shhhh shhhh shhh shhh shhh shhhh shhhh

That's the sound of 180 students, 8 teachers, and 1 Peace Corps Volunteer brushing their teeth together. It was a wonderful sound.

Colgate-Palmolive donated 100 toothbrushes and 100 tiny tubes of toothpaste to our school and the schools around Fiji for National Toothbrushing Day. (I especially liked the tiny tubes because I love things in miniature.) We did a little tooth brushing skit about all the food that can get stuck in your teeth if you don't brush properly or regularly. We also talked about how this can lead to cavities and your teeth falling out. Then you can't eat kuka anymore! (Kuka are little mud crabs that my area is known for.) It was only a 10 minute presentation, but it was really fun and quite effective.

At 12:29pm and 50 seconds, we did a countdown and then after 1! all the kids kind of looked around like they didn't know what to do. Then the head teacher said, "Brush!" into his loud speaker and everyone giggled and went to brushing. What a success!





I also had some visitors come! One of them was scared my rat might nibble her foot in the night, so the solution was to set up a tent inside my house to act as a mosquito net and rat-proof dwelling. One of the more ridiculous ideas that's happened on this island. After it was set up, we realized there was no way to get to the toilet in the middle of the night so down it came. They all slept like little tots in their sleeping bags on the floor. Luckily, no nibbles.

Up to our ears in voivoi

Voivoi = the plant used for weaving mats

The women in my village spent 3 full days weaving new mats for our village office. It was fun to hang out with them and goof off. Plus I've improved my weaving skills.

Voivoi takes a full week (provided there's no rain) to prepare for weaving. There are many steps, and I forget most of them, but it's a lot of work. Just know that.

I've been kind of a downer lately, so I wanted to post an upbeat blog. In the last photo you can really see the voivoi all over the house. It's hanging, there are strips ready to be used, discarded strips, the actual mat. We ended up weaving 2 mats and they look really nice in the office.