Monday, June 28, 2010

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Year 1




June 4th, 2010

At nighttime, about three or four days per week, the men in the village get together just to “talanoa” – storytelling. They sit around the grog bowl and tell elongated stories of what happened in the bush that day, rumors about their neighbors, or the size of the fish they caught that day (I can’t count how many times per week they hold their hands out and say “ka levu vaqo” – it was this big). They drink grog the whole time, usually until “they can’t feel feelings anymore,” as Homer Simpson once put it. I enjoy these talanoa sessions but have to limit myself to four or five hours because their sometimes is no end.
We have completed the construction of the crab pond! It is the first crab fattening pond in Fiji, as far as the Ministry of Fisheries knows. I have worked with them, aquaculture professors at University of South Pacific, and local community members to design and implement this experiment. Many people are very excited about this project; if we have good results it could open a whole new sector of income generation for coastal communities in Fiji. This is a sustainable approach to the current near-sighted mining of marine fish along Fiji’s coasts. Work wise - also starting a tree nursery in cooperation with Conservation International. We gather seedlings of native tree species from the forest, grow them and sell them to villagers. But I just started that so I'm not going to go into that because it may fail like 80% of projects in Fiji do.
I’ve done a good bit of travelling recently. Took a trip to the northeast coast of Viti Levu with six other volunteers to celebrate our one year anniversary of being in Fiji. We did some great hiking which involved crawling vertically on all fours to the peak of Mt. Tova. In evenings we did what we do best – build a bonfire on the beach, drink beer, and talk about how hard/easy, fun/boring our lives are. I do say that after a year we are all in generally good spirits. Of the 32 of us that came, only three have left. A new crop of PCV’s arrived – (they are called FRE-8’s, we are FRE-7’s which stands for Fiji Re-Entry Class #7) – so they will replace the FRE-6’s that go home next month. As part of their training they came to my site to learn about my way of life, my work, hardships, easyships, etc… It was refreshing to have new Americans around me. Americans are great.
Last weekend I went to a wedding. A girl Peace Corps Volunteer married a local Fijian. 24 of us PCVs were there to celebrate. After a traditional Fijian ceremony (grog, church service, gigantic lunch, grog, guitar/ukulele playing) we went to Uprising Resort to celebrate in the traditional American way (beer, bonfire, ipods, dancing to the B-52’s).
Now I’m back in the village – beginning year two of my service. Went fishing yesterday, caught a delicious bass “It was this big!” and ate it with ivi’s, a gigantic nut that falls from the trees in May.

April 14th, 2010
I’ve recently returned from Merika; my second trip home since I’ve been here which is a lot for being so far away. Yet both trips were very important to me – the most recent being my brother’s wedding. Neil married Miss Margaret at her beautiful farm near Jackson, Georgia. It was the most beautiful ceremony I’ve ever been to and was followed by an equally awesome reception. I had a stomach bug and was vomiting every half hour and danced more than I ever have in my life while sober. Getting back on the plane was difficult; not just because I was saying goodbye to loved ones again, or because of the 23 hours of flight time that loomed ahead, but because the emotional transition between the world I was leaving and the one I was re-entering was quite overwhelming. That being said, once I was situated in my bure, reclined in my hammock, looking over the bay at dawn, I was perfectly content. But between the wedding and my hammock I spent Easter on Taveuni Island with my good Peace Corps buds that I rarely see.
Taveuni is widely regarded as the most scenic of the Fijian Islands. It rises 3,200 feet direct from sea level, completely blanketed in tropical forest, and is home to a large array of endemic species (found nowhere in the world except this island). The first day we played on some natural rock slides and slept at a beach that was no longer a beach because Cyclone Tomas swept it away two weeks prior. The second day we climbed Des Veoux peak, at about 3,100 ft. the 2nd highest on the island (this is really hard when starting at 3 feet.) It was about a three hour climb up a 40 degree slope. We got to the top and were greeted by a cloud cover eliminated any chance of us seeing what must be the most gorgeous vista in Fiji. The next three days we spent at Lavena Lodge (where another PCV works) and hiked and kayaked and jumped off multiple waterfalls. An eight-seater prop took me back to my island so I could resume being a PCV again.
Work wise – we have been awarded a grant to begin work on a crab aquaculture project in the village. It’s a pilot project for the Ministry of Fisheries in that there are currently no successful crabbing programs in Fiji, that I nor the Ministry is aware of. Basically we catch crabs in the mangroves, put them in a pen, feed them fish scraps to fatten them up, then sell them to resorts and markets to bring some income to the village. We are really excited.
Every Wednesday I take a 45 min. stroll up a hilly dirt road to the Tai District School where I teach an environmental awareness class to 7th and 8th graders. I enjoy it but prefer the village work. But the kids are very responsive and much more capable of adapting to environmental practices than the elder, more stubborn villagers. So that is good.
Aside from that I am reading, writing, drinking grog, fishing, farming and watching frogs and geckos slurp up bugs in my bure at night time.


February 9th


My village is so small. The old people and young people that have nothing to do during the day just watch me all day. They know everything I am doing - whether I am at the farm, fetching water, using the bathroom, or reading. I can't lie or hide anything here. It's all in the open; fish in a fishbowl.
Dancing is "taboo" in my village. If the village wants to have a dance we must get permission from the "Vakatawa" who is like the ethical/religious advisor in the village. Permission was asked on New Year's for a dance and he said no. It's like living in Footloose. (However he did grant permission the evening Neil and Margaret visited.)
The village went about a month without rain which is extremely odd for a tropical climate in the wet season. As a result, we drank up all our rain catchment water and our creek bed ran dry for the first time in anybody's memory in the village (we have 80 year olds that have never seen the village creek dried up.) Some people claimed the devil was in our village; they say this whenever something unfortunate happens. So for about a week it got scary. There was a lot of water recyclying going on which is fine up to a point. That point was crossed and I told everyone to stop because it was becoming a health hazard. Some listened, some didn't. We then decided to search for a well. Some of the old-timers in the village knew of some old water depots that they used back in the day. It was deep in the bush. During the trek we waded to our armpits in mucky swamp and ran into three-too many hornets nests. They stung the piss out of me. But we hacked our way to the the spot which was also the head of our stream. We realized there was water just under the stream bed. We dredged the stream bed and weeded the grass out of it which created a flow of sub-surface water that eventually reached our village dam. Now we have water dripping into the village.
I counted: I ate eight whole watermelons this week. About 120 of my projected 900 watermelons could be harvested. Most parrished in the cyclone a month ago. Still have carrots and cucumber growing and my okra is coming up fast.
Work is slow because of some political issues within the village. The villagers say they want to leave the traditional system they have going on for a more modern, democratic system. But they don't really want to change, otherwise they would. So I just have to be patient when it comes to getting things done. I started teaching in the district middle school. I teach environmental awareness to 7th and 8th graders every Wednesday. Its good, tangible work - the kids are a lot more influential and are very responsive which is a nice change.

Here are some interesting customs that one finds in my village and most of Fiji:
- When people greet or say goodbye they don't kiss on the cheek. They sniff each other's cheek. Yes. That's right. They sniff each other's cheek.
- The head is considered sacred and no one can touch or even reach near another person's head without verbally excusing oneself (by saying "tulou") before doing so.
- Villages are headed by a chief. Each village is then broken down into tribes and then clans and then families.
- If you receive a gift you must clap - before and after receiving it.
- In a crowded room, the sexes are segregated and if a woman wants to come to the men's side for any reason she must scoot there on her knees or on all fours.
- Married couples don't touch each other, kiss, or tell each other they love each other in public. The world "love" does not have a direct translation so therefore it is seldomly used.
- Every morning our village headman walks through the village and shouts the daily news. This is how everyone is informed of what's going on. My language is still developing so I usually don't exactly know whats going on.
- Meetings are called with a conch shell. Like Lord of the Flies, without the fat kid in glasses.
- Doors are never shut during daytime. There is no such thing as privacy. This one is difficult for me.
- Cannibalism is still practiced by the elders in the village... just kidding.

January 9th

I just found some waterfalls and swimming holes about a thirty minute hike from my village. Also I just got some quality rope to string up my hammock inside my bure. So my quality of life has just tripled.
On Dec. 8th I went to my sister's wedding in the States (Charleston, SC). Although I only had five full days and couldn't truly taste the "fruits" of America, the wedding was awesome and it was great to see my family for the first time in seven months. I had a fantastic time, ate lots of good Southern food and drank a lot of good beer.
I got home jet lagged and hungover and just in time for a Fijian Christmas. The holidays bring all extended family (those who have moved out and away to "bigger better things") back to the village from about mid Dec. to mid Jan. So my village has swollen in size with people that I don't really know. Its refreshing/frustrating to have so many new faces. But Christmas in Fiji is very simple; lots of grog, lots of church, and lots of food. No gift giving. No Santa Clause. So its actually a pretty legit deal they got going on and something Christians should take notes on. Yet it is overbearing if you're an outsider and right in the thick of it.
Also, with holidays at every corner, my work just stopped completely. Still taking care of little things on a day to day basis; like trash management, farming, and water testing, but our big projects (the new dam project and organic farm project) has halted for the timebeing. Fine with me. I'll just swing in my hammock for a month.
New Year's was incredible and a good escape from all that I mentioned above. About 12 of us volunteers met up on a small island called Caqalai, just south of the larger island of Ovalau (for you cartographers). I actually live quite near it (20 min. walk, 20 min. bus ride, and a 30 min. boat ride and I am there.) It is a very rustic getaway with great soft coral reefs. So I hiked around the island about 10 times, snorkelled the incredible reefs, saw two small sharks and two banded sea snakes (the sixth most venomous animal on the planet), built a lot of bonfires, drank a lot of beer, listened to music and camped under the stars. We brought in the New Year at midnight by running into the ocean with too many clothes on.
The word kavalaqi is the Fijian word for a white person. It refers to all Europeans, Americans, Austrailians, etc. The word comes from the Polynesian word palaqi which literally means "Sky Burster." This is because when natives first saw white man hundreds of years ago, they assumed it was impossible for them to have arrived by sea. It would have been more probable had they come out of the sky. So sometimes I like to go to a new village, with my whiteness and gadgets, and play "Graham Gaines, Sky Burster."


December 1st

I am lucky because when times get tough there is a little joint about a thirty minute bus ride away where I can drink all the beer I want, courtesy of American taxpayers. Very nice. But things aren't tough too often, so my Peace Corps experience has been quite a sober one. That's probably for the better.
I've been trying to get a community farm together. It would be organic and we would grow pinapple, papaya, cabbage, and bell peppers and target nearby hotels and the toursim industry in general. All revenue would go towards environmental projects in the village, such as foreshore restoration and a new seawall, with some going towards the construction of a new community hall. The farm won't begin operating until next year because Fiji (and the southern hemisphere) completely shuts down this time of year. School is out, holidays are abound, and it is really just too damn hot to do anything. So we will comatose ourselves for the season and drink lots of grog and lay on the ground.
I went to Peace Corp's Project Design and Management Workshop a few weeks ago. It was much better than it sounds. There were eleven of us volunteers, each with a work counterpart from our respective villages. Basically we were teaching our village counterparts how to implement, manage, and sustain a project. Very good. And lots of fun too. During the day, after the workshop, we played volleyball or went to fancy resorts and posed as tourists and lounged poolside. A couple of nights we built bonfires on the beach and swam in the ocean. Very Peace Corps.
Also, because there are Indians here, Fijians believe in Thanksgiving. So we celebrated that. About 27ish of us volunteers met in Suva at a volunteers house with 27ish dishes of food. Very yummy. Then we went out daincin' in Suva.
Last weekend I held the Trash Olympics in my village. The objective was to get the kids to clean up the village, but of course I had to make it fun for that to happen. So of course I combined picking up trash with relay races and it was very successful! We also had a learning activity where I taught them how long different items take to decompose, and we played elbow tag, and we painted the village trash cans. Very clean.
I'm probably just gonna chill in my hut for a week before going to my sister's wedding in America - so a shout out and congratulations to Kelley and Courtney! I'm gonna miss my village; starting to form good relationships and my language skills are going pretty good and work is moving along. But I sure am looking forward to seeing my dog. And my family.

November 11th
The time is going very fast - I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. My health is good. I've been eating a lot of bananas, carrots, and oysters. I went to a Halloween party in Northern Viti Levu and that was pretty crazy. While there me and my friends Lydia and Sean took a couple kayaks to a nearby reef to do some snorkeling. On the return trip Lydia and I (in a two-person kayak) were blindsided by a wave and flipped. We immediately grabbed the kayaks and paddles because nobody wants to be afloat in the Pacific without a boat. But snorkels, masks, my sunglasses and my camera were all swallowed by the deep blue. My camera is waterproof so its not broken. Its just gone.
A lot of people have written me about the recent tsunamis. The first ones hit while I was doing a training workshop up in the highlands area. It devestated parts of Samoa but Fiji was left unscathed. Then only a few weeks later, an earthquake of 8.2 magnitude alerted the tsunami whistle blowers in Fiji. Announcements were made on the radio and phone calls were made and coastal towns shut down as people made mad dashes up hill. I was called by my supervisor at 10:23 am and was told the tsunami ETA was 10:40 am. I had 17 minutes to gather a backpack of provisions, spread word all over my village, and get everyone on top of the hill behind the village. I put two water bottles, $36, a radio, and a sack of tomatoes in my backpack and ran around the village telling everyone to get uphill. We climbed up and were sitting on a tombstone overlooking the village and bay by 10:36 am. A few elders and some lazy and/or proud villagers stayed by their homes, continuing to weave mats and pound grog, not at all threatened by "a few big waves." With excitement and fear we listened to the radio and waited for the big ripple to come. I shared all my tomatoes. Nothing came. They renounced the warning over the radio at 11:45 am, and we climbed down the hill as the ones that stayed behind laughed at us and asked us if we were hungry.
Workwise, we are waiting for Fiji Water to review our proposal. In the meantime we are starting an organic papaya farm. Should be good eatin' and good Benjamins for the villagers. Might start teaching in the middle school up the road. Might not.
My bithday came and went; it was a quiet birthday in the village. I only told my neighbor and the chief. My neighbor gave me 6 bags of grog and the chief gave me an eel. I must say I enjoyed the day thoroughly in this way. Bookwise - just finished Cadillac Desert (great) and Tropic of Cancer (terrible) and now enjoying a great Paul Theroux book called The Happy Isles of Oceania.
'Bout to go buy an ice cream.
October 16th
I have been quite busy the past month - We had Early Service Training the last days of September and All-Volunteer Day October 1st. EST is a chance for all us FRE-7's to get together and see each other's new hippie beards and congratulate each other on sickly weight losses. Actually everybody looks pretty good - we have a very healthy and happy group. EST is really a chance for us to learn project specifics; like how to plant mangroves, reforestation techniques, conducting money-management workshops, etc. We spent three days there before going to Suva for All-Vol. All Fiji volunteers (60ish) go to All-Vol. We had an American-style cookout at the County Director's house then went out that evening for pole dancing purposes. Then we woke up feeling great and had a Resource Fair at our hotel. The fair was very helpful; representatives from many different environmental and health organizations around Fiji come and set up booths and we went to them seeking advise and to collect little info booklets. I stayed in Suva another couple days - went to parks, a museum, and bypassed a rugby match to sit on the seawall and drink beer and I stand by that decision.
Back in the village I am trying to finish the grant proposal for our water project. Basically that means coming up with a plan, detailing that plan, attaching a dollar sign to that plan, and laying it all out on paper for some NGO to read and agree to pay that dollar amount. Its taken about two months now but we should submit it this week. We recently tested our water; the water in our stream (where we bathe and clean) is cleaner than our rain water tanks (used for drinking.) That's pretty gross so we'll do something about that this week.
I have a healthy supply of cabbage and beans in my garden, and an absurd amount of carrotts should be ready soon. What does one man do with 1,400 carrotts? I'll let you know. I had lettuce but birds ate it all so I had to build a scarecrow - dressing the scarecrow was odd because he doesn't need to look good yet I spent too much time deciding what he should wear.
What's up with the Dawgs, man?
September 15th
Life continues to rock softly and sweetly in my corner of the world. Today I came back from the farm and sat by the bay reading books and listening to the BBC for about 3 hours and assimilated the immediate surroundings. It really is absolutely beautiful out here. And the people compliment the place perfectly.
Work is gathering steam. Concerning the water project, I have had the village surveyed by an engineer to determine the logistical requirements of getting water piped into each house and have also had the Health Department come and do tests on our drinking sources (still waiting on those results). Now we are in the oh so important phase of putting together a proposal for funding. Around the village we have cleaned the rain catchment roofs and have set up three compost pits. So things are happening and that is good.
A funny thing happened on the way to the farm: I stepped outside my bure into a puddle of water. I looked around and noticed the foreshore of the village was flooded. The odd thing was that it hadn't rained in a week (nobody has ANY drinking water and we are going to have to truck some in but that is another issue). I then realized it was the "once-a-month mega-hightide" they had warned me about that caused the water. The sea level was higher than anyone in the village had ever seen it. It was like Katrina divided by 2 million. And it keeps rising every month. Assuming climate change doesn't suddenly halt, the sea will drown the village in a few years... just take it out to sea. We will be taking measures to delay the inevitable for as long as possible, like building a sea wall and lessening upstream soil erosion, but the local government is asking the village to go ahead and relocate to higher ground. Easier said than done when 85% of the village population are subsistence farmers and don't have however much it costs to move an entire village. Anyways we'll worry about that later - right America?
This place and this job is a reader's paradise. I just finished three books in three weeks: 1. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (pretty good) 2. Cod, by Mark Kurlansky (possibly the finest account on codfish I've ever picked up and an excellent lesson on natural resource management), and Annapurna, an awesome narrative by Maurice Herzog of the first ascent of a 8,000 meter mountain. Now working on some Ayn Rand.
Go Dawgs!?

August 19th
It has been a while since I have updated this. I have been busy the past month for various reasons, which is a good thing when living on an island. The moving in process is complete and my little home is now complete with the recent additions of kitchen shelves and a cabbage farm. My home is also home to other uninvited guests such as two wild dogs, a rooster, three ginormous 1/2 pound spiders that live in my bathroom (usually under the toilet and I verbally say "please go away spider" everytime I enter the bathroom and I think it works), and about 12 - 18 cane toads (they only come out at night). I feel like either the toad or spider should eat the other and that would at least take care of one species, but I can't figure out which would be prey and which would be predator in that situation. We have been very busy with guests in the last week - most excitingly Neil and my brand new sister-in-law Margaret came. They travelled around Australia for a week then got engaged in Nadi before visiting my village and hanging out for a couple days. We had a traditional Sevusevu ceremony in which Neil and my sister-in-law presented a kava plant to the village as a gift and then we drink from the grog bowl. We then feasted on crabs, prawns, and various fish before dancing the night away tralala style. Villagers from nearby came for this party as well as a couple Peace Corps friends. The next day Neil, Margaret, myself, and my good friend Kuli walked around the countryside and talked with farmers and drank some coconuts. We then proceeded to Colo-i-Suva, a forest park just outside of Suva, and did triple cannonballs from a rope swing. We really had a great few days...
On a gloomier note a man in the village died last week. It was weird for me because I loaded him into a car to go to the hospital on Wednesday night - the doctors said there was nothing they could do for him (he had a very severe stomach ulcer) so he came back home and he was dead the next day. However, being a very religious country, passing away is a celebrated event so for four days we ate lots of food (we killed three cows and two pigs), drank lots of grog and mingled with relatives.
Workwise I am working on funding for the water project. We are trying to get water piped into each house (24 houses in all) from a stream that runs off a hill behind the village. Also, we started a couple of compost pits for food rubbish that the village can eventually use as fertilizer.
Aside from that I am spending a good bit of time in my dalo plantation - trying to grow some root crops the village can eat or sell. I really don't know what I'm doing though. And that goes for everything.
July 31st
I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. Approximately 2 years after I sent in my application, I am a PCV. So, a note to those even considering joining the Peace Corps, apply now because maybe not now but in two years you will want to join. We had the swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Ambassador's house which was a pretty cool event. It was televised here in Fiji and in the newspapers. Then we had to say good-bye to our host family villages which was a pretty tearful event. We had a farewell party on Tuesday night and invited the volunteers from other villages and some of the Peace Corps staff was there. At these parties we basically sit around drinking grog while someone plays the guitar. Everybody sings and all the women dance the tralala with us. Its this really awkward dance where you just stand beside a partner and walk 3 steps forward and 3 steps back for about 5 minutes. But everybody laughs because I am white and white people are funny no matter what they do in this country. Anyways, we then had our own personal goodbyes with our families and headed off.
Most volunteers stayed in Suva for the night at a hotel because they had to take boats the following day to get to their site but I just hopped in a van with all my luggage and went to my village where I will situate myself for two years. My village is really cool but my house is even cooler. It is a pimped out hut made of palm tree leaves. The women in the village gave me blankets and mats and cooking stuff, but I am in town today to buy some essentials including food.
The plan from here is to spend some time getting situated and socially involved until I get a good grasp on how things run in the village. Then I will slowly immerse myself into work.

July 10th
One day pictures will be on this site. I just don't know what day that will be. Until then... some are on facebook. But all is well on the island. Classwork and training still occupies most of the day. Two days ago a lot of volunteers and trainers, about 10 of us total, got really sick from some mal-prepared coconut desert called "lolo." I threw up all night and was sick for about 24 hours and missed class but actually got off easier than some. A few went to the hospital but I think more for precautionary reasons and dehydration than anything else. Everybody is fine now. It is not swine flu. Just bad coconut desert.
Yesterday we did some reef monitoring off Viwa Island. Basically we snorkel in sectioned off areas of a reef with ropes and quadrants to count certain species. These are indicator species which, when tallied, tell how healthy a reef is. So we counted surgeon fish, parrot fish, and giant clams. It was cool to finally do some work in the water. And Viwa Island is in sight of my permanent village so I hope to do some work exchanges out that way. Other than that, I am going to an Indian high school dance tonight that should be fun. It is for a fundraiser. Not prom. A bit of history: Fiji is 40% Indian. They were brought here as indentured servants in the 19th and early 20th centuries and now make up a large part of the population and a majority of the economic prosperity (being more business minded than the average Fijian). However, there is still some discrimination towards them as they are not "native".
Hope all is well in the States - drop me a line. Moce Vinaka...

July 3rd
I recently got back from a 5 day visit to my permanent site. It is a cool little village on the east coast of Viti Levu Island. Small village - population about 88. Its tucked away by itself and pretty isolated in its own corner of the bay - but a 20 min. walk will take you to the main road where I can catch a 1.5 hour bus ride to Suva for office work / shopping / superclubbing. Everybody in the village seems really ambitious which is encouraging. The problem is they don't have any running water so I am going to help them with a new dam project. Until then it is rain water for bathing/cleaning/drinking. As long as the catchment systems are maintained the water is fine. The town built a house for me which is cool - its a bure, which is a traditional Fijian home. It is made of palm tree leaves and bamboo. The house cost a total of about $6 which went to buying a few boxes of nails. Other than that it is all raw material found around the bush in the village. Its small but really awesome. And I have purple bathroom put up beside it which those of you who know me well know about my childhood dream of having my own purple bathroom. The two main environmental projects I will be working on are 1. fresh water supply and 2. foreshore restoration. The village has lost about 2 sq. km. of land in the past year due to climate change and deforestation. That is more than a square mile of land just swept out to sea. To fund these projects we are going to do a few different things: develop eco-tourism on the hillside behind my village that is aimed at Austrailian cruise boats wanting a "traditional Fijian experience". We also want to construct a talapia farm and maybe a prawn farm. All of these projects are subject to change, as I am in a 3rd world country, but I have already started making some contacts around Nausori Town to help facilitate the projects. I will keep yall posted as work develops - but until then I have 3 weeks of training left. That's my momma!

June 24th
Hey everybody - well this is my blog that I hope to update as much aspossible. As of now I am in week 4 of a 9 week training program to serve as Environmental Resource Manager in Fiji for the next two
years. I will be moving to my permanent site in 5 weeks on the east coast of the main island, Viti Levu. My specific job will be to manage their marine area and resources. This means reef monitoring, mangrove and foreshore rehabilitation, and proper waste management along the coast. Currently there are 32 volunteers here to work in environment, health and business sectors. All in all its a pretty sweet job in a pretty sweet place so I'm lucky and happy. During training I live in a village on the east coast with a cool Fijian family. In my house I have a mom and dad, 5 yr. old brother Jope, 3 nieces, an aunt and an uncle, and a grandmother. Most speak at least some English. My dad is a farmer, with 6 cows, 19 pigs, a handful of chickens and some root crop farms. But his specialty is crab farming. My day consists of some cow milking at 6, Fijian language class from 8-12, technical training from 1-5 (this includes everything from grant writing to water catchment practices to beekeeping to how to open a coconut), then dinner which is either fish, crab, or chicken with some kind of root crop and coffee,
followed by a bucket bath at 8 and some reading/writing/ipod till 9-10. So these days i'm megabusy but that all slows down exponentially once i get to site. Please write and let me know whats going on with youens. I'll also work on getting good pictures up but facebook is probably the best bet for those. Keep it real.