The Final Countdown

Hello All,

I am running out of time in both Fiji and in the internet cafe where I am now typing this post.  I promised some pictures from the computers everyone helped provide the Wailevu West Primary School.  Overall we managed to raise 5,570 FJD or about 3,100 USD.  With that so far what has been purchased is:

1 Projector (1,400 FJD)
2 Computers and 1 Printer (3,200 FJD)
1 Battery Backup for Generator Use (250 FJD)
Cords and Powerstrips (50 FJD)
Transport (100 FJD)

After all that we still have about 500 FJD left over to spend that I am going to work with the teachers to try and figure out what else they will need for the school.  It also may just go to maintenance, paper, and ink for the printer.  Thank you all again for the help and I might just get one more post before we leave.

The Head Teacher and Assistant Head Teacher accepting the gifts in our  mini computer lab.

Some of the kids learning the very basics of using computers.  How to turn them on and use the cursor.

Kids watching some animal videos on the computers.

Thank You One and All

   I want to give a very big thank you to all who helped us raise money for computers for our local school here at Wailevu West Primary School.  With your help we managed to raise over 3,000 USD.  With that money I recently had a meeting with the teachers and we plan on buying two computers and one projector for the school to use.  It is our hope that it will be the introduction for the children to computers and allow the teachers to better teach the children with the use of visual and media aids.  Once we get the computers and the projector hopefully I will be able to put a bunch of pictures up here for everyone to see.  Thank You again

   In other news it has been awhile since we posted on this blog and I am not even sure if anyone really ever reads this thing any more, due to the lack of material not the quality of course.   Since the end of December we have had my father come visit, a camera break, a trip to Tavueni and our Close of Service Conference.  We continue to do many of the things we have talked about in the past.  I lead the local Environment Club at our school, I still teach the children of our village once a week in a computer class, and Alyssa and I both run the local educational club for the kids in Natuvu every Saturday.  Alyssa continues to work with the village health workers and the health centre on issues and goes to local check-ups to help the doctor and talk about the importance of exercise and diet to help stop non-communicable diseases and has been teaching a bunch of aerobic classes around the area.  She also next week will be leading a knitting workshop for the women in our village, which she has already done once in the village of Dawasomo down in Viti Levu with her friend and fellow Peace Corps volunteer Marie.  I also got a chance to go to a Investment Fiji Seminar with my village chief and mayor, which was a great chance for them to learn about exports and business in Fiji.  When my father came back in March we managed to organize some of the villagers and built a bus shelter for the village.  One of the things that is a big pain here is the village is about 2/3 a mile from the road where you get on the bus, so it is great now to have something to hide under if it is raining or from the hot sun.

  Finally we have decided what we will be doing after our time here.  We both were accepted as Peace Corps Fellows at Western Illinois University in Macomb, IL.  I will be working to earn my Master's Degree in Public Administration while Alyssa will be earning hers in Public Health Education.  The Fellowship basically is a way for us to earn our degrees while also getting real experience in our respective fields and not having the huge debt that goes with going to a College/University.  It is one year in the classroom followed by a one year internship.  It is great to know that we have another two years of our life planned out and I am really excited to begin the course work, I really like this two year scheme we have going.

  Finally we learned at our COS conference that we will be coming home on July 1st.  In fact we are working on booking the flights today as we write this.  Stay tuned I think I will actually post again within the month if all goes as planned(SHOCKING!).

Alyssa with her Program Manager at the Close of Service Conference.  She is presenting her with a photo collage she helped prepare.

My Father building the bus stand with some of the villagers. 

Happy Boxing Day!

Ok, well actually Happy New Year's and Merry Christmas but in all the British Commonwealths they also celebrate Boxing Day on the 26th of December.  What and why is Boxing Day a holiday?  Presently it's a day basically for banks and stores to get an extra day off and for people to go shopping much like our day after Thanksgiving in the U.S., but before it was a day where the wealthy would give a box of goods (clothing or other such items) to their servants or those people in need.  Why do you need to know all this?  You don't but I just wanted to know myself so I figured I would share.
 Things in the village continue to go as normal we had a wonderful Thanksgiving, getting to meet up with all the volunteers in Savusavu for a couple nights.

(from left to right: Me, Monica, Bubba, David, Greta, and Milli) Hanging out on the porch at Daku Resort near Savusavu for Thanksgiving.

  Alyssa conducted a Young Women's Empowerment Day (I think that was the title), that went really well.  It basically gave the girls in our village ages 14-25 a chance to get together and have a day for themselves.  Alyssa taught them about exercise and ways to they can workout in the village, tips on healthy cooking, I conducted a short class on money management, and then they all got a chance to make their own bracelets and play volleyball.  They all seemed to have a really good time and Alyssa did a great job planning and running the day pretty much on her own.

Alyssa leading the group exercise in the community hall.

Eating lunch at our house.  On the menu; dahl with rice and juice

Manasa and Myself helping run the financial management training in the hall

I finished writing a business plan for the fish/prawn pond that the village wants near the school that is on their land.  Some of you may know that I had been working on it quite a bit when Alyssa and I first got to site but do to logistical problems and lack of motivation, the project never really went anywhere.  Well I decided to write a business plan for something tangible that shows I actually did spend quite a bit of my time here working on it.  The picture below gives an idea of what the fish pond would look like and the size.  It is a integrated pond, meaning it would use duck manure to create plankton growth in the pond to feed the fish.  I am planning to give a copy to the Ministry of Fisheries and Natuvu village and maybe someday something will come out of it but if not like I said I at least have something to show for the work.

As for our Christmas and New Year's we got the chance or maybe we created the chance to go to New Zealand.  It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and had a great time there.  We spent 12 nights there all together spending 10 nights on the southern island and the our final two nights at the capitol of Wellington.

Canterbury Museum in Christchurch

Franz Josef Glacier

Queenstown; view from our Gandola Trip

Our Kayaking Trip in Milford Sound

Mirror Lake in Fjordland National Park

Finally once we returned form there we headed to Funky Fish Resort for New Year's on Malolo island to spend it with some of the Peace Corps Volunteers

New Year's Night

P.S. Alyssa hates it when you place snakes on her shoulder!

Back Home Again

The Fiji vacation with my parents has come and gone but it was a fantastic time!  We went on a zipline (my mom had the best time!), visited a few park reserves/historic sites, went to the Fiji museum and visited a village composed entirely of traditional Fijian thatched houses.  For meals, we ate good pizza/lasagna, Indian and food from the grocery store/market.  After about a week away from home, we all headed back to the village for a few days.  My parents and I had a special program for the kids in the village.  The kids got to learn how to make easy American foods (like Mac-n-Cheese) and then eat the food (my mom brought some stuff along on the trip for this purpose).  On Sunday, we all went to church (in Fijian), I bought my parents traditional cloths to wear, my dad and Matt drank yaqona (kava) and my friends brought us over a nice breakfast (Fijian pie and pudding cake) and lunch (fresh fish, dalo, cooked greens and chicken from the village).  We spent a couple of days in Savusavu and my parents agreed with us that its the prettiest town in Fiji. :)  It's been raining really heavily the past few days, but we were fortunate to have beautiful weather while they were here. Bye for now! 

Visit From Minnesota!

Matt and I are preparing for my parents to arrive this Saturday- yeah!  We are going to take a ferry boat down to the main island (it leaves at 7 pm and arrives at 5 am) and then take a bus to meet them from there (a 4 hour ride).  It will take a lot longer to arrive but will cost us about 1/6 the price!  Plus, we'll get a couple of days just to hang out in the city (there's only one ferry boat this week, so we have to go early).

Last week, I was gone from Monday to Saturday at a woman's skill building workshop in a nearby village.  I wasn't expecting to teach anything but at the last minute I ended up teaching knitting and how to make virgin coconut oil (or as everyone here calls it- virgin oil).  Also, I ended up giving a lesson on healthy eating and led a fitness walk.  In Fiji, 82% of deaths are caused by non-communicable diseases and there is a huge problem with obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc (just like in America).  Maybe it was a bit morbid, but I had all the participants close there eyes and picture 10 loved ones.  Then I had them choose 8 of those people.  Next, I informed them that they all had died.  Kind of mean, huh?!

Matt is still the gardening champion.  He goes up to the school 1 or 2 days per week and teaches the kids about vegetable gardening and taking care of the environment.  Also, his garden in the village is producing TONS of vegetables right now.  There's two types of cabbage, beans, peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers.  On top of that, people from the village have been giving us bananas (which Matt often goes with to pick), papayas, dalo, fish and vivili (the inside of sea shells!), so we've had lots of local foods lately.

In other news, Matt and I have been trying to start teaching people around here how to use computers.  Matt will start teaching the older children (middle school age) at our house after my parents leave.  I have started to teach two of my friends how to use the computers in town.  I showed them how to use the internet one day and one of them how to type another day.  Obviously, they will need more than two lessons but its a start!

Matt and I are really looking forward to my parents visit.  We will spend a week on the main island and I intend to pretend that I am a tourist (wearing shorts, not talking about Peace Corps, using hot showers)- LOL!  We will then fly back up to Vanua Levu and spend about a week in the village/Savusavu.  We have a special kids club planned with my parents where the kids will make American snacks and then we'll have a little party at the end where they get to eat what they've made.  Also, my good friends will be making my parents meals on Sunday, so they'll get to have Fijian pie, fish, coconut milk, dalo, Fijian greens (bele, roro) and 'village' chicken (ie one of the chickens from Natuvu).

There are other things going on but those are the interesting ones.  So long for now and many happy wishes to our friends and family back in America- especially those just getting married and having babies!  Bye bye!!!

Matt's Birthday

Matt just had his birthday last weekend and a gang of volunteers from 'the north' got together to celebrate.  We stayed at a campground outside of Savusavu and it was a great time!  The owner of the campground only charged around $15 per person per night and she cooked us a really nice steak dinner our first night there!  We also walked over to a nearby resort and used their pool (for free- we just bought some snacks at the restaurant to make up for it).  Enjoy the few pictures that I put up!  Bye for now!

It's been a while...

Greetings!  (Alyssa writing here)

I just realized that our last post was 1.5 months ago.  Oops!  Well, a brief overview of what we've been up to:

-We went to Nadi for our Mid Service Training (MST) in August.  That means we're over half done!  In Nadi, we ate really good pizza at "Mama's Pizza" and I had good Indian food at "Sitar."
-After Nadi, I went over to Suva for a few days.  I marched in the Hibiscus Festival Parade (for the Peace Corps float) and then headed to a workshop on health promotion in the schools.  The assistant head teacher from our local school attended with me.
-Matt spent a few days in Suva prior to MST, because he hadn't yet done his mandatory mid-year doctors visit.  So, he got lucky and was able to hang around the city for a few days.
-Matt's garden is growing again and we have a bunch of green beans.
-Our village is SUPER QUIET (and extra boring) because a lot of young men are gone cutting sugar cane.
-Last month, I help organize a village clean up day and it was a success.  I put up a few pictures below.
-Our anniversary and b-days are all coming up in the next couple of months and my parents are visiting at the end of October- yeah!

Sending my love to America (loloma),
Alyssa

Putting rubbish in the pit.

Cutting the grass the usual way (no really!).

Sweet gloves!

Prizes for the winners.

Hello Again

  Well after a long hiatus and a trip to America and back I finally decided I should post on this blog again.  My last time I think was in January so I am a little over due.  Since coming back from America, which was a great trip getting to see everyone and be back for three weeks, we are starting to fall back into our old schedules.  Once I got use to taking cold showers again it was like I never left, which by the way are not at all enjoyable in the winter season here in Fiji.
  There is actually quite a bit coming up for both us both personally and professionally.  At the end of August we meet up with our fellow 2010 volunteers that we came into the country with and have our mid-service training or MST, Alyssa is working with the Health Committee on doing a Village Clean Up/Waste Management Education Day, and I am working with the school to do an Environment Club sleepover.  All those hopefully will go well and should be fun.
  This past week though I got the chance to work with the Ministry of Fisheries and some members from my village to help setup an Marine Protected Area booth for the Savusavu carnival/show (they just called it a show but it is more equivalent to a county fair back home).  This consisted of us going out the day before and collecting samples of marine invertebrates and then the fisheries bringing them in to town.  They put them in tanks and the next day I came into town and got to hang out, talk to the kids and let them touch some of the creatures we brought.  I will put a bunch of pictures below sorry for cheap underwater case I use(that's what causes the ring in the pictures) but I figured why spend $200 when I can spend $25.  Overall it was a great chance to promote Marine Protected Areas there benefit but  also just to let all the kids get a chance to see all the cool Marine life.

Us departing off for our search from Natuvu

One of the divers trying to pull out a moray eel.  It actually ended up biting him and they killed it in the end but they ate it so it did not go to waste.

A triton, which is a large sea snail.  These are actually very hard to find and they eat Crown-of-Thorns starfish which are responsible for killing coral reef.

Manasa diving down trying to catch a fish

Giant Sea Clam

Baby Sea Turtle

The Fisheries Display at the "Show"

Me describing to the kids what a sea snail is and having them identify it on the poster behind me.

Well that is it from here, I hopefully won't take as long to post again.

Back to Our Fiji Home

Matt and I made it back to Fiji one week ago today.  Our trip home was really nice- the best part was meeting our nephew, Reece (1 year old), and our niece, Elsie (2 weeks old)!  Other lovely parts:  eating America food (particularly grilled meat, pasta and baked goods), not having to hand wash cloths (that's mine), watching baseball, driving (which was scary the first time) and of course just visiting our family and some friends!!!!

Since we got back, we've just been getting the garden back in order, cleaning the house (the sand from the beach blew inside a whole bunch) and trying to get back into the swing of old projects.  Also, Matt and I are working hard to eat healthier and we've been running together, too.  Most of you know that I'm now a flake about this kind of stuff, so it's nice to be back into a routine.

Today, Matt and I took the bus up to Labasa.  The new group of volunteers are here now, so my group is throwing them a 'Welcome to the North' BBQ.  Should be a good time!

That's all I know for now.  I am really looking forward to this year- my parents are coming, there are two Peace Corps conferences where I'll get to see old friends and I have established friends and work partners from last year.  Moce!

Good Day

Today, is May 4.  It was four years ago today that Matt and I had our first date (I remember because its the day before my dad's birthday) and in exactly one month we will be arriving back home for a visit.  Also, in two weeks from today we have been gone for a year.  Oh my how the time goes quick!

It's Been Awhile

Matt and I are still alive and kickin' here in the South Pacific.  A little update on what we've been doing...

Last month our Peace Corps friend, Stephanie, spent two nights in Natuvu and taught the women's group how to make virgin coconut oil.  While Stephanie was visiting I got a nasty cut on my finger from the back of our very sharp kitchen sink.  The worse part is I was trying to smash a cockroach with my hand when I did it!  Searching out and killing them is a new hobby of mine, as I came across three big ones last month.  Got to kill them when they're small and under control!

I've starting working a lot more with the women's group.  They have a Tuesday exercise class with me, I've been helping with their commercial planting and hopefully the group will be starting a couple of projects to make money (like virgin coconut oil). 

For Easter, Matt and I stuck around home because we were helping with a youth (ages 18-35 yrs) retreat.  I gave a session on communication skills and Matt on money management.  We also sat through a 3 hour church service in which we were seated on a wooden floor, in a crowded room and with no fan or A.C.  Woot woot!

Exciting news- I am going down to Suva in a couple of weeks!  I have been up here since the beginning of October and want away for a bit!  I am going down for a training because I will be helping with the new group of Peace Corps Volunteers when they arrive in a few weeks. I am planning to meet my friend Marie and stay an extra night- fun times!

Matt was down in Suva last month for an agro-business training and he went with a counterpart from the village.  The counterpart is his friend, Luke, and it was Lukes first time to go to Suva. In Suva, they went to see a movie and that was also a first for Luke.  It made me smile to think of those two hanging out in 'the big city.' LOL!

In just five short weeks, we will be bound for America!  We have all of our flight tickets (three flights each way) and will be bringing our big suitcases to stuff full of things.  I am going to buy a bunch of 'bathroom' items, shoes, a few office supplies, spices, a little food/candy and maybe a new piece of workout gear.  Matt wants books and candy. 

I am in town today and Matt was here yesterday.  Maybe people think it's strange that we do stuff separately but still have just one cellphone but that's life! :)  Happy mother's day to mom, Becky, grandma(s), Kaity and Maggie (soon!)!!! 

Alyssa aka Liss

Big Time

Last week the Prime Minister of Fiji came to Natuvu to open the new community hall.  Everybody worked together to prepare the village and make a big feast.  I met him and Matt took a couple of pictures. :)

When I Hunt......I Hunt to KILL!

Hello All,  I have not posted on our blog here for quite some time and you may be asking yourself what is with the title to this blog post.  Well you will have to keep reading to find that out.  Last time I posted I also said I would talk about what work we are doing, so I should probably get around to that as well.

But first off, Alyssa and I just got back from our first vacation in Fiji, with my parents who came to visit us.  They arrived on Saturday the 19th of Feburary and left on Saturday the 26th.  We tried to show them everything of Fiji we could while they were here, from the rich and fabulous resorts (they more so showed us that part, which I am very greatful for) to the village life we live in everyday.  Here are a few of the pictures we took while they were here visiting us:

My Dad and Mom on their first day.  My Mom brought a project for the kids to do during our Saturday Natuvu Kid's Club

My mother and her new best friend Sailosi.  Although she likes the kid, she hates the name : )

My parents with their new Fijian clothes just before we are about to go to church.  My father likes to call them a dress, even though they are called a sulu and all the men wear them here but for everyone back home just tell him you saw him wearing a dress.

All of us after church with the Turaga ni Yavusa (chief) far right, the Turaga ni Koro (mayor) far right, and Peni putting the moves on Alyssa (middle).

Our third day we ventured off to Tavueni and the Lavena Lodge and Coastal Walk.  This is at the beginning Alyssa and my mother are displaying their Fijian fly swatters.

A picture of the orange dove.  It is only found on the islands of Qamea and Tavueni and no where else in the world.

At the end of the Lavena Coastal Walk you come to these two waterfalls.  The only way to get there is to swim up river along two cliff walls to the right and left of you and then sit and enjoy the view.

Alyssa snorkeling on the fifth day our first whole day at Qamea island.  We were taken out by the resort to see cabbage coral.

Here is another picture, the coral coming out of the ground looking like cabbage is the cabbage coral.  The pictures don't really do it justice it was quite remarkable.

The next day we all went out kayaking with a guide early in the morning.  This was taken by our guide as we were about to go through mangrove filled coastline.

My parents navigating through the mangroves.

My father and I beginning a game of chess.

On our last snorkeling trip my father and I got lucky and got to swim with a White Tip Reef Shark

Some coral on one of the snorkeling trips

Alright well it takes forever to load these pictures on to our blog here, so unfortunately I am not going to post on the work we are doing here.  I do promise though I will make another post on that in the coming weeks.  Anyway about the post title, which is very random.  Alyssa and I yesterday took a 6 hour ferry ride from Tavueni back to Savusavu to go back to our village.  On these ferry rides they have a main lounge area where they have two big screen t.v.'s they play movies on at extremely loud volumes.  One of those movies was called "A Hunt to Kill" starring Steve Austin.  At the very end of this movie Steve Austin mounts a 4-wheeler, revs the engine facing the main antgonist who is standing against a fuel tank of some type beaten half to death and states "When I hunt, I hunt to kill!" and then rides a pop-a-wheelie for about 50-60 ft before slamming the 4-wheeler into the bad guy.  I could not stop laughing and I think it makes a great blog entry.  Miss everyone and I will post again soon.
-Matt

Horray for Family!

This is very cheesy and clique (right spelling?) but we am so thankful for the support of our family while we am over here.  The whole Maurer (Afatika) and Wolf (Goldade/Frikman) gang have been so helpful in keeping us motivated and going.  They keep sending us care packages, calling us and some even visiting (or planning to visit).  A great big thank you and hug from across the world!

Love,
Liss

PS- Mom, you always know just what to say to make me feel strong and able to keep on going! :)

Less Depressing This Time

Hi y'all,

It's Alyssa and this post should be quick and less glum.  Matt and I had a busy and good past couple of weeks in the village.  We did two seminars each for the high school aged kids in the area on health relationships, sexuality and making good choices.  I think each of us talked with about 25 kids (him the boys and me the girls).  We also helped to paint the school, as 'summer break' is coming to an end and school is actually starting again today.  In the upcoming weeks, we have a super bowl party in Savusavu and Matt's parents are coming at the end of February- very exciting!  Other than that, it is deathly hot here and I have taken to wearing headbands to hide my sweaty head....

Bye for now!

 Serema (age 9) at Natuvu Kids Club.

Semi (age 3) at Natuvu Kids Club.

Emeli (Age 13) and Rabuli (age 12) at Kids Club making Xmas cards.

Natuvu Kids Club Xmas party 'tea'.

'Healthy Relationships' seminar for the girls doing a warm-up game.

 'Healthy Relationships' seminar boys (they met in the church in Natuvu).

 Shift clinic (travelling medical care) in Natuvu.  Alyssa got to talk to people about healthy diet, exercise, etc...

 Matt and Alyssa on Xmas Eve having their own little party.

 The Natuvu women (and a couple from surrounding villages) on New Years Eve partying it up with yaqona (aka grog).  We went to bed around 4 am and were some of the very first to leave.