I know it's been a long time since I've posted; sorry about that! I'm alive I promise and life is better than ever. Well besides the fact that my village has been without water for 7 weeks now. It wasn't fun, and only halfway through was I given a tank for when it rains to filter through. It was a hard journey, but supposedly we're about to get almost 24/48 hours of straight rain; so hopefully that'll fill up the creek that gives my village water.
(this is my Fijian dad, he is a talatala qase or bishop of over 21 villages in our area!) I live on his methodist church compound so respect is everything to him!
The Fijian Resort or Shagrala has been number one for eight years now! Crazy huh? Well speaking of crazy, I also got to meet Iliesa Delana! He is the first gold medalist of Fiji and a paralympian! He is such an inspiration, and I got to sit down and talk to him! He was so humble, he says he's almost gotten tired of all the attention and salusalu after salusalu honoring him everywhere he goes. He was such a joy to be around, and I am so thankful to have met him!
Since the last time I posted a lot has happened!!
My counter part in my village died, and since it's been such a mess for my village restarting the process for the village nurse I've sort of given up until they're ready to get it together. I can only do so much. I was really fortunate and met a few people who talked to my Sub Divisional Medical Officer, or the woman in charge of my entire medical province, about working at the hospital. So now my job is so much better and I enjoy it so much more. I still do outreach's about health topics, but now my job is mainly organizational development at the hospital and I actually enjoy going to work. The only con is that it takes about an hour plus to get to work everyday. It can get expensive but Peace Corps gave me a travel to work stipend and now it's a lot easier to live. I work with the executive officer right now just catching up on all the things she's behind on; but soon I will be conducting customer service trainings, working towards employee satisfaction and figuring out ways to make the hospital run smoother. I'm so excited and thankful for this opportunity, I can't wait to see what the next year brings me. But I'll admit sometimes I go a little crazy, so I take selfies of my moods that I go through at the hospital, like below.
Speaking of year, it's been over a year since I arrived in Fiji and the personal growth I've been through is crazy. I'm a lot more self aware, maybe a little less selfish, but unfortunately narcissistic as ever haha. I think I've become a little less talkative for all the friends who know me as motor mouth, and have started to enjoy working out. Some changes are absolutely for the better, but I can't say that for all of them. I am starting to think even my priorities are changing, but it could just be the environment impacting me. I'll let you know more about that as time goes on haha. This is my group at the beginning in California, and then the group at our Mid Service Training back in July! I had a fever so I was roasting next to the fire, in the back lol.
My village is amazing and I really love being apart of it. Sometimes it gets difficult because it's worse than being in high school; because there are rules involved with talking to certain people. If they're a certain type of family member they aren't allowed to speak directly towards that person; if it's their mothers village then they can be honest and up front with anyone. It's crazy how culture and family create a very large undercurrent of emotions that the casual glance could never explain. But because of all the rules, even I shouldn't be "talking straight" or be up front about my qualms. Not that I should beat around the bush, but it should be a slow process where I gain their trust through a few cups of kava around the tanoa (kava bowl). Respect plays a huge part in the culture here; and to be honest Fijians are not very forgetful of disrespect. They may forgive your blunder after you're done a forgiveness ceremony or said "vosoti au" which means endure me; but you'll be lucky if they ever look at you in the same light. Another difficulty with village life is the constant gossiping. We call it the coconut wireless because news spreads faster than a 4G wireless network. If you walked around the village with a baby, you bet the village will be talking about it. Did you eat a lot or help out at the funeral over the weekend? You bet they'll be talking about it. What about if you have a boyfriend? You bet it'll be hot news for weeks maybe months depending on how you approached it.
Here's a few shots of people in my village:
Speaking of changes and boyfriends. I have tripped and fallen into a village relationship myself. His name is Lavai (Levi) and he's 20 years old. He works as a delivery boy for a company that distributes pop across the coral coast area (where I live). He also plays rugby, and though I've always been a huge fan; because he asks me to come to every game, I'm always there front and center screaming my head off for the team!! LAKO CONUA LEGION!! (GO CONUA LEGION) in Fijian the C sound is the "th" sound. But we've been together for some time now and he's very good to me, and puts up with a lot from me so let's hope it lasts while I'm in Fiji haha. He's the one on the far right (picture below)
My village rugby team, Conua Legion is a boss in our area and has won the cup for our division!! They kept getting challenged again and again, but to no avail has someone taken the cup away!! They are an amazing group of guys filled with young and old minds, strength and speed, built on the foundation of team work and humor. They're great and I'm so proud of them!! They'll have the cup until next year so it'll proudly be placed in the village for at least the next three months. Our team captain is the chief's son, so it'll go nicely with all the masi hanging around in the chief's bure. Masi is a cloth constructed from a certain type of tree (called the masi tree) where Native Fijians paint beautiful designs that sometimes tell a story through patterns and symbols. And a bure is a house made of bamboo and trees that can be small or very large, such as the ones in my village now, pictures in previous blog posts. (below a picture of the team after their last win for the cup!! We're number one!!)
I've met some really great people in my time on the coral coast, and I'm so thankful for all of the opportunities they've given me. I swear if I could, I'd live in Fiji forever. One of my friends who lives in a town called Navua did a fire walking ceremony with the local hindu temple. He went vegan for almost 45 days and fasted on any "pleasures" of the body. It was really difficult but totally worth it, he is still the talk of the town and highly respected!! Seriously, it was crazy the amount of stuff he must've endured during the fire walking itself. He had to get pierced and there wasn't any kind of burning cream to help him through the nights so he was left to his own devices once it was done. Below is a picture of one of the Suva volunteer's and I after the fire walking ceremony! We had to wear traditional indian sari's!
I've also started to work with the Coral Coast Seven's team which is a huge rugby tournament where teams from all around the world come to Sigatoka town in Fiji p, stay at the local hotels, and play to be named Champion! Even the National USA and Australia teams participate! It's a huge deal! I'm really excited to help out, I feel like it'll given me a lot more experience in event planning and a great way to meet even more people around Fiji!
The volunteer in Navua did a training course for volunteer first responders recently and I assisted where I could and it was a really great experience. It taught me a lot personally and absolutely made me realize how much I never want to be a paramedic or nurse. The closest thing I'd ever want to do is maybe a midwife; mainly because recently I watched my very good friend in the village give birth to a beautiful baby girl. It was one of the most beautiful and courageous moments of my life. I am seriously changed for the better after watching it. I always looked at having kids with distain and headache, but if I can be even half the woman she was when giving birth then, phew man maybe I can do it too!! A picture from the training below.
This is my best friend in the village Bulou! She's the one that had the beautiful baby girl! I have pictures of the baby but they're on my phone, isa technology!
Also, just recently we had the trainees from the new group visit current volunteers all across Fiji. It was a three day trip where they went to work with us, saw how we lived, and experienced what we experience everyday. I think most of the volunteers treated their trainees because we remembered what it was like during training, so beers and items with cheese were being opened all across Fiji, but we were happy to oblige in anyway we could. It was a great experience, but after three days of having someone at my house, I was just mentally and physically exhausted. I like people, but I think sometimes I forget how important "me" time is. I need to recharge my batteries before I get out there again. Just another one of the things I've learned while being in Peace Corps! You, as a person, are really the most important thing in your life. If you aren't 100% nothing you do will be 100% either. The picture below is when the trainee came with me to my village's rugby game! That's the cup we won!! Woo!! 
We just celebrated Fiji Day ( Independece Day for Fiji) here on the coral coast with the annual BiliBili day races! If you can remember from last year, bilibili are bamboo posts tied together to create a raft. All the hotels around the coral coast participate to be championed number one! They also participate in fun games, like having to carry a tray across an obstacle course. It's hysterical!!
Fiji Day meke and flag raising ceremony!
Bilibi for the Fijian resort
My friend, Mo, doing his thing for the Pearl resort.
All right, so I've another novel when I thought this would be short and sweet but you get the idea. Life in the coral coast of Fiji is great, and there are plenty of hardships like no water, cultural pressures and obligations, and then the everyday things like gossip but overall things are great. There are plenty of hard days, and times where I have to say thanks for the weather because that really is the only thing that has gone well that day; but as a Peace Corps Volunteer we just have to keep moving forward. The disconnect from friends and family back in the states is absolutely the hardest part about being here; but if you make the best of it and try to make your place in your country your home for 2-3 years, it's the most giving and learning opportunity you'll ever have!
Well I hope you enjoyed reading this!! My grandparents turned 63 and 60 this October so a big shout out to them!! And it's my best friends birthday the 16th so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON!! Then it's my brother's on the 28 and my sisters on the 19, and their moms birthday on the 20th, so sending all my love and happy birthday wishes to the states this month!! I love all of you so much and miss you everyday!!
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