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