The dripping sweet icing of deliciousness on the big fat beautiful Fiji cake!

Yesterday I had one of those completely perfect adventures that you can't even know how to describe because so much awesomeness gets in the way.  I finally made it to the mountains!!!!!! Here are WAY too many pics, because I love them and I want you all to see it.

This is the road you take to get to Sabeto Village (pronounced Sambeto)  there is just so much Fiji in this pic I can't even say.  Those men just cut and loaded that sugar cane and were getting it ready to hook on to the little sugar cane train headed to Lautoka.  

Here are a couple of stops on the way.  That mountain is the Sleeping Giant (although it's only part of him and you can't really tell from the pic).

The water is really low because it's the end of summer here.

We stopped at a beautiful picnic swimming area, that also had a zip-line.  We had a guide lead us on a hike from there (you don't really want to hike on your own if your not from these parts).

Dropati and Benni (one of the inservice students) made the whole day happen.  They also don't like climbing things.  

One part of the trail was lined with pineapples!!  

The upper falls we hiked to.

 This is a big rock. Also, a giant spider web attacked my face as I was climbing to it.  I barely survived.

 Interesting things happen when you give Dropati your phone.  

I couldn't get over the twisty trees!

I love Fiji!  Let's all come here together sometime!

This is it.  My last post.  I'll be home tomorrow!  I get to have tomorrow for two-days.  Yay December 14th and 14th!

Ladies in red

It's almost time to go!  This is so crazy to me!  I'm looking at Laramie weather and WOW, I am going to have to adjust to the cold quickly!  Fun things that happened this week.  First, I just finished writing the Programme Document (dig the spelling) and mailed it off to the Dean!  Yahoo!!!!!  That means when I leave here on Wednesday they will have everything then need (pretty much) to start having lots of committee meetings in January  This is a University, though, so everything takes forever.  The new BEd will start in exactly a year from January (unless something unpredictable happens).

Okay, more fun things this week.  Dropati and I went to Nadi and to Port Denarau Wednesday afternoon and it was grand!  Dropati and I are an excellent fit as far as adventures go.  You could say she's also a little on the immature side, and simple things bring her great joy as well.  So we have had some lovely times.  I think our highlight was drinking delicious fresh pineapple smoothies at the shore and watching the fish and little crabs fight it out over some bread crumbs for about 30 minutes (with added sound effects and voices and such).  Sangeeta doesn't necessarily share similar interests, so we have a lot of fun encounters.  For instance...  last week she was so happy to announce that we were going to go to a university graduation - not FNU - together as a little break from work!  For 4 hours... in the heat...  all dressed up in our Sunday best... with not a single person there that I would have any connection with at all.  At hour 2 she leaned over and asked if we have graduations like this in the U.S.  YEP, we do!  And NO ONE goes to them unless they are forced to due to blood relationship. But, the food was good, so I'll give her that.  Did you know the back of your hands can sweat?  I believe that the back of the hand is the last part of the human body to sweat - this is scientific - meaning at exactly that point you have reached the apex of wet, sticky grossness that the human body can experience. The back of my hands were sweating at that graduation.

Two days ago she came bursting into my office and told me we should all wear matching clothes to the FNU Christmas party on Saturday.  Just please pause a moment to take this in.  She meant the following. Go buy matching clothes and wear them to a party with people. This Saturday.  First of all, I didn't know about the party, so my millisecond's worth of time to respond included the following thoughts/feelings in the order they were experienced:

1- Intense feelings of anxiety about having to go to another social event with actual people, none of which would be children I could ditch the rest of the group and play with.

2 - A realization that said event was an FNU Christmas party, with the clear implication that the number of people I envisioned all in a space together would greatly increase - leading to a significant amplification of the previous anxiety-response.

3 - Registration that she just said that we should go buy matching clothes... in a store... at the same time... together... trying things on... cute things that Sangeeta would try to make me put on my body.  

4 - A vivid picture of myself, in something pink and gold and frumpy, walking up to a group of party-goers with Sangeeta and Dropati - closely followed by a gag reflex.

5 - A recognition of the genuine happiness and sincerity in her face as she spoke, with it's accompanying feeling of panic while facing the desperate need to respond quickly and appropriately.

I have been told a lot of times in my life that I am terrible at hiding my feelings. Apparently my face shows it all.  This was certainly the case at this moment because poor Sangeeta's happiest, sincerest expression faded rather quickly.  Thank goodness Dropati wasn't far behind her and had heard what she said. She responded in Hindi, but I think it's safe to say that an edited version of her response would be somewhere in the neighborhood of  "Are you out of your mind!"  So, no, we are not buying matching clothes.  We have compromised, however, and are all wearing red.

I really love these ladies. Can you imagine being Sangeeta and anticipating having a sophisticated American professional woman coming to visit. And then having to slowly come to terms with the fact that the American woman she got was me.  But she is so kind and good to me and loves me anyway.  For that I am so grateful!  

Here are some pics from the week.

Lunch at the beach! I touched sand and water for the third time.

Jules, my new kitty friend.  He likes tuna in the morning.

Another sunset #fijistyle.  I just can't get enough of them.

Extremely important Fiji sweets

Jelly ring (mango flavored fried perfection)

 Gulab juman - tasks like a rolled and smushed pancake soaked in syrup.

 Gulgula - a sweet bread with raisins - fried of course.

Suva Top 5

Suva, the capitol of Fiji, happens to be across the island from Lautoka where I'm staying. I've been trying to figure out how to get there for a weekend ever since I came. I've actually been there twice for work - both times on Mondays - both times leaving at 5:00am and getting back at about 9:00pm the same day. It's a 5 hour drive, so those trips did not lend themselves to stopping and hanging out in the city much. Well, I lucked out on Friday afternoon and caught a ride with some FNU people. I spent the night Friday night and then hopped a bus home on Saturday. Here are the top 5 things about my trip to Suva!

#5  

Suva is really beautiful and it's BIG (for Fiji anyway). It's really rainy and way more tropical than my side of the island.

#4

This will shock you, but the FOOD! Tikos was pretty much life changing. Plus, it was a dark and stormy night... on a boat... on the water. Mostly that just meant that it took some serious concentration on the lights outside to not end up seasick!  

And being seasick was not an option because I had a lobster tail the size of my head (see below), and some other amazing fish, and dalo and MITI!!

The second food-celebration was finding a Nandos there. I was actually looking for another seafood place for lunch, but everything was closed. So I ended up at Nandos. But Nandos, if you don't know about it, is really excellent! They have this African-Portuguese hot sauce that they put on everything. I ate at one in Ireland just last year actually.  :-)   

#3

I went to the LDS temple in Suva and it was so beautiful and peaceful and exactly what I needed! 

#2 

On a related note, I found these lovely Fijian girls at the temple.They were so great and we had such a lovely visit.  Also - this might possibly be related to why I liked them so much - they thought I was in my late 20's or early 30's. (Stop snickering right now! It's true!) The two on the left just got back from missions and the one on the right is leaving this week. Oh how I love missionary girls!  I have one, you know.

AND THE #1 BEST THING ABOUT SUVA...

I had a hot shower for the first time in 6 weeks! Unfortunately, I don't have a pic for you. 

(HUGE sigh of relief from the audience!)

I have mixed emotions about my cold showers in Lautoka. Well, about water in general. I have been able to get myself clean just fine every day that I've been here. And there are plenty of people in the world that have never had a hot shower and are doing great! Having clean water in Fiji that people can drink out of the tap is a blessing I also would not have appreciated if I hadn't spent time in Nepal. Water is a precious resource that a large part of the world struggles every day to access (663 million people lack access to safe water), and in the U.S. we have so much of it that we do things like the ice-bucket challenge.  

Having said that, however, I appreciate what the ice bucket challenge people did to raise money for a really important cause, and I REALLY, REALLY enjoyed my hot shower! I enjoyed it so much that I took a much longer shower than necessary and wasted plenty of clean water - I'm sure more than a bucket-full.  My western-privileged-world-view is something that I have to reckon with all the time when I travel. It's so much easier to see it raising its ugly head in other white westerners than it is to recognize it in myself. I think we are being simplistic and dismissive when we let ourselves off the hook by saying how we now have a new appreciation for all of the blessings we enjoy back home - with it's implied pity for everyone else (which is most of the world) who doesn't have it as good as we do. And then we inevitably have to add "But the people (the poor ones) are SO HAPPY!" Every white woman from the U.S. that I have met here has made this statement to me. I'm sure that someone smarter than me has already deconstructed this line of thinking (our need to comment that poor people are happy) so I won't even try - you can find their blog.  

 But, I inevitably do feel more gratitude for all of the luxuries I enjoy back home when I see that other people don't have those things - or more accurately, when I miss having them at a particular moment here. And, it can't be a bad thing for me to be forced to notice the things I've never even bothered to pay attention to. The other day Dropati was amazed because a friend had given her an apple slicer/corer as a gift. She couldn't get over it... the fact that it cuts the core right out and leaves evenly cut pieces of fruit. I felt awkward when the conversation came around to me and I had to tell her that I definitely have one of those at home in the U.S., but that they are so awesome (even though I've never given it a thought)! But the next time I use my dollar store apple slicer I will at least pause and think about it. When I get home, if this trip is anything like my trips to Nepal, I will spend the first few days wandering around my enormous house trying to figure out how I feel.  

 I think that condescendingly dismissing an enormous part of the world as if I've done something to deserve my "blessings" is just gross (obviously).  AND, I think walking around in a cloud of guilt and/or judging and shaming all of my partners-in-privilege is also ugly and unproductive. There has to be a place somewhere in between where we can reside as we try to understand the human experience.  So... there's that for you... three paragraphs of me still not being able to make any sense of it. I could go on, but I think you have the idea. Not insisting on wrapping it up all neat and tidy is probably a good way to go anyway.

Mr. Huen

His name is Mr. Huen! The Chinese man.  I know his name, and on the day we said farewell.  He is leaving the guest house today, moving into a new flat because he's staying in Fiji for a year, and (in case you haven't gathered already  by reading in between the lines) the guest house is most suitable as a short-term accommodation.  We'll just leave it at that. I think I'm going to miss him.  Who will notice and comment on how much butter I put on my toast now? (That just happened this morning)

You should also know about roti, because it's an extremely important food item for all of the Indo-Fijians.  It's pretty much a tortilla.  I told them that once and they looked at me like I was crazy, so I've kept that thought to myself ever since.  They make a bunch of them every morning and that's what the kids take to school for lunch, it's what everyone eats with every meal.  In Nepal everyone puts everything on rice. The ladies here told me that Nepali's must be lazy, because what you are supposed to do is make roti every morning and eat everything on that. So... sorry entire country of Nepal. While we're on the subject of Nepal... people there eat with their hands, so it was not a big deal when I realized that's what everyone does here too. But, the thing about roti is that it gives you something to scoop all of the stuff WITH when you are eating with your hands. I am a fan.  Naturally, Dropati decided to teach me how to make it.  I had the genuine privilege of traveling to Nadi (pronounced "nandi") for dinner at Dropati's because her mother had come from the island to visit.  It was so excellent!  Here are some pics to summarize my roti-making experience.

First, Dropati making roti.  Oh yeah, Ghee is an important thing in this process.  They use it like we would use butter to grease a pan or glaze a loaf of hot bread

 Look at the perfectly circular finished product!  Then you heat it up in a pan so it rises and falls, and you're done (just like a tortilla, but don't tell these guys I said that).

 So... here's my attempt at making roti.  Notice the shape of that terrible thing below.  In my defense, that was roti #1, and I got better.

 This was my best product.  Please note the circular shape.  

The success above only happened because Grandmother got involved.  She tried to just sit back and watch, but finally she couldn't take it any more and had to step in and help.  This was hand-over-hand instruction because she doesn't speak any English; and because I needed it and Dropati could only laugh at me and take pictures.  Grandmas always come through for you.  Luckily Dropati is an incredible cook and she made me paneer, so all was forgiven.  

Dropati also had her nephew cut some sugar cane from the garden as a little treat.  I wish so much that all of the kids I love back home could have had a taste.  You chew on it and suck out all of the juice, and there is SO much juice - it's like the most delicious sugar-water ever. And now I know why so many people here have dental issues.

Sugar cane just growing out back.

 I told him that cute American girls would see his picture if he looked up. :-)

 Sugar cane sticks.  Yum!

Happy December everyone!

Update from the animal kingdom

Well, it's back to work for all of us here in Fiji.  This being a day ahead of you all thing is kind of weird!  I am happy to report that it looks like we will be able to finish writing this beast before I have to go.  We're all feeling immense relief about that.  As far as creating courses goes, I'm working on the very last one.  Then I just have to finish the program document, which is rather unpleasant experience.  But, I've been through this kind of hoop-jumping before, so I shall just buckle down and get it done!

This morning I came into my office and noticed about 1 trillion ants on my shelves.  They are the microscopic kind here. But there is something really unbelievable about seeing that sheer amount of tiny little creatures all in one place! Like an idiot I left some sweets in a bag on the shelf over the weekend and it's hard to express just how nasty things were.  I know, rookie mistake!  That's one of the most fascinating things about being here though... just the amount of LIFE, everywhere! It's unstoppable!  Everything grows and  moves and breathes, and the best you can hope for is to somehow influence the trajectory of where it all ends up. But it's completely inevitable that it will end up where you are at some point. I feel like it's just the opposite in Laramie. We have to beg and plead and work our tails off to get things to want to live and grow! That's why we're tough as nails and especially awesome of course, but it's just a whole different way of experiencing the world.  Here's a favorite pic I took at a school I went to visit.  This is their view every day.

I am really enjoying the order that frames all of this life though.  I like the patterns that my rather unscientific mind can see.  I can time it now... the transition from frog/toad/cricket sounds early in the morning to the rooster/dog/birds sounds (in that order) signalling that it's time to wake up. With the time change that happens now at 4:30.  Evenings are my favorite though. That's when I get to chat with Leonard and Loretta, and that's when the toads appear.  They have a meeting on my front steps every night. About 10 of them on the steps and in the grass and flower-beds just out front.  Here's a pic of a big one I saw the other night on campus.  He was better at posing for a picture for me. He had found an ant paradise and was having a delicious snack.  

This little guy below came in our front door the other night and then couldn't get out.  He panicked and ended up in the laundry room where, I am proud to say, I engaged in a toad rescue mission and saved his little life. It was complex and involved me sitting on the sink and using a broom to help him hop on out of there, because he refused to move toward the door as long as I was standing. I don't find toads scary at all, so that was fun.  

Giant cockroaches, however, are not fun.  We had a three-day war with some in our kitchen last week and I just need you to know that I don't like cockroaches... at all... especially ones the size of a mouse.  The Chinese man would come in and I would say, "I just saw a huge cockroach crawl under the microwave."  He would say, "Oh." and then proceed to wash his dishes. He even once told me that they have very beautiful cockroaches in China.  What?! These were unsatisfactory conversations we were having. One night an especially large one became crass enough to forego the traditional scurry under something technique when I entered the room, and instead chose to just hang out on the wall!  Obviously I couldn't walk past it to get to my room. I think it had fangs. So I went out where students were playing volleyball and found someone to save me. It was a girl who volunteered by the way, and it was well worth the $5. But, after a lot of whining on my part I finally got Ganesh to do a death-bomb, and kill them all off.  At least I did manage to make the Chinese man dispose of the cockroach corpses. Ugh, it makes me shiver just typing about it.  In general, though, all of this life is only beautiful and amazing!

But I must admit that reading all about the snow back home last week made me homesick!  I love our seasons!  It's really weird to hear Christmas music here.  I can't wrap my brain around it.  

One other fun thing. Last week the group of in-service teachers below had to do their final project, which was, are you ready for this...  a play they had to write and perform, with dancing and singing about the importance of early childhood education. That is just what you do here. They made the set... did it all.   It was awesome and hilarious to watch some of them dancing especially.  They can just be silly and uninhibited in ways that you don't see back home (at least sober). I loved it! Also, I was the Chief Guest.  They celebrated a few days later by making an amazing lunch to say thanks.  The student-teacher relationship here is so very different, but that's something for another post.   

 This whole group wants to come to the U.S.  I told them if they can pay their airfare I can find them a place to stay for a week or two.  I really hope we can make that happen.  

The big show: Early Childhood Education, The Way Forward.

 A little hula break at intermission.

Only two more weeks to go!

Love you all!

Thanksgiving #Fijistyle

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I am happy to report that I survived my high-intensity Chief Guest training week and I am now free to sit at this computer all day and write like a crazy person without interruption.  I decided before Chief Guest stint #2 that if I was going to have to give speeches here then I should at least make them interesting.  I tried being terrified and awkward and it wasn't all that much fun.  So, I decided to make all of my remaining speeches in Fiji memorable.  Speech #2 was an impassioned motivational speech about the history and future of early childhood education in Fiji (I left out the part about the van down by the river). Speech #3 was the most fun because I had lost my ability to behave well by then and I went with a more aggressive anti-graduation speech. I also decided to add lots of extra words to my speeches since that's what everyone here does.  So I threw in as much hyperbole as possible. They were a lot more fun to give, and I wish I could report that the audiences loved them.  But the truth is that the audience response was exactly the same.  I've decided that long ago people here learned the survival skill of sitting and looking attentive while not listening to anything the speaker says. Otherwise, how would one survive in this place?  In fact, in speech #3 my whole point was about how we always talk about children's value pointing at some future date... how we always have to say that young children are our future, that we spend all of this time and energy on teaching them stuff now so that they can be smart and successful later... contribute to society eventually... you get it. Then I told them that was a bunch of crap and that we should value children for who they are now, and what they can do right now.  That their right-now is just as important as their tomorrow... They already contribute to society! They already have value!  See, this is good stuff! I thought it was a darn good speech!  Then, this is the best part, the school owner got up after me and said he was thankful for my wonderful comments about how young children are our future. Ha!  It's like when we tell little kids "Don't hit your friends." or "Don't pick your nose." and all they hear is "hit" and "pick your nose".  It was just excellent.

We're at the point now with this BEd project that we can see the end, but all of the things we have been avoiding because they are time consuming and really boring now have to be done.  By the 5:30 tonight my head finally exploded and we had to call it a day.  I decided since it was Thanksgiving I should celebrate.  So I did my first touristy thing in Fiji.  I took a cab to a really fancy resort and had a really expensive dinner, on me.  And, guess what I found?  All the white people in Fiji. Turns out they don't really catch the bus and hang out in downtown Lautoka.  And, suddenly, there were all of these happy hotel-people trying to meet my every need. Major mind-shift. I actually spent a lot of dinner just processing all of it. So much to think about.

However, here are the required food-pics because, WOW!

Open-faced seafood lasagna

And Thanksgiving pie #Fijistyle.  I wish you could know about the amount of caramel and bananas that were hiding underneath this whipped cream.  

Then I watched the sunset and walked along the ocean and listened to a lot of drunk Australians celebrating at the bar. It was pretty great.  

Oh yeah, and the cab driver asked me out on the way home.  I think he was hoping to score a U.S. visa. It was pretty awesome. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  

You are all a gift in my life!  Much love!

On being Chief Guest

Turns out November is when schools close for summer in Fiji.  They take a break for all of December and a lot of January and then come back for the new school year. That means last week began the mad rush for end of the year school events.  And everyone here does a HUGE graduation ceremony for all of the grades (as far as I can understand), but especially Kindergarten.  This has led to my newest adventures in Fiji, being invited as "Chief Guest" at Kindergarten graduation ceremonies.  I attended my first last Friday and I all can say is "wow!"  After events like these I feel like we are just so boring in the U.S.   Kindergarten graduations in Fiji include the following:

• A Master of Ceremonies 
• Much dancing
• Lots of speeches
• Soooo many people (parents, grandparents, aunties, cousin-uncles, etc...)
• Much food
• A minimum of 2 hours to get through all of the above
• AND a Chief Guest (who has to give a big speech)

How cool is that title anyway?! Chief Guest. FNU faculty spend most of the month of November stuck as the "Chief Guest" at these events because there are a million kindergartens in Fiji.  So imagine their pleasure when they realized I was coming in November. Not only could they pawn this job off on me, but they could do it guilt-free because it's an essential part of my cultural experience.  I am scheduled to be Chief Guest at three events this week.  I finally talked Sangeeta into limiting my commitments after that so we can actually complete writing the Bachelors degree before I leave.  

So, Friday I was Chief Guest at the Andrew's Kindergarten Graduation ceremony.  It is an especially large kindergarten (remember that means preschool), with 100 kids.  You do the math when considering how many adults come attached to a single kid, and you will understand how intimidating it was to be their Chief Guest. By the way, Sangeeta sent me to do this alone and I will forever hold a grudge. It all began with my grand entrance after everyone was seated.  They escorted me to my Chief Guest seat of  honor directly in front of everyone - almost 100 kids in front, and the rest of the million people behind. Then, the MC, in this big radio-voice spoken over a fuzzy and extremely loud speaker system, introduced the lady who garlanded me (is that a word?)... you know, placed the garland on me.  Now, why would anyone, let alone EVERYONE, want to take a picture of the American Chief Guest sitting in her chair wearing a garland and sweating at their 5 year old's graduation? (Well that's what it felt like was happening anyway.) It was surreal. The Kindergarten teacher then gave the loudest and fuzziest and most phenomenal introduction of me I shall ever receive in my lifetime! (We had met only once before, which made it even more amazing) I wish I could do it justice. I honestly thought about asking her for a copy because not even at my funeral will anyone ever say such eloquent things about me, and I just need someone else to know all of the words she said. They really like using words in the English language creatively here.  She said things like "The greatness of your heart will shine glorious light into our souls." and, "We will cherish this moment of joy and beauty as we benefit from your unmatched wisdom." I'm not exaggerating. The woman had a thesaurus with her when she wrote this.  And it went on for a long time! Seems like all this would have acted as some sort of confidence boost, but it had a dramatically different effect.  

Then I had to stand up and say stuff.  I have no idea what I said. But it was, I think, surprisingly short.  At least that's the impression I got when I sat down and glanced at the ladies on the stage with me. Then the Head Teacher gave a speech and the Kindergarten teacher gave a speech and then we all moved off of the stage to another seat of honor, with snacks and drinks just for me, to watch the kid's performances.  At least this part felt like familiar territory.  Adorable small children all dressed up on a stage like this.

 With their parents all fighting to get to the front to do this.

And so much chaos in between, with costume changes and children crying and children getting lost, etc...  Each kid was in at least 2 dance performances, so there were plenty of photo opportunities.  In between performances they split the kids into groups of 25 and had them come up on stage and get their certificate, which was handed to them by the Chief Guest, of course.  These are not great pictures, but you get the idea. Interesting cultural insight the Head Teacher shared with me.  When it is a child's first performance here it's a very important event, so their parents put these really fancy and long fabric trains attached to the child (so that they can barely walk) and then right in the middle of the performance someone in the family has to go up on stage and remove the thing and kiss the child, and then they go sit down.  So the first couple of dances had as many adults doing this at different times as they had kids dancing.  And, a favorite thing happened at the end.  They were doing this final dance and people started getting up and giving kids stuff as they sang and danced.  Like candy and more large amounts of fabric, and other various things.  The Head Teacher explained that when you are doing an especially great job of performing this is what people do.  Talk about an interactive audience!

Then they escorted me out through the middle of the crowd, so they could all get a good look at me, on our way to a really fancy tea in honor of...  me, where all of teachers from the primary school sat and watched me eat Indian snacks. Then, mercifully, it was over. I am praying that these next events are much smaller and less dramatic!  Most Kindergartens have 50 kids tops, so I'll be okay, right?