Well, be careful what you wish for. If you have been reading, you know that Fijian has been in the grip of a serious drought prompting a state of emergency, rationing, and the like. After a decent stretch of being largely unaffected by the rain shortage, my village also ran out of water. We had access to one tap not too far from our house where we could fill up buckets in the morning before that went dry. Then the rains came. For two glorious days, we had as much water as we wanted. There was even enough water pressure to take a shower! Then the floods came. The floods washed out the pipe. Then the water shut off entirely. So, I started collecting rain water in buckets. Then the rain stopped. Thank the good folks in China who made my toilet seat cover. You don’t want to know what is in there.
Otherwise, things are good. The Giants have made it to round 2 of the playoffs, basically proving my theory that I need to be out of the country for the entirety of the baseball season for the Giants to succeed. So, it was nice living near you all while it lasted, but I am sure that you understand. I am a team player. The next question is whether this effect on the Giants’ success is dependent on hemisphere or distance from the US. I am thinking of Anchorage for my PhD, and am thinking that living off the continent may be enough of a distance to make the Giants at least competitive. Oregon clearly was too close.
Back to the water, that is now one of my main projects. I have been working with the government to try to secure funding to fix the water supply so that it doesn’t get washed out every time it rains. Slow and steady on that front. At the last village meeting, we were still in the drought and were out of water. I gave my big speech about water conservation and how we need to fix all of the leaky taps in the village. (“Leak” is a relative term. Every tap leaks here. It is only a problem when it is broken enough so that it can’t be turned off). Naturally, it is pretty frustrating to me when there is no water at my house and up the pipe are 20 taps that can’t be turned off. Amazingly, they community had not yet made that connection. So, it was decided that in two days time, a group of us would do a survey of all of the taps in the village that needed repair. Then we would have a fundraiser to make the funds to fix them and we would get to it. Well, the next day the sky opened up. That was the end of any talk of water conservation or fixing the taps. One might be tempted to think that it will be a matter of time before there is another dry spell, but Fijians will be damned if they are going to think ahead. So, there will be no fixing of taps until we are out of water. We were so close. I just needed that drought to continue for a couple of more days…
Sally is on a girls weekend in Taveuni so it is just me and the cat, only the cat hates people. So, it is just me. I don’t understand how the only cat that manages to live of our string of cats turns out to be the worst pet in the world. I have never been so thoroughly used for food before. Sure Stu bit someone every once in a while, but at least I knew that he liked me. This damn cat (Kalima, Fijian for 5th)refuses to be touched and bites you if you try. There is no cuddling, no sitting on laps, and certainly no purring. He just comes in for food and then leaves. His days as “our” cat I think are numbered as Sally has begun the kitten hunt again.
On the success note, the Regional Director for Peace Corps in the Pacific region is coming to visit Fiji and wants to see a successful site. So, they are bringing him here! Cool, huh? The village is pretty excited and is planning to do a serious sevusevu (kava presentation) ceremony, do a meke dance, and make a bunch of food. It should be a good time. Since Sally really does all of the work around here, I will need to figure out a way to look busy while he is here. Then I am going back to Suva with the director for a fancy-shmancy dinner at our Country Director’s house. Thank you tax dollars!! (By comparison, the US spent more per day in Iraq than it has spent on Peace Corps in all of the years combined in the entire Pacific region since 1968.) I will enjoy my trip to Suva and my free dinner, thank you.
And as some of you who bother to write or email to me may know, the Grad school hunt has begun. The long list now includes Montana, Montana St, Stanford, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, University of Alaska Anchorage, Colorado St, and Cornell (wrong coast, I know). The short list looks more like Montana or Alaska but things can change. I have been emailing with a number of folks at a number of schools and I am excited and encouraged and scared numb. That means that if you have an opinion, you should speak up sooner than later.
I had planned to include some photos of our latest dive, especially because they would have included a video of a hammerhead shark that we saw. WHOA! Alas, Sally took that camera with her on her trip so it will have to wait. Plus, my internet connection is incredibly slow. Next time. I promise this blog will be more entertaining next time. Does anyone even read this besides my sister? Thanks Danielle for keepin’ it real.
