Cat Update

I know many have you have been wondering, since I didn’t mention it in my last e-mail, what is the state of our cat. Well, I apologize for omitting it in the last blog, and will more than make up for it here. Cats as pets are certainly not the same thing here as they are in Merika (you can figure out what that means, right?). It turns out that if you see a kitten or puppy or pony that you really like, you can just take it, play with it for a few days, torture it if you like, maybe feed it, maybe not. Well, that is precisely what happened to our current cat, Pierre, and I am guessing that is what happened to our last two cats (one of which was prodigal, but you will have to go back to that story). So when Pierre went missing again, we didn’t find him for days, and when we did, someone had taken him to the neighboring village. He’s back now and we outfitted him with a flea collar with the word “kaivulagi” (whitey) on it to ward off potential feline heisters. Last night he came without it, making it obvious that someone had taken off this strange cat choker. I think that we might try yarn next. As long as people know he is the kaivulagi cat, they will hopefully leave him alone. The problem is that since we don’t torture him, he hasn’t learned a healthy fear of human like every other cat that sprints away upon first sight of a person, specifically the smaller versions of people.

Well, we have no just hit the 4 month mark in Fiji and the 2 month mark at our site and the place is really starting to grow on me. Oh wait, IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN PARADISE!! I recognize that I have had some pretty sweet jobs in my life: lifeguard, ski instructor, bird chaser, diver, school custodian (not that one so much, although the people were wonderful), but this one ranks among the best. Seriously, I snorkel for a living. Well, it is more than that. I also eat lunch and take a nap. Here is how it works. I and my counterpart go to a village on the island and we give a workshop on coral reef health, fishing practices, farming practices, and discuss individual needs of the village. Then we teach them how to do monitor a reef doing a simple transect. Of course, I have already taught them how to do the transect on dry land so once we hit the water, they get to work and I play around in the most diverse coral I have ever seen. And the fish are pretty cool too. These areas that we monitor are tabu areas, areas that are permanently closed to fishing to serve as a breeding ground for their fishing areas. This has the entirely desirable effect of creating underwater parks teeming with life and beauty. I saw the healthiest coral reef that I have ever seen in my life yesterday and it is immediately in front of our neighboring village. After all of this, we eat lunch and take naps—all of us together. That is how we roll in the villages.

After I hit every village (14 total), I will be working with each village on its individual needs. So far, that looks like mangrove planting to restore habitat and control erosion, seaweed farming for a source of income, terrestrial reserve creation, alternative energy (maybe even micro-hydro power!), and feral pig eradication. Two years already seems like a very short time.

Let’s talk about food. At this point, I would have to say that Sally and I are officially subsistence farmers. I love the feeling of standing next to the garden in the evening, asking myself, “What looks good?” You name it, we got it: carrots, radish, lettuce, garlic, onions, scallions, beans, cilantro, basil, and all kinds of tropical fruit with tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon, ginger, pinto beans, broccoli, pumpkin, etc, etc all flowering and ready to fruit. We knew that first period before the garden came in would be the hardest and I am happy to report that we have arrived!

And some business--for those who have been accostmed to our phone calls, I'm sorry to say, that gravy train is over. Our phone company ended the promotion and it is now very expensive for us to call the US. So, it looks like the phone conversations have come to an end. It is back to letter writing, so get to it! That being said, we may be getting closer to having internet on the island, in which case we can just rejoin the masses communicating with a screen.