my new address!

Monica Drazba, Peace Corps Volunteer
Northern Health Services
P.O. Box 104
Ro Qomate House
Labasa
Vanua Levu, Fiji Islands
(south pacific)

vulalevu (big moon)

I am so sorry for being completely out of touch for the past month.  Its been a wild ride.  I swore in as an official volunteer on july 8^th and was supposed to take a 3am ferry the following day to Vanua Levu to move into my new abode, but  that didn’t quite happen. we not only missed the ferry, but when I finally got up here I found out that I did not have a home.  So I’ve been living with another Peace Corps volunteer for the past few weeks working full time, adjusting and trying to find a home for myself.  Its been one of the biggest cultural learning experience I’ve had so far.  If this makes any sense, getting anything done in Fiji is all about who you know.  Fiji and the San Francisco Bay Area (all counties touching the bay) are roughly the same size. The population of Fiji is a bit less than 850,000 while San Francisco Bay area is about 7.4 million. Everyone is related! If not directly by blood it goes a little something like this ‘well your cousins brother-in-law is the cousin of my mother-in-laws son’ so we’re family and kerekere (pretty please) do me this favor and let me live here.  I wish I was joking.  Its wonderful, but not when your foreign. So things were a bit rough at first but I made friends with people at work and they kerekere’d for me.  So now I finally have a home! I’ll write all about it after I plant my garden and get things situated.

I attended a one night of a Muslim wedding celebration (70% of Labasa is Indian and there is a large Muslim culture here as well). It was the first night, which is prayer night, the second night is when they do mendi (henna) and rub oils on the groom and bride and the third night is the wedding. A volunteer that is finishing up her two years here was invited and brought me along to see. It was beautiful, everyone was covered from head to toe, but unlike most Muslim women I see around, these women were wearing colors! Lime greens, hot pink, fire red, sunshine yellow, and many many more, the event was so alive. 

The women and men were separated, but we listened to the same prayers.  I didn’t understand what they were saying so I just watched the womens’ movements and faces, tried to pay attention to what they were expressing. The bride was 18 and she was ecstatic, smiling all night and joking with everyone.
there was also a little incident about me getting pulled onto dance floor after 10 minutes of saying 'no no no no i'm sorry i can't i'll be really embarrassed i'm a bad dancer'. i'll have to tell it in person because its hilarious, it involves me and one other woman having to dance bolywood style to a justin beiber song in front of at least 50 other people. oh man ive been pulled extremely out of my comfort zone at least 20 times so far.
but, I feel lucky to have experienced something that normally only shared within the muslim community. I wish I had pictures, but I still don’t like taking my camera out to a lot of places, I feel I tend to miss what’s really going on when I bring it.  Maybe I’ll sketch what I remember and post it in another time.

fun things…

 when Fijians/indo fijians want to get someones attention they make this kissy sound with their mouth, its funny to hear along the street. I can’t do it yet because I can’t keep a straight face. Try making a really loud and long kissing sound in public, its all laughs.

Most men from the villages and school boys walk everywhere (home, through town, in stores) barefoot. 

I bought a guitar

I scaled, cut and prepared my first fish ever! it was gross. But I made amazing fish curry out of it.  other cool things I’ve made while I’ve been here are tomato chutney, pumpkin curry, bean curry, jackfruit curry, roti, bhindi (okra), mustard spread, potato chips, channa masala, coconut tea (so delicious), dhal soup, hummus, peanut butter, and pineapple juice from the skins. Once I officially move into my home I want to make so many other things like yogurt, bread, guava juice and vakalolo (cooked coconut milk). I don’t think I’m going to have a refrigerator though so that might change my plans a bit.

Lemon grass tea is my new favorite and I now I’m growing my own plant so I can drink it all day everyday.

Here are some pictures,

I wake up super early every morning (most people here are up by 4am). it was rough at first but I now I find its one of the best parts of my day.  I get to start my day of slow, I watch the sunrise make tea and a good breakfast and then listen to the Muslim temple down the road call for prayer while I write, stretch or read. If you listen to Facing East by Thievery Corporation it might (or hopefully) get you in the same mood that I feel when I hear it.  here is a picture of the prettiest sunrise I’ve seen so far.

Here’s a cliché picture of me, yay fiji

This is my training village and our host families at our swearing in ceremony.  Fijians are all about matching, one family picked out some matching Bula material for themselves and all of us volunteers…

my favorite photo so far…

One unfine Monday everything seemed to be extra difficult. First off, I woke up later than normal so I didn’t have my long morning start the day AND I was sweating.  I rinse in the much too cold  shower, get dressed, and for the first time am really bothered that I have to wear conservative clothing all the time, then start my walk to work. it is boiling hot and the morning sun is piercing directly into my eyes, not to mention I’m in the process of getting a wicked farmers tan.  At work I find out that the closest thing I had to a home was now completely out of the picture, so I stress through the rest of the day trying to think of new options.  On my walk home it starts to rain (I told you it was just one of those days).  I continue to walk because I’m stubborn and didn’t want to pay for a taxi/pollute. as I finally approach the house I’m staying in, the rain stops,  I sigh, but look up and see something wonderful! a double rainbow! I light up, run into the house, throw my stuff down and very loudly dig through a pile of my luggage to find my camera. Meanwhile, my current roommate is yelling ‘whats wrong! Are you okay? Monicaaaaa!’. I finally locate my camera and while running out the door yell back ‘nothings wrong! There are rainbows!’ 

There are so many hard, different and new things about living here.  integrating into a completely different society, rather than being a ‘backpacker’, always passing through (which I’ve gotten very used to) is more challenging than I ever thought. and as much as I try to brave it all with a smile on my face, some days its really hard to see the beauty in everything that goes on.  But just as life starts getting rough and things get irritating something really unique happens, like seeing a double rainbow sprouting right in the town you work in everyday. so here’s the moment…enjoy

This is extra long, hopefully it made up for my lack of updating and writing.  I promise to write letters back, I’m sorry to make you wait so long for those of you who have sent me multiple, I just received some that were sent at the end of june..fiji snail mail!  I’m going to get a mailbox soon, I’ll post my address when I do. mom and pop, the super extra extra dark chocolate was the best thing I could have ever received, thank you and I love you!

 I hope summer is super cool and people have been going to some music festivals, that’s what I miss the most about the bay, what I would give for live music!  Oh and the golden hills of California with large trees scattered throughout…can someone go climb one for me.

Love you all!

monica