May 2015

The last few weeks in Dreketi have been awesome and I’m finally finding time now to sit down and catch you all up on what’s been happening.  I’ve found that when I get to spend a long stretch of time at site without leaving either for Peace Corps business or just for travel, I start to feel more at home.  It’s difficult to put down real roots when I’m constantly getting pulled away from site, but when I get to stay here weekend after weekend I feel much more integrated. 

At the end of April, I unfortunately had to say goodbye to one of my best friends here in Dreketi.  Ana, one of the nurses at the health center, left us for an awesome opportunity working as a staff nurse at one of the NGO’s on Viti Levu (the main island).  Although I’m so happy and extremely proud of her for taking this opportunity, it’s also a sad time in Dreketi saying goodbye to both a co-worker and a friend.  In typical Fijian style, we had a big goodbye lunch for her at the health center and everyone got up and said some nice words.  I have no doubt that some day I will go visit her in the west, or she may come back to visit so I know it’s not goodbye forever but her absence is definitely felt.  For now we haven’t had a replacement nurse sent yet, which means that the entire health center has only two nurses, one doctor, and me the Peace Corps volunteer.  With so few staff we’ve all been working like crazy to pick up the extra slack and get everything done. 

Nurse Ana (Left) and Nurse Ashika

Ana and I on her farewell day

Farewell lunch

Two days a week, the outreach team (me, one nurse, and the doctor) go out into the community to conduct health visits.  When we go we screen patients for NCD’s by taking height/weight, blood pressure, and blood sugar.   We also see any known patients that can’t come to the health center (we call these dorm cases).  Sometimes when we go out, we only see a few patients, but then other times we can see up to 60 or 70 people in a couple hours.  I personally love going out into the community doing health visits, it is absolutely my favorite part of my job.  I get to help the nurse and doctor in screening and I also do some health education talking to people about a variety of topics from healthy eating to dengue fever. 

One of the villages, Nasigasiga

Our hospital transport heading through the bush

A few weeks ago we were doing an outreach in Nabavatu Village.  When we were packing up a few of the women came up to me and told me there would be a wedding in a couple hours and invited me to stay.  Things like this happen very often, and every time I see it as an opportunity to meet more people and integrate a little bit more into Dreketi life.  So I stayed in the village all afternoon, went to the wedding of two strangers, stayed for dinner and ended up drinking kava with them all afternoon into the evening.  Days like this one are the ones that make me think about how much I love my life in Fiji and help me forget about the hard days. 

Last week the outreach team and I visited the two high schools in our medical area doing dental and medical check-ups for the students.  While at the schools I did a sexual health talk for each class.  I talked about STI’s, teen pregnancy, and prevention.  In Fiji, talking about sex is a fairly taboo topic.  Especially in the villages, sex is never openly talked about, so when I come to the schools and start talking about sex and doing condom demonstrations, the kids LOVE it.  For them, it’s their favorite day in school because they get to finally ask all the questions they’ve been wanting to talk about but feel like they can’t.  And it’s fun for me too because the older high school kids are not that far from my age and so it’s almost like talking to peers for me. 

Putting a condom on an eggplant for the high schoolers

One of the best places that the doctor and I do some health outreach is at the rugby tournaments every Saturday.  We go as the medics (first aid) and while we’re there we talk for a few minutes about different health topics.  These tournaments are huge and sometimes there’s around 300 people there, so we can reach a ton of people by doing outreach there.  For those of you that don’t know, rugby is HUGE in Fiji.  In any village on any given Saturday, you will find people playing rugby.  Not only that, but the Fiji Seven’s Rugby team recently finished their rounds of tournaments and ended up number one in the world!  The upcoming summer Olympics will be the first to have seven’s rugby as an event.  The top four teams in the world get an automatic invite to the Olympics, and since Fiji is number one, we will be going to the Olympics!  This is the first time that Fiji has a serious chance at winning and Olympic medal, so it’s a really exciting time to be a fan of Fiji rugby and I encourage everyone to keep an eye out for them come Olympics time. 

Nothing like a good saturday full of rugby

Me doing a quick health talk at the rugby tournament

Although I love sharing some of the good times with you all, I also want to share some of the low moments.  This past month I celebrated a birthday in Fiji.  I know there are some other PCV’s who would agree with me, but this was hands down the hardest day I’ve had in Fiji so far.  Imagine going an entire birthday without a single hug.  My family makes a big deal about birthdays, so being in Fiji where I don’t have people to celebrate with, much less people that even know it’s my birthday, was extremely hard.  It made me realize how far I really am from all my family and friends back home.  That being said, it’s only one day out of hundreds that I will spend here in Fiji.  If Peace Corps and Fiji have taught me one thing it’s that things can change in an instant.  One day you can be the happiest you’ve ever been in your life, and the next day you’ll be miserable.  It can be both good and bad depending on which side you’re standing on.  When you’re having an awful day, it’s nice to know that you can wake up the next morning and have the best day of your life.  Before I left for Fiji, a returned PCV told me that during my  Peace Corps service I would have the absolute worst day of my entire life, but I would also have the absolute greatest day as well.  I didn’t totally believe that when I left but the more time I spend here the more I think they were right. 

Other than that, I’ve been spending a lot of time just hanging out with friends and drinking kava.  I always think its better to let pictures speak for me, so here’s some shots of my recent doings!  Cheers to 9 months in Fiji!

A few PCV's and I spent a weekend at the end of April diving in Savusavu:

Shots from Dreketi:

Bustling Dreketi Market

Awesome view of all of Dreketi from one of the villages! You can see the three school compounds, and my house is on the far right.

PCV Melissa from Nabouwalu came and spent the night in Dreketi a couple weeks ago.  While there we visited/toured the Cocoa plantation near Dreketi.  It's one of the biggest in the country!  The owner is a fellow American, he was born in Fiji but spent about 20 years working in America.  He's working on getting the cocoa plantation up and running to export around the world.  

Drying the beans

Also doing some copra (coconut) collecting

And harvesting honey!

Nothing like some pure honeycomb as an afternoon snack

More shots around Dreketi:

The coolest bed I've ever seen.  Its a tarp wrapped around a wood frame.  They attached rope to the corners and hang it from the ceiling so it swings back and forth.

Helping out at a youth workshop in Seaqaqa town:

Some fun times with my best friends in Dreketi!