Holi!

Every year, thousands of Hindus around the world participate in a festival called Holi. The festival has two main purposes. It celebrates the beginning of the new spring season. Originally, it was a festival that commemorated good harvests and the fertile land. Hindus believe it is a time for enjoying spring’s abundant colors and saying farewell to winter. During this event, participants hold a bonfire, celebrate with music and dancing, and send their greetings and good luck to one another by throwing colored powder. Holi is known also a time for loosening social restrictions normally associated with caste, sex, status and age. Together, the rich and poor, women and men, enjoy each other’s presence on this day. No one expects polite behavior; as a result, the atmosphere is filled with excitement, fun and joy.

It also has a religious purpose commemorating events present in Hindu mythology. The legend commemorated by the festival of Holi involves an evil king named Hiranyakashipu. He forbade his son Prahlad from worshipping Vishnu, but Radhu continued to do offer prayers to the god. Getting angry with his son, Hiranyakashipu challenged Prahlad to sit on a pyre with his wicked aunt Holika who was believed to be immune to fire. (In an alternate version, Holika put herself and Prahlad on the fire on orders from her brother.)

Prahlad accepted the challenge and prayed to Vishnu to keep him safe. When the fire started, everyone watched in amazement as Holika was burnt to death, while Prahlad survived without a scar to show for it. The burning of Holika is celebrated as Holi. According to some accounts, Holika begged Prahlad for forgiveness before her demise, and he decreed that she would be remembered every year at Holi.

An alternative account of the basis of the holiday is associated with a legend involving Lord Shiva, one of the major Hindu gods. Shiva is known for his meditative nature and his many hours spent in solitude and deep meditation. Madana, the God of love, decided to test his resolve and appeared to Shiva in the form of a beautiful nymph. But Shiva recognized Madana and became very angry. In a fit of rage he shot fire out of his third eye and reduced her to ashes. This is sometimes given as the basis of Holi’s bonfire.

The festival of Holi is also associated with the enduring love between Lord Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu) and Radha, and Krishna in general. According to legend, the young Krishna complained to his mother Yashoda about why Radha was so fair and he so dark. Yashoda advised him to apply colour on Radha’s face and see how her complexion would change. Because of this associated with Krishna, Holi is extended over a longer period in Vrindavan and Mathura, two cities with which Krishna is closely affiliated.

In Fiji, there is a large Hindi population. This year I attended a Holi festival with a few friends at the nearby University of South Pacific (USP) campus hosted by the Indian Students Association. Holi was one of the Hindi celebrations I was most looking forward to because it looked like the most fun. The colored paint, the Hindi dancing and all of the sweet treats that are passed around during Holi makes this one of my favorite celebrations!

Happy Holi!

Water, Water, Everywhere!

World Water Day has been observed on March 22 since 1993 as declared by the United National General Assembly. The UN and its member nations devote this day to implementing UN recommendations and promoting activities within countries regarding the world’s water resources. Since its inception in 1993, UN-Water has been responsible to selecting the theme. Last year’s theme was Water and Food Security: The World is Thirsty Because We Are Hungry coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN. Other themes in years past have been Clean Water for a Healthy World (2010), Water for Future (2003) and Groundwater-The Invisible Resource (1998). This year the theme is International Year for Water Cooperation, which recognizes that cooperation is essential to address the different needs and priorities regarding water as a resource. Promoting water cooperation implies an interdisciplinary approach bringing cultural, educational and scientific factors as well as religious, ethical, social, political, legal, institutional and economic dimensions.

3/22/13

Fiji National World Water Day!

On Friday, March 22 national celebrations for World Water Day were held in Syria Park in Nausori, a sizeable town outside of Suva. The program focused on staying true to the global theme of water cooperation by including all of the major players. Those in attendance included Ministers from top government organizations, the directors from conversation organizations, lecturers from USP (University of South Pacific), CEOs of water companies, diplomats, international organizations, and students from 9 primary and secondary schools in the area. The day began with the students walking from Nausori Primary School to Syria Park accompanied by the Police Band. When they made their arrival at the park the day-long actvities began celebrating the partnership it takes to promote the importance of clean water.

How did I get involved in all of this? While planning the events for my health center’s Water Day I happened to get in touch with the Water Authority of Fiji thinking that since they do community education about water purification it would be great if they could come out to our community event. After a series of diverted calls I finally got in touch with Elenoa, the facilitator of these types of outreach. We got to talking and by the event of our conversation she had agreed to help arrange someone to come our to our event and also invited me to come and help out with the national World Water Day festivities. After a few weeks of assisting with planning I was assigned to coordinate the health component for the national event. The Minsitry of Health provided support through their Department of Environmental Services and I worked with the SDMO (Sub-Divisional Medical Officer) in Nausori to assign a team of nurses to come out to the event to do health assessments.

Police Band leading in the students

Parade of students

Team of nurses before doing health assessments

The nurses did blood pressure, blood sugar, height and weight assessments on individual attendees

The water testing apparatus brought by the Ministry of Health’s Department of Environmental Services used to test for impurities in water

The Department of Education held a school contest for students to show their ideas of ways to improve water processing in their communities. The schools that participated was Vunimono Santan Primary School, Delkusha Boys Primary School and Saraswati College Secondary School. The artwork was judged by The Ministry of Education and LWRM There were some really impressive submissions, but of course, there can only be one winner. Here it is:

The winner!

Hanging with Reagan and some of the students

3/23/13

Makoi Health Center World Water Day!

I mentioned in my previous post how the idea to participate with World Water Day began at my health center, but just to recap, my Sister-in-Charge had an inspired idea to have a walk for health in the community surrounding our health center to promote physical activity. Since she wanted to have the event in March and World Water Day was coming up I suggested to bled the two events together to have one mammoth World Water Day Walk for Health event (say that 5 times fast!). We decided to have it in the Wakanisila settlement near the health center. Just to explain, there has been a lot of rural-to-urban drift for various reasons over the past few years. Since there isn’t enough rural housing to accommodate people, settlements have developed near urban centers (in this case, near Suva). These settlements have community structures similar to villages where the chief, the turaga ni koro (similar to a village mayor), the village nurse, and the vakatawa (pastor) who officiate over the people in the settlements. In planning for this event, we had to coordinate will all of these people to get approval to have the event in the community hall. We also had to write a lengthy proposal requesting funds from the Ministry of Health and get permits from the Valelevu City Council and the Nabua Police headquarters to have the walk/event. This process was extremely grueling and time-intensive. Although we started a month in advance there was still so much to do that most days for me were filled with running errands or making contacts in order to have a successful event. It was definitely a learning process!

On the day of the event, my Sister-in-Charge and I arrived at the community hall around 5am to setup. We had the 4km walk scheduled for 7:30am to be followed by a light snack, health assessments, craft activities for children and water sanitation/purification presentations from the Water Authority of Fiji and Rotary Pacific.

All together, now!

During the 4km walk

Before the walk I led an aerobics class, after the walk we had cool down

While the adults were listening to the presentations from WAF and Rotary Pacific, I worked on a craft project with the kids! I did a presentation about the sources of clean water and what we can each do to purify our water. Afterwards, they decorated a piece of paper in the shape of a water droplet with ideas they had about how to purify water. We took each droplet, along with a few others that we painted blue a couple days before, and hung them from the ceiling to create a hanging mural that looked like big raindrops falling. It took up about a fifth of the ceiling in the community hall and was really cool to see the kids getting involved.

Working on the craft project

A decorated raindrop

Another decorated raindrop

3/24/13

Attended church in the Wakanisila settlement. At the World Water Day event the vakatawa (pastor) and I had a really great conversation about Fijian life vs. American life, his family and work in the settlement and mine at Makoi Health Center. He has been a pastor for his entire career, but he had a really interesting perspective on culture in Fiji. Since they were having a Palm Sunday service at the church he invited me to attend. His church is a large one with over 500 members of adults, youth and children.

After church service his family was very kind and invited me to have tea and lunch with them. While we were waiting for the meal to be prepared we conversed about life back in the states. He caught me off guard by asking about race relations back home. Before this, the only time I’ve had an in depth conversation about race in America was with my momo (uncle) back in Sawakasa. My momo served in the Fijian army and had traveled around the world at times working side by side with African Americans from the US Army. So, having this conversation about race with the vakatawa was insightful because it came from a completely different perspective. Different yet interesting. After that we spoke about culture and race relations here in Fiji between the Fijians and Indo-Fijians. Understandably, this was a casual discussion between two people coming from opposite sides of the world, but it was a breath of fresh air to be able to have such an engaging conversation.

For lunch we had dalo, tinned corned beef and chicken noodle soup with Tang juice. After lunch his daughter, wife and I sat on their veranda overlooking the settlement and chatted. It was a pleasure getting to know them. I hope to spend more time in the settlement. Here’s a picture of him and his lovely family.

The vakatawa and his family

Hope everyone is well back home and enjoyed their Palm Sunday and Easter!

Quick Post

3/5/13

Health outreach in Lagi Lagi Community Hall, a small community near Makoi

3/9/13

The sunset from Macdonalds Beach Cottages in Nananu-i-Ra, northern Fiji

Spent the weekend celebrating a fellow volunteer’s birthday at a small resort in northern Fiji. We spent the days swimming, reading, playing beach rugby/American football and enjoying the beautiful weather. The sunsets up there are breathtaking. The picture above hasn’t been photoshopped or edited in any way. It’s just that stunning.

3/13/13

My first week back from IST I was sitting in the nurses office having a conversation with Mere, my Sister-in-Charge. We were talking about what she had in mind for the next few months at work when her face lit up with an idea. “Let’s have a walk for health!” I laughed and said, “Sure, let’s do it!” We spent the next hour brainstorming ideas trying to come up with workable ways we could get it going. We decided to include the global World Water Day (Friday, March 22) into our walk for health. Now, about a month later we have a 4km walk for health planned including a half-day long World Water Day event scheduled for Saturday, March 23. We will have the zone nurses from the health center at the event doing blood pressure/blood sugar/diabetes/nutrition assessments. Some national organizations will be coming out to do presenations about the health benefits of water sanitation and water conservation. We’ll have activites for the kiddies and I’m even doing a Zumba exercise class to warm up for our walk. The past few weeks of planning have been grueling. I’ve been attending meetings with counterparts and making contacts. Mere and I have been writing the proposal for the event to ask the Ministry of Health for funding. I’ve even joined with the national World Water Day event committee here in Fiji to do a short radio spot on Gold FM advertising our event and stating the health benefits of water sanitation. I’m hoping this event will be a great asset to the community. I’ll make a post about it after the event takes place next Saturday!

3/15/13

Last month Josie, of my favorite coworkers, had a beautiful baby girl. I can remember my first day of work back in November I didn’t know anyone in the health center but Josie and I hit it off right away. We would spend time sitting around the health center talking about life in Fiji, relationships, family, and what we dreamed of doing in the future. After work we would go to downtown Suva, bop around getting a bite to eat or browsing through the mall. Although she was going into the third trimester of her pregnancy she always had a bright, bubbly, sassy yet sweet and talkative personality. She reminds me a lot of my sister back home actually Around Jan Josie started having complications with her pregnancy. She was experiencing painful swelling in her arms and legs which caused her to make frequent trips to CWM, the major divisional hospital in Suva. I would go with her for some of her clinic visits to give moral support. Healthcare being what it is in Fiji, we would arrive for clinic hours on time yet wait hours to see the doctor. Then, when the doctor came around to do his assessment he would rush through it and wasn’t very communicative. There was always a line of other pregnant women every one of whom seemed just as tired, restless and irritable as we were.  When I came back from IST in mid-Feb I called her and she told me with excitement that she had given birth to baby Abigail, a beautiful and healthy little blessing. She stopped by the health center today for the baby’s check-up.

We also had our first breastfeeding clinic at the health center.

The clinic included first time mothers and the MCH (maternal/child health) clinic nurses. We spent all day with the mothers teaching them about the importance of breastfeeding, the benefits for mom and baby, proper positioning, latching, counseling on the mother’s physical and mental wellbeing and provided some solutions to problems the mother’s were having with expressing milk. It’s extremely important for mothers to continue breastfeeding for the first 6 months and beyond. We’re working on having the breastfeeding clinic twice per month. I’m also currently working on a project to make the health center a breastfeeding-friendly health center, part of the WHO/UNICEF global initiative. More on that later. I’m just glad our clinic was well-attended and had a positive impact for these mothers.

3/16/13

“For what it’s worth it’s never too late (or too early) to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same- there are no rules to this thing. You can make the best or the worst of it. (I hope you make the best of it.) I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live the life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not I hope you have the strength to start all over.”

 

This quotation resounds so strongly in my heart and mind. Although I’m having an amazing experience here in Fiji, there are definitely times when I miss my family, friends, and life back home. This past week I had a Come to Jesus Moment (as my friend Reagan calls them) about how my experience here in Fiji is going. There have been some high points thus far relating to work and weekend trips to nearby resorts/beaches. But, there has been some really low points as well. I’ve been feeling unhappy and disillusioned with the gap between what I thought my Peace Corps experience would be compared to what it is. I live in a city so there is limited community/village interaction. To get the village experience I travel back to my host family, but I almost wish I lived in a more permament village or semi-rural environment instead of the urban one I currently inhabit. My work schedule is very structured, which sounds normal by Western standards but is actually atypical for a Peace Corps volunteer. My commute to work is about 2 1/2 hours each day. I haven’t been using my Fijian language skills so I feel apart from Fijians in many ways since using the language is a great way to connect with them. I’m struggling to remain connected and updated with people back home. I came to the sudden realization the other night while having an emotional conversation with a friend that I have become stagnant in my personal growth. Somewhere along the way I stopped evolving and actually started regressing back to the stressed out, time-mongering person I was back home. I keep thinking: What is the point of being in a new environment going through this new experience if I’m taking on similar stresses as I did back in the States? To boot I started becoming unhappy with being here in Fiji. It all came to a head this past Friday when I had a conversation with my mom about returning home. While rethinking my committment I remembered the quote above and realized that I need to stop. Go back to the beginning. Remind myself of my original motivations. And start over. I didn’t come to Fiji to stress out. I didn’t come to Fiji to be unhappy. I came to have an adventure. To learn and actually be mentally, spiritually and emotionally present in every day. I have to start over. So, I’ve packed up a couple of bags of personal items and I’m going to spend the next few weeks doing just that. One of my coworkers has invited me to stay at her house for the next week. It’s going to be a good chance to physically and mentally get out of my funk. Plus, she’s an Indo-Fijian so it’s going to be a good experience living in an Indian household. From there, who knows. But, I’m finally letting go and embracing this “new” start.

Hide yo kids, hide yo wives, hide yo Peace Corps volunteers trying to get a good night’s rest!

Antoine Dodson had it wrong. Centipedes are the truest form of bed intruders.

Meet the Fijian variety of centipede (please believe I’m adding the picture one second before I hit ‘Publish’ because I refuse to have the thing staring at me while I try to write out this post):

For the past couple of days Tricia and I have been finding centipedes around the house. Usually we find a lot of critters inside when a bad storm is coming. Supposedly they can sense the impending bad weather and seek shelter wherever possible. The first one was spotted in our entryway curled up behind our kitchen door. The second one was spotted in the wash basin in our laundry room. And the third… Oh, the third.

Around midnight last night I was asleep in bed laying on my side with my face resting on my palm. I felt something moving beside me so I started to move my arm to shift positions. That’s when I felt a sharp pain piercing my arm. It was so sudden it jerked me right out of my sleep. I said “Ouch!” leaped out of bed and turned on the light to see a 6-7 inch centipede writhing on my pillow. On my forearm were two small puncture holes. I’ve heard horror stories of volunteers getting bit by centipedes while they slept in bed, but to actually be in the situation was surreal.

Until the pain hit.

Then shit became very real very fast.

It felt like a radiating burning and stinging sensation, like it wasn’t just one bite in one second of time but dozens of bites each second as time went on. I quickly went to Tricia’s room to wake her up. She got out of bed and the centipede was killed. Meanwhile, I was sitting in the bathroom saying things that I really can’t type out into a public blog. The two distinct puncture holes swole into one mass and the pain continued.

Tricia heard that urine helps soothe the pain and seeing the pain that I was in she grabbed a cup from the kitchen and took one for the team. When she finished I did the same, then washed the wound with soap and water. Don’t. Judge. Us. All I have to say is that it works. Then, she grabbed our medical kit and gave me an antihistamine tablet. In lieu of ibuprofen (because we all remember what happens when I take generic ibuprofen- see: My No Good Very Bad Day) I took two Aleve while she prepared an ice packet for me to hold to my arm. She whipped out her laptop and kept me distracted from the pain with YouTube videos. I really don’t know what I would have done without her help! About an hour later the antihistamine started hitting me and I got really drowsy. I was so afraid of another centipede bite that I slept with the lights on. Don’t Judge. Me. Needless to say I didn’t have a very restful sleep that night.

First lesson learned? I’m considering getting a mosquito net to keep myself in and unwanted critters out.

Second lesson learned? Centipedes are no joke.

Third lesson learned?

School Visits and Training

When I arrived at my health center a large part of my excitement was focused around working outside of the four walls of the health center building and actually going out in the community to do health outreach in the surrounding areas. At my health center, community outreach is the responsibility of the zone nurses. A ‘zone’ is a small area/town. There is one nurse assigned to each zone. They maintain the health statistics, reports, and overall health and wellness for their zone. Outreach, among other purposes, is to provide healthcare for those who cannot make it to the health center due to illness, disability, time constraints, etc. It’s also a great way to spread information about public health!

Unfortunately though, we were placed at site in November, which is a notoriously awkward time in the Fijian annual workframe. It’s at the end of the year so staff are usually wrapping up their projects in preparation for the following year. It’s also right before the holidays. In Fiji, everything slows down to a vonu’s (turtle) pace around the holiday season. This means outreach was seriously delayed. I tried to keep myself busy at the health center with other projects but I was itching to get out. There I was a fresh-faced, annoyingly enthusiastic newbie asking the zone nurses every chance I got for details about when we would go out into the communities to do outreach. The response? Next month. The next month came. No outreach. I asked again. The response? Next month.

Jan came around and finally (finally!) some earnest plans about getting out to the community began to buzz. The last week of Jan I went out with two of the zone nurses at my health center and the School Team from the Ministry of Health, a team of 5 nurses who specialize in outreach to divisional and sub-divisional schools in Suva. We did HPV vaccinations to class 8 girls, immunizations, gave out filariasis tablets, did general wellness assessments, eye exams and school health talks. Though I tried to help out wherever needed I focused on delivering school health talks. I went around to class 1-5 and did demonstrations on hygiene- brushing teeth, washing faces, washing hands and healthy diets to stay healthy inside and out (haha that was my little slogan!).

It’s funny, kids are the same regardless of where you are. They’re full of energy, curious and sharp. Since I was obviously a foreigner they kept staring and a few of the girls came up and asked me where I came from.

“Are you from the Soloman Islands?”

“Are you from South Africa?”

“You’re from… Vanuatu?”

They couldn’t quite figure it out. Even when I said I’m a Peace Corps volunteer from America they seemed quizzical, almost disappointed as if their guesses made a lot more sense.

One of the nurses from the school team handing out filariasis tablets to the kids

 

Zone nurse doing an assessment

 

Eye exams for class 1 students

I only got to go out to the schools for one week, the last week in Jan, because the first two weeks of Feb were spent in another round of Peace Corps training. All of the volunteers on this island gathered for our Phase II Intermediate Service Training. (The volunteers on the other island have theirs in the upcoming weeks due to logistical reasons.) Our supervisors were invited to come to the first couple days of training to coordinate a 2013 work plan.

My supervisor is Dr. Swastika, the Medical Officer at the health center where I work. Before she came to the training we had spoken to each other a grand total of three times. She is usually in her office treating patients at the front of the health center and I’m usually in the maternal/child health clinic or the reproductive clinic in the back of the health center. We rarely interact. Instead I work closely with Mere, the Sister-in-Charge (similar to a head nurse). So, when the invitation came inviting my supervisor to the training there was a little confusion about who would go with me since I had more of a relationship with my Sister-in-Charge than with my Medical Officer. After some sorting out Dr. Swastika ended up attending the training with me. In the beginning it was pretty awkward but we ended up having some good talks and came up with a pretty streamlined 2013 work plan. I’m excited to work on some upcoming projects but I’m taking it all with a grain of salt because I know there are a lot of factors that affect whether or not our plans actually happen.

Dr. Swastika getting her supervisor certificate

Rob and his supervisor presenting their work plan

 

After our supervisor’s left we spent the rest of the days listening to presentations, guest speakers and program information. During training I heard some bad news from back home so it took real effort to stay focused. I tried to stay in touch with family via phone and skype but there’s something unsatisfying about not being able to have a face-to-face conversation in a time of need. To stay preoccupied I threw myself into work-mode, which helped a bit. I did a presentation on HIV/AIDS with a few other volunteers, another on Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) which is an all-girls youth camp we’re planning to host here in Fiji, and one on building strong partnerships with health workers. The latter was my favorite. I put together a real-life simulation in the form of a game called ‘Mission Impossible?’. The group was split into five subgroups, two people in each. One person labeled ‘PCV’ the other ‘health worker’. Their mission was to work together in pairs to organize an imaginary health event for Family Health Month. They had to go around to stations located at each corner of the room to get approvals. Each station was manned by a Peace Corps staff member pretending to be the village leader (for community/cultural approval), the school headmaster (for approval to get kids to attend the event), the owner of a local supermarket (to get food donated to the event), and the Ministry of Health representative (to get funds to cover costs). The staff members really made it difficult for the pairs, like pretending to get angry at them for coming to them on short notice, pretending to be distracted by phone calls, and just flat out saying ‘No’- refusing to give their approval- because the ‘PCV/health worker’ pair didn’t provide enough information about their imaginary health event, which made them have to go to the back of the line to strategize and problem solve. It turned out to be a really fun learning experience to play out the obstacles we face when planning events at our health centers.

HIV/AIDS activity using people to show barriers to the virus

 

Mixing fluids, another HIV/AIDS activity

 

By the end of training I was ready to get back to my site. Although I enjoy spending time with fellow volunteers there’s nothing like being in Suva at my own house, sleeping in my own bed and having the routine of going to work every day. The supervisor’s training went pretty well and I was excited about putting everything we discussed into practice. On the personal side I was in the dumps about family/relationship issues going on back home. It’s strange, even though I feel a sense of joy and fulfillment here in Fiji I can’t quite reconcile that with the feeling of being disconnected from people back home. I miss everyone immensely. I miss being around people I know who I truly love and who truly love me. I miss hugging my mom and loving on my sister and brother. I miss the sound of my dad walking through our house. I miss my friends. Isa. Hopefully I’ll figure out a way to find peace and balance though lately my mind has been in two places at once.

Carnivaaaal Time!

Whoa, there’s carnival in Fiji??

No, silly!

But there is carnival this month in the Caribbean!

I was born in San Fernando, Trinidad which is a small island located in the southern region of the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela. See, look:

Carnival can be found all over the Caribbean and in some South American countries. However, the one in Trinidad is said to be the best in the Caribbean. This year, the carnival celebrations will be from February 11-12. Although the main event will only last a couple of days, people in Trinidad usually party the week leading up the carnival and continue partying afterwards. The biggest celebrations are in Port-of-Spain, the capital of Trinidad, but there are smaller carnivals all around the island.

Even though I am not currently in the Caribbean I thought this would be a great way to share a little bit about my culture. Enjoy!

Origins of Carnival

Like the cosmopolitan mix of people and cultures that shaped the island, Trinidad’s Carnival has many influences. The Spanish and English colonial powers, French planters, African slaves, Indian indentured labourers, and the many other ethnic groups that settled here have all left an indelible mark on the festival. In 1783 the French brought their culture, customs and Carnival, in the form of elaborate masquerade balls, to Trinidad along with African slaves. The period stretching between Christmas and the start of Lent was a time for feasting, fancy dress balls and celebration for both the French and British. Banned from the festivities, slaves in the barrack yards would hold their own celebrations mimicking their masters’ behaviour while incorporating rituals and folklore. Once slavery was abolished in 1838, the freed Africans took their Carnival to the streets and, as each new immigrant population entered Trinidad, a new flavour was added to the festivities. Today, our diverse culture has influenced the music, food and traditions of Carnival.

Pre-Carnival Celebrations

Officially Carnival is the Monday and Tuesday preceding Ash Wednesday but celebrations begin right after Christmas.

From Boxing Day it is non-stop partying until Carnival Sunday.

It is during this post Christmas period that calypso tents open their doors to the public and cultural shows, from Limbo competitions to massive soca concerts, begin.

Radio stations begin to play the latest soca hits and many masquerade bands launch their new themes.

Steelbands begin intense preparations for Panorama, the annual competition for steel pan bands. Preliminary contests are hosted at panyards throughout the country during the six weeks leading up to Carnival. Panorama finals are the ultimate test of musical skill. Representing the best of the best, selected bands compete before judges and thousands of spectators the Saturday night before Carnival officially begins.

Moko jumbie- men on stilts

J’Ouvert

Each year at 4 am on Monday, Carnival begins under a cloak of darkness. Fuelled by exhilaration and the energetic rhythms of soca music, revellers take to the streets for the predawn party of J’Ouvert.

J’Ouvert (from the French ‘jour ouvert’ or ‘day open’) is almost ritualistic in its celebration of the darker elements of the island’s folklore and history. Bathed in chocolate, mud, oil and paint, bands of revellers depict devils, demons, monsters and imps. Choose your medium of expression; J’Ouvert is a time for loosening of inhibitions.

Carnival Monday

Come daytime, the J’Ouvert revelry clears and massive costumed bands of “Pretty Mas” players flood the street with riotous colour. A cast of thousands take to the street “jumping up” and “wining” (gyrating of the hips) to the sound of soca blaring from speakers piled on music trucks. The excitement is at fever pitch, but Carnival Monday is only a “warm-up” for Carnival Tuesday.

Carnival Tuesday

Carnival Tuesday begins promptly at 8 a.m. Thousands of masqueraders are in full costume, ready and impatiently awaiting their chance to strut in front of the television cameras as bands cross the main judging points. Each band has its own historical, mythological or tropical concept with various sections depicting aspects of the main theme.

Bands are judged in three categories: small, medium and large and winners are announced after all the bands have crossed the stage. The Champion Band is crowned Masquerade Band of the Year.

Fun fact: Nicki Minaj is from Trinidad!

(Source: GoTrinidadandTobago.com)

So far in Jan…

…things have been progressing as well as can be expected. Lately I’ve been busy with work, exploring the city where I live, catching up with my fellow volunteers and working on some home gardening projects.  Only three weeks into the month and it seems like time has been moving both slowly and quickly. Let me tell you about what I’ve been up to!

Work

At Makoi Health Center I’ve been busy working on a Staff/Patient Survey. This project began in early December while I was trying to learn the in’s and out’s of the health center. Makoi H.C. is a sub-divisional health facility, which means it’s located just outside of the capital and serves a mostly semi-urban population of roughly 27,000 Fijians and Indo-Fijians. In this one building they have a pharmacy, outpatient care, reproductive health services, maternal/child health services, dental care, and a nutritionist. They also have a side room for X-rays but the machine is currently broken and they don’t have an X-ray technician. The health center is staffed with competent, well-trained, positive people and yet when I sat down with a few of them to find out where improvements can be made they were surprisingly tight-lipped. To be fair, I completely understand that I’m a newbie to the health center so some people wouldn’t feel comfortable divulging their inner-most work angst with me. I get it. But, it’s hard to get a grasp of where I could fit in as a volunteer if I don’t have a complete picture of where I’m working.

I thought about it for a while then spoke with my Sister-in-Charge, Sister Mere (pronounced: Mary), to get her input. When I shot her the idea of doing a Staff/Patient Survey she was completely supportive. Yes! The survey would be a tool that I could use to learn about my work environment and the head staff could use as a basis for top-down improvement. Also, the questionnaire would be used to gather information about the health center’s successes and failures when it comes to patient care and community outreach. I spent the next couple of weeks putting together two surveys, one for the Staff the other for Patients.  I was careful to make the Staff survey anonymous to encourage direct, honest responses. After both surveys were approved by the Sister-in-Charge and the Medical Officer I went around to each staff member and sat down with them to explain why the survey was important. Once they were all completed I condensed the responses and presented my findings to Sister Mere, the Medical Officer and the Board of Services, a committee of four members who oversee operations at the health center, kindof like a Board of Directors. Actually, it’s exactly like a Board of Directors. One of the biggest issues that stood out on the Staff Survey was teamwork. Many staff members felt there wasn’t a positive environment of communal work and partnership at the health center. As a result tensions were rising. Workplace animosity was breeding.

Solution? Making team-building a focus at Makoi H.C! My first assignment for this was to lead a presentation about team-building at the monthly staff meeting. I had staff come up and write out what they thought teamwork was, why it is important, and some barriers to teamwork. Check out Sister Mere leading by example!

She’s awesome.

Then we did an interactive activity where one person had to close their eyes and the group had to navigate them in the right direction to stick the word ‘Teamwork’ on a small circle. Like ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’ without donkeys or tails but with teamwork and nurses. (That last wording sounds funky but I’ll leave it, lol!) They got really into it. I mean, who doesn’t love games?? Here’s Shaileen, one of my favorite zone nurses, playing.

She makes it look so easy!

Afterwards I presented a poster that I made further explaining teamwork.

In the near future I’ll be planning more team-building exercises and, if things pan out, have a couple of guest speakers come in to Makoi H.C. Teamwork isn’t something that happens overnight so this will be a process. It will also be a process to tackle some of the other issues that came up in the Staff Survey. In addition, I’m still working on getting the results from the Patient Survey together. The great thing is my Sister-in-Charge and the Board are behind it so at least I know I have some backing on improving our health center’s staff and patient services.

Play

Enough work, let’s play!

A couple of weeks ago a group of us went to Colo-i-Suva. Colo-i-Suva (pronounced: Tholo-i-Suva), established in 1872 is a two and a half square kilometer rain-forest renowned for tropical flora and birds. There are about four and a half kilometers of natural trails in the forests and natural water bodies to swim in. (Thanks Wikipedia!) Here are some shots from our hike through the park:

This is one of my favorite shots from the hike. I really wish I could take your hand and walk you right into the picture.

We hiked for about a mile into the park crossing over bamboo bridges and dried mud feeling completely surrounded by wildlife. What really got me was the sound of this place. The water, the wind, the trees, the birds, the little bitty animals that skitter away into the brush when they hear you coming. It was like a symphony. Pure nature.

And then we saw the rope swing.

The water was pretty muddy from recent rain but it was still so much fun!

Best Burger in Suva

One of the things that I love the most about Suva is the food here. It’s definitly a perk to living in an urban site. Strolling around Suva it is easy to find Indian, Japanese, Fijian, Chinese, Thai, and American food if you know where to look. What I enjoy the most about food is its ability to transcend geography. It indulges all of your senses and moves you beyond your immediate surroundings. Speaking of which I recently went to dinner with a few volunteers at a restaurant called Cafe Thirty. I was intrigued by this bad boy on the menu then fell in love with him at first sight :

Now before you say, “Oh, an American, she probably eats hamburgers all the time” let me just say that isn’t true at all. I try to eat food from various cultures as often as possible and enjoy doing so. It just so happens I’m writing about this hamburger because it was just. that. good. It had onions, bacon (BACON!!), an egg, lettuce, tomato, pickles (PICKLES!!), and cheese on a medium-well patty. I hadn’t eaten bacon or pickles since summer of 2012 so this was a real treat. So delicious!

Fiji Museum

Recently I went to the Fiji Museum with two volunteers, Reagan and Adam, who were visiting Suva. Although I’ve visited Thurston Gardens, the gardens in front of the museum, a couple of times this was my first time walking through the museum. The current building for the Fiji Museum was built in 1955 and has hundreds of artifacts from Fijian and Indo-Fijian culture. It also has exhibits for art, history, and the flora and fauna in Fiji. Here are a few shots from that trip. I’ll include the rest in the ‘About Fiji’ section of my page since I think it fits better there.

Let’s Compost

The Health Services Department here in Suva is focusing on minimizing waste throughout the city. One of the initiatives they started promotes home composting. Composting is basically recycling kitchen waste, yard clippings and other green waste so it can be used to fertilize soil for gardens and other agricultural projects. When Tricia and I heard about this we were pretty excited because we wanted to begin a compost for the garden we’ll plant but we didn’t know where to find the bins. Two weeks and $30FJD later, problem solved! The Health Services Department even dropped off the bins and gave us a quick overview of how to use the bins and where to place them in our yard. Since Regan and Adam were visiting for the day we got to work installing the bin. Adam knew a lot about composting as well so he was a huge help.

The dogs helped too!

The bin with some leaves and kitchen waste. Looks great, smells awful. Perfect for anaerobic composting!

We haven’t begun to dig our garden yet. Hopefully we’ll begin working on that the coming weekend. In the meantime I took some cuttings from some of the plants outside and placed them in water. In the next few weeks they should start growing some little roots then we’ll transplant them into soil. We also have a decent-sized bag of plant seeds that we got from Dan (remember Dan?) when he came to visit. We’ll work on germinating the seeds in egg cartons filled with soil. When roots start to grow we’ll transplant them into our garden as well.

Rest and Recuperation

I started last week feeling pretty sick. Suva is known for being particularly rainy so I found myself caught in a rainstorm or two without an umbrella. When Monday came around it was full on headache, congestion and coughing.

When I still wasn’t feeling well a couple of days later I went to the Peace Corps headquarters for a medical appointment with Dr. Phina, our medical officer. She ordered a few tests. Turns out I not only had a cold, I also had a lower respiratory bacterial infection that could have lead to pneumonia if left untreated. Great. She gave me a week’s worth of Cipro and recommended getting lots of rest and drinking lots of fluids. I’m feeling a lot better now, but I’m really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things at work.

Let the church say “Amen”!

“Amen!” Or, as the Fijians say, “Ameni!”

Attending church is paramount for many Fijians. For many of them, their social and personal lives are intertwined with their religious beliefs. Fijians and I have that in common though I think they have a religious fervor that I haven’t experienced before, but I admire. I found a new church that I think will be my home church here in Suva. Ever since we arrived in the city I’ve been asking around about the different churches here. I hadn’t been to an English church service since arriving in Fiji so finding a church that I felt comfortable in was very important to me. Although a lot of people advised that I should go to a Fijian-speaking church to immerse myself in the language I really want to attend a church where I can just focus on the message and grow spiritually. Does this mean I won’t attend any Fijian-speaking services while in Suva? Of course not! But, I do want a place of worship where I feel I can grow.

This is Namadi Heights Baptist Church.

I first attended service here two Sundays ago after being invited by the Country Director, Eddie, and his family. Eddie’s son, Chris, recently became a pastor here at the church and invited myself and another volunteer to come and hear him preach. I really like this church because the congregation is about as mixed as Suva itself. On any given Sunday you’ll find Fijians, Indo-Fijians, Chinese, Americans, Australians, and my chocolatey self giving praise to God. I think that’s a beautiful thing! The sermons have been very enlightening. Chris is a powerful preacher and I always feel enriched when I leave.

Correspondence Match

This past week I got a new letter emailed from my Correspondence Match! Click here to read their latest letter!

Mi casa es su casa

When volunteers come to Suva for official Peace Corps business the Peace Corps fronts the bill to put them up at the Cappricorn Hotel, which is about a minute walk from headquarters. Otherwise, when volunteers are in town to visit or to take care of other things they’ll stay at the house with Tricia and I. We love having house guests! This past week we had two. Miles stayed at the house for a couple of nights and Stewart (aka Siti) stayed for about a week and a half. There were also three other volunteers, Lauren, Adam and Reagan, who were in town. It’s awesome catching up with friends, taking them out to the movies, for drinks, and any of the other perks of living in the city.

Oh, and let me introduce you to our newest house guest! Isn’t he cute? He’s shy…

Hope everyone is enjoying their January thus far!

Moce mada!

Happy New Year!

Wow, can you believe it’s 2013 already? Me either! Thinking over everything that has happened in 2012 makes me appreciate how much I have learned and grown over the past year. I realize that last statement was a New Year’s cliché but it is undoubtedly true. This time last year I was working at the Department of State loving my colleagues and (most days) my work while writing for the Herald Mail newspaper and volunteering in DC, MD and VA. I was eagerly anticipating the birth of my nephew. I was enjoying life with my family and friends. And, I was going through the application process for Peace Corps. Now, 12 months later, my whole life has changed and I’ve taken on the pleasures and challenges that implies with the encouragement and support from loved ones. Who could ask for more?

To ring in our first New Year in Fiji, a few volunteers and I took a trip to the island Nanana-i-Ra located off the coast of northern Viti Levu to spend a few days camping, swimming, snorkeling and hiking. A retired PC volunteer named John offered to transport us to and from the island on his motorboat, so off we went!

We all met up at John’s house on Sunday afternoon, the eve of New Year’s Eve. John and his wife, Judy, are the nicest people you can ever hope to meet. Seriously. They’d give you the shirt off of their backs if you asked. (Another cliché. Man, I’m just chock full of them today! Sorry bout that.) They gave us extra snorkeling and camping gear that we didn’t have and made sure we had enough food and fresh water to last.

Here’s the view from the back porch of their home. Bee-utiful! They have a great garden with lots of fruits and vegetables. John and Judy (I love it when couples names rhyme) also have an impressive bee farm on their property but we didn’t get to see it on this trip. Maybe next time. Anyways, it couldn’t have been a more pleasant day. Blue skies and fluffy white clouds everywhere.

We all helped load up the boat with camping supplies. At one point I heard one of the puppies crunching on something. When I turned around I saw this…

He was working on cracking open a crab claw. Just lounging and eating some crab, no big deal!

The boat was too small to hold all of us so it took two trips to get us all there. When everything was packed up the first group of people left. The boat ride to the island was roughly 20 minutes, it took 20 minutes to unload the boat, then 20 minutes for John to head back and pick up the second group of people and make a second trip. Total it took John about two hours to get us all to Nanana-i-Ra. Like I said, the nicest person you could ever hope to meet.

This was the view that met us as we coasted up to the island. Looking at the picture still takes my breath away. The stunning turquoise water was warm from the sun. When you looked over the side of the boat you could see straight down to the colorful coral reefs. The sand was white and soft. The air was so clean and fresh you wanted to inhale it with all of your senses. The whole beach was deserted so we had the entire coast to ourselves.

This place exists, people!

We pitched our tents and got ourselves situated. It was about then that we realized the place was infested…infested!…with moquitoes. And I’m not talking about those little piddly ones that zoom up for a little nibble then fly away. I’m talking about the big, merciless, tiger mosquitoes with the black and white stripes. The wild, not-desentitized-by-living-amongst-people, possibly dengue-carrying, bite you through your clothes (THROUGH your effing clothes!!) mosquitoes. These bad boys were the real. deal. Needless to say mosquito repellent was like gold and we stayed slathered in it just to have some sanity.

Anyways, we did some snorkeling…

So pumped! It was my first time snorkeling so I held on to one of the other guys until I felt comfortable to do it on my own. It was tough in the beginning getting used to breathing through the snorkel and swimming with the fins but once I got the hang of it, it was easy peasy! The water was about 6 feet deep for about a mile out then it dropped off like a cliff into deep ocean water. We went all the way to the edge and saw the really vibrant corals and all of the teeny tiny electric-colored fish. I so wish I could show you all pictures but I didn’t bring a waterproof camera. (Yes, it’s on my to-do list to get one!)

Posing with Kayla who five minutes before this picture was taken scaled the mess outta that coconut tree we’re standing next to.

Yes! Chick was not playing games! She’s my hero!

Ah, hiking! I’ve become very fond of hiking since I’ve been in Fiji (something else that I’ve learned to love in 2012). Here are some shots from when a few of us decided to brave the impending storm (literally) to go for a hike. In this picture you can see where the light turquoise goes into the deep blue of the ocean. We snorkeled all the way out to the edge where the two meet.

This view is the other side of the island, opposite from where we were. There are some really fancy resorts on this side. One is rumored to be $700 per night. Needless to say our broke selves couldn’t afford that in any way, shape, or form. So we just moseyed on by and continued on our way.

On New Years Eve, five minutes before the clock struck midnight, we all gathered on the beach with some beers under the moonlight and counted down. When the new year came we all cheered. A few people ran into the water for a celebratory swim. And, the rest of us cheered then turned around and went right back to into our tents to get some rest. What?? We were tired! No judgement

The next day John came back to pick us up from the island. We made the trip back to the mainland and upon arrival at the house Judy said these four magic words: “Come, take a shower!” followed by these three magic words: “I made chilli!” Man, I love that woman! We all ate, showered off the salt water from our hair and skin, then made it to the bus stand to head home.

I hope everyone back home spent their New Year’s with people they care about and are looking forward to everything that it will bring!

Happy New Year, everyone!! Cheers and welcome to 2013!

Merry Christmas!

Ah, Christmas. A holiday that I usually spend surrounded by family opening presents, watching movies and enjoying a delicious Christmas dinner. This Christmas was a bit different. It was spent with my Fijian family and friends doing Christmas the native way.

At work we had a traditional Christmas party complete with gift exchanges and freshly cooked food. They prepared a lovo, the traditional way of cooking food using an underground barbeque. First, the nurses and some of their family prepared the food by seasoning the chicken and fish and marinating the food with freshly squeezed coconut milk. Meanwhile, the men prepared the lovo, or barbeque, by heating rocks which serve as the base. When the rocks were sufficiently heated the food was wrapped in palm leaves then placed over the rocks to cook. The whole lovo was wrapped in large banana and palm leaves.

It takes a lot of time and effort to create a lovo but the food is usually delicious. So, obviously I overate. I was uncomfortably full for the rest of the day but it was definitely worth it!

On Sunday we went over to the Country Director’s house to share in his family’s tradition of baking cookies with the grandkids. We had a great time making and decorating the cookies and it was fun eating them as well!

All of the holiday love shared while making Christmas cookies was making me miss my family back home. By Christmas Eve I was feeling pretty down about spending Christmas away from my family and friends. So, I went back to the village to visit my Fijian family! We had another lovo (yum, again!) with a Christmas lunch and then spent the afternoon drinking grog. Litia, my other host sister, was back home from school so I got to spend some time with her. Chelsea, another Peace Corps volunteer, also went to the village for Christmas so it was fun seeing her too.

Ema and Litia sitting under the tree

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday! Merry Christmas!

Tropical Cyclone Evan

Although the South Pacific is known for its beautiful sunny weather and white sandy beaches a hazard of its geographical location are storms, tropical depressions, and cyclones. Unfortunately, we are currently experiencing the latter here in Fiji. Tropical Cyclone Evan, the first cyclone of the summer cyclone season (November through April), has been making its way across the South Pacific.

Track of Cycle Evan

Cyclone Evan began as an eastward moving tropical depression before intensifying and changing direction, moving westward towards Samoa. On Thursday, Dec 13 the cyclone hit Samoa as a category two storm with heavy rain and winds up to 110 kilometers per hour. There have been two fatalities confirmed in the low-lying areas due to drowning.

Infared of the storm over Samoa

Since making landfall in Samoa, Cyclone Evan has been upgraded to a category four storm and continues to move towards Fiji. Volunteers in sites prone to flooding have been moved here to Suva where it is a bit safer. Tourists have been evacuated from outer-island resorts. We have been receiving regular updates about the storm from our Country Director via email and phone messages with instructions for preparation and continuing guidance about the storm’s status. The projection of the storm’s path has changed slightly over the past few days as the storm has gotten closer. Currently it is projected to go through the eastern part of Vanua Levu around 6am on Monday morning before turning south and heading directly across the inland portion of Viti Levu on Monday night.

The weather here has been deceptively sunny over the past few days. Today the clouds have begun to gather and it has been overcast with a few scattered showers. My roommate and I have been preparing as best as we can gathering necessities like food, water and supplies. We’ve also been planning craft activities to keep ourselves busy.

I can’t really say I have any expectations about this storm. Living in Maryland on the east coast of the States we’ve experienced many storms with high winds and rain, some hurricanes, a few snow storms and even a couple of earthquakes but the damage was always minor. This being my first cyclone I’ve had a few conversations with Fijians to get a better idea of what we’re in for. The general consensus is this is going to be a very bad storm, there will most likely be flooding but the main point is for us to stay safe and that’s what we plan to do.

I’ve been in touch with my family back home giving them regular updates on the status of the storm. There are also some helpful weather and news links at the bottom of my page that will provide more info, but again, here’s the link to the Fiji Times online newspaper (http://www.fijitimes.com/) which has been following the storm closely.

UPDATE:

Monday, Dec 17- midnight

At midnight local time the centre of Severe TC Evan was located about 100km due north of Labasa. Catergory 4 intensity with winds near the centre gusting over 230kmph. TC Evan is moving WSW at 25kmph and is expected to be about 100km NNE of Nadi island at midday today. The centre of the cyclone is expected to pass close enough to the Yasawas and Mamanucas tomorrow to allow the eye to pass directly over the islands if the track were to move only slightly east of its forecast path. Winds in excess of 200kmph are possible over here. Storm force winds are forecast over northern and western Viti Levu from Tavua to Ba past Lautoka to Nadi for 4 or 5 hours in the late morning through to the evening, gusting to 130kmph. Periods of heavy rain with local flash flooding expected. Rivers rising and river flooding possible this evening in Nadi with high tide. Damaging gale force winds strengthening storm force over Bua province of Vanua Levu in the next 3 hours and continuing after sunrise. Winds easing in the north from mid morning as the centre of the cyclone moves away. Suva can expect winds gusting to gale force reaching 85kmph at times. Periods of rain with local flash flooding expected. Rivers rising and river flooding possible this evening in Nadi with high tide.

Damaging gale force winds strengthening storm force over Bua province of Vanua Levu in the next 3 hours and continuing after sunrise. Winds easing in the north from mid morning as the centre of the cyclone moves away.

Suva can expect winds gusting to gale force reaching 85kmph at times.

UPDATE:

Monday, Dec 17- 7:11am

The current track of the storm. The red circle around Suva is my site.

At 6am local time the centre of Severe TC Evan was located by radar about 100km due west of Labasa. This cyclone has intensified slightly overnight but is sustaining Catergory 4 intensity with winds near the centre gusting up to 270kmph. TC Evan is moving SW at 25kmph and is expected to be about 45km west of Nadi or very close to the outer islands of the Mamanuca group around 8pm tonight. Radar imagery at 6am shows the location and expected direction of movement of the cyclone.

UPDATE:

Tuesday, Dec 18- 4:28pm

The Water Authority of Fiji would like to inform all its customers living along the Suva – Nausori corridor that they will be experiencing intermittent water supply throughout today. Intermittent water supply is due to power shutdown which affected operation at our Waila Treatment Plant this morning.

The worst of the storm has passed. This morning we went outside to survey the damages around our house. We lost a few fruit trees and there are branches all over but, thankfully, that has been the worst of it. We currently don’t have power at our house, but we do have water (for now).

The Western Division of the country has been hit the hardest with major property damage, flooding and loss of electricity and power.  Hopefully circumstances will improve as the week goes on, but I’m very glad we made it through with minor damages and in one piece!