Party party party

The celebration!

First we waited 2.5 hours past the start time for the day to begin. Fiji Time. But I spent most of it going around and greeting all the villages and chatting with the teachers from the primary and secondary schools. Looking fly in my sulu jaba. Then there was a beautiful procession from the church with the newly translated book of Mark into my dialect leading the way! It was a very moving experience to witness and hear 100 voices singing and moving all in celebration of their dialect and religion. They walked from the church across the playground where the crisp pages were presented to my chief. This is the first time any of the books of the Bible have been translated into a South Pacific dialect. This was a major feat considering it took a committee months of work.

Next all the villages performed mekes, the traditional Fijian dance. Here is a video of my favorite meke performed that day. The women wore their traditional fabrics and the men adorned themselves in leaves, like in the video. These are the secondary students and one of their teachers. You can hear and see the intensity of the dance. It is incredible to witness.

After the mekes, there were lots of games. The men wove coconut leaves and scraped coconuts. The women competed for who could juggle limes the longest (my village won this one!) The juggling was my favorite and my clandestine love for circus acrobatics was fulfilled. Then there were some games for the kids and they were rewarded for participating with picture books! Yay for books. We were supposed to play a game called vaqiqi moli, where a girl rolls a lime across the play ground to her secret boyfriend. Back in the day, this was the only way two people could let the elders of the community know the couple was serious about each other. The game would usually end in a marriage ceremony. Today, this is mostly played for fun and I had been joking all week about getting married on Friday. There was much discussion amongst the villagers who my "husband" would be, but for some reason vaqiqi moli got scratched from the program. Probably for the best.

That night we drank lots of grog and ate lollipops. There's something fundamentally fantastic about a grown man enjoying a strawberry bonbon, as they are called here.
All in all it was a great day of cultural entertainment. A wonderful paradox -- the prizes to the games were new vodafone mobiles. That was a funny reminder of how Fiji is developing, but still trying to retain their traditions and culture.
vido

Lutu, he's like the village dog...

This is my dog, Lutu. He is precious and brings me much joy. My villagers love this dog as well, which is funny because they are scared of most other dogs, for good reason. They are terrifying, flea-infested mongrels and are just another mouth to feed. But for some reason, they love to pet Lutu, pick him up, watch him, joke about him, and such. He's been a great integration tool for me because now I have something to talk about with everyone. In fact, many times I won't be able to find him and he'll be asleep in someone else's house on a pile of dirty laundry with a full belly of whatever the villagers feed him. He's integrating nicely as well.

In Fiji, family relationships are very important and there are about a million different words for random relations. Relations like your uncle's wife's sister we would just say "we're related" and leave it at that. Here she is your Nana Levu (or big sister if she is the oldest girl in her family), or Nana lailai (little sister if she is the younger sister in her family). And that's if the uncle is on your dad's side. If the uncle is on your mom's side, his wife's sister is just Nei (auntie).

As a sign of respect, we call certain people certain names. I have learned most of my family, and call them by their appropriate names. It is not necessary to know someone's first name and is actually much more respectful to call them auntie or uncle or grandfather. One big cultural difference is how we refer to parents of children. For instance, my father would be called "Amanda's father" or Tamai Amanda because Amanda, my oldest sister is my father's first born child. And likewise my mother would be called "Amanda's mother" or Tinai Amanda. Everyone in the community would know my parents as this and would ask for clarification if someone said John and Lee Anne. So the best part of this story is now people have started calling me Tinai Lutu because he's my first born! Ridiculous but just another example of how fun-loving Fijians can be.

Lutu enjoys eating tinned tuna and milk. Both are expensive here so he eats like a king. He also enjoys chewing anything that moves, or doesn't. His favorite chew toy is my elbow, but I'm trying to wean him into chewing on the rope I fashioned out of an old t-shirt. I'm battling his flea situation now, and although I think he has too many, the villagers are all impressed that he only has 8 or 9 fleas. Apparently they are accustomed to more? His favorite place to sleep is on my face or on my suitcase.

Welcome to the family, Lutu.

some recent news/miscellaneous sentences

The american economy is shite and I'm nervous for my family.
I've spent some time on vacation and I'm scared to go back to my village.
Fiji is indescribable.
I have a dog. his name is lutu, which means to fall because he's still a pup and he falls a lot. I like to watch him eat because his belly gets so fat that all 4 legs can't touch the ground at one time, so he kinda hops around after that. beautiful.
I'm ready to jump into some projects I've been working on. Including but not limited to life skillz workshops at the high school, obtaining a water tank for my village, the mangrove and fruit tree nurseries, clean-up days, etc.
Fart tubes are immature and one of the funniest things about fiji. (Instructions for fart tube: Roll up a piece of paper, a poster works best. Sneak up behind your unsuspecting victim, place prepared fart tube beside their ear, your mouth on the other end. Make fart sound in tube. Laugh hysterically with your friends.)
I've been snorkeling a lot this week and I saw an octopus, a lionfish, a sting ray, a moray eel, a crown of thorns starfish, lots of parrotfish, and a myriad of brightly colored school fish. I'm wondering why I didn't become a marine biologist...there's still time.
I've met many interesting people at this hostel and I'm sad that I will probably never see them again in my life.
I'm growing up.
I'm proud of my friends. In Fiji and in America.
Life is moving.
I want to wear American clothes in my village because wearing long skirts stiffles my movement/body comportment.
My feet are all cut up from the reef. It was worth it. I need to invest in some reef shoes, but the other day I learned how to farm coral and make fish houses. Restoring the reef is extremely important to prevent beach erosion and to preserve the wildlife of Fiji's oceans. We spent an entire day at the Shangri-La resort learning and doing hands-on activities with corals. It was one of the coolest things I've done while here. I got to touch live coral and plant it in the ocean. We also made a fish house out of concrete and old washed up rock. (and we put our names on it so in 30 years I can come back and find it on the reef.) It'll be put into the ocean and will eventually house the coral we planted. A very sustainable project and it was exciting to be a part of it.
I want to speak the language of the Scots, or the Irish. Their English is so different and very expressive in a unique way. It's fun to talk to them.