7/20/2011
The work here is going so great. I love Koroipita so much. Susan works in the office and is our main contact. She really likes working with us and is one of the best partners we have. She is on top of things. She doesn’t ever fall through. We have had a lot of problems with other partners not communicating well and just wanting us because we are white and American. Susan trusts us and gives us responsibility. She gives us projects to do that are challenging yet we can handle. She is an Indo-Fijian who is in her late 20’s. I have really appreciated working with especially since a lot of other projects fall through. She is just consistent, reliable, steady, steady, and dependable.
Since the last business lesson is tomorrow I will be working on a few new projects at Koroipita. I will be setting up a library system with the books that have been donated to the Koroipita project. Also I will do some individual training with a lady out there to help her learn how to keep records. I am excited about both of these projects. I want to work out there as much as possible.
7/21/2011
Five ladies at Koroipita received a certificate for completing the business training we had. There were three or four other regulars but they didn’t come to at least six of the eight classes which was required to receive the certificate. I will really miss the lessons.
I still get to teach computer classes twice in a week. These lessons are going so well. The ladies are picking up things very quickly. I love watching them figure things out on their own. Their hadn eye coordination with the mouse is improving a lot. It is no longer so frustrating to watch them try to move the cursor.
7/25/2011
We are planning a big walk-a-thon fundraiser for the Ba School for Special Education. It is happening in five days and I think it will be a pretty successful fundraiser. All the schools here are under funded. Ba Special School is for kids with special needs. Right now their budget is not enough to pay for the basic stuff they need and so we decided to help them by setting up a fundraiser. I personally haven’t been involved with a lot of the work but a few volunteers have put a lot of time into it. We are planning the walk-a-thon where businesses and the community can sponsor a kid by donating so much per lap. We are also having carnival type games to raise money. We have gone around Ba and asked for donations, sent emails to people in America. We have already met our monetary goal of how much we thought we could raise, which is awesome. It has been interesting trying to figure out how fundraising works in Fiji. We didn’t get as many sponsor for the kids as we thought we would but have raised more money in other ways. People here are generous though. We also got some break-dancers to come perform. Other entertainment includes the Ba soccer team. This is a pretty big deal. They are getting back from playing in Canada the day before the walk-a-thon. The Ba soccer team is the best one in Fiji usually. They have won the Fiji Fun Fact tournament more than any other province in Fiji. They are going to play soccer against the kids from the Ba school. I am excited they are going to be there.
We did some intense deep cleaning in the house today. There are only fourteen volunteers now. It is wonderful to have more space. The guys finally have their own room to sleep and live in. There are seven girls, five boys, and our country directors (husband and wife) now. We took down the bunks that the guys were sleeping on in the living more and we have so much more space now. We cleaned out food in the kitchen and cleaned out the fridge for the first time in what looked like a long time. The freezer had a solid inch of ice around the walls.
Although we did intense cleaning I would not say the house is clean. We have mice and cockroach infestations. On Saturday morning when I woke up there was a huge cockroach on the counter. It is about an inch long and as thick as my ring finger, just nasty. The mice get into everything. We have set some rattraps but the mice weren’t heavy enough to set off the spring thing so they got some free peanut butter. They seem to like our suitcases. Fortunately, I have never found one in my suitcase. I would rather have mice than insects though. The cockroaches are absolutely disgusting.
I climbed the tallest mountain in Fiji on Saturday; Mt. Victoria. It was an awesome but fairly tough hike. It was a two-hour hike up, which tells you the mountain wasn’t super tall. Mt. Victoria is only 4,300 ft tall and I think we started out around 2,500 ft. The trail was intense. We were climbing almost vertically in some spots. In other spots we were hiking on the ridge with steep drop offs on both sides. It was so gorgeous, lush, and green. One thing that surprised me was one cool it was. I can’t quite say it was cold. We were in fog the whole time although it wasn’t thick fog. Clouds would pass by quickly. The way done was an adventure because it was rainy and muddy. Not a good combination when you are trekking on a hazardous trail. I made it safely down although I had several almost falls. We were wet and muddy and then to make it even better I had a small mud fight with a few other volunteers. I loved it. Fiji rain is so awesome because you don’t really get cold in it. It was perfect weather for hiking. If I had remembered there was a stream we could clean up in I would have had a full out mud war. It was a grand adventure.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Living life in the fast lane...
7/3/2011
Friday we couldn’t do our gardening at the schools because it was too Instead, I helped a few other volunteers prep for a carnival that GOLD Foundation is putting on next week. GOLD wants us to have a informational booth for HELP International, provide entertainment for a few of the nights, and have a banner in the parade.
Yesterday all HELP volunteers but two spent the day at the Sigatoka Sand Dunes playing on the beach and in the water, racing up and jumping down the dunes, and building a sweet sand village on the beach. We even got some fish to ear oranges out of our fingers. The beach there was beautiful. It is one of the few places in Fiji where the waves break on the shore instead of out on the reef.
I just today got a new record for amount of people in a carrier. Carriers are usually small little two-door, two-seater Toyota pickups that have a canopy-like thing over the bed of the pickup. Today on the walk to church it started down pouring and so we all huddled under a bus stand waiting to see if the rain would let up or not. It wasn’t slowing down so we waved down a carrier and fit 14 people in the bed of that little Toyota pickup. People were sitting on laps, sitting on the bench, squatting in the center, doing whatever we could to cram in and we did it.
7/4/2011
Happy Independence Day! We are having our 4th of July celebration tonight at the house by cooking spaghetti (not exactly American), have garlic bread, ice-cream, and no-bake cookies! We were gonna have a bbq but hamburgers and hotdogs are hard to come by here.
Because today is a day of celebration in America I will list some things that aren’t readily available or available at all here in Fiji. Foods I am missing are red meat (very expensive here, especially beef because there are a lot of Hindus here and beef is sacred to them), sandwich meat (I am living off peanut butter and jelly because lunch meat is very expensive), cheese (expensive and the little I have tried isn’t very good), milk (it is either powdered or off the shelf), cereal, and meat again. Other things I miss a little are warm showers, fridges (we have a tiny one but with 18 people you don’t get a very big space), clean, free public restrooms (usually the ones here have no toilet paper or it cost $0.20), dependable clean water, not having to rely on public transportation, smooth roads (there are too many potholes here to count), fast and reliable internet that doesn’t cost a fortune, country music, a variety of music in general, and most of all my family. I love my friends here but miss my family. I sometimes miss how Americans treat time. Fiji time is very different than anything I have experienced even Mormon time. Time is definitely not as important here in Fiji which can be excruciatingly painful and frustrating for the most part and sometimes can be nice and relaxing. It is hard to have a productive day and schedule more than one appointment because you don’t know if it will start on time or an hour late. Shopping is an interesting experience here. Anytime you go into a clothing store the employees are very forceful in trying to get you to buy something. It gets pretty annoying sometimes. I like to shop and then go ask for help if I need it. Here they give you help you don’t really need at all.
There are definitely things I appreciate here in Fiji that aren’t a part of the American culture or way of life. One is the market. A majority of the fresh fruit and vegetables here are in a large market area where you barter with the locals to get the best price. You can get a pineapple for a dollar, a heap of eleven oranges or a dollar, three cucumbers for a dollar, a huge bundle of bananas for two dollars and many other great deals. Unfortunately tomatoes are pretty expensive here but it is awesome having cheap fruit that is expensive in America. Fijians are the nicest people I have met. They are so friendly and willing to help. If you get to know them they tell you when locals are trying to rip you off or are giving you a good deal. I have never been truly cold here just a little chilly once or twice and I love it. I will take heat over cold any day.
Of all the sunsets I have seen my top ten have probably been in Fiji. They are absolutely amazing here especially when you get to see the sun disappear into the ocean. The colors are just radiant and beautiful.
7/11/2011
I went with a few volunteers to Nailaga village today to clear some land for farm use. The youth there (young adults 18-20 yrs old) have 40 acres of land they can use to farm and run as a business. It was hard work and I think we cleared one, maybe two acres. We used machetes to chop down tall wheat grass type plants. There were small trees we also had to chop down. After we machete the stuff down to about knee height they will spray it and kill it. Then, all the big rocks and trees have to be cleared out. I don’t know how far along this project will be before we leave but it has the potential to be a great sustainable project.
7/17/2011
This week went by way to fast. Koroipita is going great. During the last computer class I helped one lady set up a budget on excel. I am excited that they are excited to put their knowledge to use. Business classes continue to go well. We only have two lessons left sadly. After that I don’t know what I will do besides the computer classes. I want to continue to go to Koroipita because the people are awesome.
One day after a business lesson, we were waiting for the bus to come and the ladies told us a few myths or legends about some of the different islands. For example, on one island there is a certain fish that you eat by picking the flesh off the bones and then if you set the skeleton of the fish back into the water it will swim off and grow flesh again. On another island there is a cave that will detect if female is pregnant if that person has been trying to keep the pregnancy a secret. When a person who is hiding their pregnancy tries to enter the cave they will not be able to but everyone else can. On another island ladies have to go fishing naked or they won’t catch any fish. They are interesting myths that they have.
We planted another garden at a primary school just outside of Ba called Ratu Rusiate. Each school we go to is so much fun. I was walking to the kids in form 1 and 2 (kindergarten and first grade aged) about what they like to learn in school and one of them mentioned singing and dancing. I asked them to sing a song for me and after that they sang at least 15 songs. They sang a few in Fijian, a few nursery rhymes like Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Hickory Dickory Dock; some Justin Bieber songs; and some others songs I had not heard. They were amazing, their voices were so sweet, and they were not shy at all about singing.
Frisbee is a big hit with the kids. I take it with my everywhere I go and it is so fun to play with the kids. At Ratu Rusiate we had a keep away game going where I along with two volunteers were against all the kids. The kids had a blast and once they really figured out what was going on they would grab our hands and arms to slow us down making it impossible to outrun them to the Frisbee.
A few evenings every week I go to the church and play soccer or Frisbee with other volunteers and a few of the local members. Jolie is (Cho-el-ee) is a sixteen-year-old member who is very good at soccer. He got an offer to play soccer on I think the 17 and under team to represent Fiji. He would get paid for every game he played. The games would be on Sunday. He decided that even though the pay would be really great especially for his age that he would pass on the opportunity because the games are on Sunday. What a great kid.
Friday we couldn’t do our gardening at the schools because it was too Instead, I helped a few other volunteers prep for a carnival that GOLD Foundation is putting on next week. GOLD wants us to have a informational booth for HELP International, provide entertainment for a few of the nights, and have a banner in the parade.
Yesterday all HELP volunteers but two spent the day at the Sigatoka Sand Dunes playing on the beach and in the water, racing up and jumping down the dunes, and building a sweet sand village on the beach. We even got some fish to ear oranges out of our fingers. The beach there was beautiful. It is one of the few places in Fiji where the waves break on the shore instead of out on the reef.
I just today got a new record for amount of people in a carrier. Carriers are usually small little two-door, two-seater Toyota pickups that have a canopy-like thing over the bed of the pickup. Today on the walk to church it started down pouring and so we all huddled under a bus stand waiting to see if the rain would let up or not. It wasn’t slowing down so we waved down a carrier and fit 14 people in the bed of that little Toyota pickup. People were sitting on laps, sitting on the bench, squatting in the center, doing whatever we could to cram in and we did it.
7/4/2011
Happy Independence Day! We are having our 4th of July celebration tonight at the house by cooking spaghetti (not exactly American), have garlic bread, ice-cream, and no-bake cookies! We were gonna have a bbq but hamburgers and hotdogs are hard to come by here.
Because today is a day of celebration in America I will list some things that aren’t readily available or available at all here in Fiji. Foods I am missing are red meat (very expensive here, especially beef because there are a lot of Hindus here and beef is sacred to them), sandwich meat (I am living off peanut butter and jelly because lunch meat is very expensive), cheese (expensive and the little I have tried isn’t very good), milk (it is either powdered or off the shelf), cereal, and meat again. Other things I miss a little are warm showers, fridges (we have a tiny one but with 18 people you don’t get a very big space), clean, free public restrooms (usually the ones here have no toilet paper or it cost $0.20), dependable clean water, not having to rely on public transportation, smooth roads (there are too many potholes here to count), fast and reliable internet that doesn’t cost a fortune, country music, a variety of music in general, and most of all my family. I love my friends here but miss my family. I sometimes miss how Americans treat time. Fiji time is very different than anything I have experienced even Mormon time. Time is definitely not as important here in Fiji which can be excruciatingly painful and frustrating for the most part and sometimes can be nice and relaxing. It is hard to have a productive day and schedule more than one appointment because you don’t know if it will start on time or an hour late. Shopping is an interesting experience here. Anytime you go into a clothing store the employees are very forceful in trying to get you to buy something. It gets pretty annoying sometimes. I like to shop and then go ask for help if I need it. Here they give you help you don’t really need at all.
There are definitely things I appreciate here in Fiji that aren’t a part of the American culture or way of life. One is the market. A majority of the fresh fruit and vegetables here are in a large market area where you barter with the locals to get the best price. You can get a pineapple for a dollar, a heap of eleven oranges or a dollar, three cucumbers for a dollar, a huge bundle of bananas for two dollars and many other great deals. Unfortunately tomatoes are pretty expensive here but it is awesome having cheap fruit that is expensive in America. Fijians are the nicest people I have met. They are so friendly and willing to help. If you get to know them they tell you when locals are trying to rip you off or are giving you a good deal. I have never been truly cold here just a little chilly once or twice and I love it. I will take heat over cold any day.
Of all the sunsets I have seen my top ten have probably been in Fiji. They are absolutely amazing here especially when you get to see the sun disappear into the ocean. The colors are just radiant and beautiful.
7/11/2011
I went with a few volunteers to Nailaga village today to clear some land for farm use. The youth there (young adults 18-20 yrs old) have 40 acres of land they can use to farm and run as a business. It was hard work and I think we cleared one, maybe two acres. We used machetes to chop down tall wheat grass type plants. There were small trees we also had to chop down. After we machete the stuff down to about knee height they will spray it and kill it. Then, all the big rocks and trees have to be cleared out. I don’t know how far along this project will be before we leave but it has the potential to be a great sustainable project.
7/17/2011
This week went by way to fast. Koroipita is going great. During the last computer class I helped one lady set up a budget on excel. I am excited that they are excited to put their knowledge to use. Business classes continue to go well. We only have two lessons left sadly. After that I don’t know what I will do besides the computer classes. I want to continue to go to Koroipita because the people are awesome.
One day after a business lesson, we were waiting for the bus to come and the ladies told us a few myths or legends about some of the different islands. For example, on one island there is a certain fish that you eat by picking the flesh off the bones and then if you set the skeleton of the fish back into the water it will swim off and grow flesh again. On another island there is a cave that will detect if female is pregnant if that person has been trying to keep the pregnancy a secret. When a person who is hiding their pregnancy tries to enter the cave they will not be able to but everyone else can. On another island ladies have to go fishing naked or they won’t catch any fish. They are interesting myths that they have.
We planted another garden at a primary school just outside of Ba called Ratu Rusiate. Each school we go to is so much fun. I was walking to the kids in form 1 and 2 (kindergarten and first grade aged) about what they like to learn in school and one of them mentioned singing and dancing. I asked them to sing a song for me and after that they sang at least 15 songs. They sang a few in Fijian, a few nursery rhymes like Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Hickory Dickory Dock; some Justin Bieber songs; and some others songs I had not heard. They were amazing, their voices were so sweet, and they were not shy at all about singing.
Frisbee is a big hit with the kids. I take it with my everywhere I go and it is so fun to play with the kids. At Ratu Rusiate we had a keep away game going where I along with two volunteers were against all the kids. The kids had a blast and once they really figured out what was going on they would grab our hands and arms to slow us down making it impossible to outrun them to the Frisbee.
A few evenings every week I go to the church and play soccer or Frisbee with other volunteers and a few of the local members. Jolie is (Cho-el-ee) is a sixteen-year-old member who is very good at soccer. He got an offer to play soccer on I think the 17 and under team to represent Fiji. He would get paid for every game he played. The games would be on Sunday. He decided that even though the pay would be really great especially for his age that he would pass on the opportunity because the games are on Sunday. What a great kid.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Photos!!
Here are a few photos of what I'm doing here. Sorry there has not been more. I also posted a bunch on facebook.
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