Senior-itis

I didn't keep up with this blog at all in the last YEAR. My bad. I have less than 3 months left in my service before heading back to New England. Volunteers talk more about what is going to happen back home as oppossed to what is going on in the villages and peace corps work related stuff. For me, we had a huge rugby/netball tournament in the village last week. I worked to get sponsorship for it and 25 teams ended up coming. Between ticket sales and food and stuff the village made over 2,000 bucks in 2 days. In a few more weeks we're holding a big workshop with presentations from the University of the South Pacific, World Wildlife Fund and more. I feel like I can't do any more except hang out with my friends in the village and bond before I go. My time to just enjoy village life (and town days) is here. At the end of my peace corps experience I can look back and see that, despite my fears, I did make an impact in my community. I spent so long adjusting to village life, and food and customs and all sorts of bullshit. Now that I'm comfortable and happy I must depart. Can't say I'm too sorry about that. The plan is to move to Boston with my girlfriend and see what happens.

I have to say thanks to a lot of the volunteers i've been with out here for the last 2 years. The people on Vanua Levu are, for the most part, pretty awesome people. I can't imagine going through this experience without the moral support from my peers. We certainly had some fun too.

Now, if FRE-8's see this, I have some advice. Enjoy yourselves! Fiji can be a pretty frustrating place, so don't forget that a beer is only 3.50 fijian dollars. And also, one of you lucky people will be replacing me in my village on the north island. I don't leave the country until after you guys go to site, so we'll be sharing my house (or you can shack up at the tauranga ni koro's house). It'll be fun! By fun I mean cramped and smelly, because my one room house aint that big and it kind of smells like piss alot of the time for reasons unknown. And also there are giant spiders and rats. Welcome to Fiji. But on the bright side, you will have the novelty of living in a pretty awesome Bure for 2 years. I helped to build it when I first got here so you'll have to take good care of it...maybe buy a shelf cause I never did.

OK, so long forever internet blog. See you real life people in America!!!!!!
(I heard KFC has a bun-less chicken sandwhich called the 'Double-Down'? I told other volunteers about it and it makes our heads spin. "The breasts are the buns?!? Awesome!")

Happy 1st Birthday Bigsby!

I just wrote a really really long note about how I tried going vegetarian and the reasons why it doesn't work for me. I think I sounded a little psycho so I erased it all. I think at one point I said I'd eat horse. Anyways, long story short, vegetarian and me don't mix. Nothing personal it's just a difference in opninions. We are unable to see eye to delicious cuts of meat..I mean eye! Eye. And smoking too. Sorry. Can't stop. I've cut down a lot but, baby I just can't quit you. I blame Crystal for leaving her purse unattended when I was 17 and allowing me to steal cigarettes from her. I didn't actually start smoking until about 2 years later but the damage was done. Thanks sis. When you're done poisoning me with your habits I think we should go down to the orphanage and punch some babies, is that something you'd be interesed in doing? Fascist.

Well today I am in town, coming back from a "fish pond open house" in some village somewhere in Fiji. Mysterious, eh? I couldnt find that place again if my life depended on it. It was a kind of pointless thing for me to go because I know (or believe I know) how to go about getting our ponds built, but I got my buddy Apolosi to come along and asked some important questions to ministry of fisheries people. I think he's excited and motivated now to get this thing off the ground. Bonus. Other volunteers were there too, double bonus. And we bailed early and walked for about 4 miles before we got picked up and shuttled back into town. And then my other friend showed up and we went dow....anyway, I digress.

I feel a little wired today. Mostly just in my hands though. I have my first Fijian illness! I have a cold. I can't believe I've been here so long without getting sick. (says mike days before he contracts ebola laced rabies). Luckily I used all my cold medicine when I found out I was allergic to Bigsby (who has moved in with another family, but comes around often to get some real lovin). So I'm a sniffling sorry mess at the moment. Could be worse. It could be better though too; now that I think about it.

I have some work related objectives in town today before I catch the bus back home, so I am off. But before I go would like to announce that my dog Bingo ate a dish sponge yesterday while I watched helplessly while talking on the telephone. He dragged it outside, my last sponge, and then shredded to a thousand pieces. When he was done he peed for good measure. He later tried to come into my house begging for food. I gave him the spiciest hunk of homemade chilie I could make. I am determined to get every piece of that sponge back.

Happy Early Birthday Kaitlyn!!

Power Rangers Jungle Fury is a stupid show

Can someone back home find out if you can get stuff called Natralla? They are like little protein balls of spongey goodness. I cant keep meat so they are my substitute and very easy to cook with. I'm contemplating going vegetarian for the rest of my peace corps time. It would be easy as pie to do here, i just wouldnt eat fish in the village...and restrain myself from ordering chicken enchillada's at the Captain's Cafe in town.
Glad to hear that Mems is doing alright after her big surgery. And thanks aunt donna for sending those e-mails with updates. I think my mom tries to shelter me from anything that she thinks will "upset" me so I get little to no news about matters of concern. Good thing Ashley can't keep her mouth shut or I'd never know anything. So yeah, it's been a year since I left, one year today. I feel good about that. I've seen and done a lot in Fiji and looking forward to part 2 of the whole experience.

Oh! and happy late birthday to my Pops. 60 years old. That's one year for every time you'd get mad doing yardwork or household maintenance. Priceless. Remember how you'd throw a fit every summer while trying to install the pool filter. Every year was a battle of wits against that unholy machine but you always pulled through with help from vulgar outbursts of profanities and sweat. Thanks for being you Dad! Love Ya!

Hi Memere! Don't worry about your surgery, you'll be fine. If you were having surgery in a Fijian hospital then there would be reason for concern. But alas, you are in the States and in good hands. I wish I could be there to see you all doped up on those crazy knock out cocktails. Good luck with the new ticker!

Hello everyone else! My house was finally furnished with a working toilet, shower aaaaand running water two weeks ago. I got to cook my first meal in my house and it was awesome! I've been turned on to these little soy balls called Nutralla, or something like that. They are like little spongy balls of goodness that store easily and can be used as a meat substitute in a pinch. I cooked instant noodle pasta with nutralla ballz in a homemade sauce and it blew me away....and made my tummy hurt. I went a little nuts with the chili powder. It was a little sad to be eating alone in my house though. I've become very accustomed to dining with my neighbors for every meal. I certainly will not miss the Ika vakalolo for breakfast lunch and dinner (thats fish in coconut milk). I will miss the company though. In fiji it is bad to be hanging out by yourself a lot of the time. If you are waiting for the bus by yourself and someone walks by they'll probably end up sitting with you until the bus comes....sometimes without talking. When I was eating my first meal two old ladies walked by my front dor and saw me goin to town on lunch all by myself. So they came over and sat in my doorway, watching me eat and saying, "oilei, maikeli" every 2 minutes. Thats just something they say when they have nothing to say, just nod and smile and Oiiileiii.
Last week I worked with the mothers group from Nasinu school again to get some sports jerseys for the boys teams. A while back we wrote letters and had a big fundraiser for girls uniforms. This time the mothers club is going to go to work on a Yaqona plantation and the owner will give them the money they need. All they needed from me was to write a letter to all the resorts and business owners in the area asking for a donation to supply transportation for all the eager workers. I think there's gonna be like 50 moms out there sweatin balls in the sun for rugby jerseys. I'm not sure when they are actually going but I'd like to go with them...if not only to feel more connected to the group. The club president is a sweet old lady that I really like names Pa. I think I could do a lot of good work with her in the future.
The Fre-5's are leaving soon! Thats the group that was here when I got to Fiji. It stinks that they're goin. Good luck in the States, hope you can find jobs. That also means us 6's have hit the one year mark....Caaaa-raaaay-zeeee. Time has started to just kind of slid on by. 7 months ago I was worried cause I couldnt find any projects to take on and now I feel like there wont be enough time to finish everything the village and i have planned out.
I heard a story of some white dude who found out he was gonna be deported from Fiji. He was on a plan between the islands and freaked out and tried to jump out of the plane, claiming he was gonna take people with him. That guy sure loves Fiji.

Fish Ponds & junk

I'm trying to write an article for a newsletter but PCV BRETT is talking on Skype and is being really loud and I can't concentrate. Do you read my blog Brett? If you do you should keep your voice down in the internet cafe, cause it's really distracting.
Our new project in the village is to construct some groovy fishponds. We found out that ministry of fisheries will supply juvie fish and feed for one year if you pay to have the ponds dug. I'll be drafting a grant proposal soon that all you lovely people back home can donate money to in order to help us fund our pond. The money made from selling the fish will go towards school fee's for kids in the village and on going projects like building a community hall. I'm lucky to be in a village where they recognize you have to have patience and that I am not here to simply hand shit out or find wads of cash to give to them.
I was in labasa town this past weekend. I had a spectacular time seeing some PCV's i don't get to see that often and also I was surprised to have the pleasure of hanging out with some PCV's from Viti Levu who were doing a work exchange up here on Vanua Levu.
Sorry, but I don't feel very inspired to write much more, anyways i'm supposed to be writing some articles and now i've become a distraction for myself.
Later

It if wasn't for my Mom I would have died on the streets cold and hungry a long time ago

So the GYD meeting went very well! I learned a lot and I'm hopeful it will help me come up with new ideas for things to do around the village. However what was not awesome was on Friday night when the ATM machine ate my ANZ bank card and I got stranded with almost no money. I freaked out and called Peace Corps staff member who was very helpful kept me calm. Turned out the cards the machine eats get collected and you can just go to the bank and pick it up. Coincidentally, the banks were closed on Monday as it was the Prophet Mohammads birthday. I was going to just go back to the village and come back but 4 hour bus rides 6 times in a week did not intrigue me at all. Called my PM told her what was going on and stayed with a PCV in town. Today is Tuesday and I got my card back. However, I got the run around at the bank for about 2 hours and I missed my afternoon bus back to savusavu town...and from there i would have gone back to the village. So instead of getting into Savusavu at 9 tonight and paying for a hotel room for the night, i'm staying in labasa once more. I called my PM and when I said I missed my bus she laughed at me. Why does this shit always happen to me? It can never just be simple. Like I couldnt have lost my card on thursday night and gotten back the next day.. No, I had to loose it at the beginning of a long weekend.
I'm excited to get back and share with my counterpart what I learned at the conference and talk about future projects, as well as check on the status of some ongoing things we have working.
That's all for now,