The 2 musketeers!!!!

So lately, I have been having a lot of fun in my village. People are starting to warm up to me know. Cause they don't see me as much as a outsider that I am living the same way as they are and they realize that now. So, last week I bought some grog in town and Kelera and I decided we were going to drink all Saturday night but we didn't want anyone in the village to know because they would come over and drink it all. So we secretly had a grog session and this is so much more funnier cause it came out of kelera mouth than mine but she stood up and called us the two musketeers drinking grog. I was dying laughing. It was probably the funniest thing I had heard in a long time. We went swimming in the river and went swinging on the rope and kept yelling the 2 musketeers at it again. We were talking about her daughter that is with here Aunt in Nadi and why she isn't living there with Kelera. I don't want to air out here dirty laundry but basically Kelera's husband left her 3 or 4 years ago for her little brother's wife. So kelera divorced him and now she has a 13 year old son named Ben (he looks like he is 17 though) and a little 4 year girl. I have not met the little girl yet but I saw a picture of her and she is darling. I want to meet her and I want her to come back to live with her really mommy. but it is a bit confusing and hard for our American minds to wrap around. But anyways we were talking about that stuff and I was trying to understand what happened and all that drama. So I asked kelera if she had a picture of her ex-husband with her cause I wanted to see what this asshole looks like. And calmly she said yeah I would show you a picture of him but I threw it in the fire today and burned it. I was like damn okay! She looked at me and I looked at her and we both just started laughing and laughing. I told here I would have done the same thing. Her and I think a like most of the time. It cracks me up she has that woman's dominating thing that I love and keeps me going. She has that attitude that she doesn't need a man in her life. She is just fine by herself and I admire that for her.

Anyways, that night I was invited FINALLY to someone's house for dinner and guess what they had to eat? CHICKEN FEET!!! sick. I was like thank you but no thank you. I could not even pretend to try that. I like to think I am open minded to a lot of stuff but I just couldn't do it. I could see the nails of the chicken man. THE NAILS! though I appreciated them inviting me over I ate dalo and tomatos which is fine with me. Then after dinner Andi braided my hair and they were talking to me how it is taboo to take a shower at night like I did right before I came over for dinner. But one i smelled and two it really wasn't dark just yet and I just bring a flashlight and hang it on a nail and that's fine it seriously takes me like 1 minute to shower. not a big deal but I kept asking why it is taboo and they could never answer me but i thought that was so funny. kendall and I was talking the other day about this shower thing and when they shower. They always ask me in the middle of the day after lunch if I have showered yet and for one why you asking me if I have showered none of your business but that's what they do to make conversation. so I don't take offense to that that's just me being the American that i am. Anyways kendall and I were saying that we don't like to shower in the middle of the day like that because we are not done sweating okay. it's like 95 degrees here sometimes in the middle of the day and yeah it feels good to take a shower when it's hot but like I said i am surley not done sweating so I might as well sweat it all up and not waste another pair of clothes that I have to wash myself in the river and wait to the end of the day and shower. That is what makes sense to me.

So for the last week I have attended 3 funerals. the one i talked about last blog entry and then one man died in a village near ours and a woman died that was related to our village. So we just stopped by the one near ours and presented mats and fabrics for the family and so on but didn't actual stay or the funeral. but the other one we had to spend the night and stay for the funeral cause the woman was the villages headman's older sister.So the village got transport and I was really prepared this time unlike my trip to Nadala to the rugby match. I brought a blanket, pillow, 3 bottles of boiled and filtered water and toilet paper. So i was ready to go. this village was right passed the Fiji water plant which was cool to see. It looked like for a second like a plant from America. But it was a hour and half ride on the back of truck and it was very uncomfortable considering almost the whole village was trying to fit in the same truck so people were sitting on top of other people it was crazy but i survived. Then when we got there we waited and waited and waited and i kept falling asleep and then finally we went and presented our mats and fabrics (sevusevu) again for this funeral and village. then we drank grog! the 2 musketeers stayed up til 2 in the morning. it was fun! We had dinner and everyone was so surprised that I ate so much and by the way I was starting to gain weight now. Because i little known fact that didn't come in the water filter directions that I have to boil my water and then run it thru the water filter. Didn't know that one cause my water filter didn't come with freakin directions so that is why I was so sick for weeks and couldn't hold down anything, but i am good now! So i was so tired at 2 in the morning I slept on the floor in some old woman's house with the same clothes on cause I didn't want to change in front of people like everyone else was doing so I was like heck I am sleeping in these clothes. I woke up in the morning with a group of fijians staring at me and then kelera came and got me to take our shower in the river of course. So I grabbed my bar of soup and a towel and head my way to the river and jumped in with all my clothes. I felt so crappy i felt like a truck ran over me. then I changed behind a curtain I made and brushed my teeth outside with my bottled water and went on our way to breakfast and morning tea and once again they were so happy with the amount of food that I am been eating. They call me Kaiviti now which means Fijian. that I am no longer kaivalagi (European) that I have crossed over. Which makes me feel good and accepted finally. though I still feel like I have a way to go for some people to accept and trust me. But i can see a change and it feels good. Then after the funeral which is quite different. the woman do this wailing and weeping thing that is hard for me to handle cause I they like scream and yell crying and it's hard to watch. Especially when it's a girl my age whom her mother just died and she is just crying her heart out right in front of you. I don't know what to do in those situations. But I offered her my bottle of boiled and filtered water and she drank it so i thought that was a good start. I was sitting my the chief's wife who was also wailing and weeping and of course I didn't now that lady so I am just sitting there with my head done cause I don't have any tears and I just kept feeling bad for the woman's daughter. So that lasts for about 20 mins of awkwardness and the weirdest thing is that they love taking pictures of the died body. I can't get over that one and I hide my camera so no one will use it for that. So after the burial and lunch more drinking grog. So i hung out with some people from my village and they were filling me in with all the drama that went down the night before with the guys in my village and the girls from the village that we were in. I swear sometimes I feel like I am in a jerry springer show. So then we left and came back and the whole village went to bed at like 9 cause everyone was so tired of drinking grog and so on.

The next day the ministry of health came to our village to do a workshop to show us how to make soap. It was kind of cool. I think they can make that into a money generating project. I am will be working with some women's forum in town to make that happen. but that was sept. 11th of course and i wore all black in remembrance of those who died that day. Everyone at first was making fun of me because I was wearing all black until I explained why. I like to think I was fulfilling my 3rd goal as a Peace Corps volunteer which is expose Fijians to American culture. So now more of them understand what happened 7 years ago on that day that any American will never forget. I know I won't. I think more of them respect the fact that I did wear black all day and that it was important to me to do that. I have gotten mixed reactions to what happened Sept. 11th in Fiji. I am not sure what they stance is with most people but I could tell in my village they understood that it was horrible and that it meant something to me.

so one night Kelera brought over this game kind of like a small scale pool. Where you slide this disk to hit other disks in to for corners where there are holes. So all the guys came over to play and they were so loud. And being loud in the village at night is also taboo and a big no-no. So kelera was trying to tell them to shut up but it wasn't working. I went to bed early cause I was so tired cause I washed clothes all day in the sun so I was drained. But the village committee informed me that I have to apologize again. So i had to go to my neighbor joanna (whom i love and adore but doesn't speak a lick of English ) and explain to her how sorry I am about the other night all in Fijian. very interesting. I don't understand what they expect for me to do to tell these people to leave and get out of my house when people are jut now starting to come over and talk and accept me. I don't understand the big deal but I do understand that they have to be quiet because they were really loud and i feel bad for joanna that's for sure i think I might make her some no-bake cookies and give to her tonight.

By the way people are loving the no-bake cookies. people are asking for them and the recipe. i never thought that I would be popular anywhere for my cooking skills especially no-bake cookies. Holla!

I also would like to point out the diversity in Fiji on the long road to my village from town that takes about 2 hours to get to my village. there is a Hindu cemetery and a Muslim cemetery all beside a Fijian village. that cracks me up every time I pass it to go to town.
I was going to put up some more pictures of my village and the people in it but the computer is very slow today and I think I might be here all day if I try that. But I should be able to next Sunday cause I will be in a bigger town to do that cause we on Viti Levu (the main island) are getting together for a beach weekend at a hostel on the Coral Coast and it's going to be a blast so on my way back I will have to stay the night somewhere cause I can't get to my village on Sunday because there is no transport to I will have time in a bigger city to upload some pictures and plus some pictures from that weekend on the beach. Well, I am about to get some lunch in town and relax before I start my weekly shopping for food and then catch the bus to my village. Kelera is in Suva right now for a YWCA board meeting so i have been lonely without her being around but she will be back tomorrow.

i think that is all I have to say for this adventurous week stay tuned for next weeks update. And keep checking the blog for more pictures there are some really funny ones of us swinging on the rope into the river and the kids. And afterwards getting yelled at by the qase ( the old men of the village) for playing on Sunday (Sigatabu, which is sabbath no playing or working on Sunday) which sucks cause that makes Sundays a very boring and hard days for us Peace Corps volunteers. every Sunday sucks for me so I hope that this one coming up is better. they are better when i am not in the village cause I can do whatever I want and not have to follow the rules. Ya know! But anyways I hope you are still enjoying this blog and hope to hear from people soon!