I'm gonna live my life today

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.
30 July 2011
This week flew by. Koroipita is so awesome. I am cramming to get all the computer stuff taught that I want to. I am only going out there six more times, sadly. I already know the goodbye is going to by hard. The ladies there, Lani, Keresi, Maria, Ana, and Alumita are awesome. I have just grown to love them. On Thursday I had eight people show up for the class. The last month or so I had only been getting 3-4 people to come. I think it is because some people were choosing between the business class and the computer class. Now that it is only the computer class more come.
I started organizing the library books there. I got about 100 catalogued into an excel spreadsheet. It will take quite some time to get it all organized and the material collected that is needed. I love organizing stuff though. It makes it so much easier to find stuff. Getting it organized is time consuming but once it is organized, it is easy to keep organized.
We had our walk-a-thon for the Ba School for Special Education. HELP volunteers helped organize a fundraiser for them. All the schools here are underfunded. They don’t waste any paper. If the front has something printed on it but are no longer needed, the students to do their work will use the back. Recycling for them means using the paper until it is no longer usable and no longer usable to them is different than no longer usable to us. It makes me very grateful for the resources that are available in America. Our education system works a lot better than Fiji’s does.
Alex, a HELP volunteer gave me great idea to everyday write something I will miss about Fiji. I want to do this so when I look back I will remember the things I don’t want to forget. I have grown accustomed to certain things in Fiji that once I get back in the states I will no longer do. I want to make sure I remember those things for along time.
One thing I think I will miss most about Fiji is the warmth. I love not ever being cold. Hiking Mt. Victoria was the coldest I had been here but I wasn’t cold, I was just cool and not sweating bullets. I prefer hot weather, humidity included, over cold weather about 355 days of the year. If I could have that then ten days of snow during Christmas I would be satisfied. The first month in Fiji I basically lived in my sweat. I sweated when I walked, sat, ran, slept, showered. Anything I was doing I was sweating. It has cooled off a bit since then, and so I don’t usually sweat when I am sleeping, sitting, or showering anymore. Along with the warm weather is the warm ocean water. I love it. Being able to play all day in the water and not get cold is just perfect. The rivers are a little cooler than the ocean but definitely cold. They are really refreshing to jump in.
7 Aug 2011
I was very busy this week.
Church was interesting last Sunday. We got there right when church was supposed to start and only a few people were there and there was no organization. We sat for the first hour, had Sunday School because one of the volunteers had prepared a lesson. Sacrament meeting was less than 45 minutes long because we started late. The Ba ward really struggles because there are no worthy priesthood holders. The bishop died a little less than a year ago and so a high councilman has been running the ward. He didn’t show up the last two weeks.
Since we worked on Saturday we got Monday off. A few of us went to the Fijian Resort on the southern part of Viti Levu. I had a blast throwing the Frisbee, swimming, and exploring the tide pools.
I went to Koroipita all this week. Some of the ladies I teach grow orchids. On Tuesday I went with them to Nadi for training on orchid farming as an income-generating project. We went to South Sea Orchids’ nurseries. It was so pretty there. They have a rather large flower nursery. Wednesday and Thursday I taught computer classes about the internet. The ladies wer very excited about that. Unfortunately there was no internet on the computers so it was a little difficult to teach about it without demonstrating. In the afternoons I catalogued books. I have put over 300 books into the system I am setting up with only about 100 left.
I am getting a lot of my souvenirs from the ladies at Koroipita. One lady makes tappa, which is made form beating and pounding bark from a specific tree into a paper like material. Then it is painted with designs and words can be put on it. They make bookmarks, wall hangings, wedding clothing and other stuff with the tappa. It is very unique to Fiji.
Right now I am at Coral Coast Christian Camp in Pacific Harbor. We are spending the weekend and here and a few vacation days in Suva. I am having a blast. Stargazing, skinny-dipping in the ocean (girls only), night games, a river trip to a beautiful waterfall, bonfires on the beach,movie watching, cards, cooking an American dinner, and exploring the beach. Life couldn’t get much better.
I am so blessed. This summer has been just a splendid experience that will be hard to beat. It will be hard to just visit a country for a short period of time like a week because I now I will not be getting the full, legitimate cultural experience. For the most part the people who vacation in Fiji do not experience what it is really like. They don’t experience the marketplace, the busing system, village hospitality, the friendliness of the Fijians, and eating the food.
Another thing I will miss about Fiji is village hospitality. Going to a village is just great. These people live in corrugated tin shacks that might not have electricity. Quite often there is one central toilet for the whole village. All villages have a central gathering hall. Usually when I visit a village we always end up there for discussion and teatime (which for me means drinking lemon leaf tea or Milo, which is similar to hot chocolate). The villagers are always offering food and when a meal is served we usually end up getting our food on nice plates while the locals eat with their hands. My favorite though is when the food is placed on a central sheet and every one lines up on both sides and we just use our hands to eat the cassava and food. A lot of the times there are no individual plates and I eat with my hands more often than not. The people are great about offering the best they have to visitors. People here are just so friendly.