So much to say......

Okay, let me first start out about where I will be living for the next 2 years of my life. I am very extremely happy about where I will be placed. I will go next week to visit my site and the people i will be workinig with. I will be living on the west side of the main island (Viti Levu). I am kind of living in the interior of the island which is unsual for a volunteer most are on the edge or coast. But i will be living in a village called Waikubukubu (literally meaning water swishing around in your mouth, aka they are known for their waterfalls). I am in a very isolated village with only 33 households. The village is very excited about my arrival and have already built my house and it ready to be moved in. the closet city to me in abuot 45 minutes away. the bus only comes twice a day to my village so if i miss that i only have two other option. one flag down a car to take me to town or horse riding! yeah that's right, by the way did ride myself a cow, very interesting I will try to pics of that one. I don't know yet if I will be living in a tin house or a bure like the old Fijian houses made of straw. I am kind of hoping for a bure. But there is quite a catch to my living situation. I have a tap so i will have water in my village but i don't think acutal running water. The main problem is that I will not have electricity! yeah, you heard me NO ELECTRICITY! hehehe I will keep you updated with that situation. I am mainly working with the women's group in the village and also the youth group. I am very happy with this assignment because this is what i really wanted. i feel pretty nervous though because they will be expecting alot from me and i think of myself of a little girl from ol' West Virginia still and I need to get it in my head that I do have something to offer to these people. So, in a few weeks it's going to be me and lil Sophia and all my stuff riding on the bus to my village. I can't wait. I have never been so nervous. I have heard that they people of my village I will be moving into are very exctied to meet me and they have been preparing for a long time now. the last time a peace corps volunteer has had contact with this village is in 2000. so they are pretty fresh to work with. So, i do have Dave to the north of me in Ba, Kiva and Kendall to the left of me in Lautoka, and sylvia south west of me in Nadi. My village is about 91 kilometers from Nadi, which is good so when people visit me I can get to the airport pretty easily and we won't have a lot of travel time and that means we save money. my supervisor is the turaga ni koro which is crazy cause he is like the right hand man to the chief. I also have alot of Indo-fijians around my village because on the west coast where i will be living they produce alot of sugarcane. It is very hot and sunny not alot of rain so that is great! I am pretty far from a beach, but there is a wharf in my village where there is gold mining and a river flows from the ocean and people swim and take a ride to the ocean. That's exciting can't wait to see that. Hopefully, next saturday i can put up pics of my site and let you guys know how it is. There is also a girls league for soccer in the Tavua the nearest town for me to play. My counterpart is a girl (thank God) and her name is Kelera Vauvau I heard she is great and gets alot of work done. I think I will have alot to do which is good cause i don't want to be bored in the dark with Sophia. Okay i think that is all i have now for my site just a few other topics i like to talk about.

So my host mom likes to buy me little things every once in while. She bought me this huge bright pink towel to use cause I used one of my towels to give Sophia a head and shoulders bath to kill the 800 fleas she has. So, i am pretty sure i told her a hate pink but yet she still keeps buying me pink things, but i wear them with pride. oh yeah she also but for the 4th of july for me huge hoop earrings that are bright red with white pock-a-dots. Yeah i was very patriotic on the 4th.

for the 4th of july kendall, sylvia and I made no bake cookies they were a big hit. this mornging we did our youth workshop for waste disposal in the village. It went really well. I spent three hours picking up trash but i think we opened people's eyes. cause they saw a whitie picking up their trash in their yard on a saturday kind of embarrassing. the village is started to recylcle so that's a good start.

And finally I got a cellphone. you would have to dial 001-679-927-8982.I can also receive text messages. I can call too but it costs alot of money that i don't have so it's free from someone to call me from the states. all incoming calls and texts are free for me. I feel much safer too walking around with a cellphone!Well, I hope all is well and enjoy the more pictures i just posted and with captions!