The New Normal

I got this idea from one of the other Vanuadina trainees (thanks Carissa!) so I thought it would be fun to share with everyone some of the things that make up my new normal:

1.  Church

A good week for me consists of only going to church once for two hours.  A bad week could mean going to church three to four days out of the week.  A normal weekly church schedule goes like this: regular church is on Sundays followed by youth group church on Mondays and family church on Thursdays.  As someone who isn’t extremely religious back in America, this has been a huge adjustment.  The policy for Peace Corps volunteers and church is adapt but don’t adopt.  This means that we are encouraged to try to adapt to the new culture and if everyone in your village goes to church on Sundays then you should go to church on Sundays but it doesn’t mean you have to adopt the religion or the practices. 

2.  Men that wear skirts

Formal wear for men in Fiji is a button down shirt or sometimes a bula shirt (tommy bahama shirts on steroids) with a pocket sulu.  A pocket sulu is made out of the same material as slacks but it’s a skirt. 

3.  Bucket showers

I take a bucket shower everyday.  I fill up a bucket with cold water and use a small bowl to pour it over my head while I wash my hair and body.  Imagine doing the ice bucket challenge about 40 times in a row every morning at 6am. 

4.  T9

The phones that Peace Corps issues us are similar to the first phone I ever had in 8^th grade and I type using T9.  I’m very good at it and my family likes to sit and watch how fast I can text. 

5.  Wildlife in unexpected places

There are just bugs and animals everywhere.  We have birds in our kitchen, lizards all over the house, rats in the ceiling, and bugs everywhere.  There are flying cockroaches the size of a cell phone , spiders the size of an orange, and centipedes in cracks of the bathroom.  Last time I counted I had 81 bug bites on my body.

6.  Eating on the floor

Eating on the floor and sitting on the floor in general is very common in Fiji.  My house only has two chairs in it so when we have meals we all sit around a cloth on the floor.  It’s taken about two months for my back and my hips to get used to sitting criss-cross applesauce everyday but I’m almost there.

7.  No pants

I haven’t worn pants in two months.  Women aren’t allowed to wear pants in the village unless they are covered by a sulu so I find it easier to just wear skirts and dresses.

8.  Ilisapeci

My new name!  Ilisapeci is my Fijian name and the only people that call me Elizabeth are the other kai va lagi’s (white people). 

9.  “Smart in…”

This is the Fijian way of saying you are good at something.  For example ‘smart in volleyball,’ ‘smart in scraping coconuts,’ and ‘smart in speaking fijian’ are all things I’ve been told. 

10.  Coconut wireless

I’ve mentioned this in one of my posts before but it really has become so normal to me.  If I want the entire village to know something all I have to do is tell one person and wait about an hour.  Coconut wireless is not limited to village life though, if I go into Suva for the afternoon when I come home I will hear something like “my sister’s daughter’s husband saw you in Suva and said that you were buying green fabric at lunchtime.  What’s the fabric for? How long were you there? Did you forget to eat lunch?”

11.  Kava

Kava (yaqona) is pretty central in Fijian culture and community and it has become so normal for me to sit around the tonoa bowl a couple nights a week and just chat with my friends and throw back a couple bowls of kava. 

12.  Children

There are just children everywhere and they are always trying to climb all over you.

13.  Fijian language

For those of you wondering how my language training has been going, I am becoming more and more used to speaking and hearing Fijian.  I am at the point where I can understand the majority of what is said to me, but it takes me a while to respond.  Fijian is a very repetitive language, I always joke that it is actually only made up of about 5 words that you just put together to say different things.  For example one of the most entertaining sentences in Fijian is ‘vinaka vakalevu na vakasigalevu vinaka’ which means ‘thank you very much for the delicious lunch.’