I'm so Excited!!!

with a giant sigh of relief, I present to everyoneSanata Dharm's Official website:
https://sites.google.com/site/sanatandharmfiji/home

(keep in mind I haven't bought a doman name and still need to clean it up more, add more info and such) But I'm just so relieved it's finished in time for our Annual Convention which is this weekend (BOO for the fact that it's over Easter holiday though and all the other volunteers are going to the outer islands for their vaca...whatever. I'm over it though, because I get to COME HOME in 2-3 weeks and so maybe it's for the better that this Convention is keeping me busy until then).

Anyways, so we'll be having our Convention all weekend long on the western side of the island...aka sweat will be pouring from every pore in my body. can't wait. (please tell me you sense my sarcasm.) but after that's done then I'll be doing a business workshop which I am actually REALLY excited about...there are a few women who do sewing, cooking, etc and want to start small businesses from their homes. So I'm going to help them and I am really excited about that fo sho. :0)

ok, that's all for today...just a good day at the office!

Moldy shoes and giant killer centipedes...

+ =

HOORAYYYYY FIJI!

Just 2 more things to add to the list of reasons why I love Fiji!

And that centipede may not look as 'life-size' as he really was...honestly. He was actually hanging daintily on the towel I wipe my face with. That was a nice surprise when I went to dry my face off, grabbed the towel, and a poisonous insect the size of my face flies off. Yes, he was that big. And with giant tarantula stingers at the end of his butt that I'm quite positive were meant for my eyes. regardless, I killed him and it felt good.

So 2 weekends ago I got to celebrate yet another Hindu Holiday called Holi (prophet Mohammed's B-day). It was super cool! I went back to my host village for the weekend where it was fun to celebrate with all my home peeps. So basically, what happens is all the boys go around from house to house playing the drums and singing. At each house they're given a treat to eat (of course) and they continue like this all throughout the settlement. At each house they throw powder and colored water on each other which is AWESOME and like paintball except without the guns.

I had a lot of fun playing with my host fam...eventually it turned into playing in the muddy water/throwing mud at each other, which we all know- I super love.

BUT because someone mixed the powder so strong and also because I'm the only blond-headed person they know....the end of the day came to a close with this:

coolio.

Dolphins + 80ft waterfall + Shayface = Priceless

So my good friend, Shalyn, came and of course we had some adventures!

Pics from Left to Right: Shay and I at the beachouse hotel, Shay cooking some bad-a muesli pancakes in Steve's 'kitchen'-that's the village style, the 80 ft waterfall we climbed and jumped from!, last 2: as volunteers/visitors experience the beautiful parts of Fiji...it's usually accompanied with the not so beautiful experiences as well.  That first one is a local cure, chew on some mango leaves, for when you have tummy issues aka sick nasty. And the 2nd pic is Shay showing off her tokens of remembrance from Fiji- aka some cuts that got infected but were showing improvement when she left.

So my good friend Shalyn came to visit me recently, and of course, we had an adventure!

I met her at a small Beachouse on the Coral Coast when she first got there, and what did we do on that first day? Flirted with the locals and got them to let us borrow some free snorkel equipment of course! and for 5 american dollars they took us our to a cool spot to snorkel the next day....but on the way we managed to find ourselves in a school of DOLPHINS! it was awesome....they were jumping in and out of the water, one did like 5 spins in the air, and were swimming only 10 feet from the boat. This is random, but I've personally always felt that dolphins are god's 'right-hand-man' creatures. I mean, they're super cool, kill sharks, and save humans. So it was kind of awesome having them all around.

So we went for a good snorkel, saw lots of sea cucumbers, a GIANT Lion fish, and plenty of coral. visibility wasn't that great, but when the sun came out it was great. We had met up with some other PC volunteers, 2 of which went surfing while we were snorkeling. Steve (one of the vol's and also who's village we stayed at) said there was a giant 6 foot bull shark below him while he was surfing. At first I thought,'oh man, that would have sucked for you if you got bit...good thing I wasn't over there'...but then I realized...I wasn't too far from him at all. So thank you sweet Chisu (Jesus) that it didn't head our way.

So after we headed back to Steve's village where I pounded out some tortillas/roti and we made some AMAZING bean and cheese burritos. They were so good, I think I'm going to make them all this week.

Next day: this was the hike from hell but it was worth it. Actually, the hike up to the first waterfall was really nice. Steve's pal from the vil, Saka, was our tour guide and was showing us all kinds of things you can use off the land, my 2 fav things included:

-There was a leafy plant you could use that if you crushed it up and rubbed it in your hands with water, it would produce a bubbly soapy substance that you could use to bathe yourself! (I love planet earth)

-Second, if you realized someone was lost in the woods and needed find them, there was a tree that you could pound with a rock and it makes such a loud noise you could hear it from miles around. I just LOVE Fiji.

So once we reached the first waterfall....ugghhh AMAZINNNNNNNNNNNG! I had never been to waterfall before, and the water felt soooooooo refreshing. We climbed about 15 feet up it and jumped off. I'm pretty sure I minorly voilated by Saka who had to grab my booty to keep me from falling. oh well, I'm alive.

After playing under that waterfall, Steve talked us into trekking up to the 2nd waterfall (without shoes)near his village. 'It's just a 30-40 min trek to it...no biggy, and you probably don't want your shoes...' WRONG. About an hour and a half later, after climbing up the first waterfall/some mega bush hiking and some steep rocky/river climbing, and as my feet were sore from knife walking, we made it to that damn 2nd waterfall. At many points during that climb I found myself thinking, thank gosh that this is my friend with me that's as ballsy as I am as opposed to my mother, who would have immediately ordered me to 'Get the Hell down from there'. (Sorry mom, but it's true) :0)

So lesson for the day is that paradise isn't easy...unless you wear shoes. :0) jk. But we really did have an awesome time, after the hike Saka made some Roro from some coconut milk and ferns we found out in the bush. It was phenomenal and I was glad Shay was getting to do so many Fijian things!

After that, I sadly had to go back to work on that Monday while Shay stayed in Steve's village and got dive certified. Later that week she got a taste of the Hindi flavor where she graciously and happily went with me to do errands, PC office, went to the market (bought some pumpkin), visited my host fam, came to work with me, and even helped me hang my laundry. And we proved to be some pretty good cooks using my make-shift 'oven' (if you'd even call it that) when we made some caramelized onion and pumpkin pizza, and some pretty tasty home-made cinnamon rolls! I seriously had SOOO much fun hanging out with Shay, it was really good to have a friend from home visit!

Ok, sorry if this was super long! I just had such a cool adventure!

Why I love Fiji:

So I feel like sometimes I complain a lot sometimes or don't recognize how many wonderful things there are here. So cheers to Fiji! These are a few of my favorite things....

• I'm sure you all know by now that the FRUITS are my fav:

Passionfruit, mango, papaya.....

• Wild Cilantro grows like crazy here...(I am so amazed at the earth and how it provides things...it gets me thinking about what we take for granted)

• How you can use shells for awesome soap dishes, jewelry holders, etc!...(Personal goal-I'm never buying another soap dish again)...

• The Fijian Rugs are hilarious and awesome...

• Compost Toilets(they're actually not common here, but a few vol's have tried to start them and succeeded)...

***And my favorite- which I can't put a picture with, but it's sense of community here and how utterly giving people are. It's a trait that's so strong in both the Fijian and Indo-fijian cultures. (which is shocking because their cultures can often times be worlds apart....but still so similiar in many ways. I'm still amazed at how they co-exist). ***

It's raining PACKAGES! halleluliah! (but I wish it were also raining men)

Recently I have been utterly SHOWERED with packages...seriously, it's been amazing! I now have TONS of junk food/choco and so many things from my Christmas wish list were given to me, which I am SO thankful for. Shout-out to: Meghan: your package I received in the midst of all the security issues I had at my house and therefore I was living out of a backpack for a week. Thank goodness your package came when I needed some clean t-shirts and pj's the most! Mom: you know your package was good. It pretty much had everything I wanted. Somebody knows her daughter...and it's you. :0) Carol: your package's always have the best shirts (which I wear ALL of time...no seriously...I'm wearing the grey one with peace hearts right now). Reid: I just ate the pizza cracker sticks- I'm still savoring that one last pop-tart. Your pic is by my bedside AND in my living room. Mrs. Cher: who DEFINITELy showered me with packages of all things glorious and girly. Tonight I'm planning a mani/pedi party with myself= reading good magazines, scrubbing my feet extremely hard, and I just might paint my nails. ;0) THANK YOU TO EVERYONE, it's really very thoughtful of everyone to send me these things. When I say that everything is getting used from the packages...I mean it; everything down to the ribbons (one is in my hair), containers/baggies (highly valued here), etc.

thanks again to everyone who has written an email to sending a package to even keeping up with my blog. It means a lot to me! :0) but things are great here (besides the heat), my house is good, my new host fam is good, and i feel so much better about work now!

So..I feel like I always talk about the food here...

So I promise this one WON't be about that. :0)
This one's about my new house and new host-fam!

ok so my house is SET now and totally awesome. Again, it's all I need- one bedroom, one long kitchen/sitting room->. And surprisingly there was room in there for a table, COUCH (I'm so luxurious), and a bookshelf that my host fam let me borrow (which they graciously painted everything a lovely PEACH and/or light peach)! I'm in the process up hanging up all my deco's to make it look more home-y. I really enjoy living with a hindi family again; I mean, it can get a little annoying seeing as they can hear everything that I do/they always want me to come and visit their visitors (which they have TONS of since my host dad is a priest), and I usually just want to do my own thing in the evenings. BUT I knew there would be some cultural adjustments and it's totally worth my safety for them to be so close-by. plus I get free hindi food, (I had to mention it) and the lady has gotten much better about letting me prepare my own food. But I just wanted to thank everyone for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers, I definitely got a lot of support from all my friends and family!

The Friendly North

Ok so just recently I took a trip for work to the 2nd biggest island, Vanua Levu. I flew in to Labasa, the 'Friendly North', as they say...hot as balls, however, VERY beautiful and everyone there really is VERY nice. I met with a different womens group each time I was there. First day it went pretty well, they want me to help them start a bee keeping project. So I've got plenty of work to do in terms of finding them funding to do so. The second day went ok, BUT the location of the meeting was AWESOME. It's the one shown above where were out in the middle of nowhere with all these little groups of houses tucked away in the hills. At the pooja they had there for me..I had one of these, 'What am I doing? Is this my life right now? This is crazy! Where am I? This is awesome, my life is randomly cool at the moment!' moment. haha But then I proceeded to eat some Mango Chutney, which I hadn't had before, and all I can say is sweet Cheesu (Sweet Jesus) I.love.mango.season. And I was SO THANKFUL they still had it on Vanua. On our island, Viti Levu, mango season was ruined from the last hurricane. BUT you bet your bottom dollar I left with 10 pounds of mango's. And actually in that pic below we were picking mango's/more like catching mango's. Although later in the week after I was high on mango's and realized I desperately needed more, I did scale a very risky tree to get me a bundle of those sweet, glorious babies.

So my trips were great during the daytime in Labasa BUT at nighttime, it was EVEN MORE FUN! I really got a chance to meet all of the volunteers who came the year before, who I really didn't know all that well. Honestly, hanging out with them totally made my week! There's not too much to do in Labasa but we did nothing short of rolling into the local club called Bounty, named after the extremely strong liquor, Bounty Rum, they have here...aka hangover central. I could only handle that one night, but other nights we just hung out: I learned how to cook Tempura, , we went to dine at the nicest place in town- the Oriental where we taki'd some beers (aka took small shots of them, a volunteer's mom sent her this gingerbread man cookie making kit so we all super enjoyed some fun cookies from home. All in all I super enjoyed hanging out with the fun people in Labasa Town. My favorite part was how when I spoke in Hindi at the market, they immediately responded in Hindi. This usually isn't the case when I'm in Suva/Nausori.

So my next city that I bounced to on that island was Savusavu, known as a touristy town, but it wasn't too touristy at all. Actually it's my FAV so far. It's the perfect combination of beautiful (since it's right on a bay) and local-ish feeling, and you can get a fair amount of things in town. And since I arrive just in time for the weekend....the weekend was mine! There I stayed at 2 volunteers' houses and had even more of a blast. We went snorkeling by the Jack Cousteau (sp?) resort- saw some AMAZING colored giant clams (the bright blue was my fav). And after talking with the locals who ran the dive shop at the resort...we got them down to an awesome price to go diving. Hells to the Yeah.

So we went for a 2 tank dive in the Savusavu bay. First dive we were at about 100 ft...only because Hanna and I kept seeing more cool things and went further and further...next thing you know we'd been at 100 ft for quite some time...woops! BUT on that dive we saw a juvenile SEA TURTLE (they're really rare and endangered) and some pretty big fish. But on the 2nd dive, we went to an area called Alice in Wonderland because of all the mushroom coral. And yes, I did feel like Alice just a little bit when I'd stick my head under that coral hoping to find something amazing. Which we did! Actually on that dive we saw around 5 white tip/black tip sharks! Most were about 3 feet but one, Monte had seen the tail under some giant mushroom coral, so of course we all had to check it out. The tail itself was about 3 feet and while Monte, a totally hands-on kinda guy, stuck his hand out to grab it...the only thing going through my mind was 'Move away courtney...this thing is going to turn around, bite his hand, then I'll be next to the blood, then I'll die too!'...but of course I stayed since I realized if that were really going to happen, I'd want to see it. :0) so anyways, turns out the shark just pulled up under the giant coral more and didn't come out to say hello.

On that dive though I also found a giant conch shell with (sadly) an animal inside. I was really hoping it would be empty as I could blow it, Lord of the Flies style from here on out. But I was a good volunteer and threw it back. That dive was totally my fav for sure though, that afternoon we came back and had...guess: MANGO, banana, pineapple, and passion fruit smoothies. done and done.

OK and my last paragraph about this awesome trip was how one morning we went to the 'Hot Springs' in savusavu aka more like small spots with boiling water spewing out of random spots in the ground. They weren't anything much to see, but being cool volunteers that we are, we decided to come have a picnic breakfast one morning. We brought fresh bread and jam, a pot of water, and some eggs to make breakfast with. We got the idea when we saw how local women would boil their root crops on the springs. So we put the pot on the boiling water to get warm for coffee and tea, and then wrapped the eggs in my t-shirt and also laid them on the springs. It honestly wasn't anything much and sounds way cooler in words....but honestly, I had a super fun time having a picnic breakfast with Mother nature. :0)