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.
