Party Ni Wai (Village Water Filter Dedication Party)

Well my friends, here I am: 22 months into my Peace Corps service in Fiji Islands. I've had a lot of ups, and a lot of downs. This blog post is about the completion of my biggest project: a water filtration system we installed on the village water source.

Over the last year-and-a-half, I helped the village:

- form a steady Water Committee,

- make contacts with an Engineer from the local Rotary Club,

- write a Grant application for project funds,

- design and implement usage tests to determine the scale of the project,

- create and implement a fundraising plan for our portion of the financial contribution,

- schedule and complete construction,

- repair endless leaks and burst pipes causing water shortages in the village,

- negotiate the challenges of working with (and for) project partners who lacked an understanding of Fijian cultural elements that delayed project completion

- educate it's people about water conservation,

- and, finally, celebrate a job well done!

oh yeah, and I did all this while it was hot as s*@#!

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APPROACHING THE BIG CELEBRATION...

Once village water consumption and the leaks in our aging distribution system were brought under control, the Water Committee and I finally scheduled a party during which an official "hand-over" of the water filter system from the grant-managers to the community would occur. This took place on Saturday, April 11, 2011.

On a side note: here I am with my little namesake (Etuate Goldman Bari, otherwise known to his family as "Mr. Goldman). Isn't he getting so chubby and precious!?

During the week leading up to the project, Ilimo, the Nanuca Village Water Committee's leader and I worked on a surprise party favor. A nearby hotel, the Koro Sun Resort, donated about 100 used water bottles that Ilimo and I peeled the labels off of, cleaned, and taped our own labels onto.

The labels we designed read:

[Rotary International "Hybrid-Filtered Water [Peace Corps

Logo] Nanuca Cakaudrove" Logo]

The bottles were a surprise to everyone in the village, and also to our Rotary Club project partners...

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DAY-OF PARTY PREP

Saturday, April 11, 2011

The ladies from the Village Water Committee got up at 6am on the day of the party. They hiked to the filter site and decorated the structure with cloth and masi fabric (actually, hand-made and hand-painted fabric that Ilimo wore on his wedding day). The idea was that when we cut the ribbon and officially opened the filters, the structure would be "revealed" to guests.

I love this picture. Sotia (Ilimo's Mom), and Mesi (the only female member of our Water Committee) pose with the finished decorations.

Here Ilimo shows off a sign from the Sky Juice Foundation. "Sky Juice" is the company that manufactures the micro-filter units that clean all the bacteria out of our village water.

Click on the link below to see an

Article on the filter manufacturer's website about the Nanuca system.

Now that the system is FINALLY complete, our Rotary Partners came and put professional-looking labels on the piping structure.

While the ladies decorated, some of the village girls and I filled the bottles with our freshly filtered water.

Here are the bottles we filled.

If you can zoom in, maybe you can see the label?

BACK AT THE VILLAGE... all non-Water Committee community members were busy with other preparations.

Here one group of ladies prepares 80 kgs of fresh fish. They made boiled fish and miti (a coconut cream, lemon juice, garlic, onion, and chili pepper sauce), fried fish, curried fish, fish kokoda (like spanish ceviche), smoked fish in greens and coconut milk, etc.

While some ladies cooked, others were in charge of making beautiful salusalu (ceremonial garlands) for the event's guests of honor.

While the women were busy elsewhere, it was a man's job to build a Lovo (traditional underground oven). To do this, they essentially dig a hole, make a fire and heat a bunch of rocks inside, put in the peeled dalo (taro root), and cover it with dalo leaves.

While the adults were all busy at their stations, the young women were sent to collect flowers and other colorful plants with which to decorate the vatunuloa (festival shed)--of which there were 2, one in the village for eating and ceremony, and another at the filter site for speeches and technical demonstrations.

Here I am decorating the shed at the water filter site.

Meanwhile, Ilimo, the young man charged with coordinating of all this activity was hard at work ironing out the details of the big day.

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THE WATER FILTER DEDICATION PARTY

April 9, 2011 - Nanuca Village, Fiji

In honor of the event, the village finally has a sign on their unremarkable turnoff from the "Hibiscus Highway" dirt road that leads to Savusavu Town.

Once the guests arrived, a formal isevusevu was made. At an event such as this, instead of offering a dried bundle of yaqona (kava) root, the offering consists of a freshly harvested bundle of one entire plant. This is the first one of its kind I have witnessed since being in Fiji.

After some formal Fijian traditional ceremony (including a VERY long prayer by an important church official from our province), all the guests who could cram themselves into the guest's pickup trucks rode up to the filter site.

The party favor table was a HUGE hit. Not-surprisingly, we quickly ran out of bottles to give away.

Here, the crowd watches as speeches are made.

I pose with a party favor.

(Don't worry Mom and Dad, I snagged one for each of you)

Then, the "Commissioner Northern," a very important government official (who can be thought of a Governor of the Northern Division of Fiji) cut the ribbon and officially "opened" the water filters for use.

(We had been unofficially been drinking the clean water down in the village for approximately 8 months...)

Then it was my turn to make a speech. Instead of doing something long and boring (I hope), I called out the shy members of the Village Water Committee and brought them in front of the guests for some recognition. I spoke about their tremendous achievement with this project, and I tried to highlight their importance in the project process.

Then, Ilimo and the Rotary Club Engineer moved inside the filter gates with some government officials to give a technical demonstration of each filter component.

BACK IN THE VILLAGE after the speeches, the Rotary Club President and our Village Chief signed the "hand-over" agreement that formally closed the Grant and initiated the village as owners-in-full of the system.

As one last thing before dinner, I surprised the project's leaders with some presents. For Ilimo and Maika (the water filter tower's carpenter), I gave photo albums of memorable pictures from throughout their involvement in the project. The Rotary Club guys got electronic discs of pictures.

Then it was time to feast! Here are Sally, Brian, Monte and Ben, the PCVs who came to the party to support me and the village.

I had to squeeze in a picture of Ilimo and I in our kala vata outfits. Sally and Brian (a married couple of PCVs who are stationed in a nearby village) lent us matching outfits for the celebration.

When the whole thing was over, it was clear that the entire village was in a happy and celebratory mood. Here, the young women in charge of washing hundreds of dishes were smiling and joking around while they worked.

Some of the kids and the ladies sit down and relax for the first time all day!

Then, some women from the village's nextdoor neighbors (Kasavu Settlement) performed a meke (traditional Fijian dance) for the party guests. Keeping with tradition, I harassed them by rubbing baby powder all over their faces and hair while they performed.

It's always fun when usually-reserved ladies from the village get up to dance along with the meke. As it is officially tabu (prohibited) in Methodist villages such as mine to dance, the ladies knew they could only get away with it during this ceremony. They took full advantage, and it was hilarious.

Finally, all the kai valagi (white people and out-of-community guests) cleared out, and it was time to break out the guitars and drink some yaqona (kava).

I got drunk with them as a sign of solidarity. I can hardly believe that the project is finally over--and it was a success!

THANK YOU SO MUCH to my friends and family for all of your support during this very rocky patch of my PCV service. I wouldn't have made it without you.

I love you all.

xx

Milika

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MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE EVENT

Can you believe it?? We're almost famous!

Fiji Times Newspaper Article, April 11, 2o11 - "Clean Water At Last"

Click on the link below to see an

Article on the filter manufacturer's website about the Nanuca system.