Sorry forgot...

I forgot when I was on here the other day to say that I got a cell phone a few days ago; making it quite easy to get a hold of me phone wise if you are so inclined. So, if you would like the number drop me an email/post and I will forward it on to you (sorry, posting my number on a public blog doesn't sound like a great idea to me....... also, if you email me please identify yourself as some of those email addresses out there are a bit cryptic). If you have scype you can call me for something ridiculously cheap like 10 cents a minute, and i hear that text rates aren't too bad (i'm working on a scam for people from the states to be able to text me for free, and hopefully i'll have more info on that by the end of the week).

cheers,

Aric

Bula sia from the friendly north

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

Guess Where.....

Sorry for not getting to a computer recently, but aside from our normal busy schedule I have been traveling quite a bit...most notebly to my site for the next two years! So, I have stationed in the Macuata provincial office working with their qoliqoli cakavata (fisheries committee). The provincial office is in Labasa (pronounced lambasa), which is that largest "city" on Vanua Levu (Fiji's second largest island in the north). The city is located on the northern side of the island adjacent to the 3rd lagest barrier reef in the world. I visit the site this week, and it seems pretty nice. It is a modest Fijian town, which luckly (in my mind) does not see many tourists. I was initially bummed becuase I was hopping not to be placed in a larger city, but the work should make up for it. I will be working with the council to help better manage the marine protected areas (MPAs) in the province. The province consists of about 106 villages, of which the majpority have some sort of MPA set up. So, I will be traveling to those villages that have them set up and working with them to not pouch in the restricted area and helping them to survey and assess the results from the instution of the area. In the villages that do not have an MPA, we will be working with them to raise awareness and possibly get them to set one up. It sounds really great so far, and I really dig the traveling aspect of the position. Although I had not hoped to be in a city, there are a few perks: The are several other volunteers in the area (8 or so), there is very good access to internet and phone facilities (i think i will actually have a cell phone), and there is plenty reasonably priced and nutricious food in the area (think i might be able to go back to being a vegetarian). The northern island is a beautiful place, with ample diving (all kinds of reefs), hiking (there are mountains less than a kilometer from the ocean), and other recreational activities; as such I am pretty pumped to get up there and start exploring.

If, by lovely chance, you have a package in your hands just waiting to ship of to the fiji islands, please do not until i give you an updated address. I have it, but of course forgot to bring it to the computer facility; so since mail takes roughly 2 weeks to get here I would not receive it at my present address (no worries if you just sent something, the peace corps will forward it along, it will just take awhile). We have some training and a few exams and such the next couple weeks and will all be shipping off net thursday (your wens maybe, depending on which side of the world you live on) July 26th.

Otherwise all is going well, just trying to make it through the homestretch of training and move on to my site. Thanks for the letters, rents and jessica i received yours yesterday. I'll try to write back here as soon as I can.

Cheers,

Aric

Ok, not much time today so i'll have to make it quick, and hopefully i can make up for it by posting a few pics. From the top: my host family; my host village group and out trainer; my family's house (the greener one), and sunrise out infront of the village. I hope to get a few more up in the next weeks. Been a busy last couple weeks. I spent last weekend visiting another volunteer's site and meandering around Suva. Had some great food, drank a few beers, and generally had a great time. I was able to get out snorkeling for the first time last week, which was nice. I would have expected to be out much more often, living on the water and all, but the reef is a good 3/4 of a mile off shore and we have not have a whole lot of down time as of late. The reef sits at the mouth of a river, and as such is a bit overrun with algae (from nutrient runoff) and is a bit sedimented; but it was still great to finally get out there. Other than that, it has just been a lot of language classes in the mornings, and technical environmental trainings in the afternoons. Our site announcement day is now 5 days away, so hopefully my next post will have all kinds of great information about my futer plans here.

Alright, some have emailed my and such for an address. My temporary one is:

Aric Bickel

Peace Corps Fiji

Private Mail Bag

24 St Fort st

Suva, Fiji Islands

The postal service here is a bit unreliable, so expect 2 -3 weeks for arrival. If sending a box or other not lettered package, i suggest writing "Jesus please watch over this package" in red sharpy marker accompantied by several crosses. Doing this helps ensure that it will not be broken into during transit.

Sorry I havent sent out more personal emails, I have unfortunately not had a lot of time to take care of some of these items; so excuse me if i use this space to send a couple quick messages:

Dave: thanks for the email, all kinds of excited about josh's new album; am eagerly anticipation

Howard: hilarious that you saw playmaker; not surprised you met a girl, i put the word out i was leaving and that you were available, and I can gaurante that kid has nicer sulu legs tha I do.

Jessica: sorry, haven't been able to get a phone call out yet, try to do so soon.

Dov: what was the hebrew term some of you israeli friends used over the wedding weekend for being allowed to break kosher (random, but it came up in conversation out here)?

Mom: I have tried calling you twice in the mornings to only get a busy signal, try keep the lines open between 6-7am for the next few days.

All: Thanks for all the posts, it's great hearing from everyone and is always a nice surprise when i get on here.

Hope all is well bak in the states (or where ever it is you're reading this from) and hopefully I will be able to get back here next week.

cheers,

Aric

Planning for a site visit

To start: The information, views, and opinions listed in this blog are not those of the Peace Corps, and should not be read as such.

Alright, so it seems like for the time being i should be able to make it to internet access on the weekends (that is atleast until I leave for my perminent site in August). It has been an excellent week. Aside from the language classes, we visited a current volunteers site on Tues, Namatakua village (which is situated along the Queens Road in southern Viti Levu). There we went through several technical seminars on building composting toilets, starting village recycling programs, and mitigating piggery wastes in a village setting. Thursday we had a joint session with all of the currently training volunteers in a nearby village (Daku). Following the training seminars the village youth preformed a traditional meke (or dance) for us; which was immedietely followed by a decent amount of kava drinking and dancing (the village had an extremely talented band; i swear every fijin can play an instrument and sing). On Friday we visited an adjacent village to mine (Monera[sp?]) for a mangrove seminar in preparation for a workshop on monday on reforesting harvested mangrove areas. This morning (our saturday), they dropped (in small groups) in Suva where we were given 14 or so destination and objectives that we had to acheive on our own. It was relatively interesting using the language to find out bus fares and stops and other necessary information to complete the assigned tasks. The final destination was a pizza place here, where peace corps purchased lunch. It was the first bit of dairy/american food I've had since leaving; and I'd have to say it was glorious.
As Mary alluded, several of the men in the gourp, including myself, have entered into a facial hair growing contest in preparation for our site assignment day (July 4th). Little did they know they were going up against a ringer, and I fully expect to look zz-topish by then. Otherwise, things are still going very well. Next week i will be traveling to nausori to spend the weekend at a current volunteers site; the idea being to get an idea of what it will be like at our own site. Between this, and the mangrove planting on monday it should be a good week, and I should have a bit more two write about next weekend.
My apologies, I have been having difficulty accessing my email accounts on this computer, so if i don't get back to you this week don't take it personally.... I will surely respond as soon as i can.

cheers,

Aric

p.s. Jessica i got your card on thurs, thank you.

First few weeks

Alright, so I have finally been able to make it to a computer that allows me access the the blog site here. It feels like a lot of time has passed since I left, so it's hard to know where to start. Everything is going very well. Upon arrival in Fiji, we spent 3 days in Nadavi, which is just a bit North of Suva (the capital city); these days consisted mainly of general orienatation and some intitial language training. On the Saturday after arriving, we were sent of to our host villages in small groups. There are 30 of us in my training group split between 6 villages; about half are environmental volunteers, the opther half are health volunteers. As it currently stands, there are five of us in my village; Kiova, which is a small coastal village of about 200 people about an hour and a half from Suva. I have been placed with a fitting host family; my host father is a diver and fisherman who has four sons around my age. Staying in the village has been lovely; the sense of community within the village is inspiring and the people have been overly welcoming and generous. The Peace Corps has been keeping us pretty busy with language training and technical seminars, but in my free time I have been able to run just about every day and fit in a few games of touch rugby (rugby is huige here). I'm still unsure as to where I will be placed after the three months of trains; currently we are scheduled to to find out on July 4th, and as you can imagine I am eagerly anticipating that day. Unfortunately my internet time is a bit limited, so cannot as yet go in to much detail; but suffice to say that I am have a wonderful time, the people are great, and I am highly looking forward to getting out there and working. I will write again as soon as possible, and I will try to get some pictures up soon.

Cheers.

p.s. For those who have inquired, I have made my first sulu purchase (a sulu is the professional garment worn by men in Fiji that resembles a skirt), and i will certainly get some picture of me rocking the sulu as soon as possible.

Test

Just a quick test post; I'm still in the packing process. I leave for LA on Sunday (the 20th) and leave for Fiji on Tuesday morning, so I will try to get something more substantial up here next week.

Cheers,

Aric