I just love her.

 

Lack of leadership. Well duh. This is obvious given that the letter was written contesting the Chief. But even lower level village leaders have shied away from responsibility lately not wanting to create a ruckus and push the equilibrium towards the side of disaster.

 

Anguish. Sitting at home, having no idea if I would be able to stay, or if at this point I even wanted to stay was the most disturbing part of this whole situation. It brought old issues in the village to a head and pushed me into a tailspin verging on depression for a good while. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, I mean god forbid I say the wrong thing to the wrong person…. I didn’t want to participate because, well honestly there wasn’t much to participate in… I just didn’t even want to leave my house.  I retreated into my house, my small fortress against the larger village entities and hid.

 

I was angry. I was frustrated. I wanted to throw rocks. I wanted to say screw it and leave and have everyone else figure out what was to be done with the projects while I floated away back to America, the land of great beer, good friends, family and jobs that actually pay you. Like I said before, I seriously considered this option, to the point that I wrote out my budget, how long I could survive in America before going broke. Not that long. I think the hardest part right now is that my Nephew’s first birthday is coming up. The holidays are coming up… this is my 3rd Christmas/New Years/Birthday in Fiji. I miss America. I really do.

 

Eventually things turned around. I mean to say this happened 2 days ago and is still very tentative. We chose a new foreman for the project. Someone who is a very near and dear friend of mine who is well liked and incredibly productive and kind. With construction on the piggery 80% complete (all that needed to be finished was an attached storage shed, 12×24 feet) he took over to ensure it would be done. We talked the details out over grog (naturally) and I felt such relief. Like I wasn’t the only one that was concerned about the fate of this project anymore. He is truly an incredible person.

After 3 days of work our new foreman built up the land around this area which will be our storage sheds, parceled off the area with cinderblocks, cemented the blocks in place. Today they are compacting the mud inside and adding gravel to the top layer to even it out. Tomorrow the will mix cement and fill in the floor. Next week they will build the sides up then construct the roof.

 

He comes and updates me every afternoon when construction is finished. As always, I go up to the piggery every day and stand around taking pictures and talking… god forbid they allow a woman to actually work construction.  He comes by in the afternoon and tells me the progress. He expects to be finished next week.

The work today. So awesome.

 

6 weeks of waiting and torment… and this wonderful man says it can be finished in 2 weeks… If they had just kept working, it would have been done before I got back which was the plan!

 

I still do the “tomitomi” with the kids- picking up rubbish around the village and giving them little trinkets as rewards. Still drink grog. Still trying to push a little harder to motivate.

Kelepi and Jo with these awesome airplanes I inherited from a COSed volunteer.

kids picking up trash

Watisoni and Mawi recording a new song at grog.

 

I bought the boys a volleyball today. Our new foreman asked if that would be okay. Its actually a trick. The ball is his. He keeps it at home. Every day when construction is finished he takes the ball and goes and plays volleyball with the boys that worked that day… the ones that didn’t go to work would be too ashamed to join in a game with all the ones who were up there working. Its increased attendance at work days exponentially.

 

Our original foreman keeps asking for more materials which arent approved in the budget. Our new foreman comes by and updates me daily (or I go there for grog at night), and tells me we don’t need anything else. That what we have is more than enough to complete the necessary construction.

 

There are still a lot of hurt feelings. A lot of hushed whispers regarding the leadership. A lot of concerns on my part about getting things done and wanting to be here.

 

Right now, at this moment, I can say truthfully that things are looking up. We are on track to finish the projects we have lined up. I am happy with that.

Maleli in his infamous orange jumpsuit doing what I am now interpreting as a happy dance.

 

I went to town on Monday this week and went to my favorite restaurant here, the Whales Tale. It’s not hard to have a favorite, there are only 3… I went for the sole purpose of getting a cheeseburger and fries.  It costs $12. More than I usually spend on 3-4 days worth of food… but I needed it. I had been on the verge of tears the whole day before and had actually broken down and cried that night. I had started packing a bag home because I thought there was no way in hell we would get out of it. I sat down and chatted with the owner Eleni who is a blessing. She informed me that she hadn’t made the beef patties yet and only had chicken, so she asked if a Chicken burger would be okay and I said absolutely. 30 minutes later it came out. I have to say that first piping hot french fry that I put in my mouth, I literally closed my eyes and savored so much. It probably took me an hour to finish my lunch because of the way I was eating. A tourist came in and took a picture of the restaurant and looked at me quizzically as I ate my burger and fries with my eyes closed, completely shutting my mind off. Glad for that simple and so dearly needed culinary escape.

 

Maybe it was a magical burger that turned things around. More likely it’s the natural flow of work and issues in a village. For now, I will chock it all up to that magical burger that made things right for a while.

 

That being said, things can always change in the blink of an eye here.

It’s a Long Way Home- 43 hours and 35 minutes to be exact.

This is just a post to let you know what it took for me to get back to my village in Fiji after spending a while on home leave in America.

 

October 21 

7:30am left Lake Whatcom Area in Bellingham and drove 30 minutes to Alger bus stop

8:06am 80x bus from Alger to Lincoln Creek in Bellingham

8:23am 80x transfer to Samish Street in Bellingham

Waited at the McDonalds on Samish Way where the Bellair Shuttle picks up people headed down to the Sea Tac Airport

 

9:15am Bellair Shuttle from Bellingham to SeaTac Airport

11:45am arrive at SeaTac

Check in, roam around, enjoy the cold air a bit longer, got some good coffee and a Seattle Times Newspaper

1:55pm Leave SeaTac

4:40pm Arrive in Las Vegas

4:50pm Leave Las Vegas

6:10pm Arrive Los Angeles

6:10-11:50pm Layover in Los Angeles

Bought some Chinese food for dinner, bought 2 books, roamed around the airport, talked on the phone a bit, read

11:50pm Depart LAX to Sydney, Australia (14 hour flight)

 

 

October 21st was a bit of a blur. I woke up really early to hitch a ride with my good friend whose house I had been staying at while in Washington. The shuttle was relaxing and easy to catch down to SeaTac. I picked up a coffee at McDonalds and waited for the shuttle to arrive. The driver made a joke about how heavy my backpack was- saying something like, well there’s no way you would be hiking the PCT with that! (PCT= Pacific Crest Trail) which is true. When I finally checked in at SeaTac the bag weighed 50.5lbs. Now whose awesome at packing just the right amount of crap? This girl. 

For those of you who don’t know, my burnt orange High Sierra backpacking pack was purchased in 2008 from REI on clearance for about $70. It has been all over the world with me (Europe, South America, North America, SE Asia, and the South Pacific) I named him Alcazar while traveling in Europe with a study abroad group and he has been a loyal pack ever since.

Anyway. I checked in Alcazar at SeaTac and walked around enjoying my last moments in the Pac NW and thinking about the insane amount of time I would be spending in transit. Spent the last of the money on a Starbucks card I had getting a coffee, madeline cookies, a banana and a Seattle Times. Purchased the book “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed. Walked and walked. Boarded the flight. Got peanuts and Ritz Cheese crackers, coffee and orange juice on the flight.  Read. Landed in Las Vegas. Stayed on board as they loaded new passengers. Took off. Got orange juice and coffee, 2 packets of peanuts. Landed in LAX.

Got off the plane. Went to baggage claim. Waited for Alcazar. People stared as I hoisted the monstrosity on my back. Called my parents. Took the free Shuttle to the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Met a missionary to the Philippines waiting for the bus. Helped him find the International Terminal. Walked my pack up the stairs to departures. Checked in on Qantas Airlines for my flight to Sydney. Ran into a problem, they couldn’t check my bag all the way through to Fiji meaning I would have to “leave” the airport in Australia, go through customs and immigration and thus needed to purchase a $50 visa. For a 5 hour layover… was frustrated. Explained to the woman working that my flight had been changed 2 weeks prior from a direct LAX-Fiji flight to this new schedule being re-routed through Australia. Told her I wasn’t upset with her, just frustrated I would have to pay $50 to get into a country I wouldn’t be staying in and wasn’t my choice to go through. She called immigration. She approved my visa. She took my passport and I waited in line again to pay for my unnecessary visa. 10 minutes later I was called up by the manager who handed me my passport and boarding passes and he said, “Don’t worry I took care of it”. Felt relieved and lucky that people can be so nice. Went upstairs. Got a chinese food dinner. Walked around. Read my book. Talked to some friends. Wanted to get a drink but couldn’t imagine paying $11 for a margarita. Walked around outside. Went through security. Was commended by the TSA announcer on my preparation skills for going through security (apparently I’m really good at getting my shoes and jacket off, clearing out my pockets, taking out my computer and small bag of liquids before reaching the checkpoints. Got through no problems. Walked around some more. Bought Now & Laters. Kept walking up and down the airport.  Got on the plane.

Qantas is amazing. I had a middle seat but plenty of room. I can’t sleep on planes and so I watched a few episodes of Archer, the movies Safe Haven, The Internship,  The Great Gatsby, The Heat, and World War Z. Got a glass of red wine for free. Got orange juice. Dinner was some sort of beef/gravy with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. Came with a roll, side salad, and a white chocolate/raspberry mousse. Kept watching movies and reading while everyone slept. Breakfast was a quiche with a slice of bacon and some tomatoes, yogurt, a muffin, fruit, orange juice, coffee and water. They gave us little snack packs which included a chocolate honeycomb snack, small potato chip bag, and an apple fig bar. Stole the travel toothbrush and toothpaste. Talked with the two Australians sitting next to me. Landed in Australia.

 

 

October 23- due to crossing the International Date Line and the length of the flight we miss a day on our travels.

8:20am arrive in Sydney Australia

8:20am-2pm Layover in Sydney

Because of the change in my schedule I had to go through security and customs/immigration in Australia which took forever meaning I had no time to get out and explore. I did buy a ridiculously expensive coffee and subway sandwich.

2pm Depart Sydney (3 hour 45 minute flight plus 1 hour time change)

The most ineffective in flight map ever- oh you mean if I walk to the other side of the plane i can be in Fiji already? Awesome!

 

7pm Arrive in Nadi International Airport

8:55pm Depart Nadi

9:10pm Arrive Nausori Airport

9:25-10 Taxi from Nausori Airport to Suva (Fiji’s Capital) where I stayed the night.

 

 

Landed in Sydney and went to baggage claim. Followed the masses and waited until Alcazar appeared. Hoisted him up yet again. Went through immigration and customs. Got a stamp in my passport. Went outside. Beautiful day. Sat outside and used their free Wifi to skype with my family. Walked upstairs to International Departures. Waited for over an hour with some Australian couples for someone to be at the Fiji Airways check in counter. After an hour they made an announcement they would check in guests at the other side of the airport.Threw my 50lb Alcazar over my shoulder and high-tailed it over to the check in.  The woman who checked me in was really sweet. Gave me an aisle seat. Realized after going through all that I didn’t have time to explore and make it back in time. Resolved to just enjoy the airport. Wandered back and forth. Realized Australia is ridiculously expensive. Bought a cup of coffee for 4.60 bought a subway sandwich for lunch. Bought 2 more books. Bought bookmarks. People watched. Walked around a lot. Checked in for my flight.

Fiji airways sat next to a woman going back to her family in Australia. Spoke real Fijian for the first time in a long time. Got a crash course in re-introduction to Fijian food. Lunch was mayonaise ridden coleslaw, a small bun with some sort of meat inside it, and cheese melted over shredded carrots. Weird things. Came by later with a Blitz Ice cream bar. My favorite! Frozen solid. No movies so I read. Landed in Fiji.

Got off the airplane. Went through customs and immigration. The one really nice thing about coming back to Fiji is I get to go through the immigration line for residents and citizens, I don’t have to wait in line with all the tourists. SCORE. Picked up Alcazar. He was one of the last bags to come out. Went through biosecurity screening. Was asked if there was anything in my bag. They put It through scanners. I said no, just coffee. No dairy products, meat products, seeds, or fresh produce of any kind. Which was the truth. They didn’t know that 20.5 lbs of the stuff in my pack was food though…. Got through no problems. Thanked them and walked outside. Hot. Started sweating almost immediately. Walked my bag across to the domestic departures. Checked my bag in again to head over to Nausori airport. Waited. Got water. People watched. Realized that even though things (like the cars, busses, roads) are all backwards, that it made so much more sense to me.  I was struggling in America. It felt normal to be back in Fiji. I didn’t feel like a visitor. I felt home. I missed it. Went through security. Walked out onto the tarmac and up the stairs to the domestic Fiji Sun Airplane. 11 rows in the plane.2 seats on each side of the aisle. 44 seats in total. Only 14 passengers. Ended up sitting next to the same woman who I sat next to from Australia. We were hooting and hollerin’ with everyone in the plane about being back in Fiji. Before taking off the flight attendant passed out water, the Fiji Sun newspaper and moist towlettes- felt so good to scrub grime off my face. Relaxed. 15 minutes later landed in Nausori. Plane only goes up to 9,000 feet. Got off on the tarmac in Nausori. Walked over to baggage claim. Exhaustion is setting in at this point.  The baggage claim is just an oval track set outside. The Airport workers drive over the bags and then place them on the track one by one so they go around and people can pick them up. Once again hoisted Alcazar onto my shoulder and walked out the gate and hailed a cab. Took the cab to the hotel the PC puts us up in and ironically couldn’t fall asleep. Watched Fiji 1 TV  until I finally crashed and slept for 6 hours.

Pacific Sun airplane from Nadi to Nausori

 

The baggage claim at Nausori Airport

 

 

This was the major travel associated with my trip back home to Fiji.  All in all, the above portion took 39 hours.

 

October 24- Enjoy Suva. Sleep. Take a hot shower. Take care of some Suva work/business.

October 25-

1pm Depart Suva Bus Stand

5:35 arrive in the village.

If you want to know the details of this section of the trip, look up my post, “Getting Home, It’s Harder Than You May Think!” posted a little while ago.

My boyfriend Naca came to Suva to pick me up and bring me back to the village. This is on the ferry

 

So this entire trip, minus the down time I have in the Capital adds up to 43:35 hours. Then I’m home.

 

Heading Home

Hey all,

I know its been a long time since the last update- I have been on my home leave in America! Updates on that later. Just letting everyone know I am en route to Fiji. Crossing through 3 countries and taking almost 3 days to get back to the village. Slowly but surely making progress on getting back.

 

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins

 

Looking forward to getting home and getting back to work.Look for updates soon!

Moce

What this Village is Really Like (through photographs)!

We prepare for cyclones. Since being here we have had Cyclone Daphne, Jasmine, and in December last year, Cyclone Evan. 1. Sera, Me, Nani, Esita playing in the rain the night before the cyclone 2. boarding up the windows of the houses 3. preparing the windows and taking down the outside shed 4. looking at the clouds on the horizon.

So I guess the best way to explain to everyone what life in the village is like, the easiet way to do so is through pictures! Below I have posted a ton of little photo montages, mostly all on the same theme but some random pictures are thrown into some of them. Hope you enjoy and that this gives you a little glimpse into what life is like here in the village.

We have a beautiful Marine Protected Area set up through FLMMA (Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas) in 2006. 1. A barracuda in the tabu area 2. Christmas tree worms. 3. christmas tree worms. 4. Fungus coral being held up by a friend. 5. A purple haze of an oncoming storm 6. looking out to moturiki island through the tabu area 7. A sea cucumber 8. A huge hard coral being covered by seaweed from over nitrification of the water 9. a sea snake (dadakulaci) 10. Pretty storm rolling in while on a bamboo raft

 

We have gorgeous scenery. 1. Looking at the village during low tide from Koromarai, our small island offshore 2. Palm trees lining the back road of the village 3+4. looking down at the reef from up in the mountains behind the village. 5. Maraia and I went hiking up in the bush 6. Koromarai island just in front of the village, you can walk to it at low tide, and its about waist deep at high tide. 7. Looking out to Yanuca Lailai and Moturiki islands from atop a hill in Nubu settlement (the far boundary of our village land).

 

We know how to eat! 1. Making lolo, coconut milk from the fresh coconut scrapings. 2. The women on a woven mat serving tea during a work day at the church. 3. slitting a pigs throat for a funeral 4. women preparing vegetables at 3am for the funeral the next morning. 5. a feast we had at the community hall last year before I went home 6. holding a shocked chicken we are about to behead 7. the women with a bunch of cakes and custards made for breakfast the day of a funeral 8. the inside of the pig after we cleaned out the intestines 9. a line of dishes full of fijian food after a work day on our Water Project from habitat for Humanity Fiji, 10. setting up a lovo (earth oven), 11. When we chopped off the chickens head, its body went wild!

 

We cook… a lot… 1. My namesake and her granddaughter Maria cleaning fish guts 2. Lite sitting with a bowl of fresh reef fish 3. pig guts 4. fresh reef fish 5. a pile of fire wood 6. hanging around outside at a families cooking stove 7. some of the women serving food at a wedding 8. 3 women cleaning lumi (seaweed) 9. Malakai cutting up fireword 10. Selai cleaning

 

We drink a lot of grog. 1. Drinking grog after a rugby game 2. dressing up my neighbor Semi during the new years celebrations 3. Beso singing “Bau Nanumi au Eke” and getting powder put on his head and cloth around his shoulders 4. Melissa, our Chief, Joe and me drinking grog the night before they left the village. 5. Samu pounding the kava into a powder 6. Some of the older women at a grog session 7. singing music at grog 8. grog drying in the sun on a piece of roofing iron 9. Va fell asleep on a huge pile of dried kava

 

Like I said, lots of grog: 1. during a fundraiser 2. wedding grog 3. during teh new years dressing up the boys as girls 4. kava at one of my favorite houses 5. singing at our community hall 6. community hall 7. Jane dancing at the wedding 8. community hall 9. Playing guitars at the community hall

 

What some of our houses look like…. 1. our community hall after Cyclone Evan when the roof blew off 2. 2 small kids inside my house 3. My house on the right and my neighbors on the left with kava drying in between 4. houses during the water project 5. Nani on her way to the main road through some houses 6. clothes drying between houses. 7. eating lunch on a porch.

 

One again with the food…. 1. lumi a seaweed that is prolific along our coasts… just take it cover it with cooked coconut milk, onions, chilis, and garlic. 2. Nei Sabeta making eggplant curry outside- it was so hot so we pretty much do everything outside. The eggplants are grown right behind our houses. 3. raw food waiting to be put in the lovo, earth oven, breadfruit (uto), cassava (tavioka) and taro (dalo). 4. The boys putting the lovo together 5. the lovo 6. My roommate from Washington drinking fresh coconut (bu) and sugarcane (dovu) 7. Samu with a pig we killed that night for a funeral 8. A birthday cake for Josefa’s 89th birthday. There was a huge party for his birthday because they were afraid he wouldnt make it to his next birthday, we had his funeral in April this year. 9. One of the most delicious snacks ever… coconut water, shaved coconut and mashed up breakfast crackers

 

We are SUPER into rugby. Our village team is called the Narocake All Blacks. 1. Team picture last year 2. Some of the girls in the village holding our village motto “Rai Cake Narocake” on a banner 3. Everyone wearing black and white to celebrate the games 4. Naca 5. Tackles 6. posing when we won the challenge cup last year 7. boys after rugby practice at the village shop buying a cigarette 8. Me, Joe and Melissa with some of the rugby team last year 9. tackles

 

We have really erratic water supply… it gets disgustingly dirty at times. 1. When we had the induction for our new water system 2. frogs mating in our dam, 3. Mesu flicking the frogs out of the dam 4. Joe purchased materials to build up the dam to prevent things like frogs and mud from getting into the water supply so easily 5. our filter in the upper dam. Its supposed to filter the water straight from the spring, but someone punched a hole in the bottom cement so the water just flushes through 6. so from the picture before, this muddy, rocky slope is what the water travels down to get into the dam… definitely not clean. 7. dirty vs clean water 8. one of our pipes held together with cloth 9. one day of particularly terrible water.

 

We have a lot of water in our village: 1. The boys during village work week 2. kids playing in the creek 3. a little bit flooded after a rainstorm 4. the road, just filled with pot holes 5. playing in the ocean 6. Kelepi being thrown into the ocean 7. working on the Habitat for Humanity Water Project 8. The women tied up a celebratory length of material and the finish line of the water lines 9. The boys digging up the land for fitting in a new pipe for water.

 

We have interesting animals/good food: 1. drinking a coconut 2. Kevu with a snake 3. lairo or land crabs 4. kids eating unripe mangoes 5. a vokai or iguana like critter that kids brought by 6. Tima and Sera coming back from fishing 7. Seroma with a Duna or eel 8. little piggies 9. tea time in the afternoon

 

Cultural ties are really strong out here. We are more isolated from “development” in the larger areas like Suva, Labasa, and Lautoka… I think thats part of the reason that cultural ties are extremely strong 1. during a double wedding 2. the vakatuniloa (shed) made for one of the brides during the wedding 3. traditional gifts for just about anyone, woven mats, coconut oil, and sasa brooms 4. funeral mats (they are more ornate and piled up on the floor in front of the casket) 5. The funeral at the families house, all the mats, masi on the wall, and wailers. 6. carrying the casket to the graveyard on the far side of the village 7. wrapping the mats around the casket before lowering it 8. Me and a fellow Volunteer Alicia carrying mats to present at a funeral 9. The induction of our new village carrier. Before it was driven, they had a ceremony to bless it.

 

Day to day life: 1. clothes hanging on the line 2. Samu fixing a sewing machine 3. a small kid in a swing made from a tire 4. this is how to can stop a truck to get into town, we just have one small road around the island 5. playing cards 6. kids on the footpath 7. Watisoni with his son Kini 8. mother and daughter helping to clean the creek 9. Kini, such an adorable little baby

 

When we work together we can get awesome things done 1. dancing with Lite while cleaning up the creek after Cyclone Evan 2. Kimberly doing a Virgin Coconut Oil workshop in the village 3. digging fish ponds 4. bagging up sand to take up to the new dam 5. tooth brushing demonstration 6. brushing our teeth! 7. Vili painting the inside of the church 8. Semi with painted hands 9. Nei Sabeta carrying rocks from the creek to help create our anchors.

 

We dance, and use traditional medicine:: 1. Women and Children from the village gathered to watch the meke 2. Performing a meke or traditional Fijian dance for our village fundraiser 3. Sau, Lite and me after the meke 4. Sakapo getting a tattoo done in the village with a needle hooked up to a battery pack while drinking grog 5. Vili made me some Fijian medicine for sinus headaches 6. getting medicine put on some cuts 7. The girls ready for the meke we created for our library day fundraiser 8. all in matching outfits for a fundraiser 9. boys in nice outfits

 

Random village stuff 1. Palm Sunday 2. Our old green village carrier 3. Me adn Samu at grog 4. Weaving a mat 5. playing netball 6. exchanging christmas gifts 7. weaving mats 8. netball team

 

Village life: 1. riding around on a bamboo raft 2. digging the piggery foundation 3. washing off after a day of piggery work 4. gathering sand for our anchors 5. drinking grog 6. making anchors for coral planting 7. building up the piggery 8. Jo at tea time 9. The piggery

So there it is, life in the village through pictures!

Transition Times

The first question from the poll I would like to respond to in these subsequent blogs are the questions regarding readjustment, things I miss, things I’m excited for upon returning to the US. To clarify, these answers will discuss my final return to the states in August, 2014, not my month long home leave that starts in about 2 weeks.

What do I miss most from the states that I took for granted while living there:

Space. The last place I lived in Bellingham was a duplex with 2 roommates in a pretty small space.  They were awesome people and I loved living there. Here in Fiji, I have my own house so it’s not the physical space of living quarters I’m talking about here, but space in general. Open spaces. The ability to get away. I loved that about Washington, the ability to get in a car and go camping, mushroom hunting, fishing, or just to a new place. What I miss are the opportunities to explore larger spaces, the ability to travel around relatively inexpensively.

1. A mushroom from a trip to the Okanagan Valley in Washington, 2. Strawberries at a You-Pick farm near Bellingham 3. Oysters for a birthday in Sudden Valley 4. Canoeing up in Washington

 

Opportunities. I didn’t realize how much I took for granted things like our farmers market, concerts in the parks, workshops, excursions, short classes and trainings. There were so many opportunities to better yourself! Now that I live on this very small island, I realize how much I appreciate things like yoga classes, farmers markets, multiple dining options, thrift stores, camping trips, fishing seasons, berry seasons, just to name a few… those opportunities don’t exist out here. Granted they have been replaced by other types of opportunities I am equally grateful for, this point just serves to remind me that when I go back, there are so many ways to get involved!

The lack of obscure medical issues. I mean you get a cold, or the flu… no biggie. Here its a myriad of fungal infections, systemic issues, gastrointestinal distress etc.

1. An X-ray of my C-2 vertebrae that was messed up because of our terrible roads 2. a fungal infection in my ear crease. 3. Ringworm. 4. “Cyril” my ganglion cyst. Its come back 3 times and this time I named it Charlie.

1. a Fijian medicine to relieve sinus headaches… basically you snort the liquid up your nose and then the rest is put in your ear 2. after my infection went systemic and started popping up new sores everywhere 3. Putting the Wabosucu Fijian medicine on my cuts at the waterfall 4. The first boil I ever got

 

Libraries/Academia. There is a small library on the island out here and I started a library in the room attached to my house but it’s nothing compared to WWU’s library, Bellingham Public Library, second hand book shops. I miss being able to go to lectures, speeches, presentations and learning about things I didn’t know much about before. I really look forward to being able to attend these in the future. I think education is a life-long endeavor and I can’t wait to learn more when I get back.

Food. No surprises here… I miss being able to get just about anything I want at any time of the year. I miss being able to walk from my house down to the Co-op for a cup of soup or a glass jar of Twinbrook Farms chocolate milk! I miss being able to pick berries nearby because I feel like making a huckleberry/raspberry pie.  I miss being able to go out to a meal!  I miss cheese. Chocolate. Coffee. Wine. Good beer. Peaches, apricots, plumbs, grapefruits, spinach, pomegranates, chanterelles, salmon, morels, corn on the cob. I miss refrigeration. I miss being able to cook and actually keep the leftovers without fear of apocalyptic swarms of tropical bugs and critters coming after it in the night. I also know that when I go home for good, I will miss being able to go down the road, catch a fish, and cook it up for dinner. Ill miss fresh guavas, mangoes, passionfruits, papaya, pineapples, cacao, bananas, liga ni marama, and the adorable kids’ faces who bring these treats to my door. I’ll miss being able to hack a coconut off the tree and drink amazing coconut water! (For all of you into the new coconut water phase… I assure you… it doesn’t even compare to drinking a fresh coconut). I’ll miss the feasts for funerals and weddings and the all night (literally all night) preparations the women do. I’ll miss taking part in killing the pig and preparing it for the next days feast. I’ll miss the 5am pig liver “dinner” we all share as an energizer for the next 6 hours preparing for the funeral feast.

1. Bok Choy or Chinese cabbage that a small child brought to my house 2. Liga ni Marama (Ladie’s Fingers) bananas 3. eating a pineapple in the bush after a hike 4. purple long beans, carrot, and avocado

1. The beer I brewed with my Organic Chemistry study group! 2. Snowy day in downtown Bellingham 3. Baker Lake 4. Twinbrook chocolate milk and fresh picked blackberries

 

What am I excited about when I go back to the US:

I am actually really excited to get a job. I know it may sound a little crazy but I absolutely love what I studied at Western Washington University, I had amazing professors, lab instructors, and friends who were a wealth of knowledge and information. I owe a lot of my inspiration and passion to some of those individuals who guided my path. I am signed up to a few of my professors Job emails and every time I see an opportunity that fits with what I enjoy, I have to quell the excitement that rises in my stomach thinking about where I could live, what I could be doing, who I could be friends with. I think a lot about an apartment or room in a shared house. How I could decorate it, how it would be mine and not something the whole village uses. I’m excited to finally be able to take part in family and friends’ weddings, meeting their babies, basically being involved in their lives in a more personal way. I can’t wait for the fall in Washington (berries, salmon and mushrooms… anyone? Anyone?) .  I’m really excited to celebrate the holiday’s in America. 2014 will be the first holiday season spent in America since 2010. I love the feel of the holidays, being able to spend time with family and friends, gift giving, baking, and cold weather. I still absolutely hate the fact that Christmas in Fiji is a sweat-filled, nap fest. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas when there is the ever impending fear of a cyclone, or just potentially sweating to death. I’m really excited to own more than one pair of shoes. To be able to go to thrift shops with good quality clothing. To go on camping trips with friends.

1. Anemone collections at Cattle Point Washington 2. With a Dog fish shark we caught Long-lining in the Puget Sound with a Fisheries Management course 3. the internal anatomy of a barnacle we got during a Marine Invertebrates course 4. completing transects in the intertidal zone for Marine Inverts

1. an artificial tidepool research project to see if artificial tidepools can help with recruitment to various intertidal levels 2. Orca’s in the Puget Sound 3. On a backpacking trip with friends on the Olympic peninsula 4. a DELICIOUS Chicken of the Woods mushroom!

 

What I fear most about my return to the US:

I fear cultural alienation. I know that I’m an American, born and raised, but that can’t discredit the fact that when I return in August 2014 I will have been living in Fiji for 39 months. To put that in perspective, I only lived in Washington for 44 months. I fear the longing I know I will feel for Fiji.  I fear being “that person” who can only talk about the past three years of my life here in Fiji because I won’t have any cultural references in the US and be out of touch with life there… I fear that I will regret ever leaving this country at all. It’s like I have two lives, one in America and one in Fiji, and whatever country I chose I will always have a deep regret for leaving the other.  In Fiji, it’s like my life in America never existed. Nobody here knew the person I was in America and vice versa, in America, nobody will know the person I was in Fiji. They will know it via the pictures and blog posts… but nobody was here. In this village. Living this life for 3 years, and that is a scary thought.

Things back in the US I will have to relearn upon my return:

This will be interesting. Technology for sure… I have no idea how to use the Mac products that have seemingly taken over the world. I don’t understand “Instagram”, “Twitter”, “LinkedIn” or the use of Hashtags, which will forever remain pound signs to me.

Driving. As PCVs we aren’t allowed to operate motor vehicles for safety and insurance liability reasons. In Fiji the driver of the car/truck sits on the right hand side of the car and we drive on the left side of the road. Not like any of that really makes an impact on me because we have one gravel and pothole filled road around the island so traffic is not an issue… I want to live and find a job in Washington, Alaska, or Maine and all of those places have pretty abundant snowfall. When I lived in Washington before I just took the bus or walked when it was winter but I’m pretty sure when I get back I’m going to have to learn how to drive to my job in that kind of weather.

Bills. I don’t have bills in Fiji. When my 4.5 kg gas canister for cooking runs out, I just detach it and haul it into town to exchange it. When my electricity shuts off I take my little card to the grocery store and put another $5 on it, enter the numbers in the meter box at the back of my house and call it good. I don’t pay for a lot of services here like water, I just take what comes even though a lot of the time that means catching rainwater off my roof. I have to relearn how to create a budget and make sure all my bills are paid on time.

1. My meter box as of this morning… only .25 credits left… which means my electricity should shut off any minute now… 2. my 4.5 kg gas cylinder 3. fixing my sink pipe with duct tape after the rats chewed through it 4. fixing a leaking pipe to my toilet with lime green duct tape

 

Social skills. A lot of PCVs become friends in country because we were put through the same training programme, we relate to each other on a lot of levels based on the work we do and experiences we have, we also freely admit that a lot of us probably wouldn’t have met/become friends in America. We are weird. I think it’s perfectly acceptable to talk about poop, sickness, village witchcraft, the insane rise in price of goods over the past year, the proper way to decapitate a chicken, and randomly bust out in a Fijian song or halfway into a conversation switch to Fijinglish to get the point across properly. I think it may be a strain on friendships or family members to deal with that for an extended period of time. I think it will also be a shock to be able to hear and understand everything that people are saying. In Fiji, I have to focus and really listen to the conversation at hand in order to be involved in it. There is no such thing as passive listening in a group here. I think it may be a bit of information overload when I can go to a bar, dinner, class, work etc. and be able to easily understand what is being said.

1. We celebrate the odd… like making a paper airplane during training sessions and having it fly DIRECTLY in between two outlets… and stick. AMAZING! 2. we eat lunch off car hoods and in Peace Corps trucks on the beach 3. we are a weird breed indeed 4. we have random dance parties to fun songs

 

In looking forward to my return, what do I dread about starting my new life there:

I dread the fact that I have absolutely no idea where I will end up.  I would like to say that I am the amazingly overqualified person who deserves any job, but that just isn’t the case. There are so many incredible people in America who have been looking for work for a long time and I fear the limbo period of readjustment. I obviously dread the ever impending notice of my student loan debts. That, coupled with my lack of money necessitates a hasty re-entry into the work force. I don’t know where I will live. I don’t have a car. I have barely enough money to cover a first/last months rent and security deposit so will likely be abusing any friends who offer their couches. I dread the first winter, I love the fall and winter, but after living in the tropics for 3+ years that would be a hard adjustment on anyone.

I dread the reverse culture shock. When I came to Fiji I knew everything would be different. It’s part of what you sign up for. I signed up for change, for uncertainty, for language problems, for food issues, for medical issues. I knew that would be the case. Returning to America, I still foolishly think it will be exactly the way I left it. It’s just not the case, friends have moved to different states, people have real jobs, they have gotten married, they are having babies.

I also dread the feeling of alienation. Fijian villages are such tight knit communities that the adjustment to living on my own (or even with roommates) will probably still be difficult. In the village I can walk into anyone’s house, for any reason and its perfectly acceptable. I’m pretty sure if I tried that in America I would have the cops called on me.

1. With the Ministry of Fisheries while digging out fish pond, 2. Hanging out with Ministry of Agriculture on the Levuka Wharf 3. Preforming a meke or Fijian dance with the village 4. After the meke covered in charcoal, oil, baby powder, sweat and dirt!

1. hanging out with a piece of cow 2. Dancing with my uncle Tawake

 

All in all I will really miss Fiji, and I have no doubts the transition will be difficult in different ways.  I will miss the culture, I will miss feeling like a big fish in a little pond, knowing everyone in town and pretty much on the island. I am really looking forward to the next chapter of my life, whatever that may bring!

1. Tagging and releasing sea turtles 2. Performing “Conjunction Junction, Whats your Function?” at a literacy camp 3. Giving a presentation about village level environmental resource management 4. Dancing with Joeli for my birthday

 

Poll Time

I’m having a hard time coming up with something to talk about in a post lately… so vote and tell me what you want to hear about! Feel free to just add comments and ask questions about things you want to know!

Tobu Malea (Fish Pond)

 

How many of you have ever eaten tilapia? Probably quite a few… Now, how many of you have raised your own tilapia? Probably not as many. This post is going to explain that process and how our village turned a hole in the ground into a productive fish pond!

Minoni with one of the Malea (tilapia)

 

It all started very early last year, around February 2012 it was at a regular meeting of Mataqali Cake (one of our seven clans, and the largest clan in our village) they were discussing clan business around the iconic Fijian kava bowl when the idea came up to create an income generating project for the youth in the clan. After a few hours of discussion and seemingly endless bowls of kava, the idea to start a fish pond was born.

A kava session much like this one is where the idea was born

 

The next few months consisted of meetings and research with some individuals from the Mataqali to figure out the logistics of the project. Where the pond would be built, etc.

On May 22, 2012 we finally got some things coordinated and dug out our fish pond. Our pond was 30 meters by 50 meters and about a meter deep. We had a lot of representatives from the Ministry of Fisheries there and it was great to see those months of planning come to fruition.

The digger digging out our new fish pond!

Ministry of Fisheries representatives with the Turaga ni Koro and me

 

Then came the long period of waiting. It was long and annoying to sit around the village for nearly a year waiting for Fisheries to deliver the fingerlings. In the meantime, we fitted a water balance at the end of the pond to manually adjust the water level based on rainfall. During this time we also obtained quotations to create a water system to provide consistent waterflow to the pond during periods of no rain. We never got the funding. Because of the lack of funding (thus lack of ensured and consistent water to the area) Fisheries was hesitant to deliver the tilapia fingerlings to us for fear of project failure.

 

Eventually, on May 6, 2013 Fisheries did deliver 3,000 tilapia (malea) fingerlings to our fish pond!

Over the next 5 months, we watched the pond, fed the baby tilapia daily, and watched them grow.  It was a really great opportunity for people in the village to step up and ensure daily care of the pond.  We built a small house on the property so the caretaker could live there and created a small farm to grow vegetables on the area as well.

Tomasi in front of the care takers house and the garden

 

There were plenty weeks of little to no rain which always had everyone in the village on edge. If the pond dried out, the fish would die and we would have lost all the money that went into purchasing fish meal for them to eat. With no profit of sales to return that money to the clan, it would have been devastating. Every time we thought the fish wouldn’t last much longer without rain, we would get a huge rainstorm rolling in to fill the pond up again.

Finally, on August 15,16+17, we got the Ministry of Fisheries back to the village to complete the first harvest of the pond. Fisheries has to be present for all first harvests so they can teach the village how to sell the fish, and how to take accurate records of the fishing.

selling the malea from the back of the Fisheries truck

 

The first harvest happened at night so I wasn’t around for it, but the morning of the 16^th I woke up and rode to the settlement  where the pond is located and took tons of pictures of the catch! There were so many people in the water dragging the net through the muck at the bottom to catch those beautiful fish! The kids were so excited and for the most part helpful during the harvests. After our harvests that first morning, we drove the Fisheries truck straight to the rugby grounds in town to sell the fish during the Youth Day celebrations at Nasau Park. We had a huge tank with a bunch of fish in it for people to look at and purchase.  It was awesome to see the interest people had in this project!

The group pulling the net across the pond

Gathering the net up the bank of the fish pond

She was pretty freaked by the fish!

Brother and Sister helping out :)

 

Amini, the man who has single handedly floated this project through its rough patches, was there the entire day talking to people about the process of terrestrial fish farming.  It was so awesome to see him interacting with everyone and sharing his knowledge.

Amini talking over the tilapia bucket at Nasau park

the malea inside the bucket with an aerator going

a small girl at the park looking through the fish tank of goldfish that fisheries brought with them

 

After a free lunch of chop suey with sausage and rice from the government, Amini forced me to walk to the front of one of the vakatuniloa’s (bamboo and corrugated tin shacks) that had been set up in front of the stage for the days events to steal away the Minister of Youth and Sports and bring him back to our fish station to discuss the project.

I dreaded it. Not only and I one of about 7 white people that live on this island, I was being forced to walk around the shed and up to the front (where the people of honor are placed), interrupt the Minister while he was eating his lunch, and disrespect the others who were sitting around him by asking him to come to our shed. Eventually I agreed to put myself in the wrong for the greater benefit of the village… the Minister of Youth and Sports is an incredibly friendly guy and agreed to come see the fish immediately. We stood up and walked back to our tank.

Amini, the Minister of Youth and Sports, people from Fisheries and I all spoke for about 25 minutes regarding the project and how the Ministry of Youth and Sports could help us by assisting our request for funding the water infrastructure development to the pond. The Minister and I spoke about how it makes more sense economically to have at least 3 ponds on a rotating harvest so that there is always a supply of tilapia available as opposed to a once every 5 months harvest. We talked about the Village Development plan I helped the village create and how this fit into our plans. We also talked about the environmental benefits of growing fish based protein on land as opposed to fishing in the already overfished oceans to provide such protein. He was wonderfully receptive and at the end of our conversation ensured we would have the money to complete the water infrastructure by the end of the year!

Talking with the Minister of Youth and Sports at the bucket in Town

Amini talking with the Minister of Youth and Sports by our stall at Nasau Park in Levuka

 

The next morning I woke up bright and early to await the tell-tale signs of the Fisheries truck coming into the village with fish. I ran out and bought $5 worth of tilapia (which was 8 fish! A really good deal if you ask me). I ran back to my neighbors house to ask if I could store the fish in their deep-freeze, my neighbor Sabeta said of course so I quickly stowed them away and ran back to the truck.

$5 worth of malea!

 

When we reached the pond this time, I handed off the camera to someone else… there was no way I was going to miss harvesting these beauties a second day in a row!

I threw off my sulu, put my shoes under a coconut tree and (as gracefully as you could muster on a slimy pond bank) slid into the water. I grabbed the lead line (the side of the net that is slightly weighted) and helped the group pull the net across the pond keeping it as close to the bottom as possible. Our hands were running through 3-6” of muck at the bottom, but we wanted to make sure we got as many of the fish that remained as possible. I could feel the fish slap my calves more frequently the closer we got to the opposite side of the bank. My fingers (along with just about everyone else there) were pierced by those sharp spines. When we got to the far end of the bank we were all pretty worn out. Pulling a net, backwards, 50 meters, carrying hundreds of fish and a significant amount of mud is not easy work!

getting ready for the third haul

 

the third harvest

 

I hopped up on the bank and acted as the counter. In each of our small white “breakfast cracker buckets” (named so because you can buy like 20 packages of breakfast crackers inside one and you get a really handy bucket) we would count off 30 fish. In the big green bucket we counted out 100 fish and man that sucker was heavy!

Counting fish off in a breakfast cracker bucket

Hauling out the huge green bucket… It was so heavy

 

They took to the load into town to sell the fish again. I stayed back in the village. Saturday is a good day to sell fish because everyone is making their purchases for Sunday lunches, there are also a few Taiwanese boats in  town. When the men came back from selling, they told me that a few different people on the ships came with $100 or $150 and just bought a huge amount of fish!  It was awesome to hear their excitement.

So you may be wondering about the money. If we sell 1kg (2.2lbs) of tilapia (malea) for $7, how much money are we making here? Well, we will be calculating the actual numbers tonight based on the survival rate. We expect our survival rate to be between 65-80% for this first round, out of 3,000 fingerlings that works out to between 1,950-2,400 fish. The survival rate is expected to be fairly low because this is the first round of fish for the pond, so it is adjusting, also the fact that we don’t have regularly flowing water through the pond could account for a significant amount of fish mortality. There were approximately 7 fish/kg- so if we say we had a total of 2,175 fish, that is about 310 kgs of tilapia, at $7/kg  we would make about $2,170. Half of that money is going into an account to help pay for school fees of children in the clan who have a hard time making ends meet. The other half of the money will be reinvested into various clan projects and to help with the next season of tilapia growing!

Last night I scaled and gutted 2 of my fish, cooked up some uvi (yam), and sliced some tomatoes and cucumbers so Naca and I could celebrate the completion of part one of the Tobu Malea (fish pond) project.

Naca stuck the malea on the tap… it was so funny!

Our dinner last night… fried malea, uvi (yam) with tomatoes and cucumbers

yummy fish! Too bad my pan isn’t really non-stick anymore… it was still delicious!

 

So, this is our fish pond, our first of many harvests, and a much needed harvest celebration!

If you want to see all the pictures of our awesome project, check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151807174931900.1073741830.688501899&type=1&l=cae845b69f

Culinary Quest Part 2

In the quest for the perfect substitute for chips and salsa, here is my second Indian-food inspired concoction… Besan Paare and Tomato Chutney!

Besan Paare “chips” with tomato chutney “salsa”. Delish finished product!

 

See the last post “Fried Plantains and Tomato Chutney” https://bulasamantha.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/fried-plantains-and-tomato-chutney/   for the chutney recipe… here is the recipe for Besan Paare.

1 cup flour

1 cup Besan flour (chickpea flour)

4 TBSP oil

1 ¼ tsp salt

1 tsp chili flakes

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp turmeric powder

½ cup water

 

Mix all the dry ingredients. Add oil and just enough water to create a smooth but firm dough. Cover the ball of dough with a damp cloth for 10 minutes. Knead for another minute and then divide dough into 4 parts. Make each part into a flattened ball and then roll thin into 9” circles. Prick the dough with a fork frequently. Cut into ½” x 3”slices. Heat ½”-1” oil in a medium pot and fry the slices until lightly golden brown. Place on a piece of newspaper after they finish cooking to drain the excess oil.

Besan Paare dough rolled out on my roti board, poked with a fork, and sliced!

Draining away the extra oil

 

Let them cool a bit to firm up.

Eat em together and it’s a delicious Indian alternative to traditional chips and salsa.

The besan paare “chips” kind of taste like a fried pita chip… but mixed in with awesome indian spices. These were so easy to make and tasted really good! Can’t wait to try them with hummus, babaganoush or put them on top of salads! Hmm… Indian themed tortilla soup anyone?

Finished Besan Paare… such a delicious food!

*Note: I made a quarter of the recipe, I don’t usually make full batches because lets be honest…. I’m one person. The plate at the beginning of the post shows all the besan paare the 1/4 batch made which was perfect! Hope you all enjoy this and try it out!

Inspiration and Commitment

 

I think these are the two most valuable words to a Peace Corps Volunteer at any point in their service. Inspiration and Commitment. Seems easy enough right? It can be at times, but it can also be incredibly draining and exhausting to constantly be the one who is trying to inspire a whole village, to create such excitement about projects and ideas that others follow easily to learn new information and ways to protect this incredible place. That constant inspiration of others, well, it takes a lot of commitment.

 

I have had a few “off” weeks. I will place part of the blame on my third (yes, THIRD) bout of giardia. I’ll save you the gnarly details but if you want to know what it is, Wikipedia it, it’s not pretty.  A lot of my reclusiveness in the past weeks has also been due to the fact that most of the group I came here with (FRE-9 or Fiji 88’s as we get called now) have officially COS’d and are traveling around the world or have gone home and I’m still here. On this tiny island that’s approximately 180 square kilometers (for reference, Rhode Island is 4,002km²) it can feel incredibly isolating and lonesome without a great project to divert your attention to. I realized after a few days that I needed to just take a break which can be really hard to do out here. On the main islands in Fiji (Vanua Levu and Viti Levu) there are about 12 volunteers per island meaning volunteers can just hop on a bus for about $10 and go spend the weekend with someone new, visit a new area, etc. That’s nearly impossible being stationed out here. Just to get into Suva costs $35 one way, plus any bus fare to another area, some money to compensate the volunteers I would be staying with, and then reversing the cost of the whole trip just to get back. Its just not worth it to me most of the time to spend 20% of my monthly living allowance just get off the island for the weekend. So I resigned myself to my house for a solid week aided by the fact that I had unpredictable emergencies caused by the giardia infection. I stayed at home drinking tea and watching endless episodes of LOST. Word to the wise… don’t watch LOST in Fiji… especially on a small island. There are entirely too many similarities to ensure your sanity remains intact.

Finally, one morning I woke up and decided enough was enough. It was time to change the world. Recommit myself to the process; inspire myself so that I could in turn attempt to inspire others.  The week or so I gave myself as a break was exactly what I needed and I ended up a better volunteer for it.

I have spent days pouring over resource books I have stashed in the library we built attached to my house. Workbooks on freshwater education, disaster management, clean water workshops, biological monitoring etc. and committed myself to 3 projects I think will be just awesome.

1. PCPP Water Infrastructure Development Project: I have been working really hard on the preparation for this project which we won’t be starting until after the construction of the pig pen. I don’t want this project to just be construction and having more water available here in the village. I want this project to be a demonstration, I want the village to learn how to purify their own water with biological filters, I want them to understand disease transmission, how to prevent water from being contaminated in the first place etc. It’s been taking me days creating lesson plans, translating them into Fijian, finding new ways to teach this information so that people are incredibly excited about creating and sustaining clean water sources in the village.
2. World Map Project: A world map project is a really common Peace Corps Project throughout the world, you can look up images of world maps throughout the world. It’s a great way to teach village children about geography and a really fun project for the village to come together on. We are going to paint the mural on the side of my house. The map will be 140cm by 280cm and we are going to create a border around the outside of the map that is the masi design. I’m really excited about this project and cant wait to see how this village pulls together for it!

The wall we will be using to paint our world map!

 

1. Oceans Fair: This is probably the project I am most excited about. It came about while drinking grog one night at a friends house and I have just been adding to it ever since. It will take a while to pull everything together, but once we do… well I just cant wait to see how it goes! The premise for the idea is that the village will host a 3 day Fair centered around Marine management and knowledge enhancement. We will host representatives and individuals from each of the 5 villages in our district (tikina) as well as have representatives to participate and present from different ministries in town. The Fair will include games, activities, and workshops. Things like a bilibili race (bamboo raft races), water polo games, beach volleyball games, small fair like games for the children all with an oceans theme. We will have activities like beach clean ups, mangrove planting, monitoring excursions, coral planting, and lumi farming interactive learning sessions. All of these will be coupled with presentations and workshops in various marine areas like reef conservation, biological monitoring, catch per unit effort, the impacts of Marine Protected Areas, how to take care of your MPA, EBM (ecosystem based management) explaining the linkages between what we do in the mountains and in the village and how this impacts our oceans. I’m so excited to plan this and can’t wait to see it come together. We will probably host this sometime in December or February.

Aside from these new (or in the case of the PCPP project, revamped) projects… I started doing things just to make myself happy.

I made chapstick from beeswax, virgin coconut oil (that I had made last month), raw honey, and lemongrass essential oil that I made about 8 months back. Its refreshing and nice to make something for yourself.

4 TBSP Virgin Coconut Oil, 2 TBSP shaved beeswax, 2 tsp raw honey, 15 drops lemongrass essential oil. Boil in a bowl fit above a boiling pot of water until thoroughly melted. pour in small canister to let set. I used a small jam jar I bought from Levuka town.

 

I made bagels. A lot of bagels. They are SO easy and such comfort food its ridiculous!! Just take 1 TBSP yeast, 1 TBSP sugar and ¾ cup warm water. Wait about 5 minutes or so until the yeast gets all bubbly. Add around 2 cups flour, 1 tsp oil, and ½ tsp salt. Mix it all up and knead until smooth. Cut into 6 equal parts, sprinkle each with a  little extra flour and roll (like when kids make “snakes” with play dough…) connect the ends together by pinching. Boil a pot of water and add a tablespoon of sugar to it. Pop in 3 bagels at a time and let boil in the water for approximately 30 seconds per side. Take them out from the water and drain all excess water away. Place on a flat surface (I use my cutting board). Cover the bagels with a dishtowel. After about 15 minutes cover the bottom of each bagel in polenta (cornmeal) and bake. I don’t have an oven so I don’t really know what temperature or for how long. On my stove oven its about 15 minutes on medium high. If you really want to replicate what my bagels turn out like, turn on your gas stovetop, place a cast iron, or other heavy bottom dish down. Fill the bottom with cleaned sand or even leveled gravel, place a smaller dish on top (I use the pan from my backpackers set I brought with me because there is no handle, you could use a pie dish or just a circle cake pan). Invert a large pot over the top, ideally one that lines up with your heavy bottomed skillet and “seals” the thing together. Bake those bagels! Like I said, I have been obsessed with bagels. I made cinnamon raisin bagels and topped them with peanut butter… regular bagels and made sandwiches out of them, and “Italian bagels” with oregano, garlic and basil baked into them and then sliced them in half and cooked them again with tomatoes and veggies on top to simulate bagel pizzas. Like I said, bagel obsession.

Bagels before being boiled and baked.

Delicious finished product

 

I also decided to start some French beans growing in my window sill until they get big enough for me to put outside without fear of the man wielding the brush cutter slicing them apart on grass cutting days! I dried out some French bean pods I bought at the vegetable stands in Levuka town, then placed them in recycled 1.5liter Fiji Water bottles with the sides cut out, and slits cut in the bottom for proper water drainage. Inside the bottles I placed a little bit of gravel to aid in drainage, its so humid here and rains so much the last thing you want is for your plants to get waterlogged and mold… then topped them with some compost mixed with a little bit of washed sand to aid in aeration. I then put 2 seeds per bottle and watched em grow! My test went well so I now have 2 plants that are much more mature than my other plants! Hopefully in about 3 months I will have an awesome amount of French beans growing right in front of my front door! Just have to hope the chickens, wild dogs, land crabs, mice and children don’t get to them first…

The compost pile my neighbor and I regularly add to, the french beans 4 days after sprouting, the dried beans, the day the french beans sprouted.

 

I also started thinking about income generating projects to do with the Women’s Group here in the village that requires little to no initial capital to start up. I thought about what every woman loves… and came up with the idea that we could make chocolate! We have wild cacao trees growing in the bush behind the village and in a grove about 2 miles down the road so one day I went and grabbed 3 big pods and started my experiment. I haven’t told anyone in the village about it yet, I want to see if I can get the pods to properly ferment and then run through the whole process myself first to see if it’s a viable option before getting a group excited about something I can’t deliver on. It would be a really fun way for the women to get together and make something we can sell in the village or even in town if it turns out well… stay tuned for details on this one!

Cacao pods, the inside after the beans have been cleaned out, the beans inside the pod, cocoa beans!

The beans on day 2 of the fermentation process

 

So this is what my mind has been churning out lately. Hope you enjoyed hearing about it!