This update is coming in late, but I think most people have known by email. About a week ago, Peace Corps selected for a Volunteer Leader position that moved me out of the village and into the capital. Basically, the Volunteer Leader works at Peace Corps headquarters and helps staff with support for current Volunteers. Usually a Volunteer that is extending a 3rd year takes the position, but the girl that formerly had it only extended for 6 months and Peace Corps needed someone to fill in the other 6 months.

I'm still likely to leave Fiji in July. I had a good time in the village and was sad to go, but things are good in the city too.

My new address is

Jeremy Kohlitz

Peace Corps Fiji

C/o Private Mailbag

Suva, Fiji

South Pacific

Updating this blog has more or less fallen out of routine for me, but I should post this delayed update because it concerns a project some of you donated to. A number of months back I said I was seeking funding for building footpaths in the village and while it took an inordinate of time to raise the money, it finally did come through. Actually it came through back in September, but some spat over a sort of self-imposed tax the village uses to pay civil services and the schools delayed construction of the project until November 1st.

Once we started to buy building materials, an aggravating although unsurprising revelation came forth. When I brought a local with me to the hardware stores to put our orders in, the prices were substantially lower than what I was quoted way back when the project was being planned, sometimes less than half of what I was originally told. As it turned out, the hardware store people, even the ones of the large franchise chain store variety, had been quoting me around double the cost for materials. Charging double the cost for foreigners is sort of typical procedure for shop owners, taxi drivers, market vendors, etc. The assumption, of course, is that white people are exceedingly rich like in the movies and can afford to pay any price for whatever. Now that I had a Fijian with me as we bought the materials we were getting a fair price, but the high cost of the project quotation in the first place is largely responsible for why it took so long to raise the funding. Well, these things happen.

Once construction started, enthusiasm was running high in the village. The old men got about cutting timber for a boxing frame and carving out stakes. The young men did the more laborious task of mixing cement and spreading it out. All together there were about 12 people working at any given time hammering the boxing timber together, cutting more wood or carving stakes, mixing cement and leveling it as it set and many more people on hand waiting for a chance to contribute. I appreciatively and judiciously observed the work to make sure the workers stuck the plan, which in fact did require constant attention. As much as I tried to hand ownership of the project over to the community (as is the goal of Peace Corps projects, to increase the self-sustaining capacity of the hosts rather than make them dependent on outside aid), I was nearly always sought out as the final say in some decision to be made.

The pace the workers were building at far exceeded my expectations and we really ran into fewer setbacks than I had believed we would. The extra funding that we had as a result of the overpriced quotations from conniving hardware store owners allowed us to build the footpaths sturdier and bit more extensively. While island lifestyle lends itself to being so laid-back that it can sometimes seem excessively languid, it should be noted that Fijians can be remarkably hardworking when they commit to doing something. A common sight during a typical workday on the project was smiling young men throwing 110 lb bags of cement over their shoulders like it was nothing or digging into rock hard ground under a searing tropical summer’s day sun whilst joking with each other, even after several hours of work. Based on conversations with other Peace Corps Volunteers who had finished a similar project, I had allotted a few months time to complete the project. The footpaths were instead completely finished 23 days later and would have been sooner if not for the onset of the rainy season.

The community is proud of their work and grateful for the generosity of those that donated. The rain has been coming on heavily lately and people are relieved they can avoid the many mud slicks and miniature ponds that form. I can personally attest to the usefulness of the paths. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the funding of the project.

As for myself, I’m still living the good life off of less than $3500 USD per year. Living in poverty isn’t so bad on a nice Pacific island. I volunteer my time at the local health center and with the Fiji National Red Cross when I get a chance. My sister Shannon will be here in a couple weeks to see what it’s like. People in the village are excited to meet her and assured me she can take home her pick of a husband if she wants (jokingly). Should be fun. 24 More pictures here

Hi all, some of you may have been aware that I took a trip to South Korea recently. The trip was a great experience and I just got back a few days ago. Korea was one of my favorite places that I have visited but I'm also glad to be back in Fiji.

At the end of May the newest round of Peace Corps volunteers arrived in Fiji and just over the last few weeks our friends from the group that preceded us finished their service and started leaving in waves (every year from May-July a new group comes in and an old group goes out). We were excited to meet the new group and were happy to find that they are a good bunch. As for my own group, we have now roughly less than one year before we are done here.

Life in the village has been moving on as usual. Weddings here, funerals there, lots of kava everywhere else. It's winter here now so the weather is nice and comfortable in the afternoon and cool enough in the night that I can actually use a blanket. I celebrated my birthday in the village back in June. It was a nice little get-together, some people even managed to get a birthday cake from one of the resorts. I had someone take pictures of it, but they left a fingerprint on the camera lens so all the pictures came out blurry. Later in June, all the volunteers from my group had Mid-Service Training in the capital. It was nice to have our entire group together again, even if I had already seen many of them on individual cases. Peace Corps put us up in a nice hotel for the training (thanks taxpayers!). I have to back to the capital next week for a one year medical check-up. Hopefully my stomach isn't full of worms.

As I mentioned, most recently I took a trip to South Korea. One of my friends from college finished up his classes in Michigan and returned to Korea to pursue his PhD there. He and has family put me up and fed me the entire time which was great. The first couple days we toured the capital Seoul and visited history and Korean War museums. Seoul is a busy modern city that is nearly completely free of any trash on the ground, although the air quality wasn't great. Koreans are very polite and just about everyone I came into contact with was friendly. The next day we went to a beach that exports that kind of special make-up rejuvenating mud they dunk people in in some spas (check out the pictures). We also went to an observatory near the border of North and South Korea where you can use those coin-operated binocular things to spy on the North Korean farmers doing their farm work. Next, we went to a smaller city called Chuncheon which had very delicious grilled chicken. In fact, all the food in Korea was really good. I think I may prefer Korean food over American food. Chuncheon had a neat little island called Nami that was choked with Japanese and Chinese tourists, but still had a lot of little bike paths we rode around on.

We also took a 3 day trip to an island off the southern coast of Korea called Jeju Island. Jeju is sort of a popular holiday destination for Koreans. Unfortunately, it rained the entire time but were still able to visit a Buddhist temple in the hills and some cool waterfalls among several other things. After we returned to the Seoul area, we visited an old restored imperial palace and an observatory that looked over all of Seoul. The last couple days we relaxed a bit because we were exhausted from all the moving around. My favorite part of the trip was staying with my friends family at their house. His parents spoke little English and I don't know any Korean, but I think we still got along pretty well. The flight back to Fiji was a long 10.5 hours direct flight with a kid kicking my seat the whole way.

We did a lot of other things, but I'm sort of writing a running memory account of what happened. I've uploaded a small handful of pictures here. I put 9 new pictures in this folder as well.

Thanks for reading!

When I made this blog I only told family and friends about it, but apparently there is something that scours the internet for blogs of Peace Corps volunteers and plasters them up on Facebook and something called peacecorpsjournals.com and who knows where else. It’s likely then that some members of the next group to come to Fiji have come across this. I remember in the months leading up to departure I couldn’t get enough snippets of what Peace Corps life was going to be like, so I’m going to try to collect some general, maybe semi-useful thoughts for the incoming FRE-8s. I’m staying in a Fijian village, so some advice might not end up being applicable if you are placed with Indo-Fijians or in an urban area.

- As far as Peace Corps countries go, Fiji is pretty developed. In town, you can buy nearly all the same basic things as in America and Peace Corps will give you a moving-in allowance when you are sworn in as volunteers. If you’re having trouble packing light, consider leaving out things like kitchen knives, alarm clocks, notepads, etc. You can buy all those things for reasonable prices here.

- If you are not picky about clothes, you can get a lot of them for cheap and in decent quality at second-hand stores. However, you might not have a lot of time to go clothes shopping during training.

- Even if you don’t do so now, you’ll probably be doing a lot of reading in Peace Corps. Packing books can be difficult because they take up a lot of space and quickly push you towards the weight limit, but I’d say bring as many books as you can. You’ll be able to trade with other volunteers and you can have them sent from home (although that can be expensive), but that’s about it. There aren’t any good places to buy good books here.

- Hand sanitizer was useful for me during training. You’ll be sitting cross-legged on the floor a lot (which was cripplingly painful for me at the beginning because I’m not very flexible. Try it now and see how you think you’ll fare!), shaking hands, touching runny-nosed children, and eating with your hands fairly frequently. Soap is not often available so hand sanitizer might make you feel a little better.

- You’ll probably be learning the Fijian language and living with Fijians during training. Of our group of 32, only 3 were assigned to learn Hindi. If you are a business volunteer, you are significantly more likely to learn Hindi than your fellow volunteers, but not necessarily so.

- You’re probably guaranteed to get some kind of stomach virus or other affliction during training. Good luck with that!

- A laptop isn’t completely necessary, but I don’t think I’ve met anyone who regretted bringing theirs. I bought a relatively cheap netbook and a used external optic drive for my service and I’m glad I did.

- Fiji is conservative compared to America. Any complications you might foresee with that are probably true to at least some small extent. On Sundays, almost all businesses are closed and work and play is generally not allowed in the village. Many Fijians are very religious.

- One cool thing about serving on a small island is that you’re never too far from the other volunteers. Don’t be cliquey early on in training because you could be placed near any combination of other people.

- Prepare to be frustrated with the inefficiency of the universe and everything in that you will encounter while here.

- You’ve probably heard about some deal on Chaco sandals for volunteers by now. I personally like mine, but a lot of volunteers here complain about them before going on incredibly boring lectures about the relative merits of different brands of flip-flops. I don’t know, figure it out, they’re just sandals, guys.

- Don’t try to rationalize drinking yaqona (kava) like drinking alcohol. It’s much different.

- Everyone dries clothes by hanging them up on clotheslines. This has an unfortunate effect of stretching out your clothes and making them noticeably feel bigger. Keep that in mind. I brought a lot of 100% cotton shirts that now make me feel like I’m shrinking.

That’s all I’ll bother to post now. These aren’t necessarily top priority points, just things off the top of my head. If they haven’t already, Peace Corps should give you contact info for some current volunteers if you have questions. I’d be happy to answer any as well at jbluek@gmail.com.

Good luck preparing, guys. Fiji is warm, beautifully landscaped, spattered with world-class beaches, homes friendly people, and has lots of other awesome things that tourists spend thousands of dollars in traveling expenses to experience for a couple weeks (including Fijian village visits) that’ll probably be available to you any day for free or at a nice local discount. See you on the other side.

Random kids that hang outside my house

First a quick note: My address is now PO Box 69 Sigatoka Fiji instead of PO Box 1021. Mail sent to the old address will still reach me, but I’d prefer it be sent to the new one.

Over Easter weekend I took a trip to the Fiji island of Taveuni to do some exploring and hanging out with a few other volunteers. Taveuni is something like the 3rd or 4th largest island of the Fiji group and has many lush rainforests, waterfalls, and a couple mountains. I flew out of a regional airport on the main island on an 8-seater plane to the airstrip on Taveuni which is more or less a paved runway with an office.

Taveuni got pounded hard by a cyclone a few weeks prior so there were a lot of trees down and some wrecked houses, but the roads were clear when we arrived. Vacation didn’t get off to a good start because I lost my phone on the cab ride from the airstrip into town. I’m lucky I had it for as long as I did though, Fiji has a way of subtly swallowing small possessions. The first place we went was a section of river known as the ‘sliding rocks’.

Basically it’s a shallow section of a gradually sloping river with a continuous sheet of very slippery rock on the bottom. You sit at the top and slide down in sections that each end in a little pool. A couple sections get you going pretty fast and subsequently slam you into rock walls and into the person who went before you and is still floundering in the pool at the bottom because the current and slippery rocks make it too hard to get out. I went down a couple of times before deciding I needed unbroken legs for the rest of the trip. There were some local Fijian kids there that, as usual, effortlessly scampered up and down the rocks and made us look gawky and ungainly by comparison. That night, we slept in dorm beds at a campground on the beach. It wasn’t much of a beach though, the cyclone had blown away 3 feet of sand according to the owners until previously buried brown rock was exposed.

The next day was sort of an extra day to do something we hadn’t definitively decided to do yet. We decided to hike up 1200 m Des Voeux peak from sea level. We thought there might be a cool view on top and read there was a lake in an ancient collapsed volcanic crater. The hike up turned out to be grueling 2.5 – 3 hour trudge up a very unforgiving slope with very few plateaus or switchbacks.

We didn’t see much on our way up because 1. The clouds never dissipated and obscured any endearing visibility and 2. We were staring at our feet the entire time because we were walking on a ridiculous gradient with no good places to rest. Once we reached the top we were shrouded in wet, cold clouds and couldn’t see 20 yards in front of us, let alone some lake that was supposed to be in some crater somewhere. We found some more Cyclone Tomas destruction however.

Vodafone cell phone tower

I was grateful for the exercise we got, but I don’t think Des Vouex peak is meant to be climbed by anyone except cell phone tower technicians in their trucks.

The following few nights we stayed at a lodge in a village called Lavena. A Peace Corps volunteer named Gloria is stationed at this village and she helps manage the lodge as a part of one of her projects. The first day we took a 1.5 hour beachside walk from the village that ended at a couple waterfalls where we swam for a while. The waterfalls were in a secluded spot and we spent a good while there relaxing and looking around. I couldn’t get any good pictures of it because you needed to swim up a creek to get to them. The following day we went to Bouma Heritage National Park and hiked to 3 different sets of waterfalls. The path to the 3rd set of waterfalls was heavily damaged by the cyclone so we had to crawl over trees and slip through mud to reach it. It was worth it though, the last set of waterfalls felt like they were situated in the middle of the rainforest with no human development in sight. Taveuni is a very good place if you like waterfalls. On the last day we kayaked to another set of waterfalls by Lavena and then back to first ones we saw.

So that was my 5 day stint in Taveuni. The island is gorgeous even by Fiji standards. Check out the pictures of waterfalls and other stuff here: http://picasaweb.google.com/JBlueK/MorePictures?feat=directlink

One more note: Thank you very much to anyone who donated to my community project. The people in my village are definitely excited about it.

A request for funding for one of my community projects, footpaths for the village, has been posted on the Peace Corps website: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=411-144&

Successful completion of the project will depend on whether funds can be raised or not. The site is publicly available and advertised to many organizations across the country, so we are not entirely relying on contributions from friends and family (which would be a tall order, nearly $5000 is needed). However, any bits help. Please forward the link to any people or groups that may be interested in donating! Thanks everyone.

I haven’t been good about keeping this blog updated, my apologies for that, I’m not much of a writer. Life has been pretty steady here in Fiji. Living in the village stopped feeling so much different a while ago. Whenever you move to a new place you feel very aware of your surroundings until you get used to them enough that noticing them falls behind your typical, daily routine thoughts. That’s not to say I’ve completely integrated into Fijian life and have absorbed all their behaviors, I’ve just settled into my own thing.

So last I left off, I was heading home for Christmas. It was a nice little break to eat good America food, see friends and family, and use modern technology. Coming home felt the same as if I had never left. The same can be said for when I returned to Fiji, I guess I’m comfortable with both lifestyles now. Soon after I returned, I set off for a small island called Caqalai, just big enough to hold one hostel. It was the site of our volunteer-organized Peace Corps New Years party. I missed the only boat to the island that day, but was fortunate enough to hitch a ride on some local’s dinghy that was headed to another nearby island. The other PC volunteers and I built a bonfire on the beach and were some of the first people in the world to celebrate the new year. Afterwards, I returned to site and have mostly been kept occupied with two projects: footpaths and a borehole. The footpaths are more or less just cemented paths to walk on throughout the village to avoid walking in the mud and puddles. The borehole project involves boring a hole in the ground, installing a water pump, pumping water a couple hundred meters to tanks on top of a hill, then gravity feeding the water into the village. We’re still in planning phases for both projects. They’re both pretty large-scale projects so it’ll take time to get funding and actually implement them. I also took a guy from my village to a small business workshop in the capital last week. He and some other guys want to start a business building and selling coffins. We’ll see how that goes.

Recently it has gotten very hot in Fiji. Like sweating while sitting around doing nothing hot. Fiji had been unseasonably cool up until a couple months ago, but that all came crashing to an end. My strategy of multiple showers throughout the day worked well until the water cut out, sometimes for days at a time. Worse yet, my house is partially made of tin which is an excellent heat conductor and keeps my room toasty well after the sun has set. Between sweating all the time, sitting on the floor in nearly all social situations, and eating with your hands, you get used to feeling a little gross in Fiji. Oh, and sharing drinking cups with a dozen other people of questionable hygiene during kava drinking sessions. All the people of the village manage however, and in true Fijian-style remain upbeat and happy.

A new turn of events since I got back from my Christmas vacation was my village’s decision that it would be useful for me to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a different family each day. That means on one day I go to a house and eat meals and socialize with the family for the day, then go to another one the next day and so on. As you might imagine, being a guest for 3 meals with a different family each day is a bit exhausting, but it’s also been fun. It’s a good way to get to know the people and I don’t have to cook. I’ve been doing it for a little over a month now, although I’ve taken some breaks here and there to eat on my own.

Around the time I’ll be posting this, I’ll be marking nine months of living in Fiji. While often frustrating and challenging, it still feels good to be here. I made a new years resolution of visiting other volunteers at their sites, so I’m going to try to take some trips around the islands in the upcoming months. I should mention that one of the best things about Peace Corps is the fellow volunteers. You’d be hard pressed to find a more easy-going and humble, but at the same time adventurous and ambitious, group of people. So life in Fiji pushes on, it won’t be long until I’m nearing the halfway mark. Looking forward to the second half.

I've mentioned it to a few people already and I think most family members know now, but I'm visiting home for Christmas. I arrive in Detroit at 1:30 am on the 17th and leave early morning on the 26th. It's not very long, but it is the most vacation time I'm allowed to take right now. I'm hoping to get to Ann Arbor a few times to visit some friends. If any of you will be in Jackson or AA around the time I'm home, let me know so we can arrange a time to hang out. I'm not sure if I'll be able to put money on my old cell phone, so I might call some of you from home.

Not a whole lot new to report this side of the hemisphere. I recently passed the 6 month mark since I arrived here and am now roughly 1/4 of the way through my time in Fiji. It's gone by pretty fast. A couple weeks ago we had a Thanksgiving party in the capital organized by the Peace Corps volunteers. We had plenty of good food to eat (No turkey though, we ate a chicken instead) and generally a good time. Fiji has been unseasonably cool this year I've been told, but it's heating up now. No AC and high humidity makes for taking a lot of cold showers throughout the day. We're into the rainy season now, though there hasn't been much rain. I'm on what's called the "sunny side of the island" and its been just that. Birds have been building nests in my roof and some mice and bugs are starting to move in but I'm managing. After I get back from America, I'm planning on doing some travelling around to visit other volunteers at their sites. Fiji has a lot of geological diversity over a small area so it makes taking short trips to various places worth it.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to talk with most of you when I visit home so I can tell you more then. I'm interested in hearing what all of you have been up to as well. See some of you in a couple weeks.

Hi everyone, I’ve been getting requests to update this and it has been a couple months so here we go. A quick note: Someone told me they tried to order pictures from the Picasa gallery I linked in one of my updates and they were charged, but never received the pictures. So be careful with that. Also, recent earthquakes in the Pacific region haven't had any impact on Fiji.

I’m not sure where to begin, a lot has happened the last two months but I can’t think of a defining moment I need to tell about. I haven’t had too many issues settling in and getting used to the lifestyle. I still eat three meals a day, use a flush toilet (my mom thought I was using a pit toilet or something?), shower, and sleep in a regular bed although the bed is a foam pad on a piece of wood. I’ve been eating all of my meals with an elderly woman that lives next door. I buy the food and she cooks it for me every day. I usually have something like oatmeal for breakfast, vegetable soup or sandwiches for lunch, and chicken or curry or sometimes pasta for dinner. And always plenty of papaya and bananas with each meal. Sometimes I’ll eat with other people and have more traditional Fijian food which usually consists of (too much) fish, taro, cassava, a slimy leafy vegetable called bele, and sometimes chicken or eggplant. Tea time is common around here where tea is served with sandwiches and/or Fijian style cake. Fijians eat a lot and it is considered polite for them to incessantly remind you to “kana vakalevu” (Eat more!).

Aside from eating, on a typical day I spend a lot of time reading, going into town, and meeting with people. The Fijian lifestyle is very relaxed, no one is in too much of a rush to get anything done and it tends to leave a lot of downtime. The town nearby is pretty simple and very small by American standards. I go there every other day for shopping, eating, or sometimes internet. I get most of my food from the grocery store which is familiar. All the fresh fruit and vegetables are sold for cheap in the open market. The town is a sort of popular place for tourists to stop and restock on whatever they need on their way to or from the airport so I see a lot of white people. Consequently, I get treated like a tourist in town sometimes (cab drivers asking me if I need a ride to the airport, people helpfully trying to ask me which bus I am looking for, annoying vendors), but I think people are beginning to recognize me. I know the shopkeepers at the places I frequent well enough now.

Every week or two I get out to do something fun. I’ve been snorkeling a few times, snuck into some big fancy resorts to hang out, visited beaches and sand dunes, attended several rugby games, and even travelled with my village to a tiny island an hour off the coast of mainland Fiji. The island had one village on it, two beautiful beaches, clear water, and several other islands that could be seen off in the distance including the one where the movie “Cast Away” was filmed. Here is a picture taken from a peak on one end of the island:

Most of the rugby games are played between local communities, but there were a couple big ones. My province played in the semi-finals and finals of a national tournament and won the championship. The stadium is about 15 minutes walk from my house so I went to both games. A few people from my village played on the provincial team, so the next day the coach visited with championship trophy:

I’ve had many other experiences but those are what stand out right now. As far as projects go, they are coming along slowly. I’m the first Peace Corps Volunteer at my site and I’m working by myself (some volunteers replace others or work with established organizations) so it is taking some time to blaze new trails. Finding projects that are useful, feasible, and within my capabilities and then motivating the community about them is challenging. The purpose of Peace Corps is to build the community’s capacity to deal with their own problems so they can eventually become self-sustaining, but Fiji has become quite used to depending on handouts. The experience is definitely going to be an exercise in leadership skills; managing projects, motivating and coordinating efforts, distributing work, finding work contacts, attending meetings (meeting are cancelled more often than they are actually held), and gathering input all while working in a culturally sensitive manner in an unfamiliar environment where English is a second language with people that have a peculiar set of work ethics and varying degrees of interest with what I’m trying to do (varying between “This is great, I’m glad you’re here!” and “This is stupid, why haven’t you given us any money yet?”). I’m still having the time of my life though.

So at this moment in time, I just got back from the capital for supplemental training and got to see all my friends and fellow volunteers that got sent all over the place. I tutor math on Thursdays to any interested students, I’ve accepted a request from the local school to teach science/environmental education/world studies once a week starting next Wednesday, I’m working with the village nurse to form an environment committee to manage a new a waste disposal program we are trying to implement, and am writing a grant proposal for funding of footpaths in the village. No worries, there may be some engineering work on the horizon. Diwali, a big Hindu holiday is coming up. Obviously, it won’t be celebrated in my Fijian village, but I have a tentative invitation to visit an Indian settlement on that day. I don’t recall if I’ve ever mentioned it, but Fiji has a sizeable Indian presence. They make up about 38% of the total population. They were brought over in the 19th century as indentured laborers by the British who had colonized India and took control of Fiji at the time. They are more similar to Americans than the Fijians; they are industrious, independent, and own most of the businesses in Fiji. They have a reputation for being abrasive at times, although I’ve found most of them to be pretty friendly.

That’s all for now. I’ll try to organize my thoughts better next time.

Edit: 15 new pictures in this album

Here are a handful of pictures. They are a little out of order. The ones of people inside a house and of people sitting around a bowl of brown water (Yaqona) are from my old training village. There are a few of me at our swearing-in ceremony and then some of my new house and me farming at the new village.

http://picasaweb.google.com/JBlueK/FijiPart4?feat=directlink

I moved into my new house a few days ago and things have gone mostly well so far. I’ll recap my last couple weeks in the training village before moving onto this one.

For Peace Corps matters, the last couple weeks consisted of wrapping up technical training, preparing for the final language exam, and making sure we would have a safe transition to our individual sites. The last couple days of technical training got a little hectic as we had to wake up at 5:30 am a couple days in a row (instead of the normal 6:30), but they went over as usual. I may have not mentioned before exactly what technical training is. It, for the most part, consists of having speakers, either current volunteers or people in Fiji with expertise in the area, giving lectures and providing resources on many different potential projects. For these we are broken up into health and environment volunteers (I am environment). Some of the lectures are interesting, some are not applicable to my site. We took a few field trips for training including snorkeling over the reef to learn and practice methods of protecting coral. Unfortunately, my site is not on the beach nor do I have any marine biology knowledge, so I won’t be doing any snorkeling for work. I’m close enough to one that I can go for fun though. We had our final exam for language training a few days before moving. The exam was completely oral and only took about 15 minutes. Passing was not difficult and I scored Intermediate-High. However, the different provinces of Fiji have their own dialects, some more complicated than others. The national Fijian language is called Bauan. Most dialects are mostly similar to Bauan and can be understood by all Fijians. The province I will be staying in, on the other hand, is significantly different. That means I’m back somewhere near square one in learning language. My new village can speak and understand Bauan, but they prefer I learn the dialect and I’ve been told by other volunteers it goes a long a way with gaining respect and leverage in the village. Language training has not been completely wasteful for me because the dialect still follows the same phonology and while many of the words are different and some of the grammar changes, the rest remains the same. The most unfortunate part is that if I ever become proficient at it, I won’t be understood outside my province and some neighboring ones, so I’ll have to use English if I go anywhere else in Fiji. On the plus side, the dialect is very similar to that used in the Yasawa Islands of Fiji which is the most beautiful tourist spot so at least I can use it there if I take a vacation.

Our last couple weeks in the training village went along normally with a few remarkable days. On the last Sunday in the village, more people showed up at church than usual. Our language teacher asked each of us to prepare a short speech to give during the service. A few of the community members gave speeches to us first and some of the women began crying. Later, we stood up in front and delivered our brief speeches of gratitude in front of more crying women and even a few teary-eyed men. We presented a gift to our language teacher and the service proceeded on as usual. This was actually a few days before we were to leave, but it was a good opportunity to say something anyway. The last couple nights in the village we went to the community hall and stayed up late with the village. They played guitar, sang songs, danced, and drank plenty of kava. The very last night, we couldn’t stay up too late because we needed to wake the next morning and prepare for our swearing-in ceremony. After we left, a group of villagers stayed in the community hall and continued singing and drinking kava. When I woke up at around 5:30 the next morning, I could still here the same people singing. It is not uncommon for people in the village to start drinking kava in the evening and go until sunrise the next morning. My understanding is that it is, however, uncommon to continue singing that long. I suppose that night was a special occasion for them. Later in the morning a couple taxis came by to pick us up. Several dozen people came out to see us off and we said our goodbyes to our homestay families and neighbors. Many asked when we would come back and visit. We told them in not too long.

The swearing-in ceremony, where we officially go from being Peace Corps Trainees to Peace Corps Volunteers, was held that same day at the U.S. Ambassadors house. The Turaqa Ni Koro (Mayor) and Chief of our training village accompanied us. The ceremony was simple, it consisted of several different speech-givers and ending with us reciting an oath. There was a little bit of food and mingling afterwards. The local TV people came around and filmed some of the event (there is really only one major TV channel in Fiji). We took some pictures and then most of us checked into a hotel in Suva. Later that night, all the volunteers went out and celebrated. We saw ourselves on the 6:00 news covering of the swearing-in, I was on screen briefly a couple times. I got a text from my homestay family saying they saw me and after I moved into my new village I heard the same from a few people. The following morning we took separate buses in the direction of our locations. I traveled with one other volunteer who will be in my area. I moved into the new house without any problems and have been settling in the last few days. There is a sweet old woman who lives by herself nearby who absolutely insists that she do my laundry every week and cook every meal for me. I haven’t met many other people around the village that much as I’ve been a little sick since arriving. Most of the people here seem friendly though. Living by yourself in the village is a much different situation than living with a family and with 4 other friends from Peace Corps in the same place. Also, from speaking with the other volunteers that stayed in other training villages, the magnitude of hospitality I received in Naisogovau (The name of my training village, I’m allowed to publish it now) is not replicated everywhere. The general nature of the Fijian people is open and welcoming everywhere though, so I’m not worried about being accepted into the village.

The first 2 months here were intense and full of many new experiences. The days were usually busy with a set agenda. By contrast, the rest of time here will be much more relaxed, with new events and landmarks being spaced out more widely. My blog will probably reflect this so I do not expect to update every 2 weeks or perhaps every month for the next couple years. I’ll make sure to post new information on my projects as they develop or my personal when it seems appropriate. Thanks to everyone who has read this far.

Post-note: I’ve noticed Michigan Football season is coming up soon. Ever since I learned I would be close to town, I’ve been wondering how I might be able to watch a game online. I figured I won’t be able to see Michigan’s many 12:00 games as they start at 4:00 a.m. here. 3:30 games I might be able to get up early enough for………except it will be Sunday morning here and all the stores and internet cafes will be closed all day. Given that work and play is generally not permitted on Sundays here, I’ll be spending most those days wondering what happened at the game with nothing else to preoccupy my mind. Therefore, I am requesting if anyone can bear the international text rate charges to give me score updates or at least a final score when the game ends. The Peace Corps is stingy about me publishing my contact information so I can’t post my number here, but please leave a comment or e-mail me if you can help out!

Post-post-note: I’ll have a different mailing address soon that Peace Corps also won’t want me to publicly post. I’ll e-mail that address to family members. If anyone else wants it, please let me know.

About a week and a half ago, each volunteer went to visit their respective site they will be living at. About half the group will be moving to Vanua Levu, the second biggest island north of Viti Levu. Some volunteers will be placed on even smaller islands off the coast of the main ones. They all took overnight ferries or in one person’s case, a plane, to and from their sites. My trip was much more simple, I just had to get to the capital and take a 3 hour bus ride to Sigatoka. Once I was in the town of Sigatoka, my village was a short walk away. I travelled there with my Initial Community Contact Person (ICCP), another volunteer staying in a nearby village, and his ICCP.

The day before we set out for our site visits, I came down with my first proper illness, not counting stomach issues I’ve had from adapting to the new food. I had a fever, nausea, and body aches and wasn’t fully recovered the following day. I toughed it out though and had to rest a lot the first day or two of my site visit. I didn’t come across too many surprises at my village. It is set-up similar to how my training village is and the people are open and friendly as always. I spent most of the visit making acquaintances with people in the village, namely important figures like the chief, village mayor, and other village elders as well as with my ICCP and his family. The village built me a small two room concrete house to live in for the next two years. Peace Corps only required it contain a table, two chairs, a bed frame, and access to a bathroom. However, the village placed several other items of furniture, shelving, a foam pad for the bed, plates and silverware, and a couple sinks. It has most of what I’ll need, but I’ll need to buy some of my own things like a gas stove, electric fan (which are absurdly expensive, in the range of $80 for a medium sized oscillating one), towels, and other things. The house has electricity 24 hours a day and clean water piped in from town, although it can go out during dry spells I’m told. All in all the house is about 1.5 or 2 times the size of a college dorm room. It is right beside the river where I can see the town of Sigatoka out my window. There used to be a footbridge that the sugar cane company had built many years ago which lead from very close to my house into town, but half of it was washed away in a flood back in January. Now the villagers have to use the main bridge a little further down, but it only extends the walk into town by maybe 5 minutes.

After I spoke with the community development committee, the details of my project were clarified a bit and it’s a bit different than what Peace Corps listed in my information packet. The primary problem in the village is flooding on the low side during heavy rainfall (my house is on the high side). The village has no footpaths, so they must walk through considerably deep mud and water all throughout the rainy season. My ICCP tells me it gets bad enough that at some points that people won’t leave their houses. The proposed plan is to build cement footpaths throughout the village and dig a drainage ditch on the high side of the village to prevent water from flowing in. It won’t take much design work on my part because they pretty much have that part figured out. For the most part, I’ll be in charge of putting together a management plan for the community to get the funding and labor needed to make the necessary implementations. Beyond that, they are interested in investigating the possibility of digging a well for a water source because they don’t like the unreliability of the current water system. I’m not sure how feasible that will be though, I’m mostly going to concern myself with the flooding issues first. For a secondary project, they expressed interest in having me tutor local students in math and physics. I told them I had no teaching experience but they seemed particularly excited about that for some reason and said they would put together a weekly routine for me to meet with students. I imagine it’ll be something like holding office hours for interested students.

I have a little over 2 weeks left in my training village. I’m pretty comfortable here and none of the volunteers in my village are having any issues. A couple volunteers from our overall group of 32 have called it quits and gone back to America. Language class is not as intense now because we’ve reached a very basic conversational level. The village has gotten used to us and we don’t attract so much attention anymore (but definitely still more than any of the residents). We watch a lot of DVDs with people in the village; they have interesting reactions. Michael Jackson’s death is relatively big news here. It’s been mostly cloudy lately and rains a lot even though we’re supposed to be getting into the dry season. The temperature has been in the 70s mostly, although it soars when the sun breaks through. Over a couple weekends, we went to an eco-park that has hiking paths that go over streams and past waterfalls. At the bottom of the path there is a natural swimming hole with a rope swing above it. It’s a lot of fun to go on the rope swing, you swing off the ledge then fall about 15 feet into the water. One time we visited some local Fijians were there and one climbed up and jumped off a tree about 30 feet above the water. We meet up with all the other volunteers at least once a week for technical training in town. After class we sometimes stop at a local bar. We like it because it’s a relaxed place with a lot of open air and the locals there are always happy to see us. Most the people at that bar are older, but it’s good because the young people bars reputedly full of fights, thievery, and aggressive men (and Fijian men are absolutely huge). Current volunteers have advised us to only go to those ones if we have members of the local rugby team to protect us. It gets boring around here at times now, but I’m still having a good time overall.

Happy 4th of July to the Kohlitz family. Wish I could have been at the farm.

Today we were given the names of the locations where we will be placed for two years. My village is called Laselase and is very close to a town called Sigatoka. It is on the south west side of the biggest island in Fiji called Viti Levu. If you want to find it on a map, try finding Sigatoka, I think Laselase will be too small to show up. I have about a dozen opportunities for different projects, but one the village specifically pointed out is coming up with an alternative water system.

A few notes about the village I've learned so far:

-About 470 people

-Electricity 24 hours a day

-Running water usually, but can go out at certain times of day

-5 minute taxi or bus ride from town, where I can access mail and internet

-Relatively developed area

I have a couple other volunteers who will live fairly close by as well. I'll update when I learn more about it, I think we will visit our sites sometime next week.

Edit: Also just got an e-mail that says I passed my FE Exam (Engineering exam I took before I left for those of you who don't know)!

Quick post and more pictures coming! Language and technical sessions are coming along as usual, so I’ll use this time to try to describe my homestay family and village a little bit. We’ve approximated that the village has around 120 or so people. It’s relatively small and a lot of homes rely on farms for sustenance. The houses come in different shapes and sizes; some made of concrete, others of wood or tin. There is one road that goes around one side of the village and footpaths that weave through it. There are quite a few dogs and chickens that roam around, it’s hard to tell who they belong to, but the people here know somehow. The village has two churches, one for the Methodists and one for Assembly of God. We have a chief who holds traditional, cultural authority of the village. I haven’t seen too much of him, but when I do, he blends in with the village pretty well. You wouldn’t know he is the chief without someone telling you. Another important person is called the “Turaqa Ni Koro” which is basically the mayor of the village. He has been looking out for the other volunteers and me a lot since we’ve gotten here and has been pretty helpful with many things.

In my homestay family, there are 4 people who are usually here. I say usually because the village practices a communal style living where it is not uncommon for people, especially small children, to eat and sleep at different houses. The whole village is only made up of about 4 sub-clans (sub-clans are basically extended families) so just about any given two people in the village can figure out how they are related through blood or marriage. My homestay parents are in their 60s; my father is a native Fijian and my mother was born and raised in Canada before she moved to Fiji about 13 years ago. One of my father’s daughters (he has 6 kids from a previous marriage) lives us and she is 34. Her daughter, 14 years old, also stays here. I celebrated my birthday here a few days ago and they took me into the capital to eat at a restaurant.

The pictures I’m going to try to upload are of the other volunteers and myself and some of my family from when we went out for my birthday. Also, yesterday the volunteers from the other villages came here to visit and my village threw a big party. I’ll try to include a few pictures from that.

Edit: Ok, I'm at the internet cafe now posting this. Follow this link for a few pictures of my family and friends and a couple around the village and at the party: http://picasaweb.google.com/JBlueK/Share?feat=directlink

I’m going to try to upload a few pictures from the training compound we were at for a few nights when we first arrived in Fiji. I don’t have any pictures yet of my homestay village because we were encouraged to integrate ourselves a bit and get to know the people before whipping out expensive cameras and taking people’s pictures. In the coming week I’ll try to get some pictures of my house and the village and post them on here.

A quick recap of the past week: The other volunteers and I are getting along with each other and the villagers. We usually either spend the day doing language class in the morning and having the afternoon free or meeting up and spending the entire day with all the other volunteers from the other villages doing general health/safety/culture training. Language class is still coming along well, I like my instructor and feel like I’m learning quite a bit. Most of the people in the village know us now, they always call and wave to us on our way to language class and we attract clusters of children when we leave our houses. We’ve also been given Fijian names that are supposed to be close to our actual names. Mine is Jeremaia (pronounced Jeremiah, although the J is more of a ch sound and the r is rolled).

This past weekend we went swimming in the ocean for water safety training which was pretty fun. The beaches aren’t what they look like in all the pictures you see of Fiji except at the expensive resorts, but I still had a good time. On Sunday nobody works; we aren’t even allowed to have language class. Several church services are held throughout the day. I went to two, each a couple hours long and all in Fijian. It’s pretty boring, but I don’t have anything else to do on Sunday and the people are thrilled when we show up. The services are pretty similar to that in America except Fijians are way, way better singers. The whole congregation is pretty much like one big choir.

That’s all for now, hopefully I can get these pictures up.

Hello and Bula Vinaka everyone. As I am writing this, I am in my room in the village where I am training. Tomorrow I am going into town so I’m hoping I can stop by an internet café at lunch and update this blog. I’ll try to catch everyone up onto what’ve I been doing the past week or so, but first and foremost, know that I am having a great time so far and I am learning a lot. Peace Corps has some regulations on what I’m allowed to post on here, especially concerning information about my fellow volunteers and our location in Fiji, so I’ll intentionally have to be vague regarding those things.

I arrived in orientation in LA on the 19th and stayed one night at a hotel there. Orientation was mostly filling out more paperwork, listening to lectures on policies and the like, and meeting the other volunteers. All the other volunteers are friendly people and are really motivated and excited about staying in Fiji.

After orientation we took a 13 hour flight to New Zealand, switched planes, and had another 4 hour flight to Nadi, Fiji. The flights went smoothly, no problems with delays or losing luggage. We were greeted by a few current volunteers and some staff members before hopping on a bus and taking a 5 hour trip to the other side of the island. The ride was actually pretty comfortable, 80 degrees maybe, but it felt good with the windows rolled down. Around the country there is a lot of beautiful foliage and it was pretty common to see the Fijians wave at our bus as we drove by.

Our first destination was at a compound just outside of the capital, Suva. The compound was sort of like a camp; we all slept in little houses called bures (similar to cabins) and had separate communal bathrooms and showers. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were held at a cafeteria. I’ll try to upload some pictures of the compound, but the internet at the cafes here is pretty slow so it only be a few, if any at all. We spent a few nights here and started safety training, cross cultural exercises, and basic language training among other things. Typically we started at 8:00 each day and finished at dinner time. Everyone was in pretty good spirits while we were there. The weather had been very nice and the Fijian staff was very helpful. Language training is coming along nicely for me, I’ve learned quite a few words and phrases. Integration into the Fijian culture hasn’t been too difficult so far. Sometimes I struggle to remember that I’m not supposed to point with my finger or put my hands on hips which are considered rude gestures. One of the most noticeable cultural differences is the sulu that the men wear, which is more or less like a long skirt. It is considered formal and we are encouraged to dress professionally, so I’ve been wearing my sulu quite a bit. You wear it pretty much like you would wear a towel after getting out of the shower. I actually have 3 of them already (one Peace Corps gave us, one I bought that is nicer and used for dressy occasions like church, and one my homestay family has given me).

After the compound, were broken up into groups of around 5 or 6 and put into separate villages, which are also somewhat in the vicinity of Suva. I am in my second night in the village so far and I am having a good time. The Fijians are very hospitable and we have been well-fed and attended to while we’ve been here. The house I am staying in is nice; it’s made of concrete and isn’t so much different from some smaller houses in America. However, I’m staying in one of the nicer houses in the village. When we arrived, a welcoming ceremony was held where members of the village including the chief introduced us. During this ceremony, everyone sits cross legged on the ground. Sitting cross legged is very common here and is probably the biggest challenge I’ve faced so far because 1. I can barely bend my legs enough to sit that way and 2. If you don’t sit just right, everyone can see up your sulu. The ceremony is also accompanied by the drinking of yaqona (pronounced yah-ngo-na), also known as kava or grog. It sort of tastes like dirty water and gives your mouth a tingling feel. If you drink enough of it, you start to feel groggy and tend to sleep in late the next day. I don’t mind drinking it all. We were also welcomed at the local Methodist Church; religion is a big part of the culture here and people are delighted if we join their services (although the sermons are usually about 2 hours long and almost entirely in Fijian).

I have had a lot more experiences and I wish I could go into detail, but there is too much to tell right now. Things are moving very fast right now and we have been very busy. I expect it to be this way for the rest of training. So far, so good. I am still excited and feel I am making progress integrating myself into the country. Hope everyone is doing well back in the States.

Hi all, this is where I am going to post updates on my Peace Corps service over the next couple years. For those of you who don't already know how blogging works, the newest posts will be at the top of the page and older ones will be under in chronological order. This will be better than sending out e-mails because it will order and consolidate all my updates on this page; I can also upload some pictures.

At the end of each post, if you click on the "comments" link, you can leave some public comments on an update. Or, if you prefer, you can still send me e-mails at jbluek@gmail.com. I'd appreciate any comments or e-mails from any of you over the next couple years to keep in touch. At the bottom right corner of the page, there is a box where you can enter your e-mail address to receive e-mail notifications when I update the blog. This might be useful because the blog might be updated infrequently, depending on my access to the internet. Otherwise, you'll just have to check back every once in a while to see if anything new has been posted.

So, technical things aside, here is some info about Fiji. I'll be in Los Angeles on the 18th for orientation and in Fiji on the 21st for training. The training will be held in a community near the capitol, Suva. During that time, I'll be staying with a homestay family with 5 or 6 other PC volunteers in the same community (I think there is a total of about 30 volunteers in my group, but we'll be split into groups. The groups all come together something like once a week). Training will last 9 weeks. During that time, my address will be:

Peace Corps/Fiji

Private Mail Bag

Suva, Fiji

SOUTH PACIFIC

However, Peace Corps told me that mail may take 4-6 weeks to reach me in Fiji (although other people told me it's less than that), so keep that in mind before sending anything. I don't know what my address will be after training yet.

My job is Integrated Environmental Resources Management. The job description is pretty broad at this point though, so I won't know what my specific project is until the end of training. Other stuff I don't know: How much, if any, electricity and running water will be available, how often I'll have internet access, and whether I'll be in an urban or rural area. I'll make sure to let everyone know that stuff once I learn about it.

I think that covers it mostly for now. I've been told that during training we won't have many opportunities to get online, so it might be a while before my first update. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments or e-mail me them because I still have a little less than a week before I leave. Don't forget to subscribe to receive e-mail notifications of updates in the bottom right corner and to leave comments every once in a while.