pictures

 the best feeling ever

my kitten, his name is sarso (mustard seed)

labasa town, this is the main road and it continues for about a mile and then that's the end, sometimes its very hard seeing the same thing day after day after day

this is the market. there is a larger market indoors behind me, but i took this on a saturday and this is the overflow section.  i love it and is by far one of my favorite things about living here

savusavu bay ( the hidden paradise)

me in savusavu

making my garden

germinating tomato plants

the neighborhood kids

the land

i sat here one saturday and wrote all afternoon

this is my kitchen. i don't have a refrigerator but i have a small stove and will hopefully make a solar oven soon so i can bake

the road leading to my home, you can see my house above the bushes on the right 

the view from our training site

life in fiji

 a lovo (earth oven)

oh life is so good

culture:

 “People in western civilization no longer have time for each other, they have no time together, they do not share the experience of time.  This explains why Westerners are incapable of understanding the psychology of sitting.  In villages all over the world sitting is an important social activity.  Sitting is not a ‘waste of time’, nor is it a manifestation of laziness.  Sitting is having time together to cultivate social relationships.”

-Andreas Fuglesang

Talanoa (story, tell a story, story time)

So it finally happened! Ive been waiting and waiting for this one moment since I arrived in Fiji (we were told it WOULD happen) and this is how it went down:

Gardener: Monica, you come here eevverrryy week, but there is something different about you this week.

Me: really? what is it? i haven’t changed anything about me.

Gardener: yes, I’m sure you are different.  you are looking reeaally fat now.

Me: haha ohhhh, I don’t feel any fatter

Gardener: well you look fatter, you are looking very fat since you came to fiji

Me: maybe I should start dieting.

Gardner: no lewa (young girl), you are supposed to be fat. You are looking very fat and it looks very nice

Me: but raj, I don’t want to be fat

Gardener: well then don’t want to be beautiful.

Me: haha you got me. Fijians do look very beautiful. but really, am I looking fatter?

Gardener: yes yes yes veeerrry fat. very very fat!

So being fat is the thing if your Fijian (Indians want to be super thin).  The word for beautiful or sexy in Fijian is uro and it is literally translated to big a fat.  Eating is a passion, there is no such thing as left overs, and you don’t eat until you are full, you eat until all the food has run out.  Everyone at work laughs at me when I bring my leftovers from the night before for lunch.  They say, ‘lewa, by the end of the two years you will know Fiji so well and be a kaiviti (local) but it makes me sad knowing that you will never start eating like a Fijian’. I usually respond with, ‘well see’ but just for play, I promise I won’t come back home huge.  Most volunteers have had something like my story above also happen to them, my good friend’s incident went like this:

Co-workers: ‘Lewa, have you been gaining weight?’

Volunteer: ‘umm no.’

Co-workers: ‘well, have you been running this week?’

Volunteer: ‘I was feeling sick so I only ran twice.”

Co-workers: ‘we can tell’

Even though we know that being called fat is a good thing, its still quite shocking to hear it from someone. Later that day I jokingly told my boss what they gardener had said to me. She responded by saying, ‘you are! you are looking much fatter since you arrived, it must be the Labasa hospitality and all that dhal soup’ (dhal soup is an Indian style bean soup that I love.  Its funny that she said that though because I would compare it to someone from the states saying that you are getting fat from eating garden salads).  They best way I can explain why they have no hesitation commenting on weight is because they use it as a measure of health, it means you are well fed and taking care of your body.  They also say it to throw in a little brag that you’re being treated better in Labasa than in Rewa (the area where our training was) or even the United States.  

work

-Non-Communicable Disease screening in villages (I go with the nurses to record height, weight, blood pressure and sugar and then calculate BMI.  After I give advice on what type of diet the person should have depending on if they have high blood sugar, diabetes, hypertension, or are obese/overweight).

-Visit Primary Schools and help change school canteens from selling only junk food to selling only healthy food.

-Visit Boarding Schools, promote vegetable gardens and give advice on menus for the boarding students.  Hopefully in the time I’m here I can create a system where the food being grown in the vegetable garden can feed the boarding students and provide fresh, local and healthy meals for the students

-I’ve sent in a proposal to start a vegetable garden at the local training center that can supply fresh and local fruits and vegetables to the hospital.

-Improve the structure, methods, crop choice, composting, and utilization of space in gardens at the hospitals.  This is intended to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables being served to staff and patients and reduce rations cost.

I’m super busy at work. I never thought I’d come to Fiji, live in a town and have a 8-5 job, but I love it and don’t really mind working 8-5 because I spend a lot of my time in the gardens.

Pictures!

closest beach to us

Painting ‘faces’ at the Friendly North Festival.  I painted about 50 snakes and scorpions on arms, afterwards I oddly felt that I had some how contributed to a 10 year old boy gang related tattooing ceremony. Don’t worry, it'll wash off. 

My street

My room

This is where I wash my clothes and hang them to dry while I’m at work, I have a place to hang them outside when I’m home. I enjoy watching my clothes blow on the line in the wind, but I really dislike washing my clothes by hand.  Washing is by far my least favorite thing about living slowly, I spend at least 3 hours per week washing clothes, towels, linens, ect. blahh

My art, music, writing, yoga room.  

only fresh and local food is allowed in my kitchen (minus chocolate and wine, which are necessary parts of life)!!! once my garden grows I’ll be growing my own food, preparing and cooking my own food, composting it and then using it to grow more food! I’m so excited.

view from my front door. come live with me

miss and love you all. are the trees changing color yet, can someone send me an autumn leaf?

Monica

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

site announcements

exciting news!

Here is the specific job description: ‘the volunteer will be assisting the divisional dietician’s work in primary school nutrition programs, helping schools adopt healthier food choices in their school canteens, developing nutritional ICT ( I have no idea what that acronym means) materials catering towards diverse demographic factions.’

And here is what I want to jump into: school gardens, cooking workshops with food from the garden, fun agriculture lessons, food art, playfully exposing kids to new tastes and helping develop tastes for raw veggies, solar cooking and drying, and creating posters or other artsy things to promote nutritional health! Horray!

I will be based in labasa (also called ‘the friendly north’) on the northern island, Vanua Levu. Apparently its a hot and dry urban city, one volunteer described it as the wild west of fiji, but a 15 minute drive will get you into the thick of the jungle or to the ocean, perfect!

Another great thing is that some of my best friends from training are also going to the northern island so we get to stay together!

Other lovely things:

*this past weekend we met all the current volunteers. peace corps volunteers are a wild quirky funky bunch of people, these next two years are going to be amazing!

*here’s the link to the video of our meke dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLRMET98zd8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwIhiw2mrw8

*one couple is documenting our training and putting up videos, here’s the link to their blog. I haven’t watched them yet, but I’m in there somewhere. 

 http://peacecorpsfijibubbamichelle.blogspot.com/2010/06/video-documentation-enjoy.html

*i've never heard so much UB40 in my life. and i love it.

* I was voted by the other trainees to be on the peer support network (PSN).  It’s a type of peer counseling thing for volunteers. 

*im currently reading siddhartha by hermann hesse… how in the world did I not read this before? if you have yet to read it please go to the book store immediately.

*life without a cell phone is a good life.  I love how I naturally run into everyone i  “need” to run into. And it always makes me excited and surprised how things work out each time without all the extra effort. Its like following the flow of your environment makes life a lot smoother and much more magical.

  thats me way out there! after i swam  i found out it was named 'snake island'  picking out fabric to make a sulu jabalearning how to do bee keeping,  so so so exciting! oh homemade honey!

my picture in the paper

A cultural story:

One day during the middle of an afternoon of eating traditional food, singing and dancing, an old woman was drug onto the dance floor.  She was far older than any of the women in the village and about 40 years older than anyone else on the dance floor.  At first she looked pretty upset about being drug to dance by one of us kaivulages (a american/european foreigner) but slowly gave into the rhythm.  Soon after she not only proceeded to dance with the people surrounding her, but grab onto a pole and continue dance around it.  We were struck. Everyone sitting on the ibe (a Fijian woven mat) went crazy with clapping, cheering, laughing and smiling. It was one of those rare moments where one person infected everyone with pure joy. And it gets better! The next thing we see is one of my teachers walking up to her, she was taking off her beautiful pearl necklace, earrings and bracelet and placed them in her hand. They laughed together, hugged, and then sat back down in their respective areas. On our way back home I talked to my teacher about the day and told her how affected we were to see her give away beautiful and expensive jewelry.  She smiled and laughed and said, ‘oh my dear, I was just so happy, that old woman gave us all a good time and I wanted to give something in return’ Amazing right?

That was the most beautiful human interaction I have seen in a long time. And things like that happen all the time here. People don’t call before they come over, guests are welcome to stay for however long they please and live like its their own home, if I tell someone I like their dress they’d ask me if I want it, if I said yes theyd give it to me without hesitation.  This culture is so giving, people don’t believe in possessing, its refreshing and im so happy I live here. 

Off to class!

Love to all!

meke!

the days are flying by! yesterday was a big festival for the province of rewa and me and other volunteers performed a 'meke'.  its a traditional fijian dance, where the movements convey the meaning of the song.  it was the coolest thing ive done here so far.  we performed in front of a few thousand people, one being the princess of fiji (also a chief, which is extremely rare)!! here are some pictures...

my house brother is helping get me ready. the brown material is tapa, super expensive and made from trees.  the darker brown is special because only chiefly families have them/wear them and lucky me i'm staying with one. 

there was also video taken, i'll get the link and post it so you can see (yay technology!)

and i'm in the newspaper, mom and dad i'll send one home.  and i'll try to find a scanner so everyone else can see!

other fun news:

*i find out where i'm placed in a week

*natural beauty by neil young is my current favorite song

*the clouds are so big and beautiful here, nothing like i've ever seen before

*my hair is  huge and frizzy (you can't tell in the photos because the ladies drenched me in coconut oil)

* 'un día te encontre en un otro sol' is my favorite line from the poetry i've been reading

*i had my first sulu jaba made, i'll have to post a picture later

*everyone in fiji has an amazing voice, no joke,  people just break out into song and im stunned every time. this morning i woke up a choir singing down the street and the screams from an all weekend rugby tournament, oh fiji.

i hope this makes you laugh:

a typical conversation between a peace corp volunteer

person 1: hey! how was your day?

person 2 (in an extremely heavy southern accent): ah so cool, i got to learn how to do bee keeping, where'd you go?

person 1: i got do learn how to make large scale fish ponds.  i think i'm going to try and make one in my future village.

person 2: i can't wait to go to that training. guess what, i learned how to say my age in fijian, it's ruasangavulu ka tolu.

person 1: number are ridiculous. hey i gotta go, my house dad wants me to help milk the cows today.

person 2: okay, i saw the bull in your village the other day, its huge! have fun

person 1; oh i know! later

literally, these are the things we talk about haha

i hope everyone is doing great! thank for the letters, each one makes my day. love you! 

siga

 heeeey!

 so life is good.  i don't really know what to say or even how to say everything that i want to.  im so much better at one to one conversations, which i guess brings me to...come visit!!!

my days are filled with waking up at 5:00am (the only time of the day thats cool enough to do any physical activity) i do some yoga and then either read or write.  breakfast. then class class class!  tuesdays we do cultural days so i get to see dancing, singing, laughing and the beauty of the traditional fijian culture.  we also eat the most amazing foods, fish in coconut milk, fish wrapped in fresh vegetables, fruits, and curry!! i'm learning how to cook fijian and indo fijian cuisine so i can impress you all and make your taste buds dance when i come back. 

i haven't been able to do much exploring on my own, which is really strange and hard because im not very good at staying put.  but during training we have to be 'good', its complicated and a bit silly... the second these 7 weeks are done i'm going everywhere!!!!


the culture is extremely layered and complex, dealing with womens roles has been the toughest part of living here.  write me (seriously) mcdrazba@gmail.com and i'll go into more detail about everything

a view from one of our training sites when i need to 'get away' and there aren't any rugby games i come here, climb to the top seats and sit for awhile and read or write. its lovely and surprisingly peaceful.

i dont' have my camera right now (i stole these from a friend) i'll post more later.

i'll try to update again soon, tell me what you want to hear about and i'll have a lot more to say, im still getting used to this. love you all so much!!!!!!!!!