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
3 comments:
OH MY GOODNESS with the beard!!! There were tears in my eyes I was laughing so hard when I saw that. I cant believe you didnt win. Im sure that I can think of something fun to send you for wall decoration-you didnt make any specifications which could be kind of dangerous though. :) Hopefully we can talk soon. Hope you are having a good day at work.
Miss you. Love ya.
Dude, amazing pic. You kinda look like HHH from WWF Wrestling, except smaller and darker. Life here is crazy, more on that to come in a letter by the end of the summer. I'll send a few other things, though those will be surprises (HINT: Josh Ritter CD comes out August 21). My family says hello and they love you, as do I.
Hey Big Bic, Gotta love the "beardishness". If you didnt win that contest then I put it under official protest. Dont take any of their crap. Dave is spot on with the Triple H comparison. I will try to get you some experimental drugs (you can put them on your wall if you like). I was just in Los Alamos, NM checkin out the stock pile of nukes that we have, plus doing some experiments of my own. I pretty sure that is about the farthest from what you are doing right now but you can never have enough nukes, right?
love ya, be safe, holla back
Post a Comment