ni sa bula si'a!

My house! From the back. It's a traditional bamboo bure.












My "kitchen"- they built this addition for me. I have a wood fire stove and a gas stove.


















Inside view #1: rest of my kitchen (a real sink!!! and it works!!!) and the door to the bathroom

Inside view #2: my bed

painting of Jesus. I visited another volunteer near Rakiraki and in her site is a Catholic church with this painting. I found out afterwards it's apparently very famous because it shows a black jesus. But of course we all know that Jesus wasn't white, right? White people didn't originate in Jerusalem, Egypt, Bethalehem, or any other biblical "middle eastern" places. Anyway, some French missionaries painted it awhile back. It's a beautiful church and the view is spectacular.

I am up in the North now. It's hot. Bloody, bloody, bloody hot. Stifling hot. I have a cute little bamboo bure (see above picture) that I'm loving. it is actually pretty cool inside, with a nice air flow. I'm replacing another volunteer who left suddenly in October. He had started some goo dprojects so I'm excited to continue his work. It's very different up here, both culturally and environmentally. I'm on the ocean (don't get excited about the beach- it's muck and disgusting) eating fish every single meal outside of breakfast. There are a gazillion coconuts and everything has lolo (coconut milk) in it, which is good but really fattening I had lost weight in Nairukuruku but it's all back, plus some, after my indulgence in Suva and the food here. Yuck. The women don't go to the field, which is really hard for me. I really enjoyed farming. They do all the fishing though so i'm excited to try that and they can keep gardens, which are closer to the village. It's a small village of about 27 houses (I think that's a generous count, I need to double check). It's a Chiefly village, which means it's in charge of the "tikina" (like a county) and very important. It's also really conservative, hence the very dramatic split of gender roles. The sexual politics will be hard to overcome here as women are pretty much expected not to be able to do any labor and to of course cook, a lot (which is really nice if you want a kitchen built so you can, gasp! cook your own meals, unlike many of the male vols. Americans can cook?!?).

The language is very different, too. They drop the "k" sound, which is in some of the most oft used words, like 'lako', 'tiko,' and 'vinaka' (meaning, respectively, to go/come, to stay/reside/live in, and thank you) are now 'la'o,' "ti'o," and 'vina'a" and the "q" sound is replaced by "k." Plus a bunch of different words for other things: 'maka' means no and fish is "koli."

I've also started going by "Alisi," making good use of a rarely used middle name. I decided Taylar was just a little too difficult to say. A new village, a new name, a new start!

we can and we did!

Yay!!!!!!!! Congratulations on our new president!!!! I can finally, finally, finally say I am proud to be an American after all these years!

I watched election coverage for a good chunk of the day Wednesday in Rakiraki with a bunch of other volunteers. It was exciting. I cried, a lot. How amazing. I know I had my HRC days but all in all, I'm happy with Obama. Wisconsin, you rock for going 56% Obama and taking back the house and senate! (Shouldn't it have been higher, though?? And thank heavens Gard was not elected... maybe there isn't room for bigotry in northern Wisco) Scary thing is looking at the popular vote: it was only 51% Obama, 47% McCain. That's too close for comfort. But still! Change is in the air...

Tomorrow, Saturday, I'm moving to my new village on Vanua Levu, the other big island. I'm extremely excited but have no other information other than I am replacing another Volunteer who left in October and he had a really cool traditional bure (house). More to come later, but I might not be online much for awhile.

Just a little update...
I'm still in Suva, still reading a lot and spending lots of money I don't really have. I finished "What is the What" by Dave Eggers and I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it. Another powerful book highlighting injustices of the world, this time in Sudan. It makes you realize how complicated the world is and how little we pay attention to the plight of others the world over. And how little the US government actually does to prevent potential/ future worldwide disasters before exacerbating them. I am speaking, of course, about Osama bin Laden/terrorism. I'm not saying that the US could have prevented civil war in southern Sudan, but our government certainly didn't help matters or heed warning signs. Mind you, civil war in Sudan started in the 80's so I'm not surprised seeing as Reagan didn't really care about anyone except rich white straight capitalists.

I digress... I also saw the new Guy Ritchie movie, "Rock 'n Rolla," last week. I really liked it but it was slightly different while being very similar to every other Guy Ritchie movie. Eh, it wasn't about terrorism or Iraq so it was good :) A very cool movie...

I should be getting my new site placement soon! It looks like I'll be moving up north to the island of Vanua Levu.

If you don't vote for Barack Obama, I'm never coming back. Please please please with every ounce of your soul and heart, pray, wish, beg, light a candle, send an ESP message, do whatever you need to do to get him elected!

Thanks so much for the well wishes during this difficult time for me! Soon I'll have a new village and will stay there, in the bush, growing my dalo and cassava. I'll keep you posted!