Spotted: Santa in Fiji!
The complete madness that is the Labasa bus stand on Christmas Eve. We had to fight people to get on the bus to Savusavu!
Beautiful Savusavu! This is where I spent my Christmas with two other PCV's and some other Americans we met in town.
Some of my favorite PCV's and I celebrating Christmas eve with Santa hats and a Corona.
This is one of the hot springs in Savusavu... the hot springs themselves are actually not very impressive but the cool thing is that Fijian women cook in them! They leave their pots cooking in the hot water until their dalo and cassava are finished.
Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree!
Andi, the PCV who lives in Savusavu, managed to get us invited by a resort owner to come have dinner at Koro Sun Resort. He is also from America, and we had an awesome time being fancy hanging out at the resort and having a delicious dinner!
The sunset view from Koro Sun Resort!
After Christmas I came back to Dreketi and celebrated New Year's eve here. Although much less eventful than most New Year's Eve (I sat in church for 3 years), it was still cool to ring in the new year by candlelight.
The weekend after New Year's, I hopped on a bus for a spur of the moment trip down to Nabouwalu where PCV Melissa lives. The first night I was there she made unbelievable eggplant parmesian with cracker crusted eggplant and 'tasty' cheese. I say 'tasty' because the cheese here doesn't actually tell you what kind of cheese it is... it is all sorted into 3 categories; tasty, pizza, and classic.
Nabouwalu is right on the water and it's where all the ferries come and dock. We went down to the wharf to go swimming one day, and we found some kids playing. Ended up making some new friends and having some fun jumping off the dock!
This is the view from Nabavatu Village! I've become really close with the people in this village and they've taken me in. It's like my second home!
Just one of many unbelievable sunsets here in Fiji.
This is what I call bush medicine. She's wrapping a sprained ankle in wet leaves.
Everyone meet the wonderful nursing team in Dreketi. From left to right: Suman (and baby), Ashika, and Ana! These three are some of my best friends in Dreketi, and they are part of the reason I love coming to work every morning.
Oh man the bugs of Fiji... I put on my sulu and started walking out the door yesterday when i felt something pinch my back. I took off my sulu and shook it out and this is what fell off.
I went over to Nana's house yesterday morning and within two minutes of me sitting down she started making me pancakes.
Jungle adventures with some of my Nabavatu Village friends.
A metric ton of freshly shaved coconut. We squeeze out the coconut milk to make miti (traditional Fijian sauce)
The doctor at the health center is being transferred and this coming week we are getting a new one. That means we had to have a farewell lovo! Lovo is a traditional Fijian earth oven and it is usually only done for special occasions because it takes days of prep to do it! Here the nurses are teaching me how to prepare palusami. Palusami is my favorite lovo dish; they take dalo leaves and fill them with coconut miti, onions, and garlic, and smoke it in the earth oven. It is delicious and if any of you ever come to Fiji you will absolute have to eat palusami.
In terms of what's upcoming, work will start to be really busy during the next few months because we have to do our school and village visits. This is when the nursing team and I go out into the community and do checkups as well as health education and outreach! In mid-February I am flying back to the main island (Viti Levu) for a Peace Corps training. I can't wait to see some of the other PCV's that I've been missing so much these last three months at site and have a nice break in the big city!
Loloma, Elizabeth
