The Last Couple Weeks

I’ve been a bit derelict on posting up here the last couple weeks, but they have been busy and it has been difficult to find the time to write something up. Bill left early last week and, as such, the week before last was a bit busy with preparations for his departure and various goodbye celebrations. This was compounded a bit by me now moving into their house. They were living in a kind of “hub” house that contains the library, a bunch of Peace Corps resource materials, and in which volunteers from my province tend to stay at when they are in town; so they wanted someone to continue living in this house, and I was asked to move. I had to make the move before the beginning of last week, as I was in Suva the majority of it, so between all of this and work I did not have a whole lot of time for other endeavors. The move went well, and a proper send-off was given, and I now find myself at a new residence.

The week before last I started pitching my IGP project to the tikinas. I believe it went pretty well, although I would be lying if I did not admit to some discomfort in speaking to these large groups of people in my own special combination of Fijian and English, but all in all I was happy with how it went. There were a few interested parties, and most said they would contact me after the Easter holiday, so hopefully I will start to hear back from some interested communities around that time.

Last week Peace Corps had a conference in the Suva area, in which 13 of us attended with a youth from our community, to go through some project design and management training. I went with a 21 year old guy from here in Labasa that had been working for the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The conference went well, and we have worked out a plan to do some lifeskills workshops together (HIV awareness, reproductive health, STD education, etc.) with the youth groups in the province up here. I think it’s a great idea, and is certainly a need in many of the communities here. The only possible kink in the plan is finding a funding source. We have some leads, and some people to start talking to (of course after the holiday); so hopefully we can work something out.

The conference ended on Saturday morning, and afterwards a few of us went back out to our host villages for lunch and the afternoon. I was a little hesitant to go back, but I’m really glad that I did; it was wonderful to see some of those people again and it really made me feel like I had a family of sorts that I could visit there at any time. After spending the day out in the village, I met up with several other volunteers in Suva where we had a Fiji version of a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at a pseudo-Irish pub there. The following morning I returned to Labasa, and started the relatively painstaking process of putting the new house together (I’m just about finished).

It’s a short week this week (Monday was Prophet Mohammad’s observed birthday, and Friday is Good Friday), so there is not a whole lot going on. I had planned on maybe traveling over the long Easter weekend, but I have a few commitments here and a wedding invitation that may keep me at home. My best to everyone, and I should be able to get up here next week.