Hotels, New Boat, Tree Planting, Bylaws

I just spent an entire week at Tradewinds Hotel courtesy of U.S. Peace Corps. The first few days was the Connect Conference in which we basically just get to know the fresh-off-the-boat-PCV's. The second half of the week was mid-service training: We discuss successes, failures, projects, language, and all things PC. It was beneficial. Almost as beneficial as the $4 Austrailian wines I consumed each evening at the happy hour of a nearby cafe. We also danced a lot. Also watched U.S.A heartbreakingly lose to Ghana (with beer in our hands at 6 am). It was really great to see some friends from other islands that I haven't seen in some time. It was a grand old time.
I just became the proud owner of a new boat! My worlds has literally doubled. It is a handmade 12 ft. outrigger canoe, painted blue and called the Dadakulaci ("seasnake"). An older PCV made it and gave it to me. I spend my mornings rowing out, exploring the mangroves, fishing, whatever. There are about 4 islands I can paddle to from my village, one of which has a Peace Corps Volunteer on it, so I look forward to visiting those.
I am proud to say I have two projects not only implemented but successfully operating: the crab farm and the tree nursery. After weeks of trying to figure out how to coordinate the depth of the crab pond with the rise/fall of the tides, we got it down and the water now changes daily which gives the crabs an environment they can live in.
We currently have 2,000 trees growing in our tree nursery. Fiji is aggressively pursuing a 1,000,000 Tree campaign, in which Fiji will plant 1,000,000 trees by the end of the year (there are 900,000 people in Fiji). This is great for the environment, and for the economy (assuming at least half will be cut for timber, food, medicine, etc. But the problem is that there are not 1,000,000 seedlings of which to plant. Enter my village. We started a nursery to meet the demands of this campaign. We spend mornings looking for seeds in the bush, and afternoons mixing soil with compost and potting them. Its dirty and fun and takes a long time.
At the recent village meeting the villagers brought out a 22 page document of bylaws that were written and put into effect in 1967. The purpose of this was to reinforce these bylaws and revert back to the traditional codes of conduct and rules. The villagers felt modernity was encroaching too fast and needed to go back in time. This means girls won't be able to wear shorts and shoulders must be covered, no cursing, no playing on sundays, old-timy things like that. We just set ourselves back 50 years, for better or for worse.