ramayan

here are pictures of the ramayan i went to a few weeks ago. they are completely out of order, but a good and colorful representation of the day and night.



the women after the program



the men drinking grog and singing after the service

two girls wearing salwar kameez



archana and i



during the program (prayer service)

arti

cooking all day

all the poori

helping/learning how to make poori

everyone

shareen and i

the women taking a break from cooking and eating some lunch

david and i after i got all dolled up by shareen and archana

greta and i (my hair is drenched in coconut oil!)

cuties

and these aren't from the ramayan, but i thought i'd put them up anyway. they're my neighbor girls that come over a few days a week and hang out (and eat all my guavas!)

back row left to right: Va, Soko, Litia front row left to right: Merewailesi and Luciana

Luciana and Merewailesi (they have so much energy!)




 

The Labasa Hospital Garden

Sorry for not fully updating the last post.  This one will be much better. 

My main project is the Labasa Hospital Garden.  When I arrived at my site I was asked to do all sorts of things: monitor school canteens, start school, hospital, and health center gardens, promote gardening to villages and so forth.  I was excited, but had no direction.  I started doing a little bit of everything and got no where.  This lasted for two months, two very long and frustrating 'I really don't like it here' months. 

Then, one day I was called by the Labasa Hospital Dietitian and was asked if I had any experience with constructing nursery's.  I lied and said 'yes'.  I needed to get involved with something and this project seemed like an opportunity that I didn't want to escape me.  She was thrilled and asked me to come by sometime that week so we could discuss their ideas.

I went in and was told that the Minister of Health is requiring all Hospitals to have gardens.  She said that she wanted to start a garden, but didn't have any gardening experience, neither did any of the laborers. I told her I had some experience working on farms and said I could help with anything they needed.She asked me to start that month with the outside garden and as planning began with the nursery she would contact me. 

So my work with the outside garden started and we immediately started planting bele (a type of spinach leaf), eggplant, papaya trees and banana trees. I used down time to talk with the gardener about crop rotation, seasonal planting, organics, fertilizers, pesticides, trellising and all that stuff.  He's a really smart guy and picked it up pretty fast. 

In  late September I was asked to help plan the nursery garden.  They had a general idea of the size and structure but were unsure how to fill up the space.  I casually started offering different ideas about garden boxes, composting, maximizing space and how we should plant and they loved it all.  I was excited but very nervous because I had never done something.

But I just ran with it, did lots of research and proposed plans that I was confident would work, but not positive.  It was (and still is) important for me to make things as sustainable as possible so I made sure the gardener, carpenter and labor adviser knew exactly what we were doing and why we were doing it the entire step of the way.  I usually had the right ideas, but had, and still have no idea about carpentry, so a lot of my sizes and calculations were waay off.  They got a good laugh about it though and  things were adjusted as we went along.

At the start of November we were ready to begin.  All the materials were bought, tractors were rented and soil was brought it.  It seemed like magic because a lot of things here don't happen as scheduled. This is what the garden looked like before we began.

After the first week it looked like this

By the end of November we completed half the boxes and started putting up the surrounding structure

December went a little slower because people were  ready for vacation and we had a couple weeks of rain.  But we started sewing the shading cloth and put a few pieces on top so we could start germinating seeds before the holidays.

chandrika, manikam and eroni discussing filling the bed boxes

the hospitals administrative officer and i (he's very excited about the project)

chandrika and i on the first day of planting

And then January was soooo slow!  Most people didn't come back from holiday until the 20th and no real work started until the beginning of February.  But we finished the shading cloth covering and transplanted cabbage and lettuce. 

Within the first week of Feb we finished the outer structure (fencing, shading and doors), built a tool shed and moved around the boxes so we could build more than we originally planned. Here's what everything looks like as of now

We still have to finish up making the second row of boxes, building the compost bin and planting the rest of our crops. Currently we have two types of cabbages growing, lettuce and tomato. All are very delicate plants and couldn't normally be planted in the hot rainy season.
Soon we'll plant long bean and passion fruit to grow along the fences.

Why does the Labasa Hospital need a garden?

to provide local and fresh foods to patients and staff. 

to help the government save money. 

to promote gardening and show people how beneficial it is

because over 80% of the Fijian population is obese

almost 100% of the population (from a national survey) doesn't eat a single serving of fruit in a recorded week

and because its fun!

how much did it cost:

$20,000 Fijian Dollars which is around $10,000 US dollars.  The money was donated by Australian AID.

Challenges/funny stories 

I have had the most difficulty explaining composting.  Just this week I was told that they found two perfect crates for the compost bin, "we won't have to build a compost bin!" they said.  Yesterday I went to see these 'bins' and they turned out to be old rusty bathtubs taken from the wards.  I laughed so hard and tried to explain why they won't work.  I'm not sure if they fully understood, but hopefully when its up and running I can teach it rather than explain it. 

there were days when i thought that nothing would work out, but everything turned out okay. the outside garden ended up saving the hospital/government over $2,000 in the last two quarters and the nursery will be completed by April (hopefully). i'm really lucky to have fallen into this position, the opportunity to learn this was amazing and invaluable.

and while all this is happening i can't help but think about the future. i really want to continue doing gardening/farming, maybe do an apprenticeship on a farm or get a permaculture certificate...who knows though. i'm always getting the itch to go travel again, so maybe that will happen first.

random stuff about my life:

i have a new focus on life in Fiji: enjoy this experience, no expectations, just enjoy whatever i come across in my time here and try my best.

i'm reading Shantaram and absolutely love it. next stop india?

my kitten was murdered,  the neighbor boys threw him into the nearby pond. needless to say i was very upset. animal cruelty is rampant here.

i finally succumbed to the heat and bought my first fan 

i'm going to new zealand in April!

i had my first traditional fijian massage and was sore for a week

i'm going to a Ramayan this saturday and get to wear a sari for the first time!!!! i'll try to take photos

hope you are all super!

all my love
Monica

the holidays (just pictures for now)

on the boat to taveuni. greta's (right) parents came and they brought magazines! it was so exciting, i hadn't read a magazine in 8 months, so much is happening!

jumping off the Lavena waterfall, 45ft tall

the first part of the climb to the waterfall

sooooo scary, but so fun!

at maqai eco beach resort for new years

the swim to the fall. the most beautiful place i think i've ever been

come visit!

leaving to go back to reality

haha me in my christmas sulu jaba (the traditional fijian wear)

i'll write more about the adventures when i get online next. hope everyone had a great holiday!

free time

A lot of people here ask me, ‘so what do you do at home when youre alone and don’t have a t.v.’. So this December blog will be about my non-working non-chore time in Fiji

One of the biggest reasons I liked the idea of the peace corps was to have time, without distractions, to learn and do things that I have always wanted.  The biggest one is gardening and I’ve already talked about that a lot, but another big one is cooking.  I really want to know how to make everything I like to eat with raw materials and my own hands.  This started with just the basics like hummus, roti/tortillas, raita, juice and good tea made from local leaves. Now I’ve begun making bread and noodles and hopefully soon tomato sauce, yogurt, babaganush (spelling) and marmalade.  So far bread was the hardest, mainly because I don’t have an oven, but I’ve recently got it down and want to try different varieties soon.

Another thing that I’ve always wanted to do, and have failed at many times, is to play guitar.  I’ve started and can play chords and a couple basic songs but mostly I just make up my own little melody and try to be creative with what I know.  My voice is horrible so I’m trying to make songs that don’t involve me singing, but for a few special melodies I’ll sing along (oh sun oh sun oh suuuuuun, flowin’ with the river)

ART! My poetry writing is lacking, I haven’t really found a voice here, but I do color a lot. Here’s something I recently made.

Letter writing, even though I’m not nearly as good as some of you are to me. I try to write all my emails and letters once evening a week after I gain the courage to brave the internet café (you’d stress out too if you saw it), save all my e-mails into word documents then read and write back in my home.

I don’t read as much as I should or even could.  Its been really hard picking up a book and reading it all the way through, for some reason this is a common issue among a lot of volunteers.  But here’s a list of my favorites so far:  One the Road by Jack Keroac, 100 Best Poems of all time, Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan, Changing Woman and Her Sisters by Sheila Moon, Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat, Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, Poker Nation by Andy (…?), and Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut.

Photography happens at minimum because I’m really shy about taking my camera out.  But when I do, I have a lot of fun.  Most of Fiji is green green green green, but there are these tropical plants that have the most vibrant shades of red, yellow, pink and orange and I’m really drawn to them.  There are a bunch in my front yard and one day I took pictures so I could show you all.

Here’s couple pictures from a small tourist island we snorkeled at a few weeks ago.

Gathering with other volunteers.  There are a total of 7 volunteers within two hours of me and we meet up during evenings or weekends to barbeque, play poker (thanks American tax payers), fantasize about good beer, guacamole, pizza, ect and basically shoot the shit.  There’s always someone around to grab lunch or make dinner with so there’s no lack of people.  This is really different than what I thought Peace Corps was going to be.  When I first applied I thought I’d be in a hut hours away from anyone.  Here’s a picture of us gathering after a conference back in October

Random events, parties, dinners, projects….My friend Seli graduated from nursing school and here are some pictures from that 

And things that I still want to do

-make a solar oven

-become scuba certified

-speak fluently

-create something cool out of my old wine bottles

im going to a village to experience a traditional Fijian Christmas and then off to this island for the new year. I hope you all are having great holidays and have a happy new year!

All my love,

Monica