This morning Suva and Nausori Volunteers got called into the PC office as a precaution. Below is the latest news from the Fiji Times. Things have been quiet so far, unlike the civil unrest I'm used to in Bolivia, where, when there is unrest, you feel it, you see it thick in the air. That is what is scary about this situation, nobody really knows what's going on, some people think there will be a coup, others don't think so.. I was just downtown, getting mony from the atm. The lines are long and there are people everywhere. Photographers and camera crews running around shooting footage. Police are also around and I've seen a couple of military trucks driving around.
If anything does happen, if the Military in fact does go ahead with their "clean-up campaign" we will be put in a car and taken to a "safe" place. Right now there is about an hour and a half left until deadline, we'll see what happens.
I'll keep you upadated.
read below from Fiji Times...

Calm but tense ahead of deadline
1030 FJTFriday, December 01, 2006
Update: 10.30AM

Fiji's capital, Suva, is calm but tense this morning, with a little under two hours to go until the deadline for government reforms set yesterday by army commander Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama arrives.
There have been long queues at banks and cash machines around the city and supermarkets are doing brisk business as people stock up on essentials.
There is no increased military or police presence in the city at this time.
Many businesses will be close at 11.30am, sending staff home ahead of the noon deadline for an army takeover.
The University of the South Pacific will close at 11.30am and many schools are thought to be doing the same. Today is the last day of school for the year.
President Ratu Josefa Iloilo and Commodore Bainimarama are now meeting at Government House.
It is expected that Commodore Bainimarama will ask the President to declare a state of emergency allowing the military to move in an maintain control.
Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase was scheduled to open the Attorney-General's conference at the Warwick Resort on the Coral Coast, this morning but did not attend. He is engaged in crisis meetings in his office in Suva.

Peace Corps, along with all the International Aids have sent out a warning to standby if this escalates. But don't worry, or as we say in fiji Sega na lega, all is fine for now, and it looks like this too might blow over.

From Reuters
Fiji prime minister rejects coup threat
Fiji's prime minister is refusing to resign in the face of threats of a coup from the country's military chief.
"There is absolutely no question of me resigning ... or of my government stepping down," Laisenia Qarase said on Wednesday in an address to the nation on local radio.
"We have the constitutional authority and the support of the people to rule now and for the next five years."
Military chief Frank Bainimarama has threatened to force Qarase to resign unless he drops two contentious bills, including one offering amnesty to some of those involved in a coup in 2000.
Bainimarama has accused the Qarase government of being soft on those involved and said that while the coup leader, failed businessman George Speight, was in prison those who backed him were now in parliament.
He said he regretted appointing Qarase as interim prime minister following the coup. Qarase has since won two free elections.
Military march
The military plans a march by 3,000 reservists through the streets of Suva on Thursday, a day after Fijian soldiers drove through the streets of Suva and took control of tonnes of ammunition from the waterfront.
Fijian political leaders failed to remove Bainimarama from his position on Tuesday, with the military rallying around him.
Indigenous Fijians fear losingpower to ethnic Indian Fijians"Bainimarama is still commander and now the government is in a dilemma and will have to eat their words," commander Colonel Pita Driti told Fiji media on Wednesday.
Bainimarama, currently visiting troops in the Middle East, said he would remove Qarase from office once he returned to Fiji, saying the government was corrupt.
"I'll be back to see that Qarase and his cronies step down," he told the Fiji Sun newspaper on Wednesday. He is expected back in Fiji later this week.
Qarase said police were investigating Bainimarama's threats. "The rule of law must prevail. No one is above the law, no one has the right to interfere with the legal process."
Fiji has suffered three coups and a failed mutiny since 1987.
Racial tension
The coups have been racially fuelled, with indigenous Fijians fearful of losing political control of their island nation to ethnic Indian Fijians, who dominate the economy.
Australia has placed two warships on standby to evacuate its citizens.
"We are very concerned about the possibility of a coup in Fiji," Alexander Downer, Australia's foreign minister, told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
The US said it could suspend aid if troops do not respect constitutional processes and the rule of law.

For the past 3 weeks, I've been living out of my bag and calling the Capricorn hotel my home. The housing issue has become a major problem, The ministry of health hasn't been able to find Jamie and I a house, so we have stayed put, displaced, but waiting...
There have been times when I've wanted to say, oh, the hell with it, I'm going home... If nothing good happens before the end of the day, I'm outta here. But then something good happens, like the day I forgot my umbrella and I was getting soaked walking from the bus station to the hotel, and a man held up his umbrella for me. Or just this past weekend, when my good aussie friend Tim and I took off for the weekend and camped on the Coral Coast... our toes in the sand, and laying in hammocks watching the sun set deep into the horizon. We walked along the shore and collected shells in my sun hat and then threaded them into Tim's dreads... And swimming... Believe it or not, this was the first time I had been to the beach in Fiji, (besides our water safety day during training). There is something about the ocean, swimming in crystal clear, turquoise water washes everything away... Vitamin D also helped with my spirits, not to mention my brown skin. Although we were only gone for a weekend, we came back to the chaos of Suva refreshed and renewed and tanned.
OK, so things aren't that bad, they could be worse, i guess. It was just being in limbo, for three weeks there was so much uncertainty. It was felt thick. Feeling powerless and not able to grasp control of where i was, where i wanted to be or where i was going was driving me insane!
So PC gave me a choice... I could stay in Suva, and live in the Nurses Quarters (ummmm... for those of you who know me well, KNOW that this is just not an option, I hate feeling caged in) OR I could move to a village, about 4-5 hours away from Suva, way up in the interior Highlands. I don't know anything about this village, except that there are 9 families that live there, there is no main road access, and the closest village is an hour and a half away. It's supposed to be beautiful up there, and cold.
So i was thinking a lot, maybe i was thinking too much... It got to the point where I could remember the reasons why I left San Francisco, i just couldnt remember the reasons why i came to Fiji, or Peace Corps for that matter....
But how does one come to make the right choice? what is right?
I felt like i had to make the decission of joining the Peace Corps all over again. Do I stay in Suva, where all my basic comforts can be met? Do I stay at NCHP, where I am working in my field, and there is room for growth and advancement in terms of my own carreer?
Slowly but surely, I started experiencing the same feelings and inner struggles I was faced with before leaving San Francisco. I remember a huge part of the decission in coming here was because I wanted to live humbly. I wanted to be able to remove myslef from the environment that I know and live with the idea of separating my "needs" from my "wants". I wanted to feel the rawness of a foreign culture, get to know the people, live with them, eat with them, become part of them...
This is my struggle in Suva, while it provides a different culture from what i knew back home, it is still an urban setting, Internet access and telefones and coffee shops and red wine available whenever I want... It is harder to find authenticity in the city because there is so much diversity, and people are on a faster pace. Most of the kids here are westernized, mimicking hip hop styles and mtv starlets.... How is this different from home? How did I end up here?

For those of you who havent heard....
Our house in Suva was burgled! I'll try not to go into full details, as it still makes my stomach turn and I've had to re-tell and re-live this story for everyone and their mothers during the past week or so.
Basically, a burglar came into my house, through the kitchen window, cut through the burglar bars and helped himslef to wander our house while we were sound asleep in our rooms. He even came into my room, where i was sleeping with a fellow volunteer and took my purse, containing my wallet with ids, check cards, my memory card with all my photos (at least he didt take my camera, it was locked up in one of my drawers). In my purse was also the ipod that my sisters sent me for my birthday, my phone, and my p.o.box key. We luckily had other volunteers staying with us that night, but they too, got their stuff stolen. Cameras, ipods, phones, speakers, wallets... We basically got cleaned out! The scary thing is we didnt hear him, and i'm a pretty light sleeper! i even wake myslef up at times if i hear my teeth grinding against each other or the sound of the wind would sometimes wake me up. But not this time. The story gets worse. We called my stolen phone with my roomates phone and the guy answers! Not only that, but he tells us to give him our pin numbers (wich we obviously DIDNT do) & starts making obscene comments and goes as far as calling all the female volunteers in my phone trying to get their addresses and also saying obscenities to them. He even called my sister in Chicago.
So for the past week I've been living in a hotel, out of my bag once again, displaced, uncertain and leaving my fate up to PC programming. They are working on getting us a house - or, god forbid...nurses quarters-, but there are many steps involved in the process. They have to make sure the ministry of health is going to pay for it, that it is a sturdy enough house to withstand a cyclone, that there are burlgar bars in place (i recently learned that burglar bars are not in fact bars to prevent burglars from coming into your house, but rather are there to give you five minutes of deterrence from the burglar). It sucks because we had just settled in, we had finally made the house a home and in a matter of hours, it was nothing but an empty shell, with boxes and plastic bags on the floor... I'm back to basics now, and, oh well.... it's like my dad says, "I ain't got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of..." At least he didn't take my sense of humor, no?

20 de septiembre (Fiji time)

Como se mide el amor?
No creo que se hayan inventado palabras que describan el sentimiento en mi corazón. Es un sentimiento más allá de la felicidad, mezclado con sentimientos de nostalgia. Un sentimiento de orgullo de pertencer a esta familia. Una cadena indestructible que se alimenta de amor. La que me apoya, me ayuda a levantarme cuando caigo, que me ama sin barreras, incondicionalmente.
Si el amor se pudiera medir, el amor que les tengo rompería cada balanza en el mundo. Si fuera cuestión de distancia, tendrían que navegar todos los oceanos y las estrellas, y aún así, la distancia no igualaría el amor que siento por mi familia. Mi familia, única e irremplazable, mi familia.
Se acuerdan nadar en las montañas de arroz en la cooperativa de papi en mineros? Y luego mami le reñía porque llegabamos llenas de bichos. Se acuerdan coleccionar caracoles? Nuestras caras pintadas con la luz de luciernagas? Se acuerdan comer pito en la tienda de doña rosita? Pescando pirañas en el río, nadando en bombachas y luego sentir el calor de una toalla en los brazos de mami. Me acuerdo de la casa en Santa Cruz, y los juegos que inventabamos para pasar el tiempo, en la camioneta azul del tío miguel, olores que invadían el aire, a lechón, a churrasco con cerveza. Jugabamos “lobo lobito” en una llanta tamaño “SCANIA”. Me acuerdo de “beat the bus!” por las mañanas.
Me acuerdo cambiar el calor y la humedad del trópico por una nueva jungla de cemento, el frío y el viento seco de La Paz. Cambiamos piojos por chapas en las mejillas. Me acuerdo que al llegar a la casa de Achumani dormimos todos juntos en un colchón. Se acuerdan chicas? Que enorme era la casa? Y nosotras, unas cunumis patapilas, princesas en un castillo con rejas rojas marcadas con el #800. Me acuerdo de un teléfono que no paraba de sonar. 796649. Se acuerdan de las fiestas en la casa? Familia, amigos, voluntarios… una casa con las puertas abiertas, como los corazones de los que nos criaron. Una casa abierta, con tucanes y conejos y tortugas, nadando en el agua o comiendo lechuga con el tatú en el jardín. Una casa abierta, una cocina impermeada con olores de café, ajo, miel, ají y quirquiña.
Como se mide el amor?
Se mide por el numero de sonrisas, por los sonidos de carcajadas, se mide con abrazos y besos y desayuno en la cama el día de cumpleaños. Se mide con un helado con chocolate todos los domingos. Se mide con flores frescas en el living. Se mide con hermanas que pelean y se jalan de los pelos, pero que se abuenan con sonrisas compartiendo ropa y secretos y copas de vino.
Como se mide el amor? Se mide con música tocando fuerte en el auto, con telefunken y películas debajo de mil frazadas y almohadas. Se mide con momentos, con historias que nacieron de un pozo seco, o un estuche de guitarra cargado de comida. Se mide con aventuras, nadando con tortugas en Hawaii, se mide con vacaciones, comiendo camarón en Salvador do Bahía, tomando caipiriñas y bailando samba en la arena. Se mide con ojos moreteados por cocos en las Bahamas, con piel que absorbe el sol debajo de las poleras que mami nos hacía lucir en el agua. Se mide con locuras y shows de “las comadres” completos con comerciales de “la mostaza más fina”. Se mide con un hermanito para besar y cargar hasta que los brazos se cansen. Se mide con llantos que se convierten en mariposas y sonrisas, se mide con peleas que terminan en abrazos y un “lo siento”. Se mide con salteñas, con un mate de coca para calmar el sorojchi.
Como se mide el amor?
Se mide con sacrificios. Se mide con las locuras de un padre, visionario, gitano y revolucionario. Se mide con las caricias de una madre de porcelana y de fierro. Se mide con un hermano que cuenta muñecas y hermanas, asegurándose de que no falte ninguna.
Hoy cumplo 25 años. En Fiji, Rua sagavulu ka lima.
25 años de vida, que gracias a todos ustedes, mi familia, mi cadena de amor, mi fortaleza y energía, han sido llenados de 25 años de experiencias que no se pueden comprar. “Todo no se compra, todo no se vende, conozco una lista interminable de cosas que son más importantes que la seguridad…” (-tanguito)
Como se mide el amor?
El amor quizas no se mida, quizás es necesario vivirlo, sentirlo entre las venas, y despertar un día, cuando cumplas rua sagavulu ka lima años y te sientas la persona más afortunada del mundo, por haber vivido y compartido y amado de la manera en la que yo lo hice, y continuo haciendo, día tras día.
Mi familia, como los extraño, y quisiera tenerlos cerca el día de hoy, pero me acuerdo de sus sonrisas y el calor de sus abrazos, y cargo sus corazones bien envueltos -como humintas- en mi corazón.

"TO BE AFRAID AND LEAP REGARDLESS...THERE IS SUCH POWER IN THAT."

-Sabrina Ward Harrison

I'm feeling a bit frustrated with this whole job situation.
On one hand, I feel that the work I will be doing here at NCHP provides an avenue to be able to reach the entire country, and that's huge. On the other hand, I feel like I'm back to the 9-5 job back home. I never expeceted my Peace Corps job to include computers, much less available internet. It's not that I'm complaining, its just sometimes i just want to paint murals or work with women on their handicrafts or build a playground, or find an orphanage and start a workshop. I feel like the work i'm doing is not as hands-on as i expected it to be.
I work in Tamavua, a village located about 15-20 bus ride from Suva. The Fiji School of Medicine and the Fiji School of Nursing are both adjacent to my building, as is the stroke rehabilitation center. My counterpart's name is Komai, he is from an island named Gau. People here call him "Ratu" which means chief. I think he might have been a chief in his village. My friend Katie is serving in Gau. She and Tui (her mangey village dog) were just in Suva re-stocking on food and supplies and stayed with us for a few days. She said the villagers eat dog in Gau.
I wonder what dog tastes like. Hopefully they won't eat Tui.
I also work with a Tongan guy, Vilisoni, we call him Sony. He's on attachment from the Ministry of Health in Tonga. He came to NCHP to learn how to use design software. So far, I've made that my priority. I've been teaching him Photoshop and we'll move on to Illustrator and InDesign before he leaves back for Tonga in November. He's a really cool guy, an incredible artist. He's also a tattoo artist, did some work on another volunteer friend of mine, jenny. I'm contemplating on weather or not i want to get a tattoo from him before he leaves. He says when I travel through Tonga I can stay with him and his family. I would love to visit Tonga.
I also work with Tomasi, he's the lead designer at the center. Although he's had formal training on design software, There is still that aesthetic element missing on a lot of his work. I find that I feel awkard when I build my posters because they are so different from all the work he does. So i've been bringing in a bunch of magazines, different examples of more contemporary design ideas... It seems like Tomasi will be harder to get through to... He seems stuck in his ways. But he's a nice guy, he's always blasting music from his computer. He sings to Fijian Gospel at the top of his lungs, or SIngs along to the Lion King Soundtrack. WTF!? It's actually hilarious.
So far I've designed a Mental Health Brochure, a Diabetes Poster and fact card, a logo for "AGLOW" the organization my friend Rob is working with, and 3 posters for Accident and Injury prevention (Road Accidents, Drowning, and Sports Injuries) All of these things, (except for the aglow logo) are still pending. I think my frustration comes from the slow-ness of the process for getting anything done here. Everyone says they'll get back to me for approval on these things, but they never do. So basically everything I've done is still sitting in a pile, not moving forward. It's just frustrating to want to be done with something, but instead i have a million unfinished things, waiting for approval to go to press. I guess it's not that bad, I still come to work everyday and most of the time I just have tea, hang out and chat it up with the staff. I'm really looking forward to my Secondary Project, I can't wait to get my hands on some paint and go out and paint some murals with some suva kids.... more on that later.

Meet Kata. She loves dancing to greatful dead at 3AM,
speaking fijian, and jumping off cliffs into the water.
She enjoys drinking grog and taki'n na bia, and Seinfeld trivia!
She loves and lives passionately.

Meet Ropate. That's Fijian for Robert. We laugh a lot.
He's a crunchy hippie with gnar feet, but he wears FANCY sunglasses.
He goes commando under his tie-dyed sulu, noodle dances like a pro
and I have no idea how his enourmous heart fits in his yogi body.
(you're my boy blue!)

Meet Carrie. (known in Fiji as the girl from china)

She understands my randomness.

Her laughter is contagious. She enjoys iced coffee,
she can knit a beenie on a bus ride from Sigatoka to Suva!
She loves surfing and all things involving the wai tui.

My friend, Tukai's beautiful daughter

Presenting Whale's tooth to President ( This is the highest form of honor & respect)

Foto: Compliments of Katie Lailai

Ladies coming back from Sunday church service... "masu mada"

This is an old picture of Aji's family I found while at my stay in the village...

The girl in the middle with the long black hair looks EXACTLY like my sister Heather.

(Chiki- que haces en la foto! its crazy how much you look like this lady.. I found your clone!)

Why I ever owned a hamster as a child is beyond me...
I HATE rodents. Yes, indeed, I had another encounter last night. Except this time it was a rat. A big, black, hairy, jungle rat. There is an air-con unit in my room, because the previous volunteer that lived in our house was a Peace Corps Princess... or so they say... It's mounted on my wall, above my bed, all bulky and dusty...Anyhow- it was never my intention to use the air-conditioning in the first place, i don't even know how to turn it on.
Here's the story:
I wake up to the sound of chewing. I know that sound, loud and clear, I could recognize that sound anywhere. I think I've been scarred for life since the incident with the Saweni mice. The sound was the same, only a louder, a bigger sound (if that even makes sense). At first i thought it was the bats that chill out by my window, I've become accostumed to their squeeling at night, it kind of sounds like they are giving birth....
So when I realize the sound is coming from inside the house, inside my room, right above my bed, i freak out. I throw the sheets off me and turn on the light. yeah. Sure enough, a thick, black rat tail is curled up agianst the wall, sticking out of that old, dusty air-con machine. The rat is still, paralyzed and silent. I think it was trying to get me to think it wasn't there. But it was there all right, black and hairy and big...there was no way i could ignore that thick black tail... uggghhh. i'm getting squeemish just thinking about it. So i look around my room for something, i don't know what, just something to get the rat out of my room, to leave the same way it came from without falling to my bed or ME for that matter. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the cockroach killing spray... I sprayed the air-con vent and still the rat didn't budge. I sprayed it some more. Nothing. It was as if the rat was laughing at me. So then i got pissed off and with my fly swatter i banged on the vent until the rat crawled out, balanced itself on the wires that connect the air-con to a hole leading outside. A hole. (No wonder i was still getting bit my mosquitoes, even after PWD put mosquito screens on our windows.) So i grabbed duct tape and taped up the hole. That didn't work. As soon as i was falling back asleep, i heard the rat come back. Or maybe i was dreaming it? i didn't care. I tucked my matress in the mosquito net above my bed and hoped to god the rat wouldnt fall on it, using it as a safety net. Why it even enjoys chewing on the wires inside the air con vent? I don't know. But I do know, that if the air-con worked before, it sure as hell doesn't anymore.

One of my closest friends from PST (Pre-Service Training) left about two weeks ago. We call him Toad. His name is Todd, and is absolutely one of the kindest people I've ever met. It's just hit me, how much I miss him, How much I miss getting a random text message from him, or a phone call or a a hug.
I remember first meeting him in LA, at orientation at the Renaissance Hotel. We got stuck doing this stpudid ice-breaker excercise together. I remember introducing myself, extending my hand to shake his... And Toad, sweet as he is, said, "I'm a hugger". And that was it, I knew we would be friends.
Toad had it rough from the very beginning. He asked for the chicken meal on Air New Zealand. It was pink, so he didn't eat it, he drank wine instead. And then, when we got to our host families, he got bed bugs. Itchy and swollen and miserable as it was, Toad kept truckin' on through. Giving out hugs and love... It's crazy, but in the short amount of time we had here, we became good friends. We saw each other through good times through not so good times, through really bad no good times at all... We cried and laughed and danced and sat on the beach or at Aji's house drinking grog, me and Toad and Ropate, my boys... and we made a pact that if we ever decided to leave we wouldn't do so without talking to each other first. (that seems like ages ago)
And then he constantly kept getting sick. I could see him losing pounds (or in this case, kilos) every week. I could see him struggling without his girlfriend, who he left back home. I could see him really struggling to keep things together and stay. Even after site visit, even after swearing in.... I remember him calling me in a panic... crying over the phone and not knowing what to do. I knew then, i was losing toad. When it came down to it though, some things are just not worth it, some things just don't feel right, and some things are just too big to give up and risk losing. I even played devils advocate a lot with him and tried to convince him to stay... Toad's heart was just in a different place. So while I lost Toad's presence here in Fiji, I've gained the support of a true friend. It was hard to see him E.T. (Early Terminate) but in the long run I know he's done the right thing for himself.
If you are reading this Toad man: I miss you, we all miss you... Your absence is greatly felt . And i can't believe you didnt leave me your Charlie Brown T-shirt. What's up with that!?

The Following photos were taken by Katie "Kata" Ogden,
one of the members of my bomb-ass PST group: The Saweni Cinco

Saweni Sunset

Fiji Gold

Austin Powers left his car in Fiji!

Drinking Grog at Indian Wedding, Saweni

HIV / AIDS Awareness Sabeto Secondary School

Ropate and Toad, Viseisei Beach

kids at Viseisei Beach

Care & I at Bulaccino, Nadi

It's been a while- so here a couple of posts -from my journal:

July 28, 2006
This was our fisrt day in Lawaki. i think I'm still going through cuiture shock. Fijian Village life is drastically different that living in an Indian Settlement. I didn't meet my "nene" (host mom) until later in the day. I presented my sevusevu to her and her husband. (a sevusevu is a formal way of asking permission to enter a village or family. It is the actual root of yangona, which is used to make grog, or kava, it is wrapped in newspaper and looks all twined up and spiraled. it looks kind of like a gnome head) anyway, my sevusevu went something like this: " Oqo en dua na noqo i sevusevu lailai" Fijian language is a trip! it's so wierd.. but it sounds beautiful when they speak it, especially the women, with their soft voices.... the "q" is pronounced as an "ng" sound the "c" is pronounced "th" as in "that". Very confusing.
There was a fundraiser tonight in the village. All the villagers invited us to drink grog with them. I drank so much grog, more than i've had in one sitting since i've been here. It made me so tired and i was in slooooooooww- motion. I slept like a rock though. The grog hangover is crazy, all you want to do is sleep, and eat, and sleep some more. Went to church on sunday. They attend a methodist church in the village. There is a wooden "lolly" (a drum) that they beat as a bell to come to church. Its really cool... everyone gets dressed in their best clothes, with their bibles and hymn books in hand. I went to church for two hours in the morning and then 2 hours again at night. Dad would be very proud. All in Fijian... it was interesting, the preacher was definately preaching, but the choir was beautiful.


August 3, 2006
Oath of service:
I, Danica Conneely solemnly swear pledge my commitment and support to the people of Fiji, and in the spirit of peace, friendship, and international cooperation that I will do my best to represent my counrty while respecting the traditions, culture and values of Fiji, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully carry out my duties as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

August 8, 2006
Last night was the first time I cooked in our kitchen. We had a bunch of people over (mostly from FRE2 and FRE3). I made pasta with mussels and salad and garlic bread. It was a nice break from all the dalo and boiled fish we've been eating. One of the volunteers even brought some wine! It was comforting to cook and entertain some friends. The first of many dinners to come. The house I live in is big, It's in government quarters so it looks sketchy and institutional from the outside. But we have a yard and apparently an avocado tree (havent seen any avocados yet) and a mango tree that just flowers but doesn't fruit. We are pretty close to the police post and only a 5 minute walk from the University of the South Pacific. Also close to the water, although there is only a sea wall, no beach, The skies are gorgeous here, especially when it's not cloudy out. Can't wait to know my way around the city and not look or feel lost.

August 11, 2006
Suva is good, it rains almost every day which makes it impossible for laundry to dry... i did laundry 3 days ago and they still have not dried. Its all the humidity, I guess. The Public Works Department has been working on our house for the past week and they still have many repairs to do to the house. Most importatly- mosquito screens. It's funny how Fijians break for tea, then an hour to 2 hours lunch and then tea agian... It reminds me of Bolivia and how everything shuts down for two-3 hours at lunch.. siesta!
Night time is the loudest time at the house. The bats here are HUGE. They look like flying dogs without tails. and they squeal really loud too. There are rats living on our roof top, and since it is made of tin, you can hear their claws as they scurry across the rooftop. The most annoying sound of all, however, is waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of mosquitoes buzzing in your ear. Last night I put up a mosquito net around my bed and have had the best night's sleep in a long, long time. I didn't wake up once! and the mosquito net looks really cool too, kind of like a canopy bed, only not as romantic, definatley not romantic.

I had an unexpected visitor in my bed last night. I woke up to an annoying pain coming from my ring finger. It was a sharp pain, like a prick from a needle. I woke up suddenly. I knew right away, I had been bitten by a mouse. I ripped the covers from me and turned on the fluorescent light in my room. Sure enough, a little grey mouse dropped from the inside of my sheets, onto the floor, and scurried away under the bed. At this point my heart is racing and i'm standing frozen, my hand still on the light switch. Disgusting. My eyes wide open and immobile, I stood there a while, contemplating my next move. How could i fall back asleep knowing that a rodent is out to get me, wanting to gnaw on my hands, or any of my extremeties for that matter... where the hell did it even come from?
(And the worst part about the whole thing is this is not my first encounter with a mouse in my room. A couple of weeks ago, before I headed to Suva to visit my site, I packed my bags and had put some chocolate in my backpack, but forgot to zip it up. The next thing you know I wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of a crinckling bag, I thought, ok, a cockroach got in my bag... so as I started to empty the contents of it... a mouse ( the same mouse, i think) comes flying out of my bag! I dropped my stuff and screamed... I think that time the mouse was more afraid of me that i was of it...)
But this little fucker is hidden away all day, living in some dark corner in my room and only comes out when its completely quiet and dark, helping itself to my secret stash of chocolate or my hand. eeewww. I now know the true meaning of "as quiet as a mouse".
I wasn't having it this time. Not only did the mouse bite me, but it woke me up and now it was impossible to fall back asleep. I looked at the clock. 3:00 AM. I was pissed! So I muster up the courage to take my hand off the light switch, and looked under my bed to see if i could spot it. I had an umbrella in one hand and my shoe (ok, yes, my teva) in the other. I was ready to crush its little nasty skull in. But there was no sign of the mouse. The batteries from my torch died so I got back in bed, switched off the light and just laid there, eyes, still wide open, twitching at any miniscule noise or touch on my skin. I really looked like a crackhead, paranoid from every little sound, and lighting my surroundings with the backlight of my cellphone. At this point the dogs outside started barking, the geckos in my room with their loud chirping, the crickets outside my window... And i just laid there, eyes wide open in the dark... 3:30 AM. Another sleepless night in Saweni. Welcome to the frickin jungle.

I got a nose ring!
(side note: now i really look like an Indian girl
and my family can't wait to marry off to an indian man...
uhhh, i think i'll pass on that one , but thanks for the offer!)

View from the bus... Viseisei village

shoes and feet at language class

eating sugarcane under the mango tree

in front of host families' home

Host Sisters (jiji's)

Saweni Indian Settlement

Traditional Indian Wedding Ceremony,
Saweni Indian Settlement

Indian Bride
Saweni Indian Settlement

Welcome Yaqona ceremony, Nadi

Fijian Girl, Lomolomo Village

View from Abaca, Koroyanitu National Park

I bought a cell phone in town- so i'm feeling all sorts of anxiety. At first i wanted to be able to detatch myself as much as possible, but the truth is- i need to be or at least feel connected and seing as this internet situation can be random, i decided in case of emergency meltdowns a cellphone was the closest thing i have to be near my family and friends. So here i am, all fancy, a peace corps volunteer with her cellphone and teva's! hahaha.
Anyhow- This past week just flew by. Peace Corps has been keeping us very busy. On Sunday we presented our community mapping project to the community where we have been living. It involved drawing up a map of the settlement, indentifying the most common problem areas, interviewing people from the ministry of health, ministry of eductaion, youth, women, and pretty much every ministry you can imagine.. Here in Fiji they have a ministry for everything. It's actually kind of frustrating because these cases keep getting passed around to each other and they all refer and pass around the same case to each other.
Anyhow- we reported our findings and just recently were able to present to the community where we have been living for the past month. Our group (the ones living in the Hindi settlement) focused on Food and Nutrition, water sanitation, oral and personal hygiene, NCD's, (Non-Communicable Diseases) and STI's, focusing on HIV/AIDS. We had done some research on the number of people living in Saweni that voluntarily went and got tested during this past year.. It was startling to see the numbers of people who have Syphillis, Gonorrhea, and even HIV. the youngest case we saw was a 14 year old boy who had contracted Gonorrhea. The women were shocked to see the numbers of STIs in their communities, they hadnt realized that this could actually happen to them. Since sex is sucha big taboo here in Fiji, it was important to tell the mothers whats going on, i think the most important thing we got out of our presentation was the fact that the women realized that if fourteen year old boys were contacting Gonorrhea, then maybe their own kids were out there having sex. The other issue here is that it is socially acceptable for men to cheat on their wives, so who knows the amount of diseases that they might be spreading to each other. The good news is that we got the women to see the severity of the problem and they voluntarily want to go get tested now. Baby steps, baby steps.
We also had to do a lesson plan for a primary school in a fijian village. I, along with two other girls from my group were assigned to teach about early puberty and the importance of phyiscal fitness. I was in charge of explaining puberty to the girls, they are about 11 years old. I drew up some lovely vagina diagrams and explained the process of menstrauttion and ovulation. They were so attentive and curious and asked questions.. good thing I did my lesson panning and studied up the night before! It's just very interesting to me how their own mothers dont talk to them about the changes that are going on in their bodies. Some girls just simply don't know what it means to have a period. So it was definately rewarding to be able to contriibute in that sense. A couple days after that we taught at a Secondary school, mostly focused on STI's and did more HIV and AIDS awareness. Pretty much beat them over the heads with "dont have sex without condoms" we even did a condom demonstration with a banana. got a lot of laughs from that one, but hopefully it was effective in the end.
Also- had my LPI this week, (language proficiency interview) it was sort of a practice one, and i think i did alright. I am at Novice Medium level. so I am able to ask the time, say hello and goodbye, say my head hurts and most importantly bargain at the market. (ii anaras Bahut mahenga! daam kamti karo!) this pineapple is too expensive, lower the price. :)
So, the most important thing that happened this week: SITE PLACEMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS. It was cool the way they did it, they drew a big map of the islands on the floor with rope and called us each up individually, gave us a certificate that stated where we were going and who we would be working with, and then they walked us to wherever we were on the map. I got Suva! I was kind of hoping for Suva, rather than a random village in the middle of nowhere. But now I"m feeling anxious and a little bit like i don't know if I'll get the Peace Corps expereince that i thought up in my head. Everyone keeps saying how dangerous suva is- but I think that like all cities- it's just more populated and more prone to pickpocketers and looters. I'll have to see for myslef. I will have a roomate. She is FRE-4, (Fiji Re entry, year 4) just like me, except she lives in a fijian village, and I dont really know her that well and she seems like kind of a weenie, but again, we'll just have to see. I was talking to her today and she's already visited the place, She says its nice, a three bedroom apartment ( guest room hint hint come visit) , we have hot water (wow... hot shower, cant wait!) air-con, and an avocado tree in the back. NOt too shabby if you ask me! :) Also- the house is on government compound, the Embassy is near by and it is actually the only PC house in Suva that hasnt been broken into yet. So i feel safe knowing that I will be living in a relatively safe house. I will be working with the National Center for Health Promotion, and guess what? I will be utilizing my skills as a graphic artist! and I thought i was going to be working in health.... how random? I don't have specifics on the Job description, but i had a conversation with a lady from the PC staff and she said that I will be re-designing a lot of the outdated health brochures that are currently handed out at hospitals and health clinics throughout fiji. She also said I will be working with the media??? hmmm. curious and excited about the job. At first i was feeling a little unsure of the assignment, because one of the main reasons I joined PC was because i wasnt sure if I wanted to be a designer forever, but i guess its like my mom says- everything happens for a reason, and this could be a huge step in my carreer, to say that I've developed materials and worked with the National Center for Health Promotion in Fiji! Its funny how things seem to fall into place like that.
We get to visit our sites for a week, and leave on monday. then we come back for three weeks and swear in as volunteers august 3rd! its crazy how time just flies by when you are keeping busy.