The next day we left really early for Mango Bay which is about a two hour bus ride up the coast towards Nadi. This place was amazing. We got to the beach at around 1030 and all passed out face down in the sand. We spent the whole weekend sun bathing, snorkeling and eating. Talk about hard work. The sleeping arrangements were a little interesting. We had rented a back packers dorm, so it was 30 fjd a night (15 us). We stayed in a large bure with 8 or 9 bunk beds and mosquito nets. Our dorm was supposed to only be us, but instead there was a British girl who would run in and out of the room without saying hello. Sunday morning we had the great fortune of waking to her naked changing out in the open. The dorms didn’t have any locks on them, so anyone could just wander on through. This wasn’t an issue until we woke up to an Australian man running through our bure pants less, and bending over looking for his swim shorts that his friend had thrown in to our room. It was a very interesting thing to open our eyes to. The next thing we new it a random girl rolled off the top bunk of one of the girl’s beds, and she was naked as well. She had come in very drunk to our bure, gotten naked and fell asleep on the top bunk. Talk about awkward. Her real bure where the rest of her friends were sleeping was one dorm over from us. Very interesting. We also had never been around that many white people in all of Fiji, which made us feel very uncomfortable for some reason. It was also the first time in Fiji that we all felt very judged. Kinda weird? The bus that we took to get back to Suva was packed full as always, no air circulation and had a thrasher video playing for the full two hours. I couldn’t see the movie but from the sound effects that were playing over the loud speakers were extremely gory and sounded like there were people getting viciously murdered.



On Friday we went to a couple different NGO’s, WWF (wild life crisis organization ) and Peace Keeping in Fiji. Those were really cool and interesting. The peace keeping in Fiji organization included music therapy to different groups of people recovering from violence or anything else. After they treated us to lunch that was amazing. When that was done a couple of us went over to my friend Katie’s house. She lives with her grandmother, mom, two homeless ladies, five cousins and her aunt. They have five new puppies that are adorable and just add to the craziness of their house. We wound up not playing with the puppies as much and instead hung out with all the little kids instead. For about two hours we played soccer, danced around, gave them piggy backs and let them just climb all over us. It was so much fun and tiring at the same time.

When we got back to suva the next day it rained for four days straight. It did not help our positive attitudes that 5 of us were sick for that whole week. I guess the food in Silana really did a number on all of us. I think it as the rich lolo (coconut cream) that everything is cooked in. Whatever it was I still cant think of the word seafood without gagging. On Wednesday instead of having Fijian class we went as a a class to see a Bollywood movie called Dil Bole Haddipa! It was really good and as soon as it comes out on DVD I’m buying and bringing it back for everyone to see. It was about an Indian girl whose dream was to play cricket for her country but since she is a girl she was never allowed to be on the team. So she dressed up as a boy and wound up playing on the team and being the star. The music, clothes and dancing were amazing throughout the movie. I think I have found my new favorite types of movies. It was interesting that the movie definitely promoted women’s rights which is not really a concept in the Indian community. That Friday we did another field trip to an Indo-Fijian house and learned to cook Indian food. We split the group into two and each group went to a house. Our house was with an Indian women and her mother. We made a variety of things including, roti, chicken curry, eggplant curry, these fried balls of beans and vegetables (my favorite), and a good pasta desert dish. The meal was amazing and I am looking forward to using my new cooking skills when I get home. Later that day we went back to USP for “open day” which is where the campus is open to everyone and all of the schools come to walk around and get a glimpse of all the different activities and clubs that are offered at USP. Then there is a dance production done by all the international students. Every group of people performs a traditional dance from their homeland. It was too crowded to even get into the theater to see it but from what I saw of the costumes, im sure the production was really cool. The weather really cleared up and started to be sunny and hot and has continued to be that way all weekend and this week. Its been nice to have sun every day instead of the occasional sun and constant rain.
Last weekend was a lot of fun. We all hung out in Suva and sat outside most of the day, bought a ukulele which I am determined to be good at by the time I get home. Saturday night my friend Megan and I went over to her boyfriend, Alex’s house. We hung out with his family which was very entertaining. His house consists of his mother, 4 brothers and their wives, a couple cousins, a 1 year old and his grandmother who is crazy and can’t walk. His mom is a baker so after dinner we enjoyed an amazing cake that she had made. Later that night we met up with the rest of the group and did some karaoke and danced the night away. There is a big Fa’afafine population in fiji and they just so happen to be all of our director’s best friends. So when we go out we wind up all dancing together and it is definitely a seen. Fa’afafine is the word for Samoan men who dress up as women. In Samoa, this practice is very popular and very accepted. It is not considered a homosexual act. If a Fa’afafine and man have a relationship it is considered heterosexual. A lot of these Fa’afafine come to Fiji, where there is also a large population of them, although it is not as accepted in Fiji. Anyway these are not like the normal cross dressers of America, these men really do look like women and they are not creepy at all. Part of the description of the Fa’afafine is that they are caregivers, nurturers and belong to a tight sisterhood. So when we are out in the clubs with Mrs. Quillio’s crew we all definitely feel safe and have a blast with them. They are usually the life of the party at most of the bars. It’s very entertaining



This week was beautiful. Its been sunny and hot for a week straight- very good news. The tsunami hit Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga. There was a warning for fiji, but nobody really thought it was a big deal nor did they pay any attention to it. Thank god it didn’t hit us. When we asked what we should do if it does hit us, our only instruction was “well, we would head for the hills”. Mrs. Quillio ( our director) is Samoan and still has a lot of family in Samoa, so the tsunami was horrible for her. Her aunt died and some of her relatives got hurt. The night of the tsunami we chose to go to Tiko’s floating restaurant. It was a really nice restaurant and I had my first steak in Fiji that was awesome. Since the restaurant was floating in the water the whole time we were eating we were also rocking a lot and it was a little disconcerting. It was the cheapest, nice meal I’ve ever had. I had a salad, calamari, 10 oz steak with vegetables and friends and a banana split all for 46 FJD ( 24 USD).

After a long week of rain in suva, we all decided it was time to hit up the beach. So we took a bus to pacific habor which is about 30 miles away. This was the closest place to suva with nice beaches and somewhere for us to stay. So we stayed at a backpackers hotel for the weekend. Ten of us stayed in one room with 5 bunk beds and then there was a huge common room with a tv air hockey table and some couches. It was really nice to get away from suva and eat what we wanted to eat. So we treated ourselves to some delicious meals and some sun bathing. The hotel had a cool bar and a huge tiki man pool. The theme of the pool area was cannibalism and had a bunch of paintings of Fijians eating white people, a giant spoon sculpture with human skulls resting in it and a giant boiling pot ( hot tub). Only in Fiji. The second day started off to be rainy so everyone wanted to leave but me and a couple other people decided to be optimistic and went swimming in the rain. We wound up staying later and it got really sunny out which was a surprise and it turned out to be a great day. As we were catching the bus back into suva it started down pouring. We got on the bus and there was only enough seats open for the 5 of us. So we made our way down the isle and squished into our seats. I was sitting with one cheek on the seat and the other basically on another mans lap. The bus was not like the others in suva with open windows and instead had horrible circulation and smelled of BO. Not the best way to travel. But we survived and made it back to suva.

The following weekend our group traveled to the village of Silana. We rode in a covered truck in the bed on wooden benches. The trip took three hours and about 2 hours of it was on roads that were under construction so needless to say, it was bumpy. We were greeted by the whole village, which consisted of 26 families. Everyone was native Fijian; some spoke English and others knew only a few phrases. We all got assigned to different families and after gathering in the community hall we went to our designated homes. My family consisted of a grandmother, grandfather and their four year old grandson Pow. My family wound up speaking as much English as I spoke Fijian so it got pretty awkward at times. The first afternoon we sat on the floor of their house drinking tea and eating pancakes in the dark, staring at each other. After I downed the natural lemon leaf tea we went back to the community hall for some guitar playing, kava drinking and feasting. The next morning we woke up, had breakfast and then went for a hike up the mountain. It took about 30 minutes and was extremely muddy. The 13 of us, our program leaders, some children and men from the village were all lead by a man chopping down a path for us using a machete. When we arrived at the waterfall we spent an hour or two jumping in and swimming around. It was the first time one of the women from the village had been there, which we all found unbelievable considering she had lived in the village all of her life. The way back down the mountain became extremely muddy and slippery especially since we were soaking wet, but that turned out not to be a problem at all. All of the men from the village would run down ahead of us and be there to help us over the streams and down the slippery parts by holding a long vine so that we had something to hold on to. Talk about great service. The rest of that day consisted of eating, lounging and learning about different gardening techniques and the crops they grew. The next day we woke up early and went out in the ocean in two power boats to the reef. There, we were able to see dolphins and go swimming in the amazing ocean. We hung out there for about 3 hours. Some of the men went spear fishing and diving and came up with some very fresh fish and giant clams.