Fresh Fish, Cold Showers, and Cochroaches....Oh My!

My 'Uncle' Cleaning some Sambutu Fish!

Then I had a go...

So I went to the neighbors house last Sunday because they said they wanted to learn how to make American cinnamon apple oatmeal! When they eat something with oats, they add plenty milk and they call the stuff porridge. Plus it's super sweet. So I told them I would come over one morning and show them how to make my kind of oatmeal, withOUT milk (they were slightly astonished). Turns out they didn't like it all that much (of course) because it wasn't super sweet and it had something healthy in it. But my 'Uncle' (they don't call ppl by names here) there said that he had specially brought some Sambutu fish fresh for the market just for me. At first, not going to lie, I was a little annoyed b/c I had plans to just RELAX and not visit with any locals as it can get quite exhausting (mostly because I'm talking in Hindi). But then I said if he showed me  how to clean the fish and make the fish curry, I'd come back for lunch. So we picked up the fish scraper and went at it! I was actually laughing the whole time as fish scales were flying everywhere, one actually got stuck to my forehead. They too were laughing just as much as me as they'd never seen a white girl scrape a fish. I SUPER enjoyed it. :0) Then my 'Auntie' showed me how to make some pretty delicious fish curry with coconut milk (a version I'd never had before). And It totally makes me laugh b/c from the photo below, it reminds me of something you'd see only in movies, like Indian Jones for example when they're eating the eyeballs and monkey brains. I felt totally cool sucking out the juices from the fish head when we were eating, but then reality struck whenever I ate a fish bone. woops. Regardless, it was worth it and tasted freaking amazing....despite it's harsh appearance. :0)

Don't judge it by its looks....trust me.

Tips for taking cold showers:

1. Just commit: You stink, you smell, and you know you need to shower- so don't delay it. Once you've turned on the water and it's going full force, immediately go in. The longer you wait, the more you'll want to cry.

2. Sometimes when it's super cold, a Happy Dance is required. Force a smile on your face, start dancing, and I promise you'll start laughing at the fact the water is so cold (or at the fact you're dancing in the shower). Never mind if that laughing might lead to crying/yells of pain.

3. Get these parts of your body wet first as they're the worst: your hair, your back, and in some cases, the hair on your back.

4.Whilst shampooing & conditioning, leave at least 3/4 of your body in the water. It'll make it easier to rinse your head if most of your body is still under the shower head.

5. Move fast.

6. Be efficient. The better your scrub, the longer you can put off another shower.

7. Don't waste your time shaving. Your leg hairs will re-grow instantly when you go to rinse them. Trust me.

Just a few questions I thought I'd throw out there:

-How do roaches crawl into my fridge to die?

-Why are there roaches in my tubs of dry pasta noodles?

-How are there weavel-like slash scorpion-ish bugs in my buckets of: rice, chickpeas, and lentils?

Workin' 9-5....

These photos were taken at the Akhand Ramayaan (Continuous Praising/Singing) that went on for 2 nights and 3 days!

My main project that I've been working on lately were these Sanatan Logo Pens. They're shown in the photo on the left. I know you can't really see them closely but they look great. All the profits go to Sanatan, which once we've sold all 2000, should give us around 2000$ profit. It's not much but it's a start. At the Ramyaaan we sold around 160 pens.  Roshni and I had a fun (yet exhausting time) selling the pens. I know back home, when I'd reach a point of exhaustion, I become delirious and will start saying and doing random/ridiculous things. In the wee hours of the night, that definitely started and Roshni and I couldn't control ourselves, and being in a different culture of course was just an added bonus point of hilariousness. :0)

Something else I'm SUPER excited about...is moving into our new office! We're packing this week and we're set to move on Monday. This means we'll finally have an office that's set up for a professional atmosphere. I know that seems silly, but I feel like it's really going to change things in a good way. PLUS there I'll be able to make a compost pit so we can start recycling and composting. 100% pumped.

And I'm proud to be an American...

......because at least I know I'm free...(plus we have way better food) :0)

So I ended up going to Raki Raki, the northern part of the main island, to spend a night in 2 of the other volunteers' villages. It was great, I had a lot of fun hanging out with the other vol's. One couple, Chris and Nan, have this awesome traditional Fijian home- aka the roof and walls are made of layers of leaves, grass, and weaving of leaves. They also are near to a cool river which, had I lived there, is definitely floatable w/ an inner tube. (mehhhh the Guadalupe).  On Sunday morning we were scheduled for a dive, BUT seeing as the appointments are scheduled by Fijian hands, they of course lost our reservation and so we were unable to go. So that morning started off a little crumby as we woke up super early (actually in all fairness the roosters woke me up at 4am...not the alarm) to get to the dive shop only to find out we're not going. From there we headed to a retired PCV's, John and Judy, house, where we were having our 4th of July party at. Their place was super nice- WITH a pool! We took a small boat that John had made out that morning to a deserted island. It was BEAUTIFUL, very picturesque. We napped on the beach for a bit, then Lydia and I headed out for some snorkeling. At first, it was a pretty good snorkel, pretty stuff but nothing out of the ordinary....THEN. I hear Lydia scream through her snorkel- 'Look it's an OCTOPUS!' They're unbelievably rare here because they not only can change skin color, but also change skin texture! It was SOOO COOL. We're talking Captain Jack Sparrow cool. Lydia and I (of course) picked up a stick and were gently poking it, trying to get it to come out of it's home. It was a purple, orange, and white-ish octopus (really pretty actually) and when I stuck the stick in, it grabbed on pretty hard with it's suckers! So as we're poking it....I start thinking, and the following is my random/ridiculous thought process:
'I wonder if I stuck my hand in there, will it sucker itself to me? Could I be able to pull it out? Would it ink me? I hope it does actually, then I could say I've been inked on. This thing is easily the size of my head....I wonder, if I were able to get it out and put it on my head, would it cover my whole head. Then I could be like Captain Barbosa.' Yes. I thought about all of that.

Anyways, so that super made my morning. It's legs were easily the size of my ankle and I won't forget how it shot out a 'poop string'. That's right. At first I thought it was ink, but it didn't form a cloud. It shot out what looked like a few strands of brown string about 2 feet up into the water. Then a small parrot fish came up and started eating it....so that happened. And for the rest of the day, if you had to go #2, you had to say you had to go make a poop string. :0) I love PCV's.

This is a photo that I found that is pretty close to the coloring of the octopus that we came across. Except the one we saw had a 'face' that was a dark plum with a baggy-head thing that was spotted with purple, orange, and pink. oh and the photo at the top is of Lydia and myself pointing to the area where we saw the octopus!

And for the rest of the afternoon we had REAL burgers, (although I had a Mexican veggie burger), grilled chicken- which was super yummy, POTATO SALAD, baked beans, RANCH DIP AND CHIPS, ICED TEA, and for dessert...sweet Chisu (Jesus) there was cake and ice cream, cheesecake, pecan pie, and rice krispie treats. I love america. After we chowed down, we just hung out, played some jams, shot some Fireworks!!! Which honestly, when I say fireworks in Fiji...picture the cheapest firework you can find in America...and that would be the equivalent of what are our 'best' fireworks. :0) Regardless a few of us vol's had a roman candle fight which MADE my day. Seriously, I love them.