December in Fiji

Bulare everyone and Merry Christmas!

Things have been going really well here in Dreketi the last few weeks.  I’m really starting to settle in at work and I feel like I have a good network there with the nurses.  Speaking of network, I’m making friends!  Obviously, it’s a very slow process to become part of the community, but I’ve been trying really hard lately to put myself out there and meet as many people as I can and I think it’s starting to pay off.  Whenever I’m walking around whether it’s to he health center, police station, or just to the market, there are always people yelling ‘bula eli!’  I am seriously overwhelmed with the number of people who’ve invited me to their homes/villages for Christmas.  The invitations are really nice, but I decided to go to Savusavu for Christmas and spend it with a few other PCV’s.  Savusavu is one of the nicest parts of this island, and it’s usually where most of the tourists that come here go.  It’ll be nice to get away from Dreketi for a little bit and see some familiar faces. 

This leads me to another topic: not being home for the holidays.  When I accepted the Peace Corps invitation and thought about spending two years abroad, obviously one of the things I focused on the most was that I’d be missing the holidays.  Thanksgiving went really well for me, of course I missed my family back home, but I had an unforgettable time with the other PCV’s here in Fiji, so I thought it would be the same for Christmas… I was wrong.  Back in America I never realized how much Christmas is about an entire season not just one holiday.  That feeling of the holiday season doesn’t happen here in Fiji.  Although they do celebrate, I still miss things like Christmas music, cookies, the smell of pine trees, hanging stockings, those Salvation Army workers dressed up as Santa Claus outside of Vons, and all the other little things that make up the Christmas spirit. 

That all being said, although some days I really miss being home for the holidays, I am so happy to be here and I’m really loving life in Fiji.  Okay warning, I’m about to get really sappy.  These last three and half months have been some of the best months of my life and for those of you wondering if I’m happy, or feeling fulfilled, or anything like that, I can confidently say yes.  It’s a hard feeling to explain, because life in the Peace Corps has a lot of highs and lows that come and go really fast but when I’m on one of those highs in Fiji, it’s the happiest I’ve ever felt in my life.  I know that’s a pretty crazy thing for me to say, especially as I’m sitting here with a warm towel on my back treating a boil, but it’s true.  Anyway, enough touchy feely stuff for today, here’s some pictures of my life!

Fiji Life Lesson #84: During cyclone season, don't leave your house without a raincoat or an umbrella.  This is my makeshift raincoat made out of a trash bag from the health center.  

Yes, it is currently cyclone season.  The season runs from November to April, and cyclone season is also the hot season and also mosquito season, it's basically the worst time to be here.  The hot season does however make my cold showers everyday more enjoyable.   Just last week we had two people in Dreketi come into the health center with Dengue Fever, they were referred and admitted to the main hospital in Labasa.  I've been coating myself in various bug sprays and mosquito lotions, etc. everyday (which doesn't help when it feels like it's 1000 degrees outside) to avoid getting any bites.  

This is where I work! This is the main view from the road.  

From the back...

This is the view of the rest of the compound.

The entire compound has the health center and three houses.  Currently the doctor and two of the nurses live on the compound.  The health center is pretty small, there are six staff members, seven if you include me.  One doctor, three nurses, a handyman, and a driver.  The center has four main rooms and three waiting areas.  There's the doctor's office, the dispensary, a general treatment room, and an MCH (Maternal and Child Health) and antenatal treatment room.

This is the dispensary, a lot of the medications are pre-packed (by me) and put in those boxes on the shelves so it's easier to fill prescriptions.  It leads into the main treatment room.   

Another view of the dispensary. 

This is a waiting room, which also has all the medical records, very unorganized (I'm working on that), on the shelves behind the gate.  

This is the MCH treatment room.

Again, the MCH treatment room. 

This is the main treatment room. 

Again, the main treatment room. 

This is a view of my compound from the other side.  You can't see my house in this one, its behind the forestry office, which is the house furthest to the left.

My compound has three houses, the forestry office, and the police post.  You can see in the picture above, the police post is the closest orange and white building.  Then connected to my compound is the post office.

This is the Dreketi market.

In terms of getting food in Dreketi, a lot of things you can buy in the store.  This would be any dry goods (rice, flour, sugar, etc.), canned goods, garlic and onions, and they even sometimes have frozen chickens.  Once or twice a week someone brings fresh fish, too. Everything else, any fresh fruit or vegetables you have to buy in the open air market above.  My eating here brings whole new meaning to eating local.  Basically, whatever is available in the market any particular day is what I'm eating for dinner, I have very little choice in the matter.  The good news is Fiji has forced me to become the opposite of a picky eater.  If it's available, I'll eat it, and if there aren't any vegetables in the market one day, then I pick bele (Fiji's version of spinach) from my backyard and eat that.  Sometimes if I go out into the villages I can get other vegetables and things that they don't have at the market such as cabbage, okra, and beans.  Here in Fiji, I am almost entirely vegetarian.  A standard meal for me is rice, or lentils, with some sort of vegetable.  This isn't because the meat here is bad, but I don't have a refrigerator at my house, which means if I was going to make chicken, I'd have to cook the whole chicken, which I can't eat by myself in one sitting so it doesn't make a lot of sense for me to buy meat or fish here.  The only times I eat meat are when someone invites me over for dinner or to some party.  Which brings me to one of my favorite things about Dreketi, I get so much free food!  The other day when I left the health center to come home I had a bushel of vudi (like big bananas), a pineapple, three kavika (native fruit that tastes kind of like a mix between a pear and an apple), and two packets of bara (fried lentil cakes). 

 

This was my lunch yesterday.  I was unbelievably excited to see tomatoes in the market because they're not in season, so I bought a bunch and made a salsa salad type thing with cucumbers, onions and chilis... so good!

Curried beans and onions.  

Dreketi is about 50% Indo-fijian and 50% Fijian which means I have a lot of Indian influence in my life, including my cooking.  I've been learning how to make curries, and roti, and other Indian dishes.  Mine never turn out as good as theirs, but I'm working on it.  This was my dinner one night last week, so good!

This I just thought was funny.  Yesterday (saturday) I was wearing leggings when I went for a run in the morning and then I went straight to the rugby field to watch the tournament.  When I got home this was my tan/burn line.  

There's one older man in Dreketi who lived in Seattle for 15 years, and he and his family have sort of adopted me.  Yesterday they invited me with them to go to a big 21st birthday celebration in a village not too far away.  They're really awesome, and they've been inviting me to a bunch of functions so I can get out and meet more people.  

I got my first care package on Friday!!!!!!!!!! In it my mom sent this awesome shawl/cover up so I decided to put it on for the birthday party.  Thanks mom, I love it!

The birthday celebration, all 6 of the people sitting in the front were turning 21 in the same village!

My new idea of a ragin' Saturday night... drinking grog with the guys.  

So as you can see, things are going really well here in Fiji.  Next week will be fun because I'll be heading to Savusavu for Christmas.  I'll check in again after the holiday!

Merry Christmas everyone!