Okay and here I am.....

Alright Chris left a week ago and things are rough. I am in Tavua right now about to go back to my village tonight. I hope things go well and i am still not alone all the time. I really need things to change for me at this point because i am getting quite discouraged. I am extremely homesick more than I have ever been. I am just trying to get thru this but I am not sure I can. I had a great time with Chris and I think he really enjoyed his visit to his first foreign country. I have tons of great stories and I would like to tell them to you thru my pictures but of course as usual I can't seem to get them on the computer. I trying to be really hopeful throughout the next few months but I just know Thanksgiving and Christmas are going to be the last straw for me. I did however go snorkeling in Rakiraki this past weekend with the married couple John and Leslie and another village volunteer Natalie. Chris and I were supposed to go snorkeling but never got the chance to because I had to go to Suva on medical hold. I had some sort of red marks under the skin on the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet. They were so painful and burning constantly. I would scream and cry I just couldn't handle it anymore so I called the Peace Corps doctor. It was so bad Chris and I had to pretty much end our vacation and go to Suva for the last five days he was here. There was quick talk about me being medically evacuated to Australia because none of the doctors really knew what it was. But they gave me two shots and some antibiotics and in a few days it started to stop spreading and eventually stopped. But now my hands and feet are peeling. Like the skin is really just coming off completely is quite disgusting and hard to look at. I am fine now but I am a little worried about the fact that we still didn't really find out what it was. They think is was something viral which could just about be anything. I personally think its the water in the river I swim in alot and wash my clothes in. I don't know I just hope it doesn't came back again.

Anyways, I got to go snorkeling at the most amazing place ever. I first went off the shore at this beach in Rakiraki you know baby steps. And I got to see tons a fish and some coral. The water wasn't has clear though to see alot of things. But the next day we went on the boat to the outer reef where you can see some real stuff. The first jump I went with Leslie (we always snorkel in pairs you never know what could happen out there in the deep blue ocean in the middle of no where) and we saw a shark it was so cool. Of course I started swimming slowly the other way. I mean it was cool to see one but from a distance I like them. He wasn't a huge shark but a descent size. But I literally saw hundreds of different kinds of fish. It was one of the beautiful things i have ever seen. It is really like another world down there. The coral is so colorful and the water is crystal clear. I swallowed about 2 gallons of salt water but it was all worth it. I also found nemo for real this time and these huge fish that were bigger than me. The second jump I did was with John who likes to dive down and touch things which is fun to watch. i don't really like to touch things cause i don't know what they are going to do. But he is adventurous and knowledgeable about marine life. This jump saw more cool looking fish and stuff but what is most important was when we were on our way back to the shore. We ran into a group of DOLPHINS! There was at least 20 of them. It was the coolest things I have ever seen. They are really freakin fast. You could see them swimming right beside the boat then all the sudden you lost them and they are like one kilometer away in a completely different area. So we followed them for a while and watched them. They were so pretty and they were jumping and making noises. I wanted to jump in and swim with them but John jumped in and tried first but jumping in scared them away and I didn't want them to go away so i just watched. So that was my excitement this week.

I have been working on the grant proposal for the electricity this past week at the workshop and got alot of work done on it. Tomorrow I have this meeting with a FEA person in town to talk about more details and quotations. I hope all this works out cause this is the only chance of getting electricity for Waikubukubu. If this doesn't work then there is nothing I can really do for these people but to try to re-open their dispensary. Well, I am going to walk around and town and meet with people I haven't seen in a while and eat some food. i can't wait to see Sophia soon I think she is missing me for sure. I know that my phone hasn't been working for alot of people and I don't know what else to do about that. But there is another option that could work much better and much cheaper than phone cards. I don't know how many people have heard of skype but I heard it works well. You have to go to www.skype.com and create a account with a username and password and then it gies you directions on how it works. You basically put money on your account like 10 dollars from you bank account thru a visa or debit card or something like that and you can call me on my cellphone for about 13 cents a minute. You have to headphones and stuff cause you will be talking thru the computer to make the call. Just go to www.skype.com and check it out and go from there just another option from phone cards that don't seem to be constantly working. Let me know if anyone gets anywhere with this program and put up a comment to this post to help others to contact me. Thank you!

Chris is here!

WE are both sitting in an internet cafe checking the news for the election. We just met up with some volunteers in Rakiraki and are going to the Rakiraki hotel to watch the elections on TV. We are so excited basically the U.S. is going to have a new president very soon. WE will be going to a resort for the rest of the time on a island just north off the main island. I am excited I think Chris was a bit bored in the village. He had a little trouble with the heat and the bugs. But we had a good time and he got to experience the real Fijian life in the village! Well, I am pretty much dreading his departure and I will write more after he leaves next week. Thank you everyone for their birthday wishes. Sorry my phone has been out and not working and there is nothing I can do about it because I live in a third world country.

One more week!

What's wrong with you people? No comments not even on my pictures. Come on now I know you got something to say. Well, I just have one more week til Chris comes! I can't wait I am going through all kinds of emotions. I do feel like my world will finally be complete after 5 months of it being a mess. My birthday is coming up too but that takes the back burning to Chris's arrival. I don't even care that I am turning 24 years old. Thank god cause if I did care I would probably be freakin out that I am turning that old. I am in town right now and coming from a soccer tournament this weekend. i scored a goal so now I am like a superstar or something. It was of course raining the whole game which you all know how I love playing soccer in the rain. I have some of my best games in the rain. It was the last game of the tournament and we had to win. I scored on the second half. For some reason the coach put me as Captain and so I called for ball and wanted the muddy side cause I thought is was more fun to play in the mud. One of the girls dribbled the ball down the line on the left side and crossed it over I was playing central midfield again which for sure suck at so I don't know why the coach put me there either. But one girl went to kick the crossed ball in the goal and I though for sure she was going to get it in but she missed and slipped in the mud and I was standing right there so I moved to get my head on it but I coudn't get under the ball so I hit it with my neck and it went in but I landed in the biggest mud puttle in Fiji. I was so dirty! The crown cheered and the team just laughed. I had so much fun. I think that the team is really getting used of me and I am starting to play and act like I usually do. So it feels good to be apart of that. Well, I need to get going. Dad I got your package in the mail and Aunt Beckie's but I haven't opened them up just yet. I like to wait til I get to my tin shack in the village it feels more like Christmas and all the kids are watching me and taking all the candy and stuff from America. I love you all and next time I post Chris will for sure be here! Love you Mom and Dad I espesially miss alot of people today! Thinkin of you all.

13 more days til Chris arrives!!!!

Okay, first of all I am sorry I haven't been on top of my blog lately. I have been moving around alot lately and haven't really had a regular steady schedule. But I have two weeks in my village before Chris comes where I can come into town and update my blog. I have put up 137 more pictures in my picture album so please check them out they are pretty good if I don't say so myself. So since the last time I put up a post. We had out beach weekend that I planned with the Viti levu volunteers. it was fun but it freakin rained the whole time. I got to kayack for the first time and I have not good at it. The place we stayed at called the Beach house is a really cool place and we met alot of cool people our age just traveling the world. I stopped in Lautoka before i got to the resort and did some work for my village. I am tryin to get the youth re-registered so they can recieve money for projects. But its easier said then done. I have to type up a constitution and do all this paper work which isn't a big deal if it didnt' take forever to get to town and then once I get to town I have to pay for the time I use the computer. But I will work on that. It has been nice after my site visit I can start doing to some work around here. I don't feel like such a failure. I also picked up some recycling bags to start my village on recycling which should be an interesting task but I think it is going to work. My host village Draubuta is still recycling after we introduced the idea to them and they are loving it.

I also have been to the movie theaters twice since i put up a post. I saw tropical thunder and pinapple express. It was great I felt like I was right there in America. Til I walked outside and realized I sure as hell wasn't. But it was nice to sit down and listen to humor and good english that I understand and genuily laughed at. When I came back from the beach weekend I was so excited to come back to my village. I realy missed alot of people in my village. Especially Sophia! When I got back I saw the AOG preacher's wife one of my favorite people in the village. I think I have talked about her before. But she wasn't looking good. She had these huge black sunglasses on. I asked her what was wrong she said that there was a problem at home and she got injured. She turned a little bit and I could see the outline of this huge black bruise around her eye and she was just coming back from the hospital. I mean I have never seen a black eye like this before. And right there I knew that the paster hit her. I felt so sick to my stomach. Just when I thought I found the perfect couple in Fiji to look up to it was crashed. I had no idea what to do. I wanted to cook her a dish and bring it over to her house but I was scared of her husband. And him and I were good friends. On the bus I kept thinking how embrassed she must feel wearing those glasses and hiding her face and knowing damn well that everyone knows what happen no matter how many times she lies for her husband. I can't stand how everyone just accepted it and didn't seem to care and that this stuff just kind of happens and it's their problem in the marriage and that we should interfear. But I couldn't stand the fact that he hit her I let people know. I told kelera and she was telling me all the stories that happened to her that her ex-husband did. I think the AOG pastor knows how I feel because I am sure people have told him and the fact that I will leave a place if he is around and I never say hi to him. So we will see what will come of that. Aparantly, he has apologized to the church and all that bullshit makes it okay but not for me. I will never accept that!

So I don't know if I have mentioned but Kendall's boyfriend is coming the same time Chris is coming. On the same plane! We are going to have so much fun I can't wait.

Anyways, my village has had two soli's (fundraisers). the first one for education and schooling for the kids and the second on Fiji Day for the Methodist church which I completely disagree on. Because these people give ALL there money to the church and don't save some for themselves and don't have food to feed themselves and are living in tin shacks. because the Methodist church says if you give lots of money that Jesus will take care of the rest but in reality these people are still hungry and still have not electricity and are living in tin shacks. I can't imagine if they gave all that money for the electricity. I mean they give thousands of dollars and I still have no clue where this money come froms. these people of no jobs. I can't understand that just yet.

During the soli the women of course did all the cooking and I even stayed up til 1 in the morning peeling potatoes and then got up at 6 in the morning to present a sevusevu i think that is in my pictures. I asked one of the guys how he felt about all these women twice his age doing all this work and all he does is sit around. He said well that is a woman's job and you all know me I blew up on him. So i think the next soli I am going to strongly suggest them to switch things up and have the men do all the work and the women sit around. kelera said they did that one year and it worked. So I want to see it myself.

People in my village are starting to mistake me as an Indian because I am starting to get quite dark in this hot Fijian sun. Which is a complement in my book but not relaly good to be mistaken as an Indian in a Fijian village.

we had a soccer game a few weekends ago in tavua and it was awesome. i felt like I was in high school again. I am playing my usual position as right full back and it feels real good! We won our first game and tied our second against Nadi. We always lose against them and that game was like playing against PHS. that is how crazy the crowd was and how excited we were to beat them. I saved alot of goals and almost got into a fight. So it felt just like home for me. It was great!

We had our in-service training at a resort and I got to meet and see all the volunteers in Fiji. I was relaly nice and refreshing to see everyone again. But sucked to know that I won't see them all again for another year. But I got to lay out at the pool and get alot of information about projects I can do and went out with all my friends. So it was a good time.

After the trainging I went to my friends Sarah's house is Navua on the other side of the island and went to this resort called the Uprising. you will see pictures of it in my album. this place was amazing. I wanted to stay for weeks. I never wanted to leave. I have never seen a place like this before. I would love to take chris here but the bus ride would not be worth it because of time. But maybe if other people visit i can plan better and get there Oh yeah I know why We can't go there no one I know could ever afford it. I keep forgetting about stuff like that.

So my village has big big plans for Chris's arrival. the women are preparing a huge dinner thursday night when he gets there. And there are a few more surprises but I don't want to say because I want chris to be surprised. let's just say I almost cried when they told me what they are going to do. I told them they didn't have to do all of this but they said that he is coming all the way from America to visit you and the village and you are now apart of the village and the family here. It is a part of their culture to do this. So I can't wait I will talk alot of pictures trust me!

So lately all I have been doing is washing my clothes and cleaning the house. and working on my community map where I draw up the house and surrounding areas of my village which is considably easy since my village is bearly 40 houses.

One tuesday I went to the headman 's village house to cut weeds in their kasava fields. It was one of the hardest jobs ever. My back was killing me. I was trying to be like a fijian woman and lets face I am not but at least I tried right? After a while it started raining and all the women told me to go back to the house and help cook cause they thought I was going to get really sick. So I went back and cooked and ate the best meal ever. It was so good. they prepared a special plate for me which is a big honor even so that they are still doing that after all this time I have been in the village. I think they did it because I did some manual labor for them. Anyways, the headman and his wife are great and right now so far they are the couple I look up to at least until something happens. They take care of me just like I was there real daughter. and their kids treat me just like I am their sister. I really like that family. they are all very helpful and active within the village. So that is nice to see.

Today, is the 14th of October which means it is Jason's birthday today here. He will be really old coming in at the age of 31! OLD MAN! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON! I hope you got your hand made card in the mail.

Keep sending me messages on facebook and e-mails and comments on my blog please! It really helps to hear from. Hopefully the next time I am on here Chris will be here!

Finding Nemo with Kendall...

Having the time of my life! Check my pictures just posted alot. Sorry for not being on here for so long. It's getting busy but I will find time to put up a much longer post. Miss you all!

Short entry......

Let's see I am in the internet cafe right now with Americans! it's amazing. SO this past Sunday I saw the movie Tropical Thunder with Kendall which was a little slice of America right there. On Monday and Tuesday I weaved mats in the community hall all day. Which really impressed my Fijians friends. They think that I am so smart the only thing I did was watch them do it and I just did what they did. I like it i could do that forever if I didn't have to sit there in a skirt. I was going to put up pictures of me this time but I had to go to another internet cafe because my normal cafe was under construction. Wednesday the Peace Corps made there first site visit. It went pretty well I don't really have any complaints things are going well. I have lots of work to do and i seem lately not to be motivated until I get to a beach so I think this weekend will really be needed. I can't wait. My friends Dave and Kendall might be moving around though after their site visit so that should be interesting I am happy for them cause maybe they will be happier I hope. I really don't have much else to talk about cause I was going to use this time for uploading pictures but that once again isn't going to happen. Sorry. I will try this weekend while i am in bliss at the beach. I like to call it my beachin' weekend! (you like the one kelsey)

Another soccer weekend!

I had a soccer tournament in Nadi this weekend. We won our first game 3-1 and lost the second game 0-1. Some of the usual girls could not show for this tournament so we had some new girls and so I got to play my usual position as right fullback and it feels so good. I felt so much better back there and I don't have to do as much running in the hot sun. Their idea of a flat back four is very interesting for me but I think in time it will turn into a true flat back I hope cause i will go crazy in the back if it doesn't change. I am excited because I get to go to the movie theater today and watch a movie quite the concept for me. I am very excited! What else I was going to put those pictures up but this internet cafe is a bit expensive and the program I use on this computer in is Japanese characters which makes things a bit hard guessing what to click hoping I don't lose my pictures. I have some of the soccer girls but I couldn't get anyone to take a picture of me playing cause i am afraid of leaving my camera with someone. This coming up weekend I am going to the Coral Coast to the beach with some peace corps friends I am very pumped about. two full days at a beach and not being bothered or harassed sounds good to me. Then the following weekend I have another soccer tournament in Ba then the following weekend I am in-service training at a resort in Nadi which will be nice to see all my friends from the other islands. So the next couple of weeks will be full of excitement. Sophia is doing well and growing up to be quite the quality dog. She is getting out of her puppy ways and that makes me sad I want her to stay a little dog but her fur is growing back and she is starting to look like a real dog. I really don't have much more to say I pretty much got everything up on Friday that I wanted to say. I should be able to update again at the end of the week and get the beach pictures up after that.