3 Weeks and Counting…

Hi everybody!

I just got back from a 6-day trip visiting my future Fijian village, and it was absolutely incredible! I took a million pictures, and I will be sure to upload them as soon as I can.


TRAVELING TO VANUA LEVU
So my village is located on Vanua Levu, the second-largest island in Fiji. To get there, I took a 14-hour, overnight boat ride from Suva, the capital city, to Savusavu, the smaller of the only two towns on Vanua Levu. The boat ride to Vanua Levu, which apparently is usually quite pleasant with relatively-clean sleeper bunks located in the “first class cabin” where Peace Corps put us up for this trip, was unfortunately a VERY unpleasant experience. There were 28-not winds, which (according to a ex-merchant-marine in my training class) is considered “unsafe seas” and is 2-nots from international regulations deeming the seas impassable. So, as you can probably imagine, most of my traveling companions and I spent a long and miserable evening on the boat decks, losing our dinners over the side.

THE TOWN
Savusavu, however, is a beautiful little town. It’s a very touristy/yachty place with a picturesque harbor. It mainly consists of one small road with an open-air produce market, several tourist-type shops, a two-part grocery store, a couple little hardware stores and home-goods stores, a bakery, a small breadshop, and several little restaurant/bars. There are currently two Peace Corps volunteers who live in a little house up on the hill above town (with views of the harbor from their veranda), and when they leave in August, a girl from my training class will take over their place. For the next two years, this will be my “re-stocking” town, and this little house will be my Savusavu hub.

A view of the coconut trees lining the road from Savusavu to my village.


Ocean views out the bus window.


Lush, vine-covered landscape surrounding my village.


MY VILLAGE
From Savusavu, my village is a 2 hour, 30 minute bus ride away. The scenery along the mostly-dirt road is pretty amazing. It winds along the Southestern peninsula that juts out from Vanua Levu, and most of the way there are views of turquoise and cobalt blue waters with a white-sand-beach coastline fringed in coconut trees. My village is located on the beach-side of this road, and therefore overlooks one of these beautiful beaches. Many of the homes even have views of the ocean, and the first day I was there (which was a Saturday), some of the local children and I went for a dip in the ocean approximately 50 paces from my future house.


The view from our little beach.


This is where the village children and I went for our dip at low tide.

The village is pretty small. It consists of 12 houses and about 100 people. Each house is pretty big and is home to about one extended family each. The village is pretty clean (in terms of rubbish), and each house has a giant phone-pole looking thing with two solar panels on top to power a single lightbulb inside. There’s not quite enough electricity to have electrical plugs inside the home, so nobody has a refrigerator or a fan (although one house does have a little generator and a television where the kids watch movies at night). Surrounding the houses are lots of pretty flower plants (including some Frangipani trees), plenty of Coconut, Mango, Vundi (like Plantains), and Breadfruit (taste like potatoes when they’re unripe like now, and I haven’t tried them ripe yet) trees. I will even have my own breadfruit and Vundi trees to myself, and I plan to also plant a little vegetable garden next to my house.


This is the church as viewed across the "street" from my little house.

My house is a tiny little wooden house that apparently has been a radio broadcasting center, a village store, and a health supplies dispensary. Right now, it’s essentially a house frame that lies directly across from the village church, and it currently serves as a hang out for the village men after services get out (the ladies congregate on the benches outside the church entrance). They swear to me up and down that the house will be finished before I move there in three weeks, but if it’s not then I will stay with a host family (probably in the chief’s house where I was over the weekend) until it’s ready. Please cross your fingers for me that it gets done—I could really use some private space!


This is my house so far. The phone pole looking thing has two small solar panels on top and is wired to the house. The children and I are standing on the "veranda." As you can see, most of the outside walls are finished, but we're still waiting on the bathroom/shower attachment and the bedroom walls to be finished, among other construction.


THE VILLAGERS
The people in my village are the main reason that I’m so looking forward to moving there. Like I wrote before, the entire village belongs to one Mataqali (family clan), which means that they’re all extremely close. The ladies in the village are known for their weaving, and there are three different types of weaving materials that they grow in the village to make all different types of mats. It looks like incredibly intricate and time consuming work (especially since the women also cook and clean and do all the hand-washing and raise the children), but I’m very excited for them to teach me how to do it! All the men are farmers, and many fish and catch crabs and prawns as well.


My community counterpart (Sereana, the wife of the chief's eldest son) weaving a mat from "Voivoi" reeds inside the chief's living room.


THE YOUTH
There is also an established (church-based) youth group in the village. This consists of 14 individuals (10 boys and 4 girls… 5 now if you count me!) between the ages of 18 and 30. Every Monday night they have a church night to themselves and then they have tea and snacks before an all-night grog session afterwards. On the last Monday of every month, the youth from a neighboring village come together with mine for a joint church/tea/grog session, so I got to participate in that on my last evening there. The great news about this is that there are at least some girls in the village around my age (which is usually not the case in Fijian villages… they either get married and leave the village or they go and school or work in one of the towns or cities—meaning that most villages have a female populations of young girls and then older women who are mothers and grandmothers). Two of the youth girls are married, and two are not, but they are all between the ages of 19 and 26. One of the married girls (who doesn’t have kids yet), married into the village and happens not to be Methodist (she’s Catholic), so that could be really great for me to have a friend who’s not quite as passionate about all the religious fervor.


Me and some of the ladies at a farewell kava session. I'm wearing a lei of Frangiapani flowers that they made for me, and we're all wearing the flowers behind our ears.


A crazy-looking fruit that we made fresh jam from on my last night. I forget what it's called, but it has white flesh, a few black seeds, and is absolutely delicious! The jam tastes and looks sort of like honey, and I'm certain that I've already gained like 5 pounds from the jar they gave me to take back to my host village.


Lusi, the chief's eldest daughter, with one of her Fijian-style pies to sell at the bus stand.


WHAT LIES AHEAD…
So, like I said before, I had a great time this weekend! I went swimming and collected seashells with the children, I walked along the sandy beaches to the local primary school and explored the settlements along the way. I watched the women make mats and bake pies, we made jam, and we had several lengthy, all-night, kava sessions (family, village ladies, youth, and a farewell youth/ladies session for me on the last night). All in all, I am ecstatic about moving to my site. I can’t wait to upload pictures so you can all see it!


A view of the pre-school building at the local school.


Please be advised that I now have a new mailing address:
Melissa Goldman
P.O. Box 824
Savusavu, Fiji Islands
South Pacific

I will be moving permanently in three-weeks time, and from there on out I will be checking my mail/email approximately once every two weeks. I greatly enjoy hearing from you all, and I hope that you’re all liking my blog so far. Please let me know if you have any suggestions of topics you would like me to cover in my future posts. Otherwise, I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing.

Thanks for all of your support. I miss you all!
Melissa