Quick Recap

Because I can’t even imagine writing a full post here’s a brief recap of the past two weeks:

Trip to Rakiraki – 7 Hour Birthday Bus Ride – LOVO DINNER [Top Ten Chicken Moments of my Life], Having to rely on generators for only several hours of power a day, visiting the Fiji Water factory, Amazing scuba diving at Swim Through  (seeing my first shark), Staying at the Pearl, Drinking with the BILLIONAIRE owner of the Pearl, SHARK SCUBA DIVING (TIGER SHARKS), Having more school work than possible, Actually doing work at my internship after I return from a week ………. aaaaaaaaand my head’s about to explode.

Feeeeeeeeeel the Ruuuuuuushhh

One of my favorite things in Fiji is walking in town with Fijians. I just got back from shooting more footage for my segment and I went with Sami and Courtney. Courtney’s 20 and the host of Mai Corner, the kids show that airs on the television station. Walking around down there, they of course bump into to tons of people, which is always fun.

Last week here was the huge Digicel launch where they had the New Zealand band Katchafire play and Sean Kingston. It was raining all day and the park was filled with mud everywhere. It started at 5 and went on and on and on, but no one was really too excited. Apparently 60,000 were there but you could easily here a pin drop. We ended up leaving two songs into Sean Kingston’s set, but it was still a fun time. People from the office here were filming the concert and I later found out that there was a mishap with the stereos – one reason why the concert wasn’t even loud.

Saturday night Junior, Laura’s host brother, called me up ordering me to come to house at 7:30. I agreed of course. Before 7:30 he called me four more times to make sure I was coming. Brian, Ian, and I got to Laura’s house with Tuti and hung out and drank there for a while, which was so much fun. Junior also kept asking me about my host sister – I felt like a matchmaker, haha. My host sister and her friend Smig stopped by too after their formal at Tradewinds and we all went to the nightclub Islanders.

Sunday I finally got to interview Tuti where I learned a ton. I still have to do another interview for my assignments. Friday is Fiji Day so that should be fun. Plus my host family plans on finally getting their car back (they haven’t had it since I’ve been here) from the mechanic so we can go for a drive possibly because we’re staying this weekend in Suva instead of going to Pacific Harbor.

I’m also really happy because I have a 21 song Fiji playlist. I need to find more songs still though.

Pray for my laptop!

It’s Monday morning and sadly still waiting for my laptop to be repaired. Even though the repairman at Datec was Indian, he was clearly still on Fiji Time. I really hope that later today it will be done. Then I can start the painstaking process of reinstalling programs, rediscovering my favorites, and possibly recategorizing my music (which will take weeks, if not months). That’s if my music was recovered even. The tech guy called me last Thursday to tell me how the backup would only include “important documents” (aka my school work folder). I told him in return sternly how I was a DJ who needed the music for my livelihood. I figured it was a good quick thinking response. He reluctantly agreed. But it’s not like I’m not paying him for his service. I really just have to pray that it’s all good for if not I’d be devastated beyond all belief. This is after right before leaving Fiji loosing more than a year’s worth of photos when my external hard drive went ballistic. I’m hoping I can still recover that data when I return to the states. Right now I just want to be back with my laptop and listen to some comfort music, haha.

What’s been up though since last week? This weekend I got to practice my billiards skills. If anyone asks – I’m amazing. Other than that, Friday we had our third scuba diving lesson where we did some underwater SkIlLz like taking off the weight belt underwater, removing the entire vest and scuba gear underwater, using an alternate air source, and shooting up to the water without breathing from your BCD.

The next two weeks we have to collect two life histories. That should be interesting. On Wednesday, there is a huge concert downtown from Digicell who are now being intrdouced as a new mobile service here in Fiji. Besides some big Kiwi act, Sean Kingston is coming! That should be a lot of fun and probably packed as he is really popular here.

Saturday night after returning from Pacific Harbor, the whole Union group went down to Trap’s bar. My host brother came too, as well as Laura’s brother, sister, and tavale (cross cousins). It was a ton of fun and there’s a lot of crazy pictures. There was a particular gang of cross dressers that were having a load of fun in the crowd. We being terrible people could not stop laughing. But that’s a relatively common sight here in Fiji. There’s even a commercial for hairspray here on TV that has a drag queen mixed in with women showing of their hairstyles.

That’s enough for now.

A Trip to the Embassy, Family Drama, and a Broken Laptop

Last week turned out to be a pretty “busy” week in relative Fiji terms. After luckily checking my email Tuesday afternoon after work I found out I had to be at the embassy at 9:45 in the morning for the security check-in. Our interview was scheduled for 2pm, but I guess plans were changed. I met with the Public Diplomacy Officer who was a really nice guy. After our interview, filmed by my cameraman Samuela, who was a really cool guy I even got to go upstairs to the offices. The embassy is relocating soon to comply with the new security standarsd, so the office was in dissiray – Americaaaaaa fuck yeah!

After that we went around central Suva interviewing random people on the street about their opinions on the American elections. We got some interesting responses to say the least.

There’s been some major drama also at my host family recently too. My 15 year old brother Iliconi (aka Tony aka Tweeli) decided he did not want to get on the bus to go to his boarding school, and skipped out going to a friend instead. The family was obviously furious. After finally coming home days later they gave him either the choice of returning to RKS (which is a rather prestigious school here in Fiji) or beign sent home to the village in Kadavu. Last night though when a relative who works at RKS came to take him back to school he was nowhere to be found. They even gave a photo of him to the local police post in case they find him. Major dramarama.

The bad news as of late is that my laptop got a baddd virus on it thanks to a crappy internet cafe I used my USB key in. It ended up transferring a virus to my laptop. When I went back to the cafe to complain all of their computers were out of service. So luckily yesterday I brought it to Datec a computer repair place here in Suva. Hopefully they’ll be able to fix it quickly by …. now.

Quote of the week:

Radio announcer: “If you want to win a free trip to New Zealand to see Chris Brown and Rihanna in concert call now! Or if you just want to see all your relatives who’ve overstayed their visas!”

Work & the Weekend

Back at work today I was told to get my stuff ready for my news segment asap. My boss suggested then that I call the US Embassy to get an interview with them about their take on the American elections coming up. So I found the number online for the embassy in Suva, which we used to pass everyday when we were staying our first week in the Suva Motor Inn. I called and got put on hold and transferred, but eventually was told I would be called back. Later in the day I got a call back from the public affairs officer for the embassy and we arranged an interview. So Wedensday I get not only to go out into Suva with a camera crew and interview random Fijians, but also get entry to the American embassy to interview this diplomat. I’m really excited, but nervous seeing as have barely any experience.

On another note, the weekend away was nice again. Scuba diving for the first time was a bit nerve wrecking, but ultimately really fun – despite one of the workers being an absolute ass. It was stupid for a group of ten to only go out with two professionals. They obviously couldn’t handle it.

Last Wedensday they had a party at my house for Lucy’s friend Candice who used to live in my home as well. They’re friends from boarding school and she’s from Nauru, so she stayed in my home for breaks instead of going back to the other island. So she was finally going back to her home island so they had a goodbye party for her. They ended up staying up ALL night until Thursday afternoon. Then my host brother Naps slept until Friday morning and then stayed up drinking until Saturday afternoon again. He’s crazy, but still a great guy.

Today after work I plan on taking the bus (a venture I have yet to do alone) to get some postcards and hopefully a phone card. And maybe some food too.

Workin 9 to 5.

I’ve been “settling in” more and more each day here. Last week I came into work Tuesday and Wedenesday, but Thursday our whole group set off for Pacific Harbor where we stayed at the awesome Uprising Resort. We got these awesome bungalows two steps away from the beach. While we didn’t go snorkleing like we were supposed to, we did get to go tubing Saturday morning before we left which was a ton of fun. Saturday afternoon we arrived back in Suva and Brian, Ian, Karen, and I shared a taxi back to our homes.

Saturday night I went to my host family’s father’s uncle’s home. He’s a CEO of a business here in Fiji and they were raising money through this card game for their trip next month to their village in Kadavu. Hopefully if I’m around I can go with them, though I’m not sure if any of my immediate host family are going. I was so tired from going to sleep at 4am the night before and waking up at 8 that I passed out in their living room after being offered by Tuti. We then went back at 1230 at night.

Sunday morning I went to church with my host sister Lucy. I wanted to go early to catch the English service (as part of our assignment), yet she never actually goes. So as they sang about Jesus and clapped, we kept looking at each other and smiling. It was good that I didn’t feel too out of place with her there. The only weird part was when they made me introduce myself to the churchgoers (there were about 15). It wasn’t too bad though. We got back and just hung out for the rest of the day.

Last night I was supposed to go play pool with Lucy, but both of us ended up forgetting! I have a pattern of getting back from work and taking “rests” aka me falling asleep for hours! It’s kind of bad. I think I can’t control actually having a normal sleep schedule here.  Also one of the things my family was asking about at first was Halloween, and I think they agreed to host a Halloween party for all of the Union kids at my house! We were all really upset we were missing it, so hopefully this can make up for it a bit. And my family seemed really happy to host. They want to meet other students too – they told me to invite some over even for a grog session tomorrow night after their club meeting.

I finished my first article for Mai Life about underage drinking here in Fiji, and now onto my second assigned article about identity theft. I have meeting with my boss later (the editor) about the article I wrote, so hopefully I can discuss some other things I can do here besides surf the web and write articles. Plus for my assignment I have to figure out the actual structure of this organization, which is to be honest, a daunting task. I think I’ll leave early today though around 3 instead of 5 because I need some time to really get back to working on my Gozo paper that I keep putting off. I’m mostly done, but just have to edit it a TON and possibly send it off to Sean for revising. Just have to also scamper up his email.

I’m really excited for Thrusday to go back to Pacific Harbor again as Friday we start SCUBA DIVING! I can’t wait!

ps. I never EVER want an office job later in life…

Last Night

Last night was a really interesting experience. Even before that, a strange thing happened though. My coworkers had invited me to drink some kava with them after work, but I needed to get money from an ATM badly. So I left my stuff in the office and walked down the block to go to the ATM. I wasn’t sure exactly how to get there, but I found my way. I got back and they were gone. I stuck around (this was after 5pm) for a bit more, but left and caught a taxi. It’s funny when I told the cab driver where I was going – 46 Nabua Street in Samabula – not exactly somewhere they’d expect a white American kid to be going to. So the driver dropped me off and the fare was $3.50. I handed him a $20 bill and he looked shocked. He said he did not have change. So he dropped me of at the shop near my house and I asked if I could get change. Yet they didn’t. Luckily I saw my neighbor Bill who explained to the driver what was going on. He didn’t have money I could borrow on him for the minute either though. He drove me then down the block where I finally got change. It was a really stupid thing. My family told me if the driver doesn’t have change it’s my right to simply leave. Good to know for the future.

At night after dinner I took a nice two hour nap, but needed to get up to do my weekly assingmnent. For the first week at our homestay we had to organize a kinship diagram of the family and everyone in the home. Naps, (short for Napoleon) my host brother, was down the hill behind my house drinking kava with neighbors. I didn’t know before, yet he explained to me how right down from our house – which is sufficiently modern for Suva standards – of course with electricity, a TV, DVD player… etc. basically everything in an American home except hot water and internet – are what they call squatter homes. These basically are $70 per month little shacks that have no electricity and only outdoor water. The people that live there are friends of my family, and they try to help out sometimes by giving them some food. It’s actually quite sad. One couple just got some kava plants from their home village in Kadavu in exchange for bread and they plan on selling it. So we bought some from them and sat around drinking until 1am last night. What amazed me the most is the attitudes of the people living there. As they sit in the circle drinking with a stereo blasting the radio, they are okay. While it’s probably not an easy life, they are comparatively happy due to their friends and family members support.  One really striking moment in particular was just the music playing. American pop music is huge in Fiji. I am asked almost on a daily basis from different Fijians if I know celebrities (being from New York). So Paris Hilton’s song came on the radio and this older lady started dancing along happilly. It was quite a scene. I wondered if Miss Hilton (who must be worth a million bucks) realized where her music is playing in every corner of the earth and who in fact is listening. What was particularly sad was the story behind this dancing lady. Naps explained to me after that her husband is a bouncer in a club and he is a very agressive man who pushes her around. He gets home a bit before one every morning, so as we sat there she (and the rest of the group) kept nervously keeping an eye to see if he was on his way back because he would not like to see her socializing and having a good time.

On a different note, there are two types of relationships in Fijian culture – respect and joking relationships. The best though are obviously the joking ones. Normally one would joke with their tavale. It’s a bit confusing to catch on at first who a tavale would be, but it’s a cross cousin. So it would be either your father’s sister’s kids or mother’s brother’s kids (yet not children of the same sex sibling – those are just considered cousins). So Fijians joke around and make crude sexual comments to their tavale. The other joking relations are between different regions of Fiji. It has to do with the fact that members of different regions used to be enemies. So my neighbor is from the area where my family (who are from Kadavu) jokes with. It’s really funny to see them joke and Naps and Jim both pointed it out to me a few times. When I asked the couple if they had kids, Jim jokingly responded “No kids, but they do have a dog!”

The street where I lived also has a “club” of the people that live there. They host weekly meetings in different homes and on Saturdays play volleyball and have picnics. So tonight is their weekly meeting and I think I’ll go. I have to write up my weekly field notes and make a formal version of the kinship diagram I made, but hopefully I’ll have time.

Now back to work!

Home Stay, Work, and stufff

I’m at my first day of work at Mai Life so I’m going to quickly post. The past few days I’ve been settling in with my host family in Samabula, a neighbor in Suva. My home constantly has people bustling in and out – friends, family, and neighbors which I love. But the immediate family is my host mother and her four kids – the oldest brother Naps (23), Jim (who they call Tuti 21), Lucy (19) and Tony (15). All older three are still in college, Tony’s in boarding school, and the two older boys are working as well. Yet also always around is their cousin Christina and her 3 year old son Moses. Everyone is really nice and I’ve been having lots of fun. The first night there we sat around from 5pm until 9 drinking kava, which was really nice. It’s what they do when they welcome new people. Jim and two neighbors and I then went to O’Rielys the local bar. We got back at 12:30ish – I was so tired, but stayed up for a bit with the group who stayed up drinking kava until 3am. Basically they go around in a circle, filling up the bowl, and passing it around person to person. While it takes a while “to work,” it ultimately makes you just really relaxed. But I dare to argue that it is more the setting than the kava that really is inducing the drowsy feel.

One of the most interesting things that happened so far was yesterday when Christina was cooking lunch. Moses was running around screaming as usual (he’s incredibly playful) when Christina wasn’t paying attention to what she was doing. Some oil ended up spilling and she got burnt. One of her relatives was from Banga Island (I may be going there with Lucy during the week she has off). Apparently on Beqa (pronounced Benga) they used to (or maybe still do) firewalk, so there blood is believed to have curing power for burns. So Christina made Moses put his hand on her burn to make it feel better. She then told me a story about an Indian couple that were severely burnt and in the hospital. One of her relatives was there and went into to “heal” the couple, besides their medical treatment.

Speaking of Indians, I didn’t prep myself for just how many there are in Fiji! I’ve eaten Indian food more times since being here than the total amount of times I had it before in my life! It’s really good though. Yesterday I was invited over to my neighbors next door who are Indian. They served me some really good food and then actually my own family made an Indian dish for dinner – chicken curry with dhal soup and roti.

I was assigned to write an article already today, so I must be getting to work on that. Now that I now that I have high speed wireless internet at my work it’s also much relief!

Bula!

So far everything here from Fiji has been great! On our first day we visited the Fiji Museum here in Suva, where we had a short assignment to analyze one particular exhibit. My group was assigned to the rather pathetic Indo-Fijian exhibit. We kind of ripped it apart as much of it just related to simply India rather than the community’s place in Fiji and their interaction with indigenous Fijians. The next day we got to explore the markets in a really fun assignment. We had a whole set of questions to ask vendors about their goods and history. We also had to attempt different bargaining techniques for our econ part of the assignment. Everyone is so friendly and willing to talk here that research should be no problem at all. I really can’t wait to move into my host family. I get to meet them this Saturday. Today we had a really fun day. We took a bus ride further into the island where we visited a small village. We got to have a miniature ceremony, where we all got to try kava for the first time. It was not nearly as bad as I expected it to be. We were told beforehand to expect it to be like muddy water, but I thought it was more like water with a bit of an herbal taste. It did kind of numb my mouth for a few minutes afterwards though. While this tour was clearly designed for tourists, we presented kava to the chief of the village to ask permission to use “his” river for kayaking. We then preceded down for a really fun day of kayaking down a huge river. I was kind of horrible at it at first, but caught on after lunch… until I somehow had an unfortunate encounter with a bamboo tree. I somehow got entangled in the sharp twigs and just flipped out of my kayak to avoid getting cut up any more than I already was. I have a ton of reading to do, but luckily tomorrow we just have a class at 4 and that’s it!

FINALLYYYY.

After over 35 hours in transit I’ve arrived in Fiji. This was by far the longest trip of my life and I was dead exhausted. Flight from LA to NY (5 hours), waiting in LAX for 6ish hours, flight to Auckland New Zealand (12 hours), waiting in New Zealand another 5 hours, 3 hour flight to Nadi, THEN after finally getting to Fiji I expected a 2 hour bus ride to Suva. Nope. 5 HOUR bus ride! I was so exhausted beyond belief. Apparently I had forgot to tell my professor when I was arriving so even she had no clue. Luckily she booked the hotel for the night for me. I worked on my Gozo paper and bit and then fell dead asleep.

This morning I found a message under my door from Karen to charge breakfast to the room (Union’s tab). I walked around Suva a bit – spoke to some overly friendly Fijians (research here is going to be a ton easier than Gozo – I can tell already). I thought something was up with over friendliness, but most were good hearted except for one guy who started to carve my name onto a mask and knife to sell to me. I quickly just walked away. But then I got back and finally met up with the group – had lunch and now I’m back!