Ringing in the New Year

So for the holiday season I decided to spend my Christmas with my host family back in the village and to spend my New Year's with a big group of peace Corps volunteers in Qamea-an island off Taveuni which is a smaller island in Fiji.I knew before hand that Christmas was going to be a very low-key affair but I wasn't prepared for how low key it turned out to be.The only way you could tell it was Christmas was because so many out of town relatives had come back to stay with family in the village and all the shops in town were jampacked with people buying for Christmas dinner- may I say that my Christmas gift to my family was two chickens and some cupcakes.My family along with many others did not have Christmas trees or exchanged gifts, it was more about getting together, seeing people you hadn't for a while and eating lots of good food.The one special Christmas thing they did was have the choir sing Christmas songs to the Chief and Turaga ni Koro (headman). Man those voices were so beautiful, even in Fijian you can recognize the song Silent Night.



Headed home from Christmas Dinner

















Village Turaga Ni Koro( head man in red) ready for cutting of the ribbon














Brand spanking new community hall













It was nice having such a low key Christmas, without the pressures to buy the perfect gift for family and not worrying about getting caught up in the pomp and circumstance and missing the true meaning of Christmas.With this low key Christmas I was able to reflect on all that God has provided in my life and be thankful for the wonderful people and opportunities afforded to me.Remember Jesus is the reason for the season.
There were also other big things happening during this time. A local man was getting ready to be married on New Years eve in the village. I had the privilege of participating in a tevutevu. This is the process of bringing gifts to the home of the bride or groom-whomever you're related to and presenting the wedding gift which 9/10 times is one of these things-pillows/pillowcases/mosquito net/blankets.This can happen up to a week before the wedding or even years after the wedding when you are able to afford a gift.Please keep in mind that the gifts are presented to a representative of the one getting married and not the bride/groom.Also the family receiving the gift must host the gift-giver by preparing grog for them.
In addition to the tevutevu there was a death in the neighbouring village-apparntly he was the oldest living man in the village.Most importantly the village's community hall was finally opened to the public officially.It was a real joyous occasion with the Chinese Embassy in attendance to cut the ribbon since they had given a substantial portion in the building of the hall.It's quite large and will soon be used for a kindergarten and library.
For the New Year which has to be hands down the most fun new year I've ever had I was beach-side with a great group of people, dancing and singing the night away. I should have you know that Fiji is one of the first places to ring in the new year.














So with this new year comes new responsibilities, challenges and triumphs and I'm ready-are you?

Is that Sincere?

I just wanted to write a quick thing about invitations here in Fiji.As I had said in previous blogs people here are very friendly.Even when it comes to special events.It is very common for a local to invite you to any function being planned such as a wedding,funeral,birthday party even if you just met them and hardly caught each other's names.You think that maybe the person was just trying to be nice and just said it, just to say it.However you quickly find out that it was truly genuine when they see you again after the event happened and ask why you didn't come and that they waited forever for you because it turns out you were going to be the honoured guest or were told about to all the other guests. Many PeaceCorps had this happen and it surely won't be the last.So anytime you're in Fiji that what you think maybe be a non-committal and informal invitation to an event is really a heartfelt, sincere invitation.

Stuff's a Happenin!

So two great events that recently happened is the celebration of Diwali-festival of lights, celebrated by Hindus all over and Halloween celebrated by Americans all over.Diwali is the celebration of the return of the Lord Rama after 14 years of exile.The story goes that his father had three wives and one wife asked to be fulfilled to wishes without disclosing the wish first. The father agreed and then was told the wishes were to send Rama into exile and then make her own son King.Distraught the father did not know what to do but Lord Rama went on his own free will. While away the city went through a time of great darkness and despair.As soon as Lord Rama came back the twon went back into prosperity.Now Hindus celebrate this event by lighting hundreds of candles all over their home outside and then making and eating alot of sweets to share.Also fireworks are used to lgiht up the night's sky which is really nice to see from my roof top deck.Even nicer is that people decorate their houses with all sorts of Christmas lights.Fun fact is that these lights will be nowhere to be found during Christmas.The actual holiday was yesterday and I went around with my school's head teacher visiting her families and eating sweets for about 6 hours and then drove around the neighborhoods to see the lights the families put up.Man did these people go all out.It truly was go big or go home.They also did it big by buying new sarees and of course I partaked in this and bought myself two sarees, you know I'm always a sucker for a reason to go shopping.
Halloween was celebrated by having a costume party at a hotel. So many of us got together and have such a good time.Lady Gaga made an appearance, spiderman, Jesus, tom cruise in risky business and a few girl guides.The night was awesome and yes I did dress up- a hippie.My first and definitely not my last costume party.Next up is Thanksgiving.

Even more epic failures

I tried to make potato curry today...epic failure
I tried to wash a shirt without letting the dye bleed onto my other clothes...epic failure
I tried to have a sex-ed class with two combined classes...epic failure
I tried to walk up the footpath without hacking up a lung...epic failure

Don't worry there will be plenty more in the years to come

Do you really need English?

So if you at one time asked me what I did not want to do in Fiji that would be to teach English classes.That is one thing that deeply did not interest me and I thought went against my own value system of pressuring people to become more Western and devaluing their own language and culture.And then I end up at a school for students with Special needs and just a month ago I started taking on one of the classes t improve their English reading skills without much hesitation.
First off what I think happened is that it's a lot different to say something outside the situation and then be surrounded by the same situation and try to stick to your guns.So after a few classes I started reflecting back on my resolve before I came to Peace Corps.What I am starting to realise a bit is that Fiji is made up of many different cultures with separate languages and even within the languages are a range of dialects which are hard to comprehend if persons of two different dialects were to speak to one another.So I would think it would be easiest and I guess most fair to teach in English at all school levels.A backlash though is that many schools do not provide classes on the students mother tongue and so lose their ability to read their own language.So I would like your feedback. What do you think is best?What is the solution?

Seriously...Seriously...

So not even a half an hour ago I had a very trange and uncomfortable conversation witha complete stranger.With any good story I'll start from the beginning.I went to an ice-cream parlor to get a brownie sundae because it's my new obsession and good baked goods are few and far between in Fiji.So I am sitting enjoying my sweet indulgence and doing some people watching in the store a man comes up to me and hits me in the arm. So alarmed by this I didn't know what to think or do.He then goes into an ever familiar line of questioning-Where you from? You from Fiji? You from Africa?Turns out he himself is from Ghana and gets VERY excited when he meets other Blacks in Fiji.He then invites himself to sit and tells me a snippet of his life story and how he is plans to go to California and India for his work and then come back.Here's the kicker, when I said I was Peace Corps volunteer he said he was surprised how Peace Corps was still around and that many countries in Africa decided not to have Peace corps since it was a supposed tool for the American government to start wars in Africa.The only silver lining in this whole craziness is that he mentioned without my own prompting that he met a lot of Jamaicans. Apparently they all are working for Digicel. Which I thought made tons of sense since Jamaica has Digicel and we've had that phone company in -country longer than Fiji.I did try to go on the Digicel Fiji website and look up a few names but tha didn't work out.
So I guess the moral of the story is that I get frustrated all the time when I have these run-ins especially since these people come out of nowhere and dive stright into the questions mentioned earlier and most times skip the formalities of trying to introduce themselves or saying hello.
Also, situtations like this have happened in the day time in a bustling street, I don't know how it will be if I am ever alone at night.But then I guess I should never be alone at night.

So we all can watch...and take pictures?

So a few weeks back one of the teacher's on staff had a death in the family.His mother had died of pneumonia.As a sign of support the staff attended the funeral and of course I came along.This would be my first Muslim funeral.So my day went like this,The staff rode altogether to his home which is about a 1 1/2 hr drive north from the school, which goes through a bad dirt road. I couldn't believe that this teacher goes all that way everyday to get to work.When we got to his home where the funeral ceremony was taking place, everything was already in full swing. The priest was deep into his speech. On the outside of the house was an open air shed with the body, in a open coffin, in the middle on a small riser.Well wishers were able to put small flower arrangements on top of the coffin.Close family members sat up close and personal around the body on the riser.After about an hour of the priest talking he led the eldest son in doing a prayer ceremony with the body and putting things in the coffin.Then close family were allowed to walk around the coffin and pay their last respects.This is when the outpouring of tears came.Women were wailing over the body. What really touched me is that the teacher's niece ad granddaughter of the deceased sat right by the body and began to cry so hard when she took her walk around the body.What was the worst though is when the men were trying to close the coffin in order to transport it to the cemetery a few women tried holding onto the coffin in order to stop them.
The coffin was placed in the back of a 9 passenger van which was held in place by a few men who rode in back.Lucky for me(not really) my van rode right behind the open back van carrying the coffin.As we were on our way to the cemetery one of the men in the van carrying the coffin was creating a trail of mustard seeds. What I later learned is that a trail is made in hopes that f the soul of the dead person follows them the people will be able to get back home before the soul can catch up with them since it has to eat the seeds one by one.
When we got to the cemetery I quickly realized that I and a fellow female teacher were the only women there.Apparently all the women stayed back at the house to grieve.Apparently in the past women were not even allowed to come to the cemetery.At the cemetery the body was taken to a viewing area first then moved onto a pile of wood to be burned.I could see them take the body out of the coffin then on top of the wood, pour ghee(clarified butter) and a heap of wood on top of the body.Guests were welcomed to throw rice and flowers on the body before final prayers were made and the entire pile burned.What was really interesting is the coffin was broken to pieces and put on the piel to be burned and apparently a family could donate the coffins to the cemetery and any less fortunate family could purchase the coffin for a very minimal cost.
I debated on whether to take my camera but I thought it may be inappropriate to take pictures while people were mourning but apparently not so, many people were clicking away getting up close and personal with the body. Now I know for future reference.
However the grieving process is not over yet.For 16 days family members come and stay with the immediate family who suffered the loss and stay day and night cooking for them since is customary for the immediate family not to cook. Because of these overnight stays our teacher has had little to no sleep .