Systemic Frustrations

I've struggled with the prospect of having no assignment, of not being tasked to really WORK every day, of NOT being expected to be the greatest and do the best.  I love reading, I'm starting to enjoy working in my garden, I'm getting better at talenoa (lit. "storytelling", often trans. "yarning", in short- chatting) with people in my community and I'm trying to just relax.  I'm told that's the Fijian way.

This last week, however, I've started networking with the various ministry authorities located in my city.  I still haven't mentioned what the projects are that are rolling around in my head and that is because I am waiting for the projects to come together a little more.  These ideas are to come shortly.  But what they have meant for me is the chance to really be involved, to be busy and to feel like I'm really being challenged.  After all, isn't this program meant to challenge me?  Perhaps this is just resonance from City Year, where I had ten different responsibilities piled on top of one another and deadlines for each to keep me in motion all the time.  I'm an adrenaline junky and I need deadlines!

The real issue of it is that this program accepts only highly motivated, highly accomplished applicants.  Of the people who convince themselves they are ready and able to live, by themselves, in a remote location in a developing country, who then make it through the 20 page application, the multiple rounds of interviews and the very thorough medical examination, only one in four are admitted.  To be here, you must be persistent, determined and, frankly, stubborn.  You are generally a person who meets deadlines, who tries hard and who makes a good impression as you do such.  So for the directors to expect us to come here and sit on our hands for the greater part of 2 years is ludicrous!

My sentiments exactly

Up until recently, I had some challenging feelings about my assignment.  Without going into much detail, I felt like I wasn't truly needed at my site and I was concerned that I wouldn't really be useful here.  I was also really frustrated with myself for not making more of an effort to get to know my community.  I was perfectly content to stay in my house all day and all night.  In fact, I had come to terms with the possibility of spending the next two years building my literary repertoire and studying for the GREs.  Mind you, these are still major priorities for me.  But as of this week, I have felt new "wind beneath my wings."

It is interesting that my feelings are starting to change, because I've just received the September/October edition of the Coconut Wireless, the volunteer newsletter for our country.  In it, the editors list the issues we may be facing at our current stage in development.  The group I am a part of should be concerned with assignment, separation/ solitude and uncertainty of role. (check check and double check).  Our behavior or reaction might be fright, frustration with self, loneliness, weight or health changes, homesickness and uselessness.  (not so much, 2xcheck, 4xcheck, 6xcheck, check and check.)  We were warned when coming here that we will pass these two years on an emotional rollercoaster and what's worse- every one of our emotions are totally predictable.  Just imagine-- not only are you a mental wreck, but you aren't the least bit original in your pains!

I spent a good chunk of time out of my community last week.  Enough time that I really started to feel guilty about neglecting my work.  I have been really happy to spend time with my friends, but I have also come to realize that, while we make a great group of people, my experience here is not about meeting a bunch of Americans.  I am here to really familiarize myself with my community, the Fijian people and their way of life.

I'm excited to say that I've really started to make connections with people, I have a couple of good friends in my village and in my town and I am starting to be really really really excited about the work I will be doing.  More on that later! :)

The timeframe

After the completion of swearing in, we are sent off to our sites where we are expected to stay for 3 months.   I get the feeling this is a challenging prospect for many of us.  For myself,  I had developed a close support network and not seeing them for several months is really quite difficult.  In addition, immersion into the village life is a big challenge.  On occasion, a brief exit is quite necessary for mental well-being.  As such, I've made fairly regular "restocking" excursions, as well as informative "meetings" with long-standing volunteers. 


These three months, where we do not leave our sites, are intended as an opportunity to get to know our communities, assess their needs, relearn the language as might be necessary and settle in on the whole. I've spent a lot of time in my garden, a lot of time reading and a little time chatting with members of my community.  I feel really bad about this, as I know it isn't a practical way to "get things done," as my old corps motto used to be (oh, NCCC).

Next week, I will be presenting at the Bohi va Rara, or village meeting, about my project ideas.  There are a few things I have on my plate at the village level, and then a handful of projects I would like to undertake at the city level, with the various ministries located a stones throw away and just across the river. 

In the village,  I'd like to set up an isoqosoqo ni marama, or women's group that will meet weekly and undertake a number of income generating activities, in addition to a village clean-up.  I would also hope that this women's group would be an opportunity for these ladies to discuss issues relevant to just them- women's health, menopause, domestic abuse, etc.  There is currently a women's church group, but it is led by a man and they spend most of their time reading from the bible and practicing their singing.

I've been asked to build a bore hole.  From what I can gather, a bore hole is a well.  There are some issues with this project (which I can't publish on the internet, so feel free to ask me about these concerns next time you talk to me), which are why the project had not made much progress when the previous volunteer left the site.  My next big concern is that I have been asked to step out and find the funding and make the bore hole happen, which is not conducive to my program's philosophy of development.  The people I work with here should be capable of repeating any of our accomplishments after I leave.  So I have asked my Turaga ni koro (lit. lord of the village, essentially the village mayor) to put together a water committee with whom I will work and guide through the process of applying for funding.

My House

My house is a two room ranch with a lovely view of the river.   The master bathroom is a cold-water shower over a real flush toilet! Between the shower and the sink leaks, I catch a delightful bucket of water each night which I can use to wash laundry in the morning.  Unfortunately, there was a slight error in engineering of the bathroom and the drain does not lie at the lowest point in the room, so water must be redirected after every shower.   The master bedroom is conveniently located in the kitchen!  I am quite fortunate as I have two, count ‘em, TWO sinks in my house!  I cook on a single burner gas stove and I use a full set of dishware!  The front room has a giant desk that remains unused, and two comfy wooden armchairs which I employ during my reading hours.  There is a large overhang “porch” out front and a small overhang porch out back.   The house  sits on the corner of the main road going inland and the main road into the village, so I am privy to all the village gossip, as people tend to stand chat outside my house late into the night.  Sweet!

My Village

I live in the second largest village in the state of Nadroga.  We are a 2 minute walk (or a 5 minute amble) into the town, which is just across the river.  The old sugar railway used to run behind our village, out the side and across the river by way of its very own bridge, but the rail has been out of commision since 3 years ago, when the bridge collapsed.  Half of the bridge remains, twisted and falling into the river.  When in town, a great place to sit and eat an ice cream with friends is at the “end,” or middle rather, of the old bridge that points straight toward our village.  There are 450+ residents of my village.  Many of the young kids attend school  just on the other side of the (stable) bridge.  The walk to the school passes through the old town, which is a number of store fronts that have been closed for years and years and are now the home to several families.  One such store front has been converted to an Assembly of God church!  The school-age youth in my village, who are generally Methodist, like to stand out in front of the church on Sunday evenings to appreciate the music, singing and dancing, since these are tabu in their religion.

My Belly

 I’m getting fat.  Fatter.  I read that in this program, often guys will lose 15 lbs and girls will gain 15 lbs.  Someone has said that the reasoning is that men process complex carbohydrates differently than women do, and the Fijian diet is VERY heavy in starches.  I think this may be possible.  I think, additionally, men are able to be more independent here-they can run alone, they can wander in the woods alone, they can do all kinds of things that women are discouraged from doing so they are able to be much more active.  I am trying to work in my garden, exercise in my house, and train a little outside with some of the women from the village, but I find more often than not, I’m just staying lazy.

My Garden

My program encourages us to maintain a backyard garden and I am absolutely thrilled.  The idea is that we keep a garden, thereby demonstrating to the village how easy and successful a home garden can be, and encouraging them to eat locally, independently and with the ability even to sell the excess produce and not just save money, but actually earn money!  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), many people in my village already keep their own gardens and, while they often offer help to me, many times they scoff at my feeble attempts to till the soil or build a proper fence.

At any rate, directly behind my house is a flat piece of land that seemed perfect for my garden. Actually, there are a few faults- my clothes line runs directly overhead and the land is on the South side of the house, so it catches shade most of the day- but considering the amount of sun we get, a little shade ain’t half bad.  First I began by marking off where I would like my plots to be.  I then turned the soil.  I made rows between the plots and added the extra soil to the plots to make hills, thereby creating a draining system.  Chickens run loose around the village so as soon as I turned the soil, they started hanging around my yard to get the grass seeds.  (Also, there was an issue with dogs doing their duty on top of the piles of soil- I don’t know WHAT their deal is with that, so weird!)  Because of this,  I am currently in the process of building a fence around my plots.  Originally, I dug holes and sunk posts, connecting each post with a couple of cross hatching sticks, but I came to realize this was a poor excuse for a chicken fence as they had no problem walking through the gaps.  So now I am splitting posts and sinking them in, 5 inches apart and with one layer tilted in one direction and another the other.  Hopefully this will work.

Because I have clearly formed plots with banana leaves lying across them to keep the soil from drying in the hot sun, and I’m clearly working in the garden several hours a day, people ask me what I’ve planted.  I keep having to tell them that all I’ve planted so far is a fence.

Volunteers

I’ve gotten to know many of the current class of volunteers as well as a number of those from previous classes.  From what I can tell, people who sign up for this sort of work are an ilk unlike any other- wanting to make a difference, eager for action, easy to befriend, and certain to be unique.  There are 25 of us in our group, now spread all over Fiji, and I must admit, I’m sad for the loss of them.  Fortunately for me, there are a sprinkling of good people near enough to me that we can meet up often for coffee or tea (or cookies and soda).

Heat

Much like Brazil, there isn’t a lot of heating available in Fiji.  Being a tropical nation, temperatures rarely drop below 65 degrees.  As such, houses are poorly insulated and water comes cold.  I mean really cold.  I have had running water since arriving here, but the idea of standing under freezing water, under ordinary conditions, is unbearable.  I have taken to either showering after a run, when I am already too warm and the cold water is refreshing, or drawing a bucket bath (fill a bucket with water and use a small basin to pour the water over self- the real challenge lies in getting soap rinsed free of self) and adding a kettle of boiling water.  At night, one starts sleeping rather warm, lying on top of the sheets, but as the night progresses the blankets are drawn close and the cool air is not seen as favourably.  At one point during training, I found myself curled under a blanket nearly an inch and a half thick!

Training

Upon arriving in Fiji, we were met at the airport by a number of volunteers and staff members.  After passing through customs, we loaded all of our selves and our possessions (including a 15ft surfboard brought by one eager trainee) and our selves onto an open-air bus and started to drive away.  Which is when a large cushy touring bus arrived, windows dewed with airconditioning condensation, arrived and we realized we had been directed onto the wrong bus- headed in the wrong directions.  (Such an incident is endearingly referred to as getting “Fiji-ed” by previously established members of our clan.)

We traveled part of the way around the southern coast of Viti Levu (the Coral Coast) to a tourist village where we stayed at a resort and received an orientation to training.  There was really nothing of great value learned during this time, just an idea of how training will go.  The next day, we had water safety training on a cold and windy beach, and then spent the afternoon aboard a bus to our next training destination.  Positioned at a technical college, we spent the weekend learning elements of safety and health that we would need to know for the next 7 weeks.  We were then told what languages we would learn, given our first language class, and then divided into training groups. 

On Monday, we were delivered to our host villages where we lived with separate families throughout the duration of our training.  Each week we had language class Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday from 8 am to 2 pm.  Sprinkled throughout, we had a few technical trainings and interviews with various staff members.  Thursdays were “center days,” where all 25 trainees met in town to get more in-depth technical training and a great deal of policy information.  Fridays were spent in brief language classes and then cultural afternoons were divided among the training villages, one per week.  A great meal was provided, followed by cultural information typical of the sort of village we were in and then entertainment, generally a meke performed by the trainees of the village.

My Host Family

I lived with a wonderful family during training.  There were my host mother and father, their 5 children, aged 19-35, plus their oldest son’s wife and their two sons, aged 10 months and 2 years.  My host father is a military officer who has traveled the world, so his English is exceptional.  My host sister, (who I live with mainly during the week while she cares for the small boys and the rest of the folk live at the farm house or at school,) attended an International secondary school where she was only allowed to speak in English, so she also speaks excellent English.  I was truly saddened the day I moved out of their house.

What, you don't like Thoreau?

Apparently Walden isn't interesting enough for some people out there.  Well, I'm sorry! I've been busy.  I told myself I wouldn't be like any of the other blogs I read who didn't post anything during training, but here I am, a week past swearing in and I haven't made a darned post.  I will attempt to update in short bursts, as opposed to one lengthy, boring post.

I’ve been in Fiji about 2 months.  I developed a degree of comprehension in the national dialect of Fijian, Bauan, only to find that I will be sent to a village where the dialect is Nadroga, and thusly quite different.  I begin tutorage shortly.

I’ve been to the ocean once.

From Walden

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."

Week one

Greetings from Fiji!

Week one is down and I'm in an internet cafe on Viti Levu.  I'm staying with a host family and spending much of my day in language and skills classes.  It takes about half an hour to get here into town to use the internet so I haven't had much chance to update.  I'm also using internet at a cafe so I don't have my computer.  I will work on setting up a skype session for some time next week.  I will also try to type a note and bring it in on a flash drive next week, although I hear that can be a good way to get viruses. 

On an interesting note-- I was switched to Integrated Environmental Resource Management instead of Health Promotion!

Staging

We are in Los Angelos now.  After some flight drama and a reroute to Minnesota,  I got to our hotel yesterday afternoon.  The trainees were fortunate to catch a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel and we're actually staying at a really nice place.  After settling down in my room, I met up with a trainee that had shared the bus with me and we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the lobby and greeting folks as they arrived.

I was one of the few trainees that had a room to myself- which was frankly really odd.  I hadn't realized before that I've never stayed in a hotel by myself and I found that I was really lonely!

Today was full of icebreakers and information on basic policy.  We've been off since 3:30 and there will be two busses coming at 6:30 to take us to the airport.  Our flight takes off at 11:30, so I think a handful of us will be having a drink or two at the airport to help us sleep.

Can't wait- I'll be in Fiji tomorrow!  And yeah, Jordan, I will work on updating frequently ;)

The last week

I'm down to my final week stateside.  I've packed my bags, and I have most of my room packed.  Now it's just eating my favorite meals, counting the minutes and saying goodbye.  Monday I will be flying out at 7 am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  Monday evening will be my official registration and Tuesday is scheduled for orientation most of the day.  I'll be flying out from LAX at 11:30pm Tuesday, and we'll land in Suva at 5:30 Thursday.  It's only a 10 hour flight, but we will be crossing the international date line along the way so there's just a touch of time travel in it for good measure ;)

Boom de ah dah!

I love the whole world!

love the mountains, I love the clear blue skies
I love big bridges, I love when great whites fly
I love the whole world, and all its sights and sounds
Boom-de-ah-dah, Boom-de-ah-dah,

I love the oceans, I love real dirty things
I love to go fast, I love egyptian kings
I love the whole world, and all its craziness
Boom-de-ah-dah, Boom-de-ah-dah,

I love tornadoes, I love arachanids
I love hot magma, I love the giant squids
I love the whole world, it's such a brilliant place
Boom-de-ah-dah, Boom-de-ah-dah,

Four Weeks to Go!

My mother keeps asking me if I plan on keeping this blog up after I've gone.  I'm thinking it's because I haven't written in so long.  Well geez, mom- maybe if I had some free time every once in a while I'd post! :P

Not much to say about my imminent departure.  I get a little urge each day to start packing, but I think if I start now, my stuff will just get musty and I'll spend the next 26 days wondering,  "Now... where did I put that shirt?!"

I do have to thank Mr. Will (Who will likely never read this blog- it not being public and all.  I might have to change that.) for his generous donation to my traveling do-gooder campaign.  From him I have received a sweet internal frame backpack, which I'm hoping will carry all of my worldly possessions for the next couple of years.  I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I will only need to bring one bag.

Assignment

I've just purchased The Rough Guide to Fiji by Ian Osborn for my Kindle.  Can't wait to read it and find out about some of the great adventures I could be having!

I've been assigned to a position as a Health Promoter in the Community Health Promotion Project (CHP).  The purpose of the CHP project is to assist all citizens of Fiji to improve their health status through increased health knowledge, better decision-making abilities, public health outreach programs, and improved access to health services.  This is accomplished through the project's four goals:

1. Fijian household members will have increased health knowledge, skills and attitudes, which will lead them to make healthier lifestyle choices.
2. Health and youth service providers will have increased capacity to conduct health promotion campaigns and provide improved services to the community.
3. Fijian health organizations and institutions will function more effectively and have increased availability and quality of materials and health promotion resources.
4. Fijian communities will have increased access to health services because of new or improved networking with health/youth institutions or other communities.

Assignment description aside, there are a few things that I'm hoping to work on while I'm in Fiji.  I have several years of environmental and construction experience and I love working with my hands.  I want any opportunity to build things and be actively involved in physical projects.  Being trained on the process of building wells and rainwater collection systems for clean water, composting latrines for environmentally-friendly human waste disposal and other similar projects would be a compelling challenge for me.  I have been gathering information about home gardening for small and beginning farmers, and I’m in the process of learning best practices for growing one’s own food.  I would be interested in a community garden or family garden project and nutrition education within my community.  Last, and I'm kicking myself because I forgot to add this to my aspirational statement, I wouldn't mind working in a school with elementary students for hygiene education. 

Oh, and I purchased the Survivor Fiji season (Season 14) on iTunes.  I absolutely know my experience won't be like this, but just getting to see the scenery is so exciting- I'm getting the chills just watching!

 

Moving to FIJI!

I found out just a week ago that my assignment will be in Fiji as a health promoter. FIJI!

There's really nothing more to share about it, except that I have 112 days to go.  My departure date is May 17, 2011.  I plan on working until mid-April, at which point I'll return to MI to spend time with mom and Grandma.  Right now I'm just reading a lot of blogs to find out what things will be like while I'm there.  I've got to get ready for work, but I will write more later.