Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

In Fiji Christmas really starts when the schools get out for their two month holiday at the end of November and lasts untill they start again at the end of January. This is when people that have moved away from the village, or never actually lived in it, come back to visit family and relax. I say relax because everything slows down during these two months (as if things weren't slow enough). Then as Christmas gets closer, the parties and marathon grog sessions begin. For Christmas Day I spent the morning in my village, then I left after church and went to another volunteer's house in a town nearby. There were four of us that spent the afternoon together cooking and eating and drinking and talking. The next morning we went to the beach and then I returned to my village. The week between Christmas and New Years was pretty much non-stop grog drinking, occasionally washed down by some rum. Now it's normal for me to drink grog everyday when I'm in my village. But usually just for a couple hours in the evenings. But around this time of year, the grog starts flowing first thing in the morning and doesn't stop. Then comes New Years Eve. After drinking grog all day, everyone goes to church from 11 - midnight. Then the water fights start. It's the village kids' responsiblity to fill plastic bags with water and throw them at anyone who walks by. This lasts for about the first week of the new year. Besides that, after church everyone starts drinking grog...again. There's singing, guitars, dancing, baby powder on everyone's faces (I'm not sure what it means, it just always happens), and small groups of people sneaking off to drink rum in the bushes before returning to the grog session. Yes I took part in all this, until about 4:30 in the morning when I couldn't take anymore and fell asleep. 2 hours later I woke up and they were still drinking grog at my neighbor's house. So I went back and we finished at about 10am. Since then the grog drinking has started to slow down, but only a little. It'll still be a holiday in the village until school starts again. It's been a lot of fun, especially since I still enjoy drinking grog unlike most volunteers, but I'm about ready for things to go back to normal. Working on any projects during this time of year is out of the question, so I'm really hoping to get something started as soon as things settledown. I've been in my village about half a year now and I feel like I don't have much to show for it. I hoping that 2009 will bring a little progress. I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays.