Kaulugata Siga ni Sucu (Merry Christmas)

The winning team from our rugby tournament

lil' frisbee on the beach in Pacific Harbor

Some of the Labasa Crew on Fiji Day Weekend

View of the Labasa "skyline"

A view of the Vanua Levu country side from a nearby peak in Labasa

Ok, so it has become my new years resolution to post more on this. My new plan is to post once a week and just do short posts so that it is not such a daunting task to update you on everything that has happened over a couple weeks or more. This is to say, that I'll begin working on that plan once I get back from my holiday travels; another volunteer and I are going to be spending the holiday season in Taviuni (an island off the eastern coast of mine). Starting to get pretty excited about it; we should be able to get in some diving and a decent amount of hikingwhile there...hopefully I'll have some good pictures and stories after this adventure.

The last month or so has been busy. We were all brought in for a training and all-volunteer day, which was nicely placed on thanksgiving. Afterwards, I spend some time in the Sigatoka region visiting the sand dunes and such. We've been busy in the office getting together all of the end of the year reports and meetings that have to be held. I done some traveling around to Savusavu and a few of the surrounding villages. It's been difficult recently to get any of the projects/ideas I have off the ground, as everyone is either finishing up things that have to be in before christmas or preparing for holiday travel. As such a lot of my recent work has been laying ground work for projects to begin in January. I have, though, been helping WWF (world wildlife foundation) with some of their research up here, which is both fullfilling to a degree and takes up some of the holiday downtime up here.

Otherwise, everything is going well. The only recent piece of bad news is that my roomate here recently decided to go home, which is really too bad. It brings us down to 4 volunteers here in Labasa, me being the only one now from our group here. But, no worries, we're building a bridge and getting over it.

I wish the best to everyone over the holidays, and I swear I will get something back up hear soon into the new year.

Halloween in Fiji and some other traveling

The indian boy next door teaching me how to make roti

rope swing at colo-i-suva

Team zissou


Chow eating contest (you may notice me pumping my fist in victory...)





Things degraded a bit as the night went on....

I just recently got back some traveling on viti levu. They brought all of us from my fiji entry group to a resort near sigatoka for our three-month-in meeting. This just happened to coincide nicely with the well known american holiday of halloween.... which we of course took full advantage of. Meghan, Rachel, Steve, and I went the team zissou route (if you dont know this reference, please do yourself and the world a favor and rent The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou). We has a great time, as i'm sure you can tell by the pictures; we even got the fijian staff to dress up with us and participate in "traditional" halloween traditions (try explaining what 20-something-year old people do every year for halloween in a tactful manner to someone who grew up here in fiji), such as bobbing for apples and the ever popular chownoodle eating contest (think ramen fiji style). It was the first time we had all gotten to see eachother in one place since we were sent out, and it was too much fun seeing all these people again.

After the conference I took a few extra days down on the big island to get some work done in the capital and hang with a few of the people that were sticking around. I had intending on only being in Suva for a day two, then continuing my travels elsewhere, but the biright lights of the gem of the pacific had other plans.... We spent a day a colo-i-suva, which is a federal park just north of suva. It has several great hiking trails and some lovely swimming oppurtunities in the freshwater pools created by the river that runs through it. Pictured above is one that we stopped at with a relatively precarious rope swing. I was also able to make it out to the Pearl resort on Sunday (it is located on the coral coast between suva and sigatoka), which is a beautiful place in it's own right, and they have live jazz music on sunday afternoons! It was my first taste of good live music here, and it was a much welcomed reprieve from the normal island electric drum set, casio keyboard laden, pop music of fiji. Otherwise, I went to some nicer bars, ate some good food, and got a decent amount of work done.

This past weekend (yesturday actually) we had the rugby sevens tournament put on by the committee I work with the raise money for their various conservation projects. It didn't work out exactly as expected (a common occurance here on the islands), but was pretty successful. If you're not familiar with the sport, seven-a-side rugby is a bit of a faster, shorter halved version of the normal 15-a-side version. Teams came from all over vanua levu, and a few even came up from viti levu; the games started at 8 or so and went all day, finishing around 7:30 or so....a full day of rugby and fijian vendor food...can't complain about that...there were even t-shirts! It was a good event, and raised money for a well worthy cause.

That's about the deal for now. I will be traveling back to viti levu in a week or so for some technical skills training and for all volunteer day (stragically placed on thanksgiving), which should in itself give me a few more stories to tell. Thanks to everyone one who sent me updating emails and letter.... i swear i will get back to all of you as soon as i can.

I've been around

A few more pictures to post. The first I had to put up because we look like such huge dorks; the village dressed us all up in matching outfits. The second is from the USP bookstore in Suva. The third is our little running group from training on the beach one morning. The third one here is from the recent EC conference in Nadi; these two ladies live pretty close to me up here in the north.

It's funny, i was just complaining the other day that I felt I was missing out on a bit of the cultural experience of being in Fiji because i was in a relatively urban area and not a true community...... well, ask and you shall receive. I just got back this week from a whirlwind tour of 21 villages that fall under the jurisdiction of the committee I am working for. We did this in five days, it was pretty crazy. It was a very welcomed repreive from being stuck here in the town for a bit. The purpose of the trip was to go around and ensure that all of the villages knew that the MPAs were again closed (some of them were opened for use during the Methodist Conference that was up here at the end of August), to inform them of the upsoming rugby tournament that our committee is holding to raise money for future projects, and to do some other surveying of several of the villages with the WWF. There were seven of us in the motely crew that made the trip: a driver (whom we hired to take us around in this pick-up truck with a covered bed), two gentelmen from WWF in Suva, two village headmen from the area, another volunteer, and I. The long and short of the deal was: I got to see a lot of beautiful places I hadn't yet made it to, drank plenty kava, ate some sometimes good sometimes awful village food, and met some extremely hospitable people whom I hope to revisit as soon as i can make it back out.

When I returned to Labasa, I was granted the oppurtunity to see a good juxtaposition of the two cultures that dominate Fiji. The night I returned I ended up, through a series of "people who know people," having drinks at the house of and later dinner (at Labasa's "finest" resturant) with one of the more successful indo-fijian lawyers in the area. Coming from all these villages where many do not have electricity or running water to having a cold beer in a beautiful house with satalite, HD TV and proper couches was a bit of a switch. After a relatively interesting evening I was awoken the next morning at 6:30 by the 16 year old neighbor boy, who was over inviting me to come over in an hour for his brothers engagement ceremony. This turned out to be relatively interesting, as I spent the majority of the day attending a traditional hindu engagement ceremony (they have a cermony when the couple is engaged, then the families decide when it is they can get married, from what i gather it is usually around a year), with all the music and food and the like....it was great.

Thats about all thats been going on recently. I am heading down to Savusavu tomorrow, which is supposed to be a beautiful place, so will hopefull have some good stories to post after. Hope all is well with everyone, and if you get a chance drop me an email or something to let me know what's up.

one more thing

I was thinking about it, and i should include this photo; which is the beard competition guys before we styled for the event.

That is all

So, it's been a few weeks again..... i swear I will work harder to put a bit more up. But, hopefully the addition of some new pictures will make it up a little bit (the first is from this past weekend in lautoka, the next two are from the beard competition during training[the winner is on the left], and the third is sunrise from the beach next to my train village that I would run on every morning). I just got back from an emergency coordinator training in Nadi (they apparently feel that I am responsible enough to be in charge of other people in an emergency, wait until they figure out that mistake...), which was really great. They flew all those attending out there, and it was really nice to see several of the people I hadn't since we all split up in July. The training was Tues-Thurs, so on friday several of us spend the next day and evening in Lautoka, about an hour north of Nadi. The next day I went up to Malake(an island off the coast of Rakiraki, a city on the northern side of

Viti Levu), where on of the other volunteers is stationed. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday there and had a amazing time. I am a bit envious of her site, as she is on this beautiful island in, this great village, and has the opportunity to spend everyday in the ocean. It makes the days I spend in the dusty city a bit more drab...but alas, I have to remind myself that I have a assignment that works best for me, I'll just have to start making more of an effort to get out on the ocean. Anyway, it was great to get out of the city for awhile, spend some time in a village, and see one of the best friends I have made here.

Speaking of work, when I got back on Monday I was scheduled to begin a 6 day, 37 village tour with the WWF and the committee I am working with. In classic island style, it was postponed at the last minute (leaving several of us waiting at a bus stop for several hours...) due someone being sick. I am a bit bummed, as I was looking forward to the trip, but they tell me it is to be rescheduled for one of the next upcoming weeks. This being the case, I have a bit of a void at work this week (as I was supposed to be gone until next Saturday or so), and am struggling to generate some work to do in the office. So it's been a bit of a boring last few days....

Otherwise, all is well up here in sunny Labasa. The weather is starting to turn (as "winter" here is almost over), and it is beginning to get quite hot and rainy. The five of us that live here have planned an event for the Fiji Day weekend (fiji day is Oct 8th this year) that I am pretty excited about. Just about all of the volunteers here in the north are going to attend (about 16 of us) in teams of two in a two day competition (think the olympics, fiji style, with a few oat sodas thrown in the mix). I should be all kinds of fun, and the first time for many of these people to come up to the city. We have even organized prizes....it'll be great, hopefully i'll have some pictures to share.

Thanks again to everyone that has sent me something recently. Dave in particularly, as i just received a package from him and have yet to get a hold of him to extend my proper thanks. I hope all is well with everyone, if you get a chance shoot me an email and give me an update on what is going on with your lives.... i would hate to come back in a couple years and have no idea what anyone has been doing.

I'll do my best to post back up here soon.....

Sorry folks....

Ok, so I've been an awful blogger the past several weeks, and I apologize. I have been a bit busy getting used to the new job schedule and traveling a bit. I started work at the provincial office here at the begginning of August, and so far everything has been going pretty well. Most of the work I will be doing is in the field, and as such the few trips I have made out into the field so far have been really great. A couple weeks ago I began trips out into the province to generally introduce myself to the villages in the surrounding area. These trips have been good, and there is quite a bit of work to be done. Several of the villages have wonderful ideas for projects that I really hope can get off the ground; there is one that is very interested in doing some small scale prawn aquaculture, another village has plans for some pearl farming off it's coast, and another wants to start a diving/kayaking/surfing ecotourism venture. I also made a trip up to the Namuka tikina (a tikina is a group of between 4 and 10 villages that work together for governing purposes, the equivilent in the states would be something like a county) for the opening of one of their marine protectect areas. They have had their MPA in place for three years now, but are openning it to fishing for a week to help prepare for the national Methodist Conference that will be held in our province this year (methodist is the predominent religion in fiji, and the conference is easily one of the largest events held in fiji each year; they are expecting over a 1000 people this year and the hosting province is expected to provide food for all the participants for the entire week in which it is held). The trip was great, and it was really nice to finally get out on the water for a little bit up here.
So, as I said before, the field work has been really good so far, but unfortunately the office work has left a bit to be desired. With the conference looming on the horizon the office has been quite busy, and I think a bit unprepared for my arrival. Since most of my work outlined in my assignment is out in the field, there is a bit of a gap in what is expected of me in the office; which has led to a lot of workless days sitting around my desk when I'm not out traveling somewhere. On the bright side, the office downtime has helped me a bit with my language, and I am optomistic that as I spend more time there that I will find my niche.
Otherwise, everything else has been going very well. My expectations for Peace Corps service have been quite a bit different than the reality of my assignement, in both good and bad ways. I certainly did not expect to be living in a semi-urban environment with running water and electricity 24/7. I also did not expect to be living around so many other volunteers. There are 5 of us specifically stationed in Labasa, and 6 or 7 in the outlying area (1-2 of which are usually in each weekend); so I have quite a bit of contact with other Americans on a regular basis.... which has been great socially, but is going to make my continued cultural and language education a bit more dfficult (compared to those volunteers that are in a community of all natives, which is the case with the majority of the volunteers here).
Thanks to everyone who has sent letters and things/called or emailed me. It is really nice to hear from all of you, and makes the bit of homesickness that I feel from time to time much easier to get through. A special thanks goes out to Jason Hilton, who was the first person to send me something to hang on the walls in my house; I greatly look forward to more letters of that nature. I hope all is well with everyone, and I will certainly post up here again very soon.

Quick note

I found a way that you can send me free text messages from your computer to my phone. For those interested, email me and i'll give you the details (aricbickel83@yahoo.com, and please identify yourself in the email....).

A better post will be on the way soon.

Sorry forgot...

I forgot when I was on here the other day to say that I got a cell phone a few days ago; making it quite easy to get a hold of me phone wise if you are so inclined. So, if you would like the number drop me an email/post and I will forward it on to you (sorry, posting my number on a public blog doesn't sound like a great idea to me....... also, if you email me please identify yourself as some of those email addresses out there are a bit cryptic). If you have scype you can call me for something ridiculously cheap like 10 cents a minute, and i hear that text rates aren't too bad (i'm working on a scam for people from the states to be able to text me for free, and hopefully i'll have more info on that by the end of the week).

cheers,

Aric

Bula sia from the friendly north

So, this is my first post from my permanent site, are you as excited as I am!?! I sure hope so, because most of the rest of these are going to be coming from here, and if you're going to start off with a bad attitude it's going to be a long 2 years. Anyway, I just arrived up here in Labasa a few days ago, and am working on settling in. (If you're wondering about the picture above, it is my new friend Steve [who is strangely Mo's cousin....what..] and I's entry into the facial hair contest of July 4th that we put on. Unfortunately I didn't win, but there wasn't a prize so no worries. I'll try to put up the pictures of all the entries at a later date).
The Past week has been pretty crazy. On Monday we had our final language exam to see if they were still going to let us into the peace corps (in case you were wondering I passed). Tuesday was our last night in the village, which was a huge ordeal with people eating, drinking kava, singing, and crying late into the evening (fortunately for me it was also my first recovery day from food poisoning, so the first thing I wanted to do with it was sit around and do the above all night). Wednesday we departed the village exorbitantly early in the morning (5:45 to be exact) for Suva, where we had our final training sessions; after which they turned us lose on the town. It was a great evening, about a third of us left the next day (thursday), so it was the last time I would see many people in the group for a few months. Being a family page and all, I can only say we had a fantastic time, Suva has some great bars, and I hope to take some of you who visit out there sometime. Thursday we were officially sworn in as volunteers, those going to viti levu left for their sites, and the rest of us going up north were given and extra day in Suva.
I left friday afternoon on the overnight boat to SavuSavu, and took a truck from there to Labasa (arriving early morning on Saturday. Since then I've been working on setting up my living quarters and getting ready for work.

So, my address here is:
Aric Bickel c/o Macuata Provincial Office
P.O. Box 1326
Labasa, Fiji Islands
South Pacific

and, I have a challenge for all you people out there feeling up to it. I have an excess amount of blank, white wall space..... and I would like you to fill it. Send me whatever it is you want (within reason), and I will put it up on my wall. I think this could be a great way for me to feel more at home, and involve more of you in what is going on in my life over here. So, you have my address now, send me something fun to put on the wall. At some point I'll take a picture and post it. Maybe, if you're lucky, i'll even send you something fijian back to put on your own wall.......

alright, time is up here. I should be able to get back up here and post more in a few days.

cheers

Aric

Guess Where.....

Sorry for not getting to a computer recently, but aside from our normal busy schedule I have been traveling quite a bit...most notebly to my site for the next two years! So, I have stationed in the Macuata provincial office working with their qoliqoli cakavata (fisheries committee). The provincial office is in Labasa (pronounced lambasa), which is that largest "city" on Vanua Levu (Fiji's second largest island in the north). The city is located on the northern side of the island adjacent to the 3rd lagest barrier reef in the world. I visit the site this week, and it seems pretty nice. It is a modest Fijian town, which luckly (in my mind) does not see many tourists. I was initially bummed becuase I was hopping not to be placed in a larger city, but the work should make up for it. I will be working with the council to help better manage the marine protected areas (MPAs) in the province. The province consists of about 106 villages, of which the majpority have some sort of MPA set up. So, I will be traveling to those villages that have them set up and working with them to not pouch in the restricted area and helping them to survey and assess the results from the instution of the area. In the villages that do not have an MPA, we will be working with them to raise awareness and possibly get them to set one up. It sounds really great so far, and I really dig the traveling aspect of the position. Although I had not hoped to be in a city, there are a few perks: The are several other volunteers in the area (8 or so), there is very good access to internet and phone facilities (i think i will actually have a cell phone), and there is plenty reasonably priced and nutricious food in the area (think i might be able to go back to being a vegetarian). The northern island is a beautiful place, with ample diving (all kinds of reefs), hiking (there are mountains less than a kilometer from the ocean), and other recreational activities; as such I am pretty pumped to get up there and start exploring.

If, by lovely chance, you have a package in your hands just waiting to ship of to the fiji islands, please do not until i give you an updated address. I have it, but of course forgot to bring it to the computer facility; so since mail takes roughly 2 weeks to get here I would not receive it at my present address (no worries if you just sent something, the peace corps will forward it along, it will just take awhile). We have some training and a few exams and such the next couple weeks and will all be shipping off net thursday (your wens maybe, depending on which side of the world you live on) July 26th.

Otherwise all is going well, just trying to make it through the homestretch of training and move on to my site. Thanks for the letters, rents and jessica i received yours yesterday. I'll try to write back here as soon as I can.

Cheers,

Aric

Ok, not much time today so i'll have to make it quick, and hopefully i can make up for it by posting a few pics. From the top: my host family; my host village group and out trainer; my family's house (the greener one), and sunrise out infront of the village. I hope to get a few more up in the next weeks. Been a busy last couple weeks. I spent last weekend visiting another volunteer's site and meandering around Suva. Had some great food, drank a few beers, and generally had a great time. I was able to get out snorkeling for the first time last week, which was nice. I would have expected to be out much more often, living on the water and all, but the reef is a good 3/4 of a mile off shore and we have not have a whole lot of down time as of late. The reef sits at the mouth of a river, and as such is a bit overrun with algae (from nutrient runoff) and is a bit sedimented; but it was still great to finally get out there. Other than that, it has just been a lot of language classes in the mornings, and technical environmental trainings in the afternoons. Our site announcement day is now 5 days away, so hopefully my next post will have all kinds of great information about my futer plans here.

Alright, some have emailed my and such for an address. My temporary one is:

Aric Bickel

Peace Corps Fiji

Private Mail Bag

24 St Fort st

Suva, Fiji Islands

The postal service here is a bit unreliable, so expect 2 -3 weeks for arrival. If sending a box or other not lettered package, i suggest writing "Jesus please watch over this package" in red sharpy marker accompantied by several crosses. Doing this helps ensure that it will not be broken into during transit.

Sorry I havent sent out more personal emails, I have unfortunately not had a lot of time to take care of some of these items; so excuse me if i use this space to send a couple quick messages:

Dave: thanks for the email, all kinds of excited about josh's new album; am eagerly anticipation

Howard: hilarious that you saw playmaker; not surprised you met a girl, i put the word out i was leaving and that you were available, and I can gaurante that kid has nicer sulu legs tha I do.

Jessica: sorry, haven't been able to get a phone call out yet, try to do so soon.

Dov: what was the hebrew term some of you israeli friends used over the wedding weekend for being allowed to break kosher (random, but it came up in conversation out here)?

Mom: I have tried calling you twice in the mornings to only get a busy signal, try keep the lines open between 6-7am for the next few days.

All: Thanks for all the posts, it's great hearing from everyone and is always a nice surprise when i get on here.

Hope all is well bak in the states (or where ever it is you're reading this from) and hopefully I will be able to get back here next week.

cheers,

Aric

Planning for a site visit

To start: The information, views, and opinions listed in this blog are not those of the Peace Corps, and should not be read as such.

Alright, so it seems like for the time being i should be able to make it to internet access on the weekends (that is atleast until I leave for my perminent site in August). It has been an excellent week. Aside from the language classes, we visited a current volunteers site on Tues, Namatakua village (which is situated along the Queens Road in southern Viti Levu). There we went through several technical seminars on building composting toilets, starting village recycling programs, and mitigating piggery wastes in a village setting. Thursday we had a joint session with all of the currently training volunteers in a nearby village (Daku). Following the training seminars the village youth preformed a traditional meke (or dance) for us; which was immedietely followed by a decent amount of kava drinking and dancing (the village had an extremely talented band; i swear every fijin can play an instrument and sing). On Friday we visited an adjacent village to mine (Monera[sp?]) for a mangrove seminar in preparation for a workshop on monday on reforesting harvested mangrove areas. This morning (our saturday), they dropped (in small groups) in Suva where we were given 14 or so destination and objectives that we had to acheive on our own. It was relatively interesting using the language to find out bus fares and stops and other necessary information to complete the assigned tasks. The final destination was a pizza place here, where peace corps purchased lunch. It was the first bit of dairy/american food I've had since leaving; and I'd have to say it was glorious.
As Mary alluded, several of the men in the gourp, including myself, have entered into a facial hair growing contest in preparation for our site assignment day (July 4th). Little did they know they were going up against a ringer, and I fully expect to look zz-topish by then. Otherwise, things are still going very well. Next week i will be traveling to nausori to spend the weekend at a current volunteers site; the idea being to get an idea of what it will be like at our own site. Between this, and the mangrove planting on monday it should be a good week, and I should have a bit more two write about next weekend.
My apologies, I have been having difficulty accessing my email accounts on this computer, so if i don't get back to you this week don't take it personally.... I will surely respond as soon as i can.

cheers,

Aric

p.s. Jessica i got your card on thurs, thank you.

First few weeks

Alright, so I have finally been able to make it to a computer that allows me access the the blog site here. It feels like a lot of time has passed since I left, so it's hard to know where to start. Everything is going very well. Upon arrival in Fiji, we spent 3 days in Nadavi, which is just a bit North of Suva (the capital city); these days consisted mainly of general orienatation and some intitial language training. On the Saturday after arriving, we were sent of to our host villages in small groups. There are 30 of us in my training group split between 6 villages; about half are environmental volunteers, the opther half are health volunteers. As it currently stands, there are five of us in my village; Kiova, which is a small coastal village of about 200 people about an hour and a half from Suva. I have been placed with a fitting host family; my host father is a diver and fisherman who has four sons around my age. Staying in the village has been lovely; the sense of community within the village is inspiring and the people have been overly welcoming and generous. The Peace Corps has been keeping us pretty busy with language training and technical seminars, but in my free time I have been able to run just about every day and fit in a few games of touch rugby (rugby is huige here). I'm still unsure as to where I will be placed after the three months of trains; currently we are scheduled to to find out on July 4th, and as you can imagine I am eagerly anticipating that day. Unfortunately my internet time is a bit limited, so cannot as yet go in to much detail; but suffice to say that I am have a wonderful time, the people are great, and I am highly looking forward to getting out there and working. I will write again as soon as possible, and I will try to get some pictures up soon.

Cheers.

p.s. For those who have inquired, I have made my first sulu purchase (a sulu is the professional garment worn by men in Fiji that resembles a skirt), and i will certainly get some picture of me rocking the sulu as soon as possible.

Test

Just a quick test post; I'm still in the packing process. I leave for LA on Sunday (the 20th) and leave for Fiji on Tuesday morning, so I will try to get something more substantial up here next week.

Cheers,

Aric