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!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Suva City
Greetings from the big hopin' city of Suva!
Matt and I have been on the main island, Viti Levu, for the past 9 days for 'Early Service Training' (EST). To get here, we took a small plane that could hold about 20 passangers over the Pacific Ocean. After narrowly escaping death, me using the 'sick bag' two times, a last minute layover in Nadi and a few sweltering hot bus/taxi rides, we arrived at a nice hotel to spend the night in Suva. Since it was Matt's b-day (29 candles), we went to a nice bar/restaurant for dinner and watched two movies at the theatre. 'Hot Tub Time Machine' is not as terrible as I thought it would be...
The next day, both of us took the bus to Nadave (a technical training center for young Fijian males) and started the actual trainings. We stayed in Nadave five days and it was splendid hanging out with all the other Volunteers we haven't seen in nearly three months and consuming tasty 'teas.'
After the time in Nadave, the two of us went to hang out with the majority of the other Volunteers at a beach resort/getaway in an area called Pacific Harbor. We all stayed in the dorms and it only cost about $18 per day US and that included a bed, buffet breakfast and a lovely pool/oceanview. Matt ended up going on a "Hash" with a bunch of people from New Zealand. They went on a long hike and then came back and had unlimited pizza, beer and other food/drinks for $12 Fijian. All that's wrapped up and I'm back in Suva and am in the Peace Corps office.
Other than training, Matt and I have been up to the usual in the village... I cook about 2 meals per day on the gas burner stove, walk up to the health center to talk with the nurses about future health workshops to do in the area, scrub laundry, try to run on the terrible gravel road, play with my dope of a cat, try pitifully to speak in Fijian with the women and younger girls... Matt goes out to the garden and tries to keep it going with all the land crabs eating the stuff, he plays rugy with the young guys, goofs off with the kids, meets with the young males about projects that could generate money for the village, chokes down grog a couple nights a week... Together we like to watch movies or shows on the computer after it gets dark at about 6 pm.
Some interesting facts about Fiji:
-To say 'yes' non-verbally, simply raise your eyebrows in a much exaggerated manner.
-In the village, people eat fish, coconut milk, bele (a leafy green) and dalo or cassava (a starchy root crop) three meals a day and that is about 90% of their diet.
-At the nice department store here one can purchase Revlon make-up... It only costs $40 for a tube of mascara or one small eyeshadow. Nail polish is $20 and foundation is $55. I gave myself a nice little makeover with the 'samplers' and left the rest for another customer.
-Justin Bieber is on the radio every other song and blasts through the speakers on the 30 year old buses.
That's all for now. Matt will probably write the next entry and it will be a bit more crazy but this will suffice.
Much love to you all,
Alyssa
PS- Mom and Becky, we didn't really almost die on the plane.
Matt and I have been on the main island, Viti Levu, for the past 9 days for 'Early Service Training' (EST). To get here, we took a small plane that could hold about 20 passangers over the Pacific Ocean. After narrowly escaping death, me using the 'sick bag' two times, a last minute layover in Nadi and a few sweltering hot bus/taxi rides, we arrived at a nice hotel to spend the night in Suva. Since it was Matt's b-day (29 candles), we went to a nice bar/restaurant for dinner and watched two movies at the theatre. 'Hot Tub Time Machine' is not as terrible as I thought it would be...
The next day, both of us took the bus to Nadave (a technical training center for young Fijian males) and started the actual trainings. We stayed in Nadave five days and it was splendid hanging out with all the other Volunteers we haven't seen in nearly three months and consuming tasty 'teas.'
After the time in Nadave, the two of us went to hang out with the majority of the other Volunteers at a beach resort/getaway in an area called Pacific Harbor. We all stayed in the dorms and it only cost about $18 per day US and that included a bed, buffet breakfast and a lovely pool/oceanview. Matt ended up going on a "Hash" with a bunch of people from New Zealand. They went on a long hike and then came back and had unlimited pizza, beer and other food/drinks for $12 Fijian. All that's wrapped up and I'm back in Suva and am in the Peace Corps office.
Other than training, Matt and I have been up to the usual in the village... I cook about 2 meals per day on the gas burner stove, walk up to the health center to talk with the nurses about future health workshops to do in the area, scrub laundry, try to run on the terrible gravel road, play with my dope of a cat, try pitifully to speak in Fijian with the women and younger girls... Matt goes out to the garden and tries to keep it going with all the land crabs eating the stuff, he plays rugy with the young guys, goofs off with the kids, meets with the young males about projects that could generate money for the village, chokes down grog a couple nights a week... Together we like to watch movies or shows on the computer after it gets dark at about 6 pm.
Some interesting facts about Fiji:
-To say 'yes' non-verbally, simply raise your eyebrows in a much exaggerated manner.
-In the village, people eat fish, coconut milk, bele (a leafy green) and dalo or cassava (a starchy root crop) three meals a day and that is about 90% of their diet.
-At the nice department store here one can purchase Revlon make-up... It only costs $40 for a tube of mascara or one small eyeshadow. Nail polish is $20 and foundation is $55. I gave myself a nice little makeover with the 'samplers' and left the rest for another customer.
-Justin Bieber is on the radio every other song and blasts through the speakers on the 30 year old buses.
That's all for now. Matt will probably write the next entry and it will be a bit more crazy but this will suffice.
Much love to you all,
Alyssa
PS- Mom and Becky, we didn't really almost die on the plane.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Quick and Painful
Ok well I know I have not done the best job of keeping this blog update or posting regularly. I am going to keep this post short and just post a bunch of pictures. Alyssa and I have now been in our site for a little over two months. Things are going pretty well the only complaint we have are rats. They chew through everything and they constantly pester us at night by hanging out in our rafters, so we got a cat to try and help with out the problem.
Other then that things are going pretty well here, Alyssa and I just spent the last few days in the wonderful city of Labasa in the north of Vanua Levu (wonderful is an exaggeration, it actually is a very dirty city) with a lot of other Peace Corps Volunteers so it was fun. I found out that there is a bar here in Savusavu that plays ESPN so I get to watch any game on that channel. I am pretty excited for Friday when the Saints and Vikes play I will be glued to the television set.
Other then that things are going pretty well here, Alyssa and I just spent the last few days in the wonderful city of Labasa in the north of Vanua Levu (wonderful is an exaggeration, it actually is a very dirty city) with a lot of other Peace Corps Volunteers so it was fun. I found out that there is a bar here in Savusavu that plays ESPN so I get to watch any game on that channel. I am pretty excited for Friday when the Saints and Vikes play I will be glued to the television set.
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| Our host 'Na' and 'Ta'. |
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| Our host siblings- Joji, Lamiva and Tuiki. |
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| Matt and Ta having a 'Fiji Gold'. |
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| The Peace Corps group from our training village of Nukutubu. Alyssa has 80's hair going on. |
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| Alyssa with our host sister, Tavita. |
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| Alyssa and Marie at the Swearing In Ceremony in July. |
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| Alyssa and Greta at the Swearing In Ceremony. |
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| Matt and Milo the first night we got her. |
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| Matt with some of the men at a soli (fundraiser). The man on his immediate right is the chief of our village, Natuvu. |
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| The ladies preparing lunch. |
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| The guys sitting around drinking yagona (grog). |
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| People sitting under a traditional Fijian 'shed' (open aired but has a roof made of tin). |
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| Matt getting ready for his 'meke' (dance) with Alyssa's initial community partner (the village health worker). |
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| Alyssa and Milo. Alyssa in her 'married lady' sulu jaba outfit. |
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| Matt doing his meke. The fabric being tied around is a sign that he is doing a good job. |
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| Matt and the Turaga ni Koro (basically the village mayor). |
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| Our house and the bathroom/shower on the right. |
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| The view from our house. |
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| The village shed and church, which our directly outside our front door. |
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| Milo after she got spade. |
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| Dalo (the root crop) with octopus in lolo (coconut milk). Surprisingly much better than it looks! |
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
It's been such a long time...
Well we have neglected our blog for so very long and so much has happened since our last post that I don't want to post everything, but I will anyway.
First off let me give a long over due congratulations to my good friends Jason and Angel Skluzacek (Yes spellcheck that is how you spell their last name) on their new baby boy. Well it is not that new anymore I guess he was born July 2nd, I am just that late in posting. His name is Liam Kenneth Skluzacek (Damn you spellcheck). I heard he has his mother's good looks and his mother's brains (just kidding Jason your good looking too!).
O.k. on to the boring stuff I can't really remember where I left off but during training we had something called a Connect Conference which gave us the opportunity to get to meet Government organizations and Non-Government organizations alike as well as get to know the FRE-7 volunteers. The FRE-7's are the group of volunteers that have been in country for a year and will be leaving in the summer of 2011. The highlight of the conference was our lodging which was quite beautiful. It is amazing to see that a country as impoverished as Fiji can have small pockets with so much money. It was at this conference we learned our sites and where we would all be headed. They had a huge map of Fiji and they put our pictures next our village we would be staying at:
Savusavu, Vanua Levu
Fiji
Bye for now!!!
Alyssa
First off let me give a long over due congratulations to my good friends Jason and Angel Skluzacek (Yes spellcheck that is how you spell their last name) on their new baby boy. Well it is not that new anymore I guess he was born July 2nd, I am just that late in posting. His name is Liam Kenneth Skluzacek (Damn you spellcheck). I heard he has his mother's good looks and his mother's brains (just kidding Jason your good looking too!).
O.k. on to the boring stuff I can't really remember where I left off but during training we had something called a Connect Conference which gave us the opportunity to get to meet Government organizations and Non-Government organizations alike as well as get to know the FRE-7 volunteers. The FRE-7's are the group of volunteers that have been in country for a year and will be leaving in the summer of 2011. The highlight of the conference was our lodging which was quite beautiful. It is amazing to see that a country as impoverished as Fiji can have small pockets with so much money. It was at this conference we learned our sites and where we would all be headed. They had a huge map of Fiji and they put our pictures next our village we would be staying at:
A very blurry picture of our hotel for the Connect Conference
Site announcements
From their Alyssa and I ran in a 10k on the last day of the conference to promote health put on by the Peace Corps staff. Why you might ask, well because I didn't my knees have suffered enough from my years of overeating and playing high contact sports. Fortunately I managed to make it through and almost managed to keep up with Alyssa the whole way (unfortunately no pictures to document the accomplishment).
About two weeks after the conference we completed our training and had our swearing in ceremony. All our host families were invited and it was there we officially went from Peace Corps Trainees to Peace Corps Volunteers. This is also where we said goodbye to our host families we had been staying with in our villages and began preparation for our departure to our permanent sites for the next two years.
Setting the floor for our goodbye supper in our host village of Nukutubu
Me with Yoni and Billy at our goodbye gathering
All of the Peace Corps volunteers who were staying at Nukutubu about to leave for the final time
All right well I have a lot more things to talk about but I have run out of time for the day. Everyone will just have to wait eagerly or not so eagerly for me to post again. I promise it will be much sooner than my previous time. One last parting note, a group of volunteers decided to have a mustache contest over the last two weeks or so of training. I decided to go with a handlebar mustache so without any further ado here it is in all its glory
I know its hard to see but you probably didn't want to see it anyway (it was scary....beautiful!)
A few words from Alyssa...
Matt summed it up pretty well. The other things I want to report:
- We now have a sink in our house (very exciting- there was no indoor running water before) and a garden with a hole bunch of American vegetables planted.
- There's no refrigeration at our site but I like cooking all the vegetarian foods. Matt kind of hates it.
- Our bus trip to town takes two hours each way, so trips to town will only happen about once per week (and internet access, too)
- I'm trying to learn Fijian and the new dialect where we are but it's very tough!
- We now have an address:
Savusavu, Vanua Levu
Fiji
Bye for now!!!
Alyssa
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
A Skirt?
Ok first off I am not wearing a skirt, it is a sulu or a sulu vakataga to be exact and damn do I make that look good. Ok, maybe I don't unfortunately. Secondly that is a picture of our new nephew, Reece Afatika, looks remarkably like his father. I can't answer your questions Kayla because I am not quite sure on the weight and height or really anything else right now.
I broke out the drumsticks that I brought along and had some fun with some of the kids in our house. I have alot more to say but I don't have the time, OH! We got our site announcements we will be going to Natuvu Village in Vanua Levu about an hour and half west of Savusavu city. We will not have electricity and water is going to have to be boiled and filtered in order to drink but we have excellent cell phone coverage in our village. No word on how to charge the cell phone, but this kind of sums up how Fiji works sometimes.
I hope everyone is doing well have a good one, Matt.
We are all drummers at heart
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Pictures! (Hopefully)
Greetings from Nausori, Fiji! I (Alyssa) am finally taking a turn writing in our blog.
First, the most exciting news- Kaity had the baby on June 9! His name is Reese Chemway Afatika (I may have spelled his first or middle name wrong- I haven't seen it written anywhere). We haven't seen any photos yet but have been told he looks just like Ernest. :)
Matt and I are about to head off to see a dance that some of the other Peace Corps volunteers are performing. Below are some photos that we have taken thus far. We'll try to start taking more- it's just been very busy and overwhelming (Matt doesn't stress as easily as me, so he may disagree on this point) thus far.
I am off- much love to our family and friends. :)
Alyssa
First, the most exciting news- Kaity had the baby on June 9! His name is Reese Chemway Afatika (I may have spelled his first or middle name wrong- I haven't seen it written anywhere). We haven't seen any photos yet but have been told he looks just like Ernest. :)
Matt and I are about to head off to see a dance that some of the other Peace Corps volunteers are performing. Below are some photos that we have taken thus far. We'll try to start taking more- it's just been very busy and overwhelming (Matt doesn't stress as easily as me, so he may disagree on this point) thus far.
I am off- much love to our family and friends. :)
Alyssa
The bure we stayed if for the first 4 days we were in Fiji, it was quite nice
The view from behind our bure
Our host Mom(Na) setting up the table for one of many good meals she prepared for us, just so everyone knows in Fiji you usually sit on the floor to eat.
Alyssa and I with our host Brother-in-law (Anania) and Sister (Tavita) before the Town Soli (otherwise know as a festival in the States). As you can see our host mom made us all matching outfits and yes I am wearing a sulu, it is the traditional apparel for Fijian men. When in Rome!
Our "tent" at the town festival. It was one of four, the town in split into four clans and each clan had its own "tent" (they were more so bamboo frames with tin roofs place on top).
Our bedroom for the 7 weeks we are in training. We are one of the very lucky few who get a fan in our bedroom.
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