I love my life.

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.