Week 5-6 7 8 9 10... I lost count.

BULA!!!

Oh hello there. I am still in Fiji and it is still amazing. Since I have been here over a month, I decided that I will dedicate this blog to talking about the culture in Suva, where I live. As you know, the people are really nice and friendly. But there's more to it than just friendly people saying bula all over the place. But seriously if I had to pick up all of the Bula's people have said to me since I've been here, it would be like picking an entire bag of rice grain by grain. I love rice jokes by the way.

Life is extremely different here than it is from the US. For one, time means NOTHING in Fiji. Every clock says a different time and everybody pretty much lives on their own time. Appointments also mean nothing. I also have learned a lot of life lessons. For instance, you cannot take a long walk without sunscreen on at noon. Also, you have to start doing laundry 2-3 days before you really need to start doing it. Not many people have dryers here so clothes have to dry outside and if it rains, you are out of luck. I have also learned to appreciate things back at home such as warm water, microwaves, CVS, and Taco Bell. This place is definitely missing cheesy gordita crunch's. And doritos locos tacos. Also, some nachos belle grande. Even just plain nachos with cheese would be awesome. Or just cheese. There isn't enough cheese in Fiji. The only cheese I eat is usually just on a pizza. Not good enough. Not complaining either, just sayin.

People here wear sulu's which look like skirts. They actually don't like it when you call a sulu a skirt. I think it's because men wear sulu's so it's weird to call them a skirt. I'm beginning to really like seeing men in sulu's though. I feel like guys are more meant to wear skirts because they have such straight up and down bodies while girls are just all over the place in a skirt (Don't tell anybody I kept calling it a skirt...).

Here are some school boys in their school uniform which is usually a sulu. 

Sulu's are actually amazing things. I wear mine all the time because they are so easy. You can wear them as a dress, an under the boob skirt, or as a regular skirt. So awesome. We should make them a thing in the US. 

Suva is not exactly what you would picture as stereotypical "beautiful Fiji". It is a city so I guess you can say it's "dirty". It's nice though because I'm not in the middle of nowhere so if I need anything it's easily accessible. Another thing about Suva is that there are hardly any white people. Usually if I see a white person, I either know them, they are also working/volunteering here for a certain amount of time, or a cruise ship has arrived. Most of the people are either Fijian natives or Indian. Loads of Indians were brought over by the English [hundreds?] of years ago. It was because the English found out quickly that Fijians are always on "Fiji Time" and didn't like to work. This still seems to hold true today. The Fijians just seem a lot more relaxed than the Indians. I believe it is because in order to not sweat in the hot heat, the Fijians have figured out that they must do things in slow motion.  Not trying to say anything bad here just different lifestyles. 

I take the bus to the Suva bus station everyday to get to work. I then walk 10 minutes down Walu Bay. It's a really nice walk. The bus ride is fun because buses here usually don't have windows and they also play really loud music like you're in a club. It's hilarious. They also give some popular American songs a "Fiji remix" which is also hilarious. I've heard Payphone by Maroon 5 at least 100 times with a Fiji remix. They even go as far to give Celine Dion songs a Fiji tune. The Fiji remix just makes any song sound happier and more Islandy. There are a lot of new songs I've heard at the bar that I like as well. Here are two songs you can check out if you'd like: 

Mampi- Why

Desi Boyz- Subha Hone Na De

This is a normal looking bus in Suva. Notice the lack of windows.

This is the bus station where I'd catch my bus home

                                          This is a view by the front of my house

Directly outside of the bus station in Suva, there is a lot of food being sold for very cheap. It is also a good place to buy some local fruits and vegetables. Everything in Fiji seems to be about food sometimes. People are always asking if you want more. 

                                                           This man wants some corn.

You can buy some fish for only $2 Fiji/$1.10 US

          This is this week's special novelty cake.

I learned about an interesting food here it's called a bread fruit. I really like bread fruit not only because of the taste but also because it tastes exactly like how it sounds. It tastes exactly like bread fruit. If I was the first person to find it, I would've named it the exact same thing. Pretty cool. 

So far I have used 3 bars of soap. I'm not really sure if that's a lot actually since I don't normally use bar soap at home. Just stating a fact. 

One weird thing I have noticed since being here is the large amount of transvestite people. They are boys who at a young age (as young as 4) start to have feminine qualities and eventually start dressing like women. At night I see them running from the police a lot. They are only the Fijian's, not the Indo-Fijian's so maybe it could be genetic? Not sure but it's interesting. Look into it if you want to and please let me know. 

Going to the movies in Suva is extremely popular because they only cost about $3.50 US. Also, a lot of movies come out in Fiji before they do anywhere else. I have seen at least 8 movies since I have been here which is a lot for me. It's also amazing to go to the movies because I don't watch tv anymore so watching things on a giant screen has gotten a lot more entertaining. The movie Snitch was pretty good. Safe Haven was also good and gets pretty intense for a romance. I didn't really understand Side Effects and it was a shame because I saw it with my non English speaking housemates who were relying on me to understand the movie. Ooops. 

This is a picture on the way to the movie theater. It's the orange building to right right. 

The Indian food here is amazing. All they really eat is roti which is basically like a burrito with curry in it. A few weeks ago we went to an Indian restaurant called Ashiyana and I shared a cashew vegetable and a spicy cottage cheese curry roti with Ina and it was amazing. 

Eating roti's at Ashiyana! Mmmmmm

Another interesting fact: Fijians like to eat everything with their hands! Some people say it tastes better. I eat some things with my hands but not everything. 

I had a pretty cool day a few weeks ago I'd like to share it with you. A few weeks ago, Ina and I thought of a great last minute idea for me to help teach her class of around 40 ten-twelve year olds. We thought of it because Ina had to be alone with the class for the entire day so I thought it would be cool to help. I decided that I wanted to teach the kids about wild cats all around the world. That morning, I left to the SPCA like I normally do but instead of working with the animals, I got straight to working on gathering as many amazing pictures of cats on my tablet as I could. I gathered pictures of cats from each continent (except Antarctica and Australia) and decided to give a geography lesson at the same time. Cats included mountain lions, ocelots, lynx, tigers, cheetahs, leopards, and more. When I got to the class, the kids were extremely excited to be learning about cats from a girl all the way from New York. They were really into it and enjoyed seeing all of the pictures as I walked around the room explaining each cat  and giving interesting facts with my tablet. At the end I asked questions to the class to test them and they got all of the questions right. They all even had their own favorite cats! It felt really good to get the Fijian class into something I am so passionate about. 

Ina helped me quite down the class a lot. She's a good strict German teacher. 

I came to the class at the end of the of the day so once I was done with my cat lesson, it was time for the children to pack up and leave. Since Ina and I were in such good moods, we decided to head down to the Fiji Museum before it closed. It was really interesting learning about the history. 

The outside of the Fiji Museum in Suva. 

We learned a lot but the absolute coolest thing we learned about was the cannibalistic nature of the Fijians. 

Read this if you're interested: 

  

               Here is a Cannibal Fork

 Cannibal fork said to have been used in eating some of Mr. Baker's flesh

Outside the Fiji museum was extremely beautiful. I want to have a picnic there some day. 

I even saw a mongoose here! My second wild mongoose I've ever seen!

Yeah so pretty good day. We even walked home from the Fiji Museum because it was nice out. It was about an hour and a half walk and we stopped at the super market to refuel. They sell a lot of different interesting chips here in Fiji. For instance, they have a lot of chicken flavored chips. They also have burger flavor. The burger flavored chips taste a lot like fart. 

Chicken flavor to the left, fart flavor to the right. 

It was nice to take a short eating break at the bus stop. Ina bought some rice bhuja which is basically just rice and bhuja. She shared it with me and it was really tasty. Kind of spicy noodly rice things. 

Rice Bhuja

On the walk we saw cool flowers like this one: 

Three weekends ago, around 11 of us went to Beqa Island which is a small island southwest of Suva. It was really fun and beautiful as always. 

Here's the group chillin in our taxi van that was taking us to Navua which was where the boat to Beqa Island was picking us up. 

Beautiful Beqa (pronounced Benga)

This is fluffy, resident of the hotel we stayed at and ex resident of the SPCA!

Pretty flower at Beqa Island

I'm extremely proud of this bed idea so I would like to share it with you. We wanted to somehow fit 4 people in 3 beds with only 2 bed stands and 3 mattresses so I thought of the brilliant idea to slide the end beds a little off the bed stand on the outside giving the middle bed some of each stand and voila! It looked a lot better the night before... but yeah. 

So another beautiful weekend happened in Fiji. Life is really good. I also got a chance to visit a Fijian village but I'll save that for another blog post. But yeah life is always interesting here and I meet new people everyday. New volunteers come in every week also so It's always fun to see new faces being excited about Fiji. 

Since this is a blog post all about Fijian culture, I must end it on a picture of a kava shop. Fijian's love their kava which is a drink that kind of tastes like soil but makes you feel numb. They say when you've had too much, you can't move your body at all. These shops are all over the place just like liquor stores.  

Moce!! -- Bye!! 

Vinaka -- Thanks

Week 3-4

Bula from Fiji! I feel like I have been here 1 week and I've already been here for four! It's crazy how time flies here. Everybody is so friendly. You can't walk around anywhere without at least 83% of the people you pass saying hi or bula to you. A lot has happened to me since my last blog post. For instance, I am now a certified scuba diver! Yay! Yeah a few of us got certified to be able to go on a shark dive and a night dive. I'm really excited for both. Also, more volunteers arrived and left and another birthday happened. So prepare your ear holes (or rather eye sockets) for this is what I've been up to for the past two weeks: 

Two weekends ago, five of us got PADI open water scuba certified in Nananu-i-ra at a place called Safari Lodge. The snorkeling there was incredible with corals right at the surface the but the diving was even better (duh). Our instructors, April and Craig were awesome and from British Columbia so it was nice to be with some fellow North Americans. We did the scuba class in three days and it was normally supposed to be done in 4-7. So it was a crazy crazy 3-day weekend for us with constant studying and diving.

 The second we got there, we had to start watching the long chapter video in order to start answering chapter questions the next day. It was difficult to be forced to do homework during the beautiful sunny day on Saturday but we got the chance to practice scuba drills after lunch. It was all good and we all felt in good hands with our instructors. 


The most difficult part of scuba diving was probably getting used to creating neutral buoyancy but by the 3rd day we were all pros. These scuba classes usually take place in a swimming pool and we got to do it all in the warm beautiful Fijian Pacific Ocean. I'm also pretty sure that there isn't a cheaper place to get certified since we only paid about $300 US for the entire class which included 4 beautiful dives into Fijian coral reefs. So yeah totally won at getting scuba certified. 

We Did It!!

Here is a Fiji Clownfish in its natural habitat

The diving wasn't the only amazing thing about the weekend. We were the only guests staying at the lodge the entire time. So we basically owned the place. Also, the dorm we stayed in was located up a huge hill which had the most amazing view of the ocean. We all felt so at home there at the Safari Lodge in Nananu-i-ra, I never wanted to leave. 


The stars at Nananu-i-ra were something that can never be explained. I have never seen so many stars in all my life. Yeah yeah I bet you've heard people say that a million times. But trust me, I've been to the middle of nowhere also but nothing compares to what I saw. Not only were the stars abundant, they were surrounding us like we were in a dome or a planetarium. You can see stars if you just look straight ahead!I think it has to do with being so close to the equator. A few of us were so amazed by the stars that we actually fell asleep outside for a few hours. The stars I saw that weekend really made my entire trip to Fiji worthwhile. I'll never forget how beautiful the sky was.

So yeah getting back to work again was difficult but I started on a Tuesday because we needed Monday to finish our scuba certification. I still see a lot of sad cases but being close friends with all of the animals makes it all better. 

This cat did not want to get her picture taken. 

I just so happen to work across the street from the Fiji Bitter beer factory. Oh how convenient. I still have yet to go in there though. One day...

This was a sad find hiding in a room waiting to be put down. The owner brought this completely emaciated dog into the SPCA and asked to have it put to sleep. This type of neglect happens more times than I'd like to say in Fiji and is heartbreaking every time. People here really think differently of dogs and it makes me sick. Today, a man came in and asked the vet nurse if he can have some poison to get rid of the stray dogs annoying his livestock. The vet nurse had to explain to the man that the SPCA is the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. He didn't understand and again asked if he could have poison for the dogs. Eventually he walked off angry for not getting what he wanted. I just hate people sometimes. 

Home life during the week has been great. I took last weekend off from traveling and just stayed home and relaxed. We went to the Holiday inn hotel in Suva a few times because they thought we were guests only because we're white. Racism at it's finest right there. They have a nice pool and bar there so it's great. 

 I really enjoy spending time with my German housemate, Ina. I think we get a long so well because we brush our teeth for the same amount of time. You can really tell how close you will be with somebody based on how close your tooth brushing times are. There are eleven new volunteers coming in in March so I'm excited to meet a lot of new people. 

I found out that I think I'm allergic to roro leaves (it's kind of like spinach) because they make me extremely numb. It's a weird feeling, kind of feels like I swallowed a bunch of Novocaine. I actually freaked out one night after I ate a lot of roro leaves saturated in coconut milk (amazing). I tricked myself into thinking a cut on my foot was infected because it was white and numb. I almost went to the hospital but my host family calmed me down and cleaned my wound. I'm stupid. But seriously cuts get infected a lot quicker here than at home and if you don't take good care of yourself, you'll probably get sick and die. 

I'll have end this post a bit quickly because I'm about to run out of time at the internet cafe. Sorry about that. Here's some laundry. Ciao!! 

My laundry got rained on the other day. It's a hard knock Fiji life over here. 

Week 2-3

 Bula, Hai!!!

That's a cat from the SPCA I work at just saying hi. Well hello there people of the internet. This is the future speaking. The future is looking swell. I had an extremely good first weekend. Luckily it was Mohammed's birthday (the prophet) 2 Monday's ago so I was given a long weekend. I also stayed at one of the most beautiful island resorts ever. I'll tell you more about it later.

Two Thursday's ago, I met most of the current volunteers in the program. This program is great because people from all over the world start and end whenever they feel like it. They are all from Europe. A few are from Germany, a couple are from Switzerland, a couple are from Norway, and two are from The Netherlands. They are all between the ages of 19-24 with one being in her 30's. So a pretty awesome bunch. Everyone is really friendly and we all get along swimmingly (cause we all swam a lot 'n stuff). This is probably the biggest culture shock of a place, being halfway around the world with Europeans but I'm seriously loving it. I help them out with English a lot. There are a lot of German speakers so whenever they speak German, I just scream NEIN!! 

Every Thursday night is the program's social night. It's not mandatory but it's a fun time for everyone to meet up for dinner then go to the bar. The bar we always go to is called O'Reiley's.  Beer is only about $1.40 US when we go so it's amazing. The beer here is called Bitter. It's pretty good and isn't bitter despite the name. 

 Here's my pseudo Madison with some Fiji beer! 

 

Food here is still amazing. All last week I was eating pumpkin and coconut everything. I'm eating more seafood here than I have ever eaten in my entire life. The seafood doesn't taste fishy or anything it just tastes fresh and delicious. Also, every dinner and lunch is packed with rice. I can't even begin to explain to you how packed my body is with rice. If I were to draw you a picture of my stomach right now, it would be at least 3/4's filled (no spaces in between) with rice. There is probably free floating rice in my bloodstream. If a bird ate me, the bird would blow up (this isn't actually true...). I feel like I should be taking chronological pictures of my belly like a pregnant person. Ok done with food jokes. 

Breakfast is cool too. I eat mostly toast with butter and honey or jam and peanut butter. They also have cereal here which is pretty cool: 

It starts off as a concentrated granola like bar of cereal

 

 Then you add milk and voila!! 

I thought this was pretty cool since you can then add however much sugar you want to it. It's also a good way to measure out serving sizes. Not that I'm am doing that or anything... 

So two weekends ago, I went to a beach resort called Uprising in the Pacific Harbor just an hour away from my host family. It was really beautiful and only cost about $20 US per night. 11 of us went and we stayed in a dorm which was just filled with bunk beds. It was cool and we actually met two UK born Australians that we kept running into at O'Reilly's (the bar). It's a small word down here. 

                                     

This is the dorm we stayed in

The place was beautiful and the water was warm but wasn't great for snorkeling. There was also a pool so it was nice to sand-off in it after beaching. The pool was also nice at night because it was great for bat watching. The bats here are HUGE!! I can't stop staring at them when they fly by. 

I really liked how soft the sand was at the Uprising Resort. The food was also very good. We played beach volleyball I think everyday we were there. By Monday, I had to stop playing because my arms were going to fall off. 

Yeah so that was a really good first weekend and one of the best parts was how well everyone got along. We all ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner together everyday and relaxed around together. The volunteers are a really great group of people and we look out for each other. We all just really want to have fun and at the same time work on our projects (most of the volunteers are dealing with children). 

Getting back into the work week was quite a transition. At the SPCA, I help take care of feedings and cleanings in the morning and right now I am doing some research for a project. I am often told to rest after performing a task which is quite different than what most Americans are used to. It is much needed because working outside in the heat really makes you tired. I've seen a lot of sad cases come in where animals had to be immediately put to sleep. This job is definitely not for the faint of heart. 

Here is an example of one of the worst cases I have ever seen in my entire life: 

 

This dog was somebody's pet that they left to get eaten by mites without much food or water. This is a heartbreaking story but it just makes me more motivated to help change the way Fijians view dogs. That's why I am starting a project to bring an awareness in order to put an end to animal cruelty. This task will be difficult since it was just recently outlawed for parents to hit their children so it is difficult to tell them to stop hitting their pets. I am looking for ideas to help so please feel free to think of ideas. Right now I am getting ready for a school group that will be coming in on March 1st. So far I have designed a BINGO game for them that will teach them about dogs. I am also training dogs at the SPCA how to walk on a leash and basic commands like sit, come, and stay. I am hoping to organize a dog walk in April that will bring awareness to Fijians. Fijians really don't see dogs the way we see them in the Western culture. I haven't seen someone walk their dog on outside since I've been here. 

Sometimes weird things happen. Like last week, a guy caught a hawk because he thought it was a peregrine falcon. The peregrine falcon is on the Fiji $2 coin so he thought he would make a lot of money off of it. Not only was that the dumbest idea ever, this bird looks NOTHING like a peregrine falcon (google it). I wanted to punch him in the face. 

Hawk disguised as a peregrine falcon. 

Lots of people bring tiny puppies in that quickly get adopted. Like these:

The dogs eat pretty well. We usually feed them rice mixed with some meat. 

Last weekend was extremely breathtaking. 12 of us volunteers took a tiny boat out to a tiny island resort called Leleuvia. The island was only for people staying at the resort and is so small, it only takes 20 minutes to kayak around it. We were originally supposed to stay in the dorms like we did at the Uprising resort, but the dorms were full so they put us in huts facing the beach. Not bad ha. I really really enjoyed Leleuvia because the water was so clear and there were crabs everywhere. I love crabs. 

This crab picked an unfortunate home

Leleuvia was really nice because food and living was all one price. They blew on a conch when it was time to eat. The first night they fed us fish soaked in coconut milk (I can't get enough of it) with Fiji spinach under it. The rest of the meals were interesting Fijian delicacy's. One of the nights there was a kava ceremony. Kava is a muddy soily drink that makes you numb. It's illegal in most places because it can be bad for your liver when taken with alcohol but it is a custom of Fiji. 

The first night after dinner, I decided to go on a night walk around the island with 4 other volunteers. It's amazing how much more wildlife there was at night. We immediately saw a giant crab in the water with hundreds more smaller one's on land. It was so cool! We also got a chance to see a black and white sea snake which was quite thrilling at the moment. 

I spent most of the day on Saturday and Sunday relaxing on the beach. We even played more beach volleyball and we're all getting really good at it. 

Tis a good reason to be constantly playing beach volleyball

I really didn't do too much laying around since there was always fun to be had. I brought a 101 dalmatians sheet with me to Fiji and it has been the greatest thing for beach days. I spent a lot of time relaxing in the water. During certain parts of the day, there was a shelf that got no deeper than one's chest. It was really nice for listening to music in the water. All twelve of us also participated in a walk around the entire island. It was intense! We found out after we did it that we weren't really supposed to but oh well it was fun. 

Two other volunteers and I decided to have some fun with the hermit crabs. They were everywhere so we decided to make a sandy labyrinth for them. Check out this video:

Sunday we really didn't have much time to relax because we had to leave the island by 5:00 pm but three other volunteers and I decided to spend the morning-afternoon snorkeling. It was so amazing to snorkel at Leleuvia because there were lots of corals and beautiful fish. We spotted a sea cucumber and all four of us just watched and laughed at how ridiculous of a life a sea cucumber has. They are just sea blobs. I wish I had a picture. My biggest regret is not having an underwater camera. 

Beautiful Leleuvia!! 

I was ready to get back to work last Monday to work on my projects. In the morning, I feed the cats and then walk some dogs to get them used to a leash. A veterinarian from England will be coming by the end of the month so I will be assisting in surgeries then. 

Last Monday was actually one of the volunteers 20th birthday. He's from Norway and 20 is the drinking age there so it was a big deal. We decided to go out to celebrate on his birthday and just let whatever happen. We first went to Bad Dogs Cafe and I noticed the Super Bowl was on. I heard that Beyonce was performing so I did my good American deed for the day and made all my European football hating friends watch the halftime show. Heh. After Bad dog, we went to O'Reilley's. It was kind of boring since it was a Monday night but the birthday boy decided to buy us all shots. What felt like 18 million shots later, we were all having a good time. 

Ina and me all happy at the bar

We all had a pretty rough day last Tuesday but it was worth it. We all work really hard during the day with our projects so a little bit of fun is good. A new volunteer from Holland arrived last Tuesday and she's sharing a room with me. Her name is Saskia and she's really nice. I also had to say goodbye to 2 volunteers I became really close with last Tuesday. They were both hysterical crying  and didn't want to leave. I'm afraid to leave here too. People just come and go in this program it's really cool. We are all planning to meet up for Oktoberfest in Germany. We'll see about that...

Yeah so sorry that it took me so long to write this blog entry. I honestly tried 3 times to write it. It's really difficult to find down time to sit and write about everything at once because there's so much to see and do here. Yesterday was my designated blog day but the tsunami warning happened and everybody was going nuts. The traffic was worse than rush hour on Old Country Road. I'm really grateful that it never happened. I am trying to write one blog per week so hopefully I can keep up with it. 

I'd like to end this blog entry with this view I get to see every night during dinner. It's right outside my host family's house.

Also, here is some Fiji water growing in its natural state. It just pops out of the ground all bottled and ready for drinking. So cool!! 

Miss you all and keep in touch!!