Hey hey all,
Matt wrote last time and now it's my turn. Since he never got around to what we've been up to, let me summarize:
Matt- working with a youth (30 years old guy) from our village to put together a proposal for a fish/prawn farm to generate income (which is harder said than done), Natuvu Kids Club founder/leader, helping to harvest sea cucumber, working in our garden, waste management stuff and Fiji 'guy' stuff- drinking grog, spear fishing, playing rugby.
Me- working with the local health center on a healthy lunch competition and a strategic health and wellness plan for next year, Natuvu Kids Club leader, letter exchange between the school and Becky's school and Fiji 'girl' stuff- weaving a mat, cooking, hand washing clothes, visiting with the ladies.
Other stuff going on: Thanksgiving with the entire Vanua Levu crew (about 17 volunteers) is this week and my friend, Kara (another volunteer) is visiting from Viti Levu and is staying over at our house tonight.
Lately, me and Matt have gotten a bunch of care packages- THANK YOU!!!! It is so nice having stuff from home: candy, shampoo/condition, movies, pictures, books, decorations, etc... There are just some things that you can't buy over here or they are not nearly as good of quality.
That's enough from me. Hopefully next time we can put up a few pictures. Write us/call us- we miss everyone! Also, we'll try our best not to be punks and do the same for you!
Love,
Alyssa aka Liss
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
The HOT HOT SUN!
Bula Re noqu itau,
I hope that everyone is well. Alyssa and I are in the city of Labasa from the Nov 1st - 5th and it is incredibly hot here. I can't really tell how hot because I am to use to reading everything in Fahrenheit and this Celsius stuff still throws me for a loop. If I had to guess it is between 90 and 95 on most days and if you ask around people will still say the hot season has still not officially arrived. I tend to disagree with them but it is usually as I am drenched in sweat so I don't really count.
People are probably wondering and asking what exactly we are doing here, well let me tell you! First though as am sitting here in this computer cafe in Labasa it is funny to me that they are playing the same English pop/rap songs over and over again, which is common procedure here in Fiji, but here the songs contain a clip played every 30 seconds that say over the song "DJ STOLEN!". That is also common procedure in fact making a living off stealing English movie, tv shows, and music and then selling them in stores is common place. Whole entire stores are dedicated to it, in fact the movie "The Town" is already out "on dvd", I met have to check it out.
Back to the orginal point what exactly are in doing in our village in Natuvu. Well secondly let me just take a minute to let out some of my frustrations about living in Fiji, more so then just crappy stolen dvds. As I have mentioned before trash management is a large issue here in Fiji and on top of that water management. I have grown to realize how lucky I was and how in the dark I lived when it came these topics. I mean I told myself how environmentally friendly I was and I always tried to do things to help. Now living here however I actually realize what happens to my trash or I should say what doesn't happen to my trash. It is common place to walk around in a city like Labasa see large piles of garbage on the side of the street, bottles floating in the river, and see people throwing large bags of trash out the bus window. As far as water well in America I have no idea where my water source or let me correct that it was my tap in the house. Now I have actually have literally walked in the water source that goes directly to the water tank that then goes to our pipes that then comes out our tap and when it does it has a light shade of green to it. That is because there is a small amount of algae growing in it or at least I am pretty sure. If it doesn't rain well our water source runs out and we have no water, which luckily only happens in droughts. Anyways we filter our water so we are safe, in fact it actually tastes quite good out of the filter.
Ok finally what are we doing here, wait I am almost out of time on the computer. I will save that for next time. Bon Voyage!
I hope that everyone is well. Alyssa and I are in the city of Labasa from the Nov 1st - 5th and it is incredibly hot here. I can't really tell how hot because I am to use to reading everything in Fahrenheit and this Celsius stuff still throws me for a loop. If I had to guess it is between 90 and 95 on most days and if you ask around people will still say the hot season has still not officially arrived. I tend to disagree with them but it is usually as I am drenched in sweat so I don't really count.
People are probably wondering and asking what exactly we are doing here, well let me tell you! First though as am sitting here in this computer cafe in Labasa it is funny to me that they are playing the same English pop/rap songs over and over again, which is common procedure here in Fiji, but here the songs contain a clip played every 30 seconds that say over the song "DJ STOLEN!". That is also common procedure in fact making a living off stealing English movie, tv shows, and music and then selling them in stores is common place. Whole entire stores are dedicated to it, in fact the movie "The Town" is already out "on dvd", I met have to check it out.
Back to the orginal point what exactly are in doing in our village in Natuvu. Well secondly let me just take a minute to let out some of my frustrations about living in Fiji, more so then just crappy stolen dvds. As I have mentioned before trash management is a large issue here in Fiji and on top of that water management. I have grown to realize how lucky I was and how in the dark I lived when it came these topics. I mean I told myself how environmentally friendly I was and I always tried to do things to help. Now living here however I actually realize what happens to my trash or I should say what doesn't happen to my trash. It is common place to walk around in a city like Labasa see large piles of garbage on the side of the street, bottles floating in the river, and see people throwing large bags of trash out the bus window. As far as water well in America I have no idea where my water source or let me correct that it was my tap in the house. Now I have actually have literally walked in the water source that goes directly to the water tank that then goes to our pipes that then comes out our tap and when it does it has a light shade of green to it. That is because there is a small amount of algae growing in it or at least I am pretty sure. If it doesn't rain well our water source runs out and we have no water, which luckily only happens in droughts. Anyways we filter our water so we are safe, in fact it actually tastes quite good out of the filter.
Ok finally what are we doing here, wait I am almost out of time on the computer. I will save that for next time. Bon Voyage!
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