6/15/2011
Monday was the Queen of England’s birthday so it was a national holiday and we didn’t work. Instead we went to Ba ward’s family fun day. I had a blast interacting with the ward members, playing games, running around, having water fights, watching a rugby game, and playing Frisbee. I won the cream bun eating contest. We had to race each other and then eat a cream bun as fast as we could without using our hands. Cream buns are one of my favorite foods in Fiji. It is just a roll with cream in it and it is delicious.

Yesterday, Kevin Geddes and I went to Koroipita to teach computer skills classes and the last budgeting lesson. I have fallen in love with the ladies we teach. They are so fun and I love seeing them apply the knowledge they are receiving. It makes it all worth it just to hear one story. Lani, one of the ladies we teach, who is the only one who has come to every single class. She told us yesterday that she was going over her family budget with her husband and they asked themselves where all the spare money was going. They realized that they had money but because they weren’t keeping track of it and being aware of where their money was going it would disappear. They would give their teenagers a couple of dollars here, a couple there and it would add up to a large sum, or they would spend a small amount here and a small amount there and before they knew it they wouldn’t have any extra money to go towards savings. I loved hearing that she is discussing money with her husband and really trying to use the information she is given.
6/17/2011
I had a great day today planting a garden at a local primary school near Ba. The little experience I have had with gardens was more than any of the other volunteers had for the most part. I really enjoyed plotting at a 20 by 16 foot garden that included radish, lettuce, carrots, beans, tomatoes, capsicum, and baygon (eggplant). It was hard work using pitchforks and shovels to break up so pretty hard ground. I have a few blisters to show for it. I just hope the stuff we planted grows. The kids were really fun to work with. They just love white people. Some of them are shy but love to just hang around and stare. It is pretty cute. Others are not so shy and just love interacting with us.
Simon is once such kid. He is a Fijian that actually is LDS and so I see him every week at church. His school was the one where we planted the garden today and he was so proud that he knew us and was showing off that knowledge to all his friends. He also likes me Frisbee and always asks if he can play with it whenever I am around.

6/19/2011
This Saturday was spent at Natadola on the beach by the Intercontinental Resort. We visited this beach already but the place we originally planned for was going to cost us more than we thought it would be. I enjoyed Natadola a lot. Some locals took us to a cave that their village would use to hide in during wars and raids. I also went horseback riding on the beach. It was a lot of fun although my legs got pretty scratched up because I was wearing shorts.

6/20/2011
I went to PCSS (Pacific Counseling and Social Services) today to continue cataloging their resources. I organized over 60 power point presentations into folders based on subject material. I also cataloged all the presentations in a excel spreadsheet. They are really disorganized with their resources and this will help them be able to spend less time preparing materials and more time presenting.

6/21/2011
Typing classes went well today. We downloaded a typing program onto all the computers at Koroipita and all the ladies loved it. Plus it makes our life easier because we don’t have to make up our own lesson plans. We also taught them basic things such as how to bold, underline, or italicize words and how to align things on the left, center, or right side. It is an interesting program breaking down and simplifying concepts or things that seem very simple and easy already. We have to remember how we learned to type, how we learned how to use word, how we learned to use a mouse…
It is not easy to explain or teach simple concepts, especially concepts that are so habitual or second nature. It is actually very frustrating. Fortunately progress is easy to see. I can already tell with most the ladies that they are better at using a mouse. Sometimes though the mouse will bump against the keyboard and instead of jiggling the mouse around the ladies will push the keyboard aside to make room to move the mouse over. There are no pads for the mouses (mice). The ladies are scared to mess up the computer so sometimes when they accidently click the right button on the mouse instead of the left button they will freeze up and call us over to show them that it is ok.
I played a little soccer today after work down at the LDS church with other volunteers and some local members. It was great fun and it was nice to get some exercise.

6/22/2011
I spent all day today revising and improving budgeting lessons plans, coming up with a business lesson syllabus, and working on lessons for computer classes. We realized very quickly that it is important to be prepared for lessons we have to teach. Even though we are teaching simple concepts it is hard to just wing it or teach on the spot. Plus the people we are teaching can tell if we are prepared or not.
I eat so much food here and it is starting to show. I have gained my Fiji fifteen. I know some of you think it isn’t a big deal but for about six years my weight has not fluctuated more than about seven pounds and in the month and a half that I have been in Fiji I have gained 12-15 pounds…mostly in my stomach area and my thighs. It is because I eat a ton of rice, potatoes, cassava, bread…and I do not exercise nearly enough.
In the evenings I usually play a variety of card games…spades, scum, nerts, wacky six, speed, California speed, hearts, and a few other games. A few of the volunteers want to learn Pinochle and I am the only one that knows how to play. It will be interesting because I haven’t played for over five years and I have never taught anybody let alone three somebodies. I want to teach the volunteers Muhammad’s Trump also.
Oranges are so amazing. I eat 5-7 oranges every day because that is the cheapest fruit here and it last the longest. The oranges here a little larger than Mandarin size and have green peels. They are delicious.

6/23/2011
At Koroipita I had a meeting with the orchid growers and craft ladies there to get them excited about basic business lessons we are going to start teaching them next week. The whole orchid situation is unique. The Koroipita Rotahomes model community project was contracted by South Sea Orchids (SSO) to grow the flowers. SSO provided the original baby flowers four or five years ago and basically handfed the original 16 orchid farmers with all the supplies and start up they needed…which included the plants, fertilizers, the fencing. The orchids do not belong to the residents at Koroipita but to Koroipita itself. So if a resident moves out the next resident is obligated to take over the orchids and care for them regardless of whether they want to or not. At the end of July SSO is going to pull out which means the orchid growers are going to become independent and have to do everything on their own. This could be a problem because they have been so dependent on SSO for so long plus some of the residents do not know how to care for the orchids so they get neglected. We are teaching them business lessons to lay a foundation for them and SSO is going to do a training also so that the orchid farmers know how to harvest and take care of the plants.
The craft ladies make makes to sell to tourists mainly because Koroipita gets a lot of foreign volunteers from Australia and New Zealand mainly. These business lessons will teach them about have to market their products and help them find a more unique niche. All the craft ladies, which there are about 20 total, make basically the same crafts; safety pin bracelets, cards, book marks, angel ornaments, and necklaces.

6/24/2011
Friday has turned into “manual labor Friday” which I love. We went to two schools today and planted gardens. The first school, Tagore, had already prepped the ground so we just helped the different grades plant their plot. When we got there they were having a program promoting being drug free. All the different grades presented skits that had to do with why drugs, alcohol, cava and tobacco were all bad. It was quite entertaining to watch them and it reminded me of the Red Ribbon days we would have in grade school.
The second school we planted at was the Ba Special School, which is the school they have for mentally and physically disabled kids. I loved working at this school. We had to start from scratch at this garden. We had three plots that we 3 ft by about 10 ft. We planted cabbage, French beans, raddish, carrots, and okra. Afterwards we had a great time playing soccer with all the kids. They were so adorable and fun to play with. All the kids here in Fiji just adore us. Anywhere we go they stare and smile or just stare and then the less shy ones come up and just love to shake our hands, give us high fives, and hugs.

6/26/2011
Yesterday I spent an amazing day on a spectacular hike. Alex Bickmore, Amanda Cherry, Kim Lowe, Chanae Wellar, and I went on a hike with some guys from the village Vakabuli. Amanda knew the guys from the village because she works on projects there. They took us to a stream/river that we hiked up. Kim and Amanda stopped at the first waterfall we came to but Chanae, Alex and I went to the head of the stream where the water was pretty much coming from springs. It was so awesome. The water was refreshing to swim in, the scenery was beautiful, and the guys who took us were so helpful. There were five guys that hiked with us. They literally had to lift us up some of the boulders we had to climb because they were really slippery and hard to climb. Abo, one of the guys, held my camera the majority of the way up and all the way back without getting it wet or broken. At the top we climbed a thirty or forty cliff and got to look out at a gorgeous view. The guys had to blaze a trail for us with their machete. We told them we wanted to go to the top and they said sure. We walked along the face of the cliff for a bit and came to a vine and they said that is how they got up. We all looked at each other and then were like “uh-uh.” There was no way we could climb that without out getting hurt or seriously injured so instead the guys just made a trail for us.
We were exhausted and starving by the time we got back but it was so worth. We might go again but horseback riding.
6/28/2011
We started business classes today at Koroipita. Not as many people showed up as I had hoped but the ones there seemed to enjoy the first class.
The ladies there are so nice. I was asking about where I could find a Fiji rugby jersey and how much it would cost. They were telling me the good places to go and were saying that if I went by myself the store owner would charge $30 because I am white. They said if I went with one of them they could get a jersey for me for about $18. They are always looking out for and trying to make sure I don’t get ripped off. They are constantly telling me if I ever take a taxi to make sure the driver starts the meter so they don’t charge ridiculous amounts.
A week ago it was officially winter here and yesterday it actually felt like it. I had to bust out my jeans for the first time sense I have been here. I wore a long-sleeve shirt and a zip up sweatshirt. I even used my sheet when I slept at night. It rained all day yesterday and it was chilly.