Au Sega Ni Kila

("Au Sega Ni Kila" literally means "I don't understand," and so far, it's one of my most useful Fijian phrases)

Ni Sa Bula everyone!
I am writing today from Nausori again, a little town on the Southeastern side of Viti Levu, Fiji. I have finally moved in with my host family, and so far everything is going great!
MY TOWN:I am located in a village (population ~300) that is considered one of the biggest in the Bau province (it even has its own school!). It is very nice compared to where most of my fellow trainees are located. For example, there are concrete footpaths (meaning only wide enough to walk single-file) leading almost everywhere that keep us dry from the mud (it rains a lot in the tropics)! I am also very lucky to have 7 other volunteers with me in the village for company and language lessons every day.

MY HOST FAMILY:My family consists of a mother (Manaini) and a father (Eroni) who like me to call them "Nana" and "Tata." They are amazingly cute and nice, and they already tell me they will love me forever as one of their own children. They are a little bit older, and so my house is more mellow than some others who are constantly surrounded by excited young children. Luckily, all of our neighbors are extended family members and there are lots of cute kids who come and play with me but then leave to make lots of noise in their own houses at night! Although my host Mom does not speak English, most of the kids do. A three-year-old brother-cousin of mine even speaks a little, which really makes me feel great about my own language skills at this ripe old age!

MY HOUSE:Mine is a four bedroom wooden house in which I have my own bedroom with a double bed, a desk, a small dresser and an almost full length mirror. The outside is painted bright green and the inside is one of my favorite colors--turquoise blue. There's a small porch that my Nana and Tata like to hang out on out front as well, and yesterday Nana planted a really cute little flower garden out front. It has full-time electricity and part-time (cold) running water (they shut it off between 6pm and 5am to conserve for the region), so I really can't complain at this point about the amenities. There is a slight mosquito problem and I have seen a mouse or two lurking in the rafters, but that just reminds me to apply bug spray 24/7 and to get a cat when I have my own place!

MY ROUTINE
At the moment, I've got a pretty good routine going. Some of the other volunteers and I wake up in the morning to work out on the school's rugby field (this morning some of my sister-cousins who came to watch us even participated at the end), and then I have a shower and a hot breakfast with coffee before heading to language class. The afternoons are filled with lots of Peace Corps activities, but I am always home by 6pm to wash up and have a short prayer with my family before dinner. On Wednesdays, my whole training class comes into Nausori, the nearby town (with this great Internet cafe!) for some group lessons, and on Wednesday nights my whole extended family has a private prayer session for an hour followed by an evening around the Kava bowl. Sunday is a day of rest and a day for going to church, so I guess that's when I'll catch up on some sleep from my busy routine. Also, I just got a cell phone, and that's probably the best time for me to receive your calls.*


Well, it's getting late and I should go catch the bus back to my village. I'm sorry to say that once again I've run out of time to post pictures. Although, because of "kerekere" (a local custom that's almost literally like, "what's mine is yours") I haven't busted out my camera in the village yet, so you're not missing out on that much.

I miss you all dearly and I hope everything is going well at home. Please keep me in your thoughts.

xoxo
Melissa



*A note about security: Unfortunately I cannot disclose my village's name nor my cell phone number in this forum for security reasons (the "Coconut Wireless," as we call it, moves surprisingly fast), but please contact me by e-mail if you would like that information and I would be happy to provide it.

Sega Ne Lega

Sega Ne Lega (pronounced 'senga ne lenga') means 'no worries.'

Bula Vinaka everyone!
Welcome, and thank you for visiting my blog.

It is currently my third day in-country, and everything so far is going great! After almost 40 hours of flying, my training class arrived at Nadi (prounounced 'nandi') airport on the West Coast of Viti Levu (the big island), Fiji. After sharing some fresh Fiji water and fruit with some of our administrative training staff and a few currently serving volunteers at the airport, we took a six-hour bus journey East to our training compound which is located in Nadave, just outside of a town called Nausori.

A few highlights of the bus trip included our first glimpse of the Fijian landscape. As you can see from the picture, EVERYTHING is green in Fiji! Even the trees are covered so thickly with green leafy vines that it's almost impossible to tell what they are!

Since then, we have been busy with various meetings and language classes to prepare us for our homestays that will begin in two days (Monday). Although I still do not yet know what village I will be placed in for the nine weeks of PST (pre-service training) (I will find out tomorrow), I do know that I will be placed in a Fijian village (as opposed to an Indo-Fijian settlement) with approximately five other Health Promotion volunteers. I am both excited and nervous to meet my host family and to get started with the meat of training!

Right now, the training compound is somewhat like a summer camp. We are living in beautiful Bure (Fijian huts) outfitted with electricity and outhouses with (cold) showers, and we have three meals of Dalo (sliced Tarro root) and lots of Curry served daily in addition to two tea breaks. A handful of the girls and I have been waking up early to excercise in the mornings before breakfast, and although we must wear ankle length skirts during out work outs, we are having a great time. This morning we jogged under a beautiful sunrise--this truly is paradise! Hopefully, I will be able to avo id the PST-15 that all the currently serving female volunteers swear we will gain over the next few months, but somehow with all the amazing fruits and sweets, I don't see this happening.


Also a notable part of this training compound stay was the Sevusevu (Kava ceremony) that we presented to the school's managers when we first arrived. This is done in Fijian culture upon entering any new village when the goal is to accomplish some type of work. It consists of offering the Yaqona plant (which is where Kava comes from), and usually is followed by participation in a practice that I have come to informally refer to as a "Grog Session." (FYI: Kava/Yaqona/Grog is scientifically known as the "Pepper Methysticum" plant, and when the root portion is pounded into a powder-type substance, mixed with water and consumed (from half-coconut-shells), it is found to have mind-altering properties. More on that later...

Also, I've had my first experience hand-washing laundry. That was quite a feat!!

Luckily, the time change here is technically 19 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time, but if it's easier just think of us as 5 hours earlier. That makes us 8 hours earlier than the East Coast, but it's a day ahead here, of course.

Anyway, I miss you all dearly and I hope to start receiving letters from you soon! Also, please note that packages/padded envelopes sent during my first six months of service will have duty taxes paid for by the Peace Corps, so take advantage of that now! Also, I've been told that the customs agents will asign any value they want to the items you all send, so please do your best to (under)estimate the values and include copies of any and all invoices with the goods.

Sota Tale (talk to you later)!

XOXO
Melissa Lailai
("Little Melissa")

"Staging"

BULA (hello) everyone!

Well, I am here at my staging event in Los Angeles, CA, and I have finally met all of the individuals in my Fiji training class. I can say that my anxieties have been much relieved since yesterday as for the first time, I am sitting in a room full of people who don't need any explanations about what I am doing and who have all chosen to be here. This is very exciting for me.

I understand that many of you are curious about the people I will be serving with and about the things we've learned here at orientation, BUT, I have been informed that it poses a safety risk to everyone here to reveal information about them. For that reason, I have taken down my previous post with some basic information about my group, and I have emailed it to some of you instead. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Additionally, it is VERY important that I remain politically neutral during my service for a variety of reasons. Mostly, all of our safety could be jeopardized, even by the most innocent-seeming comment. For that reason, I will never write about this information.

A few things I learned at Staging that should be okay to share on this public forum are:
- I will arrive in country on Thursday morning.
- We will move in with our host families on May 25th.
- We will be trainees until the swearing in ceremony on June 23rd, so technically none of us are "Peace Corps Volunteers" yet.
- I have been told that most volunteers in Fiji DO have cell phones (that we will buy in country)!
- Mine was not the longest wait time between nomination for the Pacific region and departure for Fiji--one girl has been waiting over two years!

Well, that's all for now. I have to go zip up all my bags and meet the bus to LAX in the lobby. I should be in Fiji within 36 hours!

Wish me luck.

xx Melissa

The Peace Corps' Mission

The Peace Corps was established in 1961 to promote world peace and friendship through the service of American Volunteers abroad. In adapting to changing needs around the world, the Peace Corps remains guided by its founding mission--to help the people of developing countries meet their basic needs and to help promote mutual understanding among Americans and people from other cultures. More than 165,000 Americans have furthered these goals through service in the Peace Corps for over 40 years and in 135 countries.