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.