My new mailing address is:
Monica Papp
P.O. Box 490
Pacific Harbor, Fiji
I'm leaving my training village tomorrow and I'll be at my new site on Thursday. I'll be even further from an internet cafe there so I might not be able to write as often.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Serua Island
I've just returned from my sight visit. I'll be spending my next two years on Serua Island. The island is very small, only about 30 houses, and almost everyone fishes for a living. It's a chiefly island so the chief of the village is also the chief of Serua Province. Since there're only 14 provinces in Fiji, he's a pretty high ranked chief. It's very different from my training village where the chief is a woman and she's one of the poorest people in the village. In Serua, the chief and his family are very well off for Fiji standards. They even have a car that they keep on the mainland. The village is more traditional than my training village so I'm going to have to get used to that.
My counterpart is the person that I'm supposed to be working closely with on any projects that I do, but he doesn't really talk to me much and I'm not sure why. Luckily I met some other people in the village that are very excited to have me there and seem very motivated to get some projects going. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to be working on. I was supposed to meet with the NGO that has been working with the village, but the meeting never happened. There's a women's group and a youth group that I'm hoping to get involved with. I also visited the school on the mainland that the kids go to and they're very excited to have me work with them.
The Peace Corps tells us that for the first three or four months we should just focus on integrating into the community and try to sit in on as many meetings as possible. They speak a different dialect than the one I've been learning, so my first task will be to learn the language. Luckily it's not too different than Bauan.
I have my own house on the island and it's way too big for just one person. The owners now live in the capital and they said I could stay there for the two years of my service. It's already furnished, but I'm gonna have to buy a stove and a few other things for the kitchen.
Oh yeah and they changed my name. I'm now Saivora, named after the chief's wife. In Fiji, if someone is named after you, it makes you kind of like a godparent and your supposed to give your namesake gifts and treats.
Another interesting thing about the village is that since it's a small island, a lot of people have moved to the mainland. Either because there's no more room on the island to build houses or to be closer to jobs and schools. Some of the people from the island now live together in a settlement nearby on the mainland so it's kind of like the village is split in two. Most of the younger women move the settlement because there's no work for them on the island and so their kids can get to school more easily. The young men can stay on the island and fish until they get married. Then they have to decide if they want to bring their wife to the island or move to the mainland. In Fiji, if you ask someone where their from, even if they live in the capital, they'll tell you the name of their father's village, even if they've never lived there themselves. Most people go back to their villages for holidays, weddings, and funerals. In Serua, some people from the settlement come back to the island every weekend. So family and the village are very important to the people here in Fiji. People are very surprised when I tell them about my family in the U.S. and how we all live in different places.
I really enjoyed my visit to the Serua, but it felt really good to come back to Naimalavau yesterday. I actually found that I missed the village and the people and I was only gone for 6 days. It's going to be hard when we have to leave for good next week. Me and the other trainees are already talking about going back for Christmas.
So has anyone figured out yet how to call me from the U.S? I have gotten any calls or messages. My service provider is Vodafone and they say that to call you just have to dial the country code (679) and then my number, but I haven't gotten any calls. Text messages might be different. It only costs me 20 cents to text the US so it'd be a nice way to stay in contact with each other. Let me know if anyone figures it out.
Moce mada
My counterpart is the person that I'm supposed to be working closely with on any projects that I do, but he doesn't really talk to me much and I'm not sure why. Luckily I met some other people in the village that are very excited to have me there and seem very motivated to get some projects going. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to be working on. I was supposed to meet with the NGO that has been working with the village, but the meeting never happened. There's a women's group and a youth group that I'm hoping to get involved with. I also visited the school on the mainland that the kids go to and they're very excited to have me work with them.
The Peace Corps tells us that for the first three or four months we should just focus on integrating into the community and try to sit in on as many meetings as possible. They speak a different dialect than the one I've been learning, so my first task will be to learn the language. Luckily it's not too different than Bauan.
I have my own house on the island and it's way too big for just one person. The owners now live in the capital and they said I could stay there for the two years of my service. It's already furnished, but I'm gonna have to buy a stove and a few other things for the kitchen.
Oh yeah and they changed my name. I'm now Saivora, named after the chief's wife. In Fiji, if someone is named after you, it makes you kind of like a godparent and your supposed to give your namesake gifts and treats.
Another interesting thing about the village is that since it's a small island, a lot of people have moved to the mainland. Either because there's no more room on the island to build houses or to be closer to jobs and schools. Some of the people from the island now live together in a settlement nearby on the mainland so it's kind of like the village is split in two. Most of the younger women move the settlement because there's no work for them on the island and so their kids can get to school more easily. The young men can stay on the island and fish until they get married. Then they have to decide if they want to bring their wife to the island or move to the mainland. In Fiji, if you ask someone where their from, even if they live in the capital, they'll tell you the name of their father's village, even if they've never lived there themselves. Most people go back to their villages for holidays, weddings, and funerals. In Serua, some people from the settlement come back to the island every weekend. So family and the village are very important to the people here in Fiji. People are very surprised when I tell them about my family in the U.S. and how we all live in different places.
I really enjoyed my visit to the Serua, but it felt really good to come back to Naimalavau yesterday. I actually found that I missed the village and the people and I was only gone for 6 days. It's going to be hard when we have to leave for good next week. Me and the other trainees are already talking about going back for Christmas.
So has anyone figured out yet how to call me from the U.S? I have gotten any calls or messages. My service provider is Vodafone and they say that to call you just have to dial the country code (679) and then my number, but I haven't gotten any calls. Text messages might be different. It only costs me 20 cents to text the US so it'd be a nice way to stay in contact with each other. Let me know if anyone figures it out.
Moce mada
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Site Announcement
Yesterday was what people here in Fiji call "America Day" (4th of July) and it was also the day of our site announcement. They made a big map of Fiji out of rope on the ground and called our names one by one and walked us to our site. All of our host families cried as they called out our names. They're going to miss us and even though my host family can be very challenging at times, I'm definately going to miss my village. I can only hope that my new village will be as cool as Naimalavau. I've also gotten pretty close to the other trainees in my village and soon we'll have to move far away from each other. They're my best friends here so I hope that we'll be able to visit eachother after we move to our sites. I'll also miss all of our Fijian training staff and hopefully we'll be able to hang out sometimes after training is over.
So here's what I've been waiting for! I've been assigned to Serua Island. We're all leaving tomorrow to go visit our sites so I'll have more to say about it when I get back next weekend. What I know so far is that it's a small island off the southern coast of Viti Levu (the main island that I'm on now) near the town of Navua if you're trying to find it on a map. There's only one village on the island and there're about 250 people. The island is close enough to the mainland that you can walk to it at low tide. It has 24/7 electricity and running water. There's supposedly a house there ready for me. My assignment is pretty vague and we've all been told that most people don't actually do what there assignment said. I do know that there's an environmental NGO already working with my island and I'm supposed to have a meeting with them on Tuesday. It's a chiefly island so the chief of my village is also the chief of the province I think. Everyone says that it's beautiful and I can't wait to go see it. My counterpart is the Turaga ni Koro (the village spokesman) and I'll meet him tomorrow and we'll go together to the island. I'll be back in my training village on Friday. Then we have two more weeks of training before we move to our sites. I'll try to get on the internet next weekend to tell you more about my site.
So here's what I've been waiting for! I've been assigned to Serua Island. We're all leaving tomorrow to go visit our sites so I'll have more to say about it when I get back next weekend. What I know so far is that it's a small island off the southern coast of Viti Levu (the main island that I'm on now) near the town of Navua if you're trying to find it on a map. There's only one village on the island and there're about 250 people. The island is close enough to the mainland that you can walk to it at low tide. It has 24/7 electricity and running water. There's supposedly a house there ready for me. My assignment is pretty vague and we've all been told that most people don't actually do what there assignment said. I do know that there's an environmental NGO already working with my island and I'm supposed to have a meeting with them on Tuesday. It's a chiefly island so the chief of my village is also the chief of the province I think. Everyone says that it's beautiful and I can't wait to go see it. My counterpart is the Turaga ni Koro (the village spokesman) and I'll meet him tomorrow and we'll go together to the island. I'll be back in my training village on Friday. Then we have two more weeks of training before we move to our sites. I'll try to get on the internet next weekend to tell you more about my site.
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