Isa Levu

Due to a family-related matter I have decided to leave the Peace Corps. I left Fiji on April 1st, a few weeks before our Close of Service conference. I feel really good about my time spent in Fiji, in the wonderful village of Dravuni. Fortunately a FRE-9 will be coming in July as a replacement, so hopefully the projects will have continued success and support.

Carolina graced me with her presence the last few weeks of my stay. She was a good sport and drank in the good, the bad, and the ugly of rural village livin'. We did a bit of meandering - a weekend trip to Caqalai Island (which was interrupted by a tsuanami warning which we had to evacuate to a larger nearby island and hike uphill through the jungle at 3 am), a weekend trip along the Coral Coast, and a few days in Colo-i-Suva National Park. But for the most part we were just village people together.

Carolina and I on Caqalai Island

In the Caqalai Island dive shop: Looking at a map to determine the possible course of the tsunami to determine whether or not we should evacuate

Very isolated rain showers off the Coral Coast

My departure was kind of on short notice so I didn't have time to tie things up with strings and bows, but I was able to patch some holes. I attended an agribusiness workshop with our women's group leader to jumpstart the village's proposed chicken coup. I also had some good meetings with the Dravuni Village Committee to identify short-term and long-term plans concerning the crab farm and tree nursery. I also held a final discussion with the village youth about the solid waste management issues in the village.

Joana and I presenting our project at the Agribusiness Workshop

The final farewell ceremony was pretty tough. Lots of tears. I gave a 8 minute goodbye speech on the fly in 100% Fijian so as to excersize my Fijian tongue one last time. Then the elders took turns saying really kind things, and thanking me for my presence and help for the past two years. Then we feasted on blowfish (my favorite), oysters (which I had gathered), and taro. And of course this was all washed down with approximately 37 bowls of grog. The next morning I packed my bags, said some final goodbyes and walked the mile long Dravuni path to the road for a final time as the villagers stood and sang the Fijian farewell song to me.

Me, Kuli, and Carolina the night of my farewell ceremony

Fiji was gracious enough to send me off with one final boil - which made my right elbow Popeye-esque

I am now back in 'Merika. Things are comfy and plentiful here. I will be here in support of my brother through his ongoing treatments until his health improves. I appreciate all of those who have offered their prayers and thoughts. We are optimistic that the path to recovery is underway.

A final shot of Dravuni Village, Tailevu Fiji

So until my next adventure... moce.

Hot Ratz

Kuli, Jesse, and Bill; swimming in the bay

My bathroom has a leak in the ceiling directly above the toilet. When the toilet is sitting idle there could not be a better place for an overhead leak. Yet when it is in use there could not be a worse place.

I’m currently growing cabbage, radish, papaya, bananas, spinach, and some root crops. I’m eating healthy food but am losing a good bit of weight which I don’t want to do.

Some papayas beside my house, not yet ripe

Let me tell you about a funny thing the villagers do: They smoke a lot of cigarettes and the cigarettes, like the ones in the States, have big warning labels at the top of the pack. Some labels warn against heart failure, some against lung cancer, and some against harm to unborn babies. The cigarettes don’t have distinct flavors, but nonetheless the villagers refer to these cigarettes by these different labels, saying something like “I’ll give you .20 cents for two heart attacks” or “Can I borrow three unborn babies.”

I haven’t done much travelling the past couple of months. I’m trying to hang on to my money for after service-life. Prices in Fiji have been steadily increasing the past two years without an increase in our living allowance which means I travel less and less. I am making weekly trips to Suva however, which I didn’t used to do, so that I can research grad school and job opportunities.

I’m working a lot with the Dravuni Development Committee to help manage our agri-business activities; I’m spending most of my time in the tree nursery and trying to find some buyers for our seedlings. We are reforesting our watershed with some good fruit trees. I’m also doing a little more experimentation on the crab farm. The municipal government is really interested in this project and encouraging us to continue with it, but the unstable results are frustrating for the villagers, understandably. We might be getting a local guy to fund the project as a research opportunity – I’ll send updates on that later. While digging up on a hill a couple weeks ago some friends and I found a skull that still had hair on it. It was pretty weird. We put it back where we found it and just kept digging.

Cutting the village compound

Digging a grave. Seconds later we found a skull with hair on it.

Things the rats have eaten in my bure: my shampoo bottle, toothpaste, a drum, my antibiotic medicine, aspirin, my underwear, lids (and only lids) to bottles of vinegar, oil, and hot sauce, a book cover, and a shoe. I tried to catch them in a sticky glue trap. One got stuck but just dragged the trap all around the house getting glue on everything before he finally escaped with a gluey tail. I set the trap in a pile of trash outside and the next morning I found a bird stuck in the glue, flapping and gawking like a bird stuck in a glue trap. I tried to pry it off but that was only hurting him. The only solution was to delicately and peacefully cut the bird in half with a machete and throw it in the ocean.

A rat I killed. This has been one of the happiest moments of my service. I fucking hated this rat.

So as not to end on a gory note I will explain what I did yesterday: I sat on a log by the sea with an old man named Inia and talked about fish and the weather and the mangroves and school fees while he cut open coconut after coconut and we ate them all. All day.

Boating and Beddings in January

The hot, wet months are here. Keeping clothes and beddings clean and dry is difficult. It rained for two consecutive weeks earlier this month which meant no sun to dry clothes which meant no doing the laundry which meant stinky clothes and bed sheets with bedbugs – but a sunny week this week relieved us. Summer vacation just ended which means all the city folk that spend the holidays in my village with their families have returned to Suva, meaning no more volleyball, much less grog, and time to get back to the crops. It also means I can continue with my projects which have been on standstill for two months because of the holidays.

Drinking tea on Kuli's porch, watching volleyball on a Tuesday afternoon

Kids in my bure with mouthfuls of breadfruit

Junior and Alewa in my bure - after the electricity went off

I recently went on a long paddling trip with a fellow PCV. We paddled out of my village, crossed Dravuni Bay, and went up the Savu River for about five hours. The scenery was pristine – all mangroves and jungle with critters and flora I’ve never seen in Fiji. We didn’t see a human being or even signs of people until we reached Savu Village. We reached Savu, got out and walked uphill to the village. The villagers were shocked to see two white guys – and that we had paddled that far. They had never done it themselves (we had to bushwhack our canoe path at times because the river was blocked in places by dogo trees). At the first house we came to a fat lady who lived by herself made us come in and eat pineapples. Then some local boys took us to a nearby waterfall which was absolutely beautiful, and we swam and relaxed there for an hour then left so that we could make it back to my village before dark.

Lucas clears the brush as the Dadakulaci pushes upstream along the Savu River

A woman does laundry at a waterfall in Savu Village, an isolated village established for forestry workers and their families

Speaking of boating, about two weeks ago I paddled the Dadakulaci (my boat’s name) up a different river that runs beside my village. About a mile upstream I saw a dorsal fin gliding across the river. Surely enough it was a bull shark, about 4-5 feet long. I couldn’t believe it. I knew they could live in freshwater but didn’t believe I’d actually run into one in a river. It swam right up to my boat, just out of curiosity it seemed. I swung my paddle at it and it swam away.

My villagers are interested in starting a seawall to help protect against rising sea levels. I am game to work on this but they haven’t been very organized the past three months and I’m not sure if there will be enough organization to get the project up and going before I leave. We currently have 3 projects in the village up and running with the crab farm, tree nursery, and the water project, and I’m not confident a fourth will be started before July (my month of departure). I am already looking at my future; my next move. I’m studying for the GRE and researching jobs on the internet when I get such opportunities.

I kind of adopted another stray dog this month. But I left my village for the weekend this past week and when I came back it was gone. Pretty sure someone killed it and threw it in the ocean. The ocean disposes of many “problems” in Fiji.

RIP - Skipa

Good books I’ve read recently: The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde; Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon; The Third Chimpanzee, by Jared Diamond; The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway; and Netherland, Joseph O'Neill.