Bula re everyone! I’m
sorry it’s been so long since my last post but I’m here now to catch you up on
everything that’s been happening. As of
March 1st, I have officially been in Fiji for 6 months… half a year…
a quarter of my entire Peace Corps service. It is crazy to think it’s been that long since
I left America. I’m not saying it feels
like yesterday, but it definitely has gone much faster than I expected. There’s a common Peace Corps saying about the
two-year service: “the days feel like months, but the months feel like
days.” I could not agree more. In my day to day life, time feels like it is passing really slowly, but when I look back and think I’ve been here for 6 months it doesn’t feel nearly that long.
In the beginning of February the health center started its year-long outreach program after the very long holiday season. I was/am really excited about the outreach program where the whole health team goes out to visit schools, villages, and settlements in the area. This is really what I came to Fiji to do, go out into the communities and work on health education on a personal level. Unfortunately, right as all this was getting started I had to go to the capital (Suva, which is on a different island) for a two-week Peace Corps training. I shouldn’t say unfortunately because it was actually really nice to get to see all the other PCV’s I hadn’t seen since November.
Plane down to the mainland!
View of some of the islands from the plane
Overall, training was a great time getting to catch up with fellow PCV’s, brainstorm some new ideas to take back to site with me, and spending some much needed time in the capital where there are things like restaurants and movie theaters. Our training facility was right on the coast, so I got to do a lot of swimming and walking on the beach. Also, there was some really awesome bioluminescence in the water that you could see at night so I did a lot of night swimming. It was honestly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen to be swimming in bioluminescence under the Milky Way, it was like stars in the sky and in the sea… my apologies for the cheesiness of that.
One of the resorts near our training site.
One of my favorite things I got to do while on the main island was go back to my training village and see my host family. The other 5 volunteers from Vanuadina and I all went back together for a day. It was one of best days I’ve had in Fiji so far. I got to catch up with all my friends and family from the host village and we spent the afternoon just hanging around under the mango trees. It felt so comfortable, walking back into Vanuadina village felt like coming home.
Carissa and I waiting for the bus ready to leave Vanuadina. My host mom packed me "pie for the road." Obviously we had to share it with strangers.
The entire Vanuadina crew at our celebratory end-of-training dinner at one of the resorts.
Although training was a really nice break, after two weeks I was really ready to head back to site. I spent a couple more days in the capital getting some extra training because I became part of the peer support network. This is a small committee of peace corps volunteers who offer a safe, confidential ear to any other volunteers who are looking for support, or just need someone to talk to.
When I got back to site, I jumped right back into work at the health center. We’ve been really busy the last couple weeks doing school and village visits. Coming back to site after being gone for almost 3 weeks was harder than I expected. I’ve been having to do a fair amount of re-integration into site and reminding my community that I live here and should be included. The process is slow but it’s working and that’s all the matters!
Here's some pictures from our latest outreach visits!
These pictures are from an outreach for two Indian settlements: Nacula and Naibulu. We set up at the local shop.
Valelawa school visit!
Everyday after lunch, the kids gather in this big square and brush their teeth. For some reason I found it really funny.
Fabulous nurse Ana!
Maraumarua School visit!
Our doctor checking all the students.
We give eye checks to classes 1, 3, and 6. For class 1 it's a mess because they don't know the alphabet so they have to use these weird hand signals to tell us what they see.
Baskalave Settlement outreach visit. We held it at one of the families' home.
In other news, Fiji is buzzing this week because the first
cyclone of the season is headed our way.
Cyclone Pam is currently somewhere between Fiji and Vanuatu and is a
Category 3. It is expected to become a
Category 4 or even 5 cyclone. Right now,
if it even comes to Fiji, the cyclone is expected only to hit the west meaning
Nadi, Lautoka, and the Yasawa Islands.
In the Peace Corps, we have stages of emergency action. Currently, we are in what is called standfast. This means we have to stay at site and can’t leave
until standfast is lifted. We were told
to start preparing by storing food, filling buckets/containers with water, and
charging all electronics. The next stage
of emergency action would be consolidation.
If this happens, all the volunteers go to pre-determined consolidation houses. My
consolidation site is in Labasa, so if the cyclone starts heading towards my
part of Fiji that is where I will head.
The calm before the storm...
These are just some pictures of my garden for fun!
Eggplant
Bele.. kind of like Fijian spinach.
Not much is planned for the next couple weeks; I plan on
staying at site and continuing to work on outreach with my health team. I am going to Taveuni for easter with some
other PCV’s but until then it’s all Dreketi all the time!
