It’s Sunday and we finally have some downtime. Language is going o.k.
but I am definitely behind the curve and need to catch up. Some of
the words are starting to stick but memorization is not my strength.
So here are a few phrases for practice:

Masa Mada

Turanga, vinaka vakalevu na kakana oqo, Jisu na ivakabula.
Eimen

Lord, thank you very much for this food, Jesus the savior.

Bula Vinaka

Hello good.

Na yacaqu ‘o Matt.

My name is Matt.

‘O cei beka na yacamuni?

What is your name?

Na yacangu ‘o (name of person you are speaking to).

May name is _____.

O cei na yacana?

What is her/his name (while jesturing to the other person
but NOT pointing).

Na yacana ‘o _______.

Her/His name is _______.

The language overall is pretty simple. Once you learn the vowel
pronunciations and a few rules you are good to go. The big thing that
would’ve helped me prior to coming was an audio of the vowel
pronunciations and a few dozen words spoken. I searched for that
resource but had no luck. I may ask one of the instructors to do this
and post on my blog for future volunteers. It would have helped me
greatly.

The village we live in has a training center for development. It is
extremely beautiful tucked in a few rolling hills with a large river
on one side. We are staying in a Bure with Bryan and Sally. It has a
central commons with a room to the left and right. The walls go
slightly above the doors with a large peaked roof for ventalation.
The windows have mosquito netting, hurricane/theft bars, and slats to
direct the breeze of close the window.

Here are a few pictures that will describe our living arrangements
until Monday:

On Monday we move in with our host families for 8 weeks. Thankfully a
last minute change allowed Kelly and I to live together during this
time. We went to the city of Nausori yesterday to prepare for the
move and get a few essentials for laundry and such. The town was very
dirty with trash and debris everywhere. I would say the friendliness
level was medium to low here, which isn’t surprising for a large
town. Plus there where several va lagi’s (white people) traveling in
packs that I’m sure seemed kinda weird to the locals.

Here are a few prices I remember (all are in Fijian dollars): clothes
clips (pegs) = $.99, laundry detergent ($1.99), small Fijian water
($1.50), Men’s pocket sulu ($17.00), Men’s used bula shirt ($8.00),
peanut butter ($4.95). The American branded items like Kraft where
much more expensive than the non-familiar brand.

A few recommendations for FR8s:

Prepare to be flexible. You have probably already heard this multiple
times, but there are over 30 people running the training in a third
world country and things don’t work like clockwork. You may hear several different answers from people in training. They
are genuinely trying to give you the correct information but often the
information they’re working with is minimal. Go with the flow on the food. Some of it is great, some not so good.
But complaining about it doesn’t get you far and the village food will
probably be on the same level if not lower (I shall see soon). Prepare your training bag as if you are going on a camping trip. This
means water bottles, matches, camp soap, water filters/sanitizer (I
highly recommend the SteriPEN adventurer), compact clothes lines, sun
screen, DEET, bars of soap, and small and large camp towels, You might want to bring some energy pills or some sort of caffeine.
The coffee and tea is very weak and it will help you stay focused
during the language training.

In our village the women cannot where shorts, skirts that come above
the calf, or shirts that expose the shoulders. When we run, Kelly has
to where her sulu to the main road. Head bands are also not allowed
in the village. Guys can where nice shirts, collard shirts, shorts
(knee length), and pants. I’ve worn my sulu once and most the time I
am wearing pants just to be safe. You can’t where sunglasses but I
think they’ve made an exception for us because some are. These rules
apply in most villages and after a while the chief may make an
exception for you after everyone gets to know you well. For locals it
takes about two weeks so for us probably two months!

Enough righting now, I am off to charge my water filter for the
journey tomorrow. Ni sa moce.

It’s Sunday and we finally have some downtime. Language is going o.k.
but I am definitely behind the curve and need to catch up. Some of
the words are starting to stick but memorization is not my strength.
So here are a few phrases for practice:

Masa Mada

Turanga, vinaka vakalevu na kakana oqo, Jisu na ivakabula.
Eimen

Lord, thank you very much for this food, Jesus the savior.

Bula Vinaka

Hello good.

Na yacaqu ‘o Matt.

My name is Matt.

‘O cei beka na yacamuni?

What is your name?

Na yacangu ‘o (name of person you are speaking to).

May name is _____.

O cei na yacana?

What is her/his name (while jesturing to the other person
but NOT pointing).

Na yacana ‘o _______.

Her/His name is _______.

The language overall is pretty simple. Once you learn the vowel
pronunciations and a few rules you are good to go. The big thing that
would’ve helped me prior to coming was an audio of the vowel
pronunciations and a few dozen words spoken. I searched for that
resource but had no luck. I may ask one of the instructors to do this
and post on my blog for future volunteers. It would have helped me
greatly.

The village we live in has a training center for development. It is
extremely beautiful tucked in a few rolling hills with a large river
on one side. We are staying in a Bure with Bryan and Sally. It has a
central commons with a room to the left and right. The walls go
slightly above the doors with a large peaked roof for ventalation.
The windows have mosquito netting, hurricane/theft bars, and slats to
direct the breeze of close the window.

Here are a few pictures that will describe our living arrangements
until Monday:

On Monday we move in with our host families for 8 weeks. Thankfully a
last minute change allowed Kelly and I to live together during this
time. We went to the city of Nausori yesterday to prepare for the
move and get a few essentials for laundry and such. The town was very
dirty with trash and debris everywhere. I would say the friendliness
level was medium to low here, which isn’t surprising for a large
town. Plus there where several va lagi’s (white people) traveling in
packs that I’m sure seemed kinda weird to the locals.

Here are a few prices I remember (all are in Fijian dollars): clothes
clips (pegs) = $.99, laundry detergent ($1.99), small Fijian water
($1.50), Men’s pocket sulu ($17.00), Men’s used bula shirt ($8.00),
peanut butter ($4.95). The American branded items like Kraft where
much more expensive than the non-familiar brand.

A few recommendations for FR8s:

Prepare to be flexible. You have probably already heard this multiple
times, but there are over 30 people running the training in a third
world country and things don’t work like clockwork. You may hear several different answers from people in training. They
are genuinely trying to give you the correct information but often the
information they’re working with is minimal. Go with the flow on the food. Some of it is great, some not so good.
But complaining about it doesn’t get you far and the village food will
probably be on the same level if not lower (I shall see soon). Prepare your training bag as if you are going on a camping trip. This
means water bottles, matches, camp soap, water filters/sanitizer (I
highly recommend the SteriPEN adventurer), compact clothes lines, sun
screen, DEET, bars of soap, and small and large camp towels, You might want to bring some energy pills or some sort of caffeine.
The coffee and tea is very weak and it will help you stay focused
during the language training.

In our village the women cannot where shorts, skirts that come above
the calf, or shirts that expose the shoulders. When we run, Kelly has
to where her sulu to the main road. Head bands are also not allowed
in the village. Guys can where nice shirts, collard shirts, shorts
(knee length), and pants. I’ve worn my sulu once and most the time I
am wearing pants just to be safe. You can’t where sunglasses but I
think they’ve made an exception for us because some are. These rules
apply in most villages and after a while the chief may make an
exception for you after everyone gets to know you well. For locals it
takes about two weeks so for us probably two months!

Enough righting now, I am off to charge my water filter for the
journey tomorrow. Ni sa moce.

Today we learned how to make and use a lovo (earth oven). We started
at 6:45 am pealing the purple dalo in preparation for the afternoon
feast. Turani had a small fire with a pot going in the shed when I
arrived. The wood storage was directly above the fire and smoke was
billowing from the shed. It definitely wasn’t OSHA certified.

Turani then lit ashes soaked in lighter fluid in the lavo pit about 8”
deep and 3’x3’ square. On this he stacked layers of small branches
about 7” high. He had a lean-to of tin and bamboo built over it for
rain protection. After the wood he placed dried coconut husks around
the wood and topped it all with a mound of rocks about 12” high. This
was left smoldering for about an hour.

We then finished up the Dalo peeling. It is much like pealing a
potato but the dalo is very slippery and the knife very sharp. I
received my first flesh wound on the thumb, but was quickly back in
the action after following the proper Peace Corps procedures for
bandaging wounds above the waist. We placed all the purple dalo in
the pot and cooked it for about three hours.

After the dalo Turani showed me how to crack a coconut with a
machete. The first step is stripping the fuzz and strings from the
outer casing. Then you hold the coconut in one hand and wack it
perpendicular across two or three of the dark veins. Two wacks should
get it but for me it took a few times. You have to hold it a bit away
as the milk comes spewing out once you hit pay dirt. Turani then
shaved the innards on a saddle like bench with a serrated spoon nailed
on the end. This is labor intensive and hard to do. Thankfully he
shaved them all.

We then peeled yellow dalo which are the same as purple but larger.
They don’t tast as good either but can be cooked directly in the lovo.

Following dalo preparations we squeezed coconut shavings to make miti
(coconut milk). This was a little tricky. Turani cut a section of
mill sack used to feed pigs and found two bamboo sticks about 24”
long. The coconut shavings are then placed in the sack while two
people, Turani and Ta, twist the bamboo rods on each end of the open
ended bag squeezing the permeable sack around the shavings. The milk
seeps out into a bowl below. We squeezed the shavings from six
coconuts twice and it made about 16 oz of milk. It was a lot of work
for that amount of liquid.

The fish and chicken preparations where then made using dalo and
coconut branches. The chicken was stuffed with garlic and onions and
soaked in soy sauce. The fish was wrapped head and all inside a dalo
leaf and then tucked inside a coconut branch with the spine following
parallel to the fish. The leaves where braded around the fish to
create a cocoon. The same procedure followed for the chicken minus
the dalo leaf.

In the kitchen Kelly was placing pounded garlic and onions with the
freshly squeezed coconut milk inside dalo leaves creating a folded
pocket of goodness. She put tinned tuna in some as well. A few where
wrapped and foil and some where tucked inside the half shells of the
coconuts we scraped earlier.

Back to the lovo. After the wood had mostly burned, Turani shoveled
the ashes and unburned pieces out of the fire so that all was left
where hot rocks a grayish red color. He then placed a small grate on
top of the rocks with some coconut stems to balance the cooking
platform and to keep the food from touching the rocks. He spread the
food around the grill then covered the mound with coconut branches and
dalo leaves, in that order. All of this was covered with a yellow
tarp to hold everything down. He shoveled dirt over the tarp to keep
the steam in. We left the food in for about 1.5 hours and let
everything cool while we went to church.

The dalo leaves in the coconut shelves where very good and had a nice
smokey flavor. The fish and chicken turned out great and all in all
it was a great feast. Every meal is new experience and I’m having a
hard time remembering what everything is. Everything we made in the
lavo could have been cooked in the oven but tasted much better from
the lavo. The lavo can also be made pretty much anywhere in the bush
showing the resourcefulness of the Fijian people.

All is well in the South Pacific.  We have finished our pre-service training and are fully engaged in the home stay villages.  We couldn’t ask for better families to stay with.  They keep feeding us tons of great food, although different, and are very hospitable. I can’t believe I have found people friendlier than Texans!  My hair lasted all of three days in the heat and humidity.

We spent the day at the ocean learning how to put on a life jacket and swim in the ocean.  It was our first view of the pond and well worth the hour long bus ride.  We had a nice picnic under the coconut trees and returned home.

The language is progressing nicely with most of the greeting vocabulary and a few sentences down.  We have 8 more weeks to go of language and technical training and then off to our villages.

I know everyone wants pictures so I will keep this one short.  Hopefully we will have some time to post on Monday.

Words cannot express how grateful we are to all the friends and family that have shown us so much love over the past few days.  We could not do this without you.  I have been humbled by the outpouring of support you've shown and have been convicted to never take the power of community for granted.  His lessons are many and often and we've learned so much already, except how to pack a back lighter than 75lbs!  We love you all!

Four hours of work left to
go.  It was a bitter sweet day
today.  I attended my last owner’s,
architect, contractor’s construction meeting (sweet!) and had to say goodbye to
some great friends (bitter).  They surprised
me in the construction trailer with Italian Cream Cake (I won’t see that for 27
more months), an Oceanic Dive Computer (amazing), and a much needed pelican
case complete with rechargeable silica canister.  All of it is much needed equipment for the trek ahead.

Thanks guys for teaching me much
about teamwork in such a short period of time and don’t forget to send me
photos of the ground breaking!

Four hours of work left to
go.  It was a bitter sweet day
today.  I attended my last owner’s,
architect, contractor’s construction meeting (sweet!) and had to say goodbye to
some great friends (bitter).  They surprised
me in the construction trailer with Italian Cream Cake (I won’t see that for 27
more months), an Oceanic Dive Computer (amazing), and a much needed pelican
case complete with rechargeable silica canister.  All of it is much needed equipment for the trek ahead.

Thanks guys for teaching me much
about teamwork in such a short period of time and don’t forget to send me
photos of the ground breaking!

For those FRE-8ers planning your trip
be prepared for a roller coaster. 
When you get near to ship off emotions are high and low and the weirdest
things can set you off.  Hopefully
I’m past that but it is not easy condensing you life to 100 lbs and 130 linear inches,
especially if you’ve been out of school and working for 10 years. 

We’ve successfully purged both
cars and now have no wheels for the first time since we where 16.  Now I know what the other 91% of the
world feels like.  I’m sure there
will be more of those awakenings very soon.

We are preparing to move to Bob
and Janelle’s tomorrow then the big family gathering and proper send off on
Saturday.  I think there will be
more people at this than Christmas! 
Woo hoo!  Hopefully the
weather will stay nice and we won’t all give each other pig flu.

God has been preparing us
for Fijian weather the last few days. 
It’s been 75-80 degrees, mostly cloudy, with 80% humidity for almost two
full weeks now.  Thankfully we can
skip out on the Texas August this year.

We are starting our ‘last time’
countdown.  Last time to go to the
gym, last night in our apartment, last drive in the Element, you get the
drift.  Humans are funny. 

After several months of planning
the much anticipated pack-off between Kelly and Matt was held.  It wasn’t really much of a contest
because Kelly refused to participate. 
Here are the results:

Matt: 

Kelly:

Never underestimate the power of
a pack-off.  The next event will
most definitely be timed.

-matt

After several months of planning
the much anticipated pack-off between Kelly and Matt was held.  It wasn’t really much of a contest
because Kelly refused to participate. 
Here are the results:

Matt: 

Kelly:

Never underestimate the power of
a pack-off.  The next event will
most definitely be timed.

-matt