Finally

Road to Savusavu

Kid with a killer mullet

I missed a week in here somewhere, but I have been busy, so I don’t feel too bad about it. I have a visitor from the States in now, which has been great. Before she got in last week, I had been doing a bit of research on beautifying the town area of Labasa. I have recently found myself working with the executive board of the Friendly North Festival here, which is an annual festival held in Labasa; the money from which goes towards civic projects here in town. This past year they raised money to build a new fitness center here (which will be completed in a couple months) and to do a beautification project here in town. The board has since asked me to help them to choose and organize the beautification project. So, I have been running around talking with the town council and chamber of commerce and others to see what we might be able to do with the money they have set aside for this work. It has been an interesting endeavor so far, and the way people talk, it might be something that many different groups can get behind and really work on to change the face of Labasa (and in doing so make it a bit more environmentally friendly). In this regard, we are looking at things like putting in new trash bins (the few that exist are pretty sad), creating a children’s park, re-landscaping some main street areas, etc. There is a lot of potential between all of these things to be really good for the area.

Friday, I went down to the Fiji Institute of Technology campus here in town for their clean-up day. We cleaned up the campus area then walked down the main street picking up the trash. There were maybe about 50 people, and I think the event went really well. There were several people along the way who stopped and asked the students where they were from and what they were doing, and I feel that it worked well to help raise awareness about the trash problem in the area. It is certainly not sufficient to change much, but it at the least showed the town that the youth would like to see a better Labasa. After the clean-up, the students did some of their traditional dances and participated in sports events for the rest of the afternoon, which is a great way to run an event like this; everyone works in the morning, then goes out and has fun in the afternoon. I was very happy with the way they pulled it off, and especially with the beautification work we are talking about, it brought to light some very good issues.
The last couple days I was out on Mali Island, just off the coast of Labasa. One of the villages out there asked me to go out and talk to their people about the spat collection (juvenile oyster’s collected to sell to pearl farms) project that I am trying to promote in the area. I ended up speaking with two villages on the island about the project, and I think it went pretty well. One of the villages is interested for sure, and we can go on to the next step with them and the other is going to discuss it this week and get back to me. I have been trying to find a community to try this project out since February, and it is exciting that one may have signed on yesterday.

I have some more work to do on the beautification project to do the rest of the week. I think my guest and I will travel out to Taviuni and maybe down to the main island middle of next week before she has to leave, so I may not be able to write back up here for another week or so. But, when I get back I should have some good stories.