Dec 4
Long time, no post. Let's see... while I've been really busy, it's really just village life occupying my time. Unfortunately, my camera is still kaput so I have no pictures to show, which is really unfortunate because last Friday the kindergarten class had their 'graduation' and concert. It was adorable! The kids did a bunch of 'meke' (songs and dance, where they wear skirts and bracelets made of leaves and flowers with flower necklaces) and sang songs. Then they wore these robes and hats to receive certificates for completion. Very cute. And we had a huge, wonderful tea afterwards (multiple kinds of 'pie' and scones and breads and cassava sweets, roti parcels and sandwiches and cake. it was a feast!).

We had a lot of grog for awhile so my gang and I switched to new entertainment at night: watching movies. My brother stays in this empty house in a nice decent size room. We hook up my laptop, shut all the curtains, and watch movies for hours. Some sprawl on the bed, the rest on the floor. We pull in another mattress and cuddle up. It's great.

14 December

As I'm writing this, a tropical cyclone has decided to grace us with his presence. His name is Nick, andhe's somewhere east of Nadi, south of Labasa. I actually don't knowwhere he is at the minute, havingchanged course of direction over night. All I know is I have plywood coveringmy window and it has been raining allridiculous like for the past few days. Sometimes it will let up for a fewminutes or an hour or two, but mostly it's non-stop. Last night was super heavy winds. If it comes, it'll be a Category 1 storm, says the radio. And thank heavens for Fijian radio, with hourly (and more, if needed) reports about the situation.

Something came up at lunch today, which I have to address. I tried to promise myselfnotto be too political, given that I actually have readers (a big old 'Welcome!' to my 7th and 8th grade pen pals!) and I should control myself. That said, I do have to address something. I think sometimes we in the U.S. forget that we do not, in fact, live in a bubble and that things that are said, even small blips or soundbytes from newspapers and TV, can indeed have a big impact, maybe for the wrong reasons, on very easily influenced media markets. I'm speaking specifically about comments made from extreme right wingers and the overtly, zealously religious (or both- conservative religious folks) made traveling from one country to the next, to un-democratic developing countries with similar characteristics (conservative, religious). Case in point: I have heard multiple times that Hurricane Katrina was a result of states legalizing/ recognizing same-sex marriage. Apparently, severe tropical storms that kill thousands and render thousands more homeless, particularly affecting poor, black families is God's revenge on equality. This assuming that there is not only (a) god but one that feels it necessary to kill his (her?) followers as punishment for enacting his (her?) “Good Work.”

To clarify, what is said perhaps facetiously, perhaps seriously, from TV pundits or evangelists or just plain old bullies, has been construed as something much more serious in a place like Fiji, a country where A) Freedom of the Press is not a constitutional right protected by government but seriously censored and monitored; and B) the media is uncompetitive and fledgling with limited means and resources; and C) mostly influenced by Australian/ Aussie companies, well... statements like “Katrina happened because of gay people” do make it over here. And statements like that are taken seriously. Here, there is no separation of church and state.

If that is part of the way to “Win Souls to Jesus at Any Cost” (a sign I pass by a church on my way into town), no thank you. What kind of god would allows thousands of innocent people to have their homes and lives ruined, families torn apart, all their earthly possessions swept away as part of a lesson, or again, as a revenge for providing access to civil rights for all human beings? I don't understand it, and I can't- again- subscribe to that line of reasoning. Religion shouldn't be a war, or a battle, and it shouldn't be the lame excuse for the kind of damage caused by global warming, bureaucratic fuck-ups, racism, classism, and a really shitty act of a pissed off nature that, four years later, still hasn't received nearly enough attention as it should have.

The fact that people here, in Fiji, laugh about that kind of behavior on behalf of their God (both times I have heard this people have been from different religions, mind you), while their own compatriots are suffering the same weather patterns, to a lesser degree, is troubling. Knowing that Fijian press will print what influential, or loud-mouthed, people print/say in America, as probably happens all over the world in developing countries, do we not have some sort of responsibility, obligation, to think before we go off on behalf of “God”? I think for me, this also is stemming from having read a lot of (American) articles about the American press lately. I mean, if Newsweek and Time can be critical of their peers (as maybe is their responsibility being capitalists before being journalists), can't the American public be critical, or a little more discerning? Ultimately, it is us/you all, who dictate who is able to be heard. (I.e.: don't like what Limbaugh or O'Reilly or the rest have to say? TURN THEM OFF!) We do, despite what they will have you believe, have the power.

Lecture done. Wait, one more thing- what in the world has Time done to their format??? It's awful.

16 December

Ah, Christmastime... see the decorated houses with their hurricane proofing materials, feel the nice hot sun beating down on you on the busy streets unsealed, wonder at the multitude of mysterious bites- mosquito? Flea? Spider? Bedbug? Other random creature?,

Wouldn't you know it, sun is shining and hot and humid and barely a cloud in the sky. Been this way since Tuesday.

Our mangroves are hanginginthere, despite the near-hurricane and the poor timing for planting (while we planted them about five or so weeks ago, this is still really bad timing for planting mangroves along floodplains). These mangroves are being planted in thenext village up from me, where they have embraced natural flood prevention measures, as opposed to cutting down mangroves or expensive, environmentally destruction measures (as is happening in my village).