So after waiting forever, it finally arrived, site announcement day! And I'm on the island I wanted to be on, near one of my closest friends and it's dirt cheap to go see her. Needless to say I am super happy about my site :) can't believe we found out October 26th! It's so weird to think that it was almost a month ago we found out!
Leaving my village in the Tailevu area was really difficult. There is a family that I didn't stay with but they will always be my family. That village is my village and they are my kin and my family. I probably wouldn't have gotten through training as well as I did had it not been for them! I learned how to weave mats, we watched movies, jumped off bridges, rode on bamboo rafts called billibillis, messed around, did church choir together, and became a family. Even now in my own village I call them all the time and tell them how I can't wait to visit in March! It's when all of our birthdays are so I'm going for a week hopefully to spend with them!! They sent me off with a new sulu jaba and a mat for good measure! I took a photo of the whole village coming out to say goodbye to us!! Its below!!
The week we were in Suva was great!! I went out and partied hard the night after swearing in!! Haha I think we earned it for sure! We learned a little more about our sites, how we get there and what's going on! They explained more thoroughly that my village is small and I will work at a district nurse station! Swearing in was sort of surreal! We promised to uphold the values of our constitution and got to meet the ambassador, the Minister of Health, a bunch of old and current peace corps volunteers and the ladies in our group did an amazing MEKE!! (traditional Fijian dance-picture of us below) I still dance and sing the lyrics to this day! I miss my friends from the Peace Corps but since we have this cool little text to talk network on Digicell they're just a free phone call away! But bummer is that I have absolutely no service in my village so I have to go to town more often that not to just make the call in the first place!
The rough and yet cool thing is that I have to travel by ferry to get to my island of Vanua Levu, but it's a 10 hour overnight ferry! I don't mind it but I know not everyone enjoyed the journey! Our rooms weren't air conditioned so while other peace corps volunteers toughed it out, I just went and slept on the floor in the rooms where everyone else was at. So I live about an hour outside Savusavu!! It's a wonderful village filled with great people :) right now I haven't quite moved in because my bure (a traditional Fijian straw house picture below) flooded so I'm living with the nurse but I of course love getting to know her and her amazing son! Her husband is funny too! It's seriously how amazing how welcoming the Fijian people here are. I find myself wondering if they're ever not so cheery or joking. They live by a very no worried be happy attitude. Of course there's a lot more to them than that, but it's all "under the iceberg" as Peace Corps taught us and it's difficult to break into!!
I'm seriously so thankful for my supervisor! She's so progressive and I can't help but think how bored I'd be if she wasn't! I have a picture of her, my closest other PCV on Vanua Levu and I on the compound I'm currently staying in. Sure there are days where I'm just sitting on my butt reading a book, but I get to talk to her patients on her clinic days, go with her on her house call visits, help make presentations and just get to know the area!! We already have long and short term goals and even though we know it will be a rough road we think we could make some great changes since Vanua Levu is still even a couple years behind Viti Levu in some areas!! I wake up sometimes and wonder, am I still living in paradise!? Sure nothing is perfect but I'm surrounded by wonderful people, who are very laid back, and the most beautiful mountains that take my breath away everyday! I know I'm going to have challenges and have already seen some but I mean... There's always a positive to see... HAH I LIVE IN FIJI PEOPLE!!
