Friday, November 5, 2010

Halloween and Truckin On

Halloween was crazy just as I expected. About 20 of us volunteers got together at a backpackers resort for the weekend. Costumes included four Lady Gagas, a Catholic school girl, a girl scout selling cookies, Jesus, a beer bottle, Spider-Man, Santa Clause, a construction worker and others. At night we drank and danced and built a bonfire and at day we did beach stuff.

Halloween: Dancing at the Beach House

Halloween: Lydia, Christa, Lisa, and Natalie as Lady Gaga

Back in the village now. My first days back in the village after a weekend off involves nothing but cleaning. The ecosystem in my bure takes over and I spend 24 hours cleaning rat and gecko shit, knocking down spider webs, sweeping dust, and generally reclaiming the bure as my own.

My environmental class I teach for the 7th and 8th graders once a week is getting out of control because they have figured out that I am fake grading them. I "grade" them to motivate to do the work I ask, but because my lessons are not in the mandatory cirriculum the grades actually mean nothing. So now I have to come up with a reward system to encourage their work ethic that actually works better. I still really enjoy the teaching - I think the kids are learning a lot and they like me and the class. We do a lot of hands-on stuff outside and get dirty and that's where Fijians excel.

My 8th graders identify insect habitats

Life in general is still really good. It's no longer "fresh" and a lot of aspects have become very mundane, but that's the case wherever you are after a year of living - you just have to keep finding things new to try. And that's pretty easy to do when you live in the bush by the sea. I have approximately seven months left.

Bill and Kini, cousins and my neighbors, go spear fishing just outside my bure

Monday, November 1, 2010

Parent's Visit and Completed Water Project


Mom and Dad on Caqalai Island

Dad shows some village kids some pics
Mom chats with the women in my village


My parents just visited me for about eight days… it was a great vacation for them and me. They spent a few days in my village and were treated like royalty which was not the least bit surprising to myself. We did some hiking around my village and enjoyed a few rounds of grog with the locals. Everyone thought my dad was younger than I was. Then we had a little dance in the community hall where my parents’ dancing had the villagers on the floor laughing. When they left some villagers shed some tears, including my counterpart who was so saddened by their departure that he couldn’t eat for two days. My parents and I then travelled on some smaller islands off the east coast, and then headed back along the Coral Coast where they departed from Nadi – back to labels and airplanes. Thanks parents!

One sad reoccurring behavior on the part of villagers in Fiji is that they poison dogs. To them dogs can be pests that mess with livestock, steal food, and shit all around the village. So they set out little trays of poison mixed with some tasty fish rubbish, and next thing I know I am trying to sleep with the sounds of dry heaving outside my bure for four consecutive nights. Last week I watched a child crying while digging a grave for his dog, all the while watching his dog vomit himself to death. The issue will be brought up at the next village meeting.

Sorry, that was very depressing. On a lighter note – our water project has been funded! The project involves a borehole to be dug (which has been completed and we hit fresh water about 30 meters deep), reservoir tanks placed on top of a hill (see pics – I thought we would all be squashed by a rolling, out of control 10,000 liter water tank), and pipeline to be laid from the borehole to the tanks to the village. Most of the work has been completed. All that is left is to connect the piping. We have been working on this project since I got here so it is quite a relief to have it done with. Now the villagers will have drinking/bathing/cleaning water come directly inside the house.

Preparing to haul a one ton, 10,000 liter tank up a 300 foot hill, we contemplate whether its a good idea or not.

Etuate, Momo, Lase and I haul the tanks using a rigged up pulley system

The crab pond continues to struggle due mainly to the villager’s lack of interest. I’m not going to force it down their throat but I am going reorganize the management of it to stimulate the involvement. It really just needs some TLC and attention like the tree nursery has, which is generating a good bit of income and will be the foundation of improvements to be made to our watershed. We will start reforesting locally very soon.

I am traveling further and further in my boat. I have to really time it well with the tides and weather if I want to go anywhere outside of the mangrove forest that I live in. I also have to make another paddle because I flipped the boat recently and my paddle broke so I’ve been using a shovel.

Dolphins in the channel between Moturiki and Caqalai Islands