quick note on address

Just a quick note to let you know I have a new address that will make my mail a bit more reliable. So, if any of you are inclined to send me anything please use the following address:

P.O. Box 2589

Labasa, Fiji islands

If you sent something to the other address, no worries, is will still get here, it will just take a bit longer. I write up here again in a week or so.

Back to work

Buavou village

Mikelle being a good volunteer and catching rain water during our "cyclone" scare

We may have been going a little stirr crazy after being in the same house with 11 volunteers for 24 hours

I have great stories and such from my christmas vacation, but I want to wait to share those until I have the pictures from the trip to post (which should be by the end of next week), so check back in a few days for that.

I got back about a week ago, and hopefully I can hit the ground running here on some work in the new year. This past week I made a couple of field visits to aquaculture farms in the area. One of the things I hear the most from villages in the MPA areas is that they have not found a way to supplement the income and food generation that they have lost due to setting aside some of their fishing areas to be protected. As such, I am working on traveling around to the villages in the Provence that have sustainable income generating projects, looking over their operations, identifying individuals in the community who can transfer these skills to other communities, and then trying to connect the dots. Theoretically it is a good plan, as there is some governmental money set aside to help some of these projects to get off the ground, but we'll see how it goes logistically. The visits this week have been good, and there is certainly a large market available for aquaculture product and for the communities that have a low supply, it is good protein source. I am also looking at communities that do bee keeping, pearl farming, and seaweed farming to visit in the next month or so. Hopefully after that I will have a small array of possible projects that interested villages can chose from based on their needs and community assets.

Otherwise things are kinda slow here in Labasa. I've been the only volunteer in town (as the others are still finishing out their holiday vacations), so it's been pretty quiet. Next week i will be in Suva for a couple of work days and then a three day training at the end of the week (I was chosen to work in out peer support network here, and they are bringing the eight of us in to teach us how to support our peers). My plan is to get back up here next weekend when I return and write again.

I hope every one's holidays here great, mine certainly were. I look forward to hearing updates from all you guys.

Kaulugata Siga ni Sucu (Merry Christmas)

The winning team from our rugby tournament

lil' frisbee on the beach in Pacific Harbor

Some of the Labasa Crew on Fiji Day Weekend

View of the Labasa "skyline"

A view of the Vanua Levu country side from a nearby peak in Labasa

Ok, so it has become my new years resolution to post more on this. My new plan is to post once a week and just do short posts so that it is not such a daunting task to update you on everything that has happened over a couple weeks or more. This is to say, that I'll begin working on that plan once I get back from my holiday travels; another volunteer and I are going to be spending the holiday season in Taviuni (an island off the eastern coast of mine). Starting to get pretty excited about it; we should be able to get in some diving and a decent amount of hikingwhile there...hopefully I'll have some good pictures and stories after this adventure.

The last month or so has been busy. We were all brought in for a training and all-volunteer day, which was nicely placed on thanksgiving. Afterwards, I spend some time in the Sigatoka region visiting the sand dunes and such. We've been busy in the office getting together all of the end of the year reports and meetings that have to be held. I done some traveling around to Savusavu and a few of the surrounding villages. It's been difficult recently to get any of the projects/ideas I have off the ground, as everyone is either finishing up things that have to be in before christmas or preparing for holiday travel. As such a lot of my recent work has been laying ground work for projects to begin in January. I have, though, been helping WWF (world wildlife foundation) with some of their research up here, which is both fullfilling to a degree and takes up some of the holiday downtime up here.

Otherwise, everything is going well. The only recent piece of bad news is that my roomate here recently decided to go home, which is really too bad. It brings us down to 4 volunteers here in Labasa, me being the only one now from our group here. But, no worries, we're building a bridge and getting over it.

I wish the best to everyone over the holidays, and I swear I will get something back up hear soon into the new year.

Halloween in Fiji and some other traveling

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.

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.

one more thing

I was thinking about it, and i should include this photo; which is the beard competition guys before we styled for the event.

That is all

So, it's been a few weeks again..... i swear I will work harder to put a bit more up. But, hopefully the addition of some new pictures will make it up a little bit (the first is from this past weekend in lautoka, the next two are from the beard competition during training[the winner is on the left], and the third is sunrise from the beach next to my train village that I would run on every morning). I just got back from an emergency coordinator training in Nadi (they apparently feel that I am responsible enough to be in charge of other people in an emergency, wait until they figure out that mistake...), which was really great. They flew all those attending out there, and it was really nice to see several of the people I hadn't since we all split up in July. The training was Tues-Thurs, so on friday several of us spend the next day and evening in Lautoka, about an hour north of Nadi. The next day I went up to Malake(an island off the coast of Rakiraki, a city on the northern side of

Viti Levu), where on of the other volunteers is stationed. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday there and had a amazing time. I am a bit envious of her site, as she is on this beautiful island in, this great village, and has the opportunity to spend everyday in the ocean. It makes the days I spend in the dusty city a bit more drab...but alas, I have to remind myself that I have a assignment that works best for me, I'll just have to start making more of an effort to get out on the ocean. Anyway, it was great to get out of the city for awhile, spend some time in a village, and see one of the best friends I have made here.

Speaking of work, when I got back on Monday I was scheduled to begin a 6 day, 37 village tour with the WWF and the committee I am working with. In classic island style, it was postponed at the last minute (leaving several of us waiting at a bus stop for several hours...) due someone being sick. I am a bit bummed, as I was looking forward to the trip, but they tell me it is to be rescheduled for one of the next upcoming weeks. This being the case, I have a bit of a void at work this week (as I was supposed to be gone until next Saturday or so), and am struggling to generate some work to do in the office. So it's been a bit of a boring last few days....

Otherwise, all is well up here in sunny Labasa. The weather is starting to turn (as "winter" here is almost over), and it is beginning to get quite hot and rainy. The five of us that live here have planned an event for the Fiji Day weekend (fiji day is Oct 8th this year) that I am pretty excited about. Just about all of the volunteers here in the north are going to attend (about 16 of us) in teams of two in a two day competition (think the olympics, fiji style, with a few oat sodas thrown in the mix). I should be all kinds of fun, and the first time for many of these people to come up to the city. We have even organized prizes....it'll be great, hopefully i'll have some pictures to share.

Thanks again to everyone that has sent me something recently. Dave in particularly, as i just received a package from him and have yet to get a hold of him to extend my proper thanks. I hope all is well with everyone, if you get a chance shoot me an email and give me an update on what is going on with your lives.... i would hate to come back in a couple years and have no idea what anyone has been doing.

I'll do my best to post back up here soon.....