My picture!! Well that's the traditional grog or yagona drink! They do it for traditional, religious, forgiveness, wedding, and when coming into a village ceremonies! Then some people drink it just to drink it. It's also called kava. It's pretty good but most people can't stand it for some reason. Right now we're learning a traditional dance called a Meke for our swearing in ceremony. We wear grass cuffs, grass skirts with a black skirt under it, and peace corps is giving us a shirt for it! It's really fun and I'm super excited for that. Everyone has been really sick this past week so moral has been pretty low, but we've been pretty on our game every other week so I don't think staff is too upset with us. The roller coaster of emotions is truly a serious ideology that many people thinking about joining the Peace Corps need to understand, even people who have been away from home long periods of time. It's not about the being away, it's some of the difficulties that people can deal with; in terms of village problems, or problems that can arise because of the way your home-stay family may react towards things! But honestly it's been an amazing experience!!
Next Friday I will find out where I'll be living for two years and what I'll be doing! I'm so excited. All 25 peace corps trainees leave next Sunday from our villages to Suva (the capital) which will be weird. A lot of my hopes of getting awesome gifts for my home stay are totally getting dashed, but besides that things are amazing!! We went on a host volunteer visit and I got to be one of the lucky recipients who went to Vanua Levu to visit a volunteer who lives an amazing village surrounded my some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen in Fiji yet! Besides having the most perfect time, I learned so much about the culture in Fiji. The amount of Fijian the volunteer knew was a little intimidating but she's been here for 16 months now! I know it's too far away to think about it but I'm excited to host my own volunteer next year!! This week I am learning how to weave a big floor mat and one of the kids made me a fan!! I hang out with his family a lot, and his older brother in the village is the local monkey so I get coconut water almost daily. Their family is so good to me! They told me they asked to have a volunteer but since their shower and toilet are too far away from the house itself they weren't allowed one. This whole "coconut wireless" ideology is pretty remarkable, when they mean the whole village will know in a millisecond they mean it!! People talk about the smallest details too and it goes through our village and to other villages as well!! Haha one of the other trainees calls it the coconut internet because it's almost broadband fast.
Well there's not much else going on here, I miss my amazing friends and family back in the states! Today's my sisters birthday! Happy 11th birthday Hannah Rose! I love you with all my heart baby girl <3
