Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Fiji- some are great, others not so much! :0)

Sights of Fiji:
-Indian kids playing with kites
-Fijian children pounding grog
-goats attached to random street poles
-wild mange dogs
-Wheel barrow boys- running inches next to bus, truly enjoying themselves and also trying to grab the first customers (who sell the dalo) who get off the bus
-the view from my host family's house in our training village. They were in the middle of nowhere near the Rewa River...so beautiful at sunrise!
-little kids peeing through the fence at the school I walk past everyday

Sounds of Fiji:
-wild dog fights
-crying babies
-pounding of grog
-Indo-Fijians singing their religious songs
-Church on Sundays...most beautiful of all
-cat calls: shoe repair/shoe shine boys- 'hello baby', 'very nice beautiful', 'I love you'....really? Because I'm pretty sure I don't know you!
-The kissy noise aka how you get someone's attention
 
Smells of Fiji:
-fresh bread from all the Hot Bread Kitchens (creams buns I will dearly miss!)
-fresh roti in the morning, especially at my host family's house
-rank body odo...usually on the bus, so you're stuck by them
-handmade coconut oil
-bug spray
-mouse pooh
-Indian curries -delicious
-However, people with bad curry breath - disgusting

I do enjoy this place....

Week from Hell followed by Week of AWESOMENESS!

Christmas at my house! surprisingly rockin'!

We had a pretty rocky end to the year in the office as there was loads to do in the accounts area which is unfortunately something I can't help with. We had just started selling our 2011 Calendars and a lot of branches still owed us money, which is to be assumed as no one has any money. But someone apparently came down hard on our boss and told him that if there's any money missing then the project is seen as a failure which he'll get blamed for. So in turn, he came down hard on us. And I don't know if you've ever worked for a 'screamer' before ladies and gents...but it is SO NOT pleasant. It was definitely enough to ruin my Christmas spirit.  I also kind of had a big blunder due to some damn Christmas Cards. Our President came in on that Tuesday (like 3 days before Christmas) and says he's got about 200 cards he wanted mailed out that day (let's not forget Indo-fijians will work you to the ground). Roshni and I had discussed in the past that we should do the whole Mail Merge thing on Microsoft Word to print the addresses on the envelopes as it'll save time. Well that took like 2 hours longer than expected due to some software difference on our computers and mostly because of some printer problems. Gooooodnnessss if that day wasn't filled with a bunch of bickering. Yes we were pressed for time (but it's only a Christmas card, eh?) and then my boss tries to blame the problem on Roshni when clearly there's no one to blame (actually it was the printer's fault) and having to deal with him. ugh. So that very much set the tone for the week- not pleasant. Plus there was no Christmas Party and only one person said Merry Christmas to me. I'm pretty sure I had Elvis Presley's 'Blue Christmas' playing the entire week.

BUT to get this party train rollin, I actually had a nice time by myself this Christmas. Mom, Meghan, and Kyle sent me some AMAZING packages that arrived JUST IN TIME for Christmas! It was glorious. You can see I played try-on with a lot of my stuff in my Picasa web albums. My host family's son and his family happened to be visiting from Canada as well so I hung out with them too. Except Christmas morning I pretty much just wanted to be alone with my trinkets and coffee. it was nice. Plus there was fruitcake falling from the heavens- YES people really DO eat it here.

It was a Pick Your Own type of deal- heck YES to free,  pineapples!

Then my pals: Sean, Jewels, and Kara came and we were off to TAVEUNI! It's so gorgoeus there, you can't beat their sunsets. We stayed at this rustic place that turned out to be perfect for us as it was a Pick Your Own fruits and veggies: GIANT pineapples, passionfruits, papaya (which we later made papay curry with), plantain, bele (a leafy vegetable). Out first dinner there was homemade Spinach and Cheese ravioli (good gosh it was heaven) at a local resort. It was funny though, we had brought some tomatoes with us to cook with and since the island was on shortage it was a BYO tomatoes.

Diving on Somosomo Strait

The next day we went diving on the Somosomo strait with the Nakia resort- they're so great! I'm still amazed at the coral here- so many magenta's and bright pink corals. Saw some pretty good sized trigger-fish, rare clown fish (Nemo!) in a rare anemone, few white tip sharks, sea worms, and a sweet-lips (my favorite). After that we headed to Lavena Lodge, the eastern side of the island where we stayed in a lodge that has been the project of previous volunteers (Gloria we miss you!). It's very picturesque there and is known for it's Coastal Walk where you walk along the coast and hike up to some waterfalls- I felt so Anaconda like swimming up the stream to the waterfalls. I can't tell you how AMAZING it feels to be swimming into a waterfall- it's pushing you back but you keep trying to swim up it, and the water is so cold! MAN it's such a rush. Thursday morning after yet another bathroom episode( I think the water on Taveuni just doesn't like me), I somehow had the strength to go with my pals to the Bouma Heritage Park. There we hiked to another 3 waterfalls, on the last of which was around 20ft tall- and you bet your bottom dollar we jumped off it! A bit scary but it was SO fun!

just beautiful- lavena coastal walk

 From there we took off to a small island called Qamea (pronounced Gomea), one of the closest islands to the International Date Line- aka Experiencing the first seconds of 2011, YES PLEASE! We stayed at this eco resort where despite being the first ones to call and book and ALSO making double sure that we'd have a bed- turns out they pitched a circus tent for us and put some mattresses in the sand. I woke up with way too much sand in my bed the next morning. And Circus performance anyone? IT hAPPENED- check the 2 videos at the end of the New Years 2011 album in Picasa. Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/courtneygoodson/ChristmasAndNewYears2011

The Circus Tent

After that we spent most of our time snorkeling, drinking wine around the shockingly well made bonfire, and laying out on the beach- it was so nice. I've missed being able to wear my jorts (jean shorts). The bio-luminescence was also SUPER amazing of course as it was such a remote island. I even put one on my fingernail and it stayed glowing! Gosh I love the earth.

The Besties!

As much fun as we had on island it was still time to head back- Peace Corps style of course. This meant after a quick fiber boat ride (in our life jackets) hopping into the back of a carrier and being COVERED in dust and dirt. Hells to the yeah. (but I mean like no really I had to take a sink shower once we got to the ferry). Thank gosh for protex soap! The four of us split the cost for a cabin on the ferry (initially worth it) and it was great until it came time to sleep and our room (I imagine being 2 cm's away from the engines) heated up to like 95 degrees. And if you didn't know, the bed bugs become EXTREMELY active at this temperature. Trust me. Anyone game for a midnight shower? yes please.

Lavena Coastal Walk- Star Wars anyone?...this one's for my bro!

All in all it was a super fun trip and definitely was great to de-stress and be on a BEACH!