100 things

Above are some photos of an underwater excursion on the reef by my house. The top has a pair of butterfly fish, middle has Christmas tree tubeworms on what looks like a species of Porites coral, and the bottom looks like an anemone of some kind or a soft coral, havent had a chance to look it up.

In honor of it being almost 1 year since I was nominated for Peace Corps Service (it was in November that I was officially invited to serve in Fiji), I decided to write up a list of 100 things I’ve learned/observed/had happen to me so far during my service in Fiji. The idea for a list of this nature and size came from a fellow FRE-7’s blog (Matt and Kelly) who wonderfully gave me permission to gank their idea.

1) Just because it’s the dry season doesn’t mean it doesn’t rain – it does, often.

2) Cold showers are always cold showers and I will always scream out when I have to put my head under the water.

3) Frogs stop dead when you shine a light on them at night.

4) Ants like to eat everything in my kitchen not in a Ziploc bag – and even the stuff in a Ziploc bag if they can manage to find the 1 pinprick hole in it.

5) Fijian children have more snot than any child I’ve ever seen. And they don’t mind it – it can hang out on their upper lip for a full 24 hours for all anyone notices it.

6) Sasas (broom-like things) work amazingly well at getting the sand off your mats.

7) No one in America truly appreciates a washing machine like they should. I do now.

8) Whenever I put on bugspray, I feel like I am back at summer camp because of the smell.

9) It’s shockingly chilly somewhat regularly: like 2 pairs of pj pants and a beany hat chilly.

10) The stars at night shine and sparkle like diamonds.

11) When you plant seeds, they REALLY DO grow into food! It’s exciting to watch your food grow from scratch.

12) I enjoy hearing the ocean without a sound machine in my bedroom at night.

13) Flush-indoor toilets are a blessing and I thank G-d for mine at midnight when I have to go.

14) It’s possible to read a whole book in one day … on a regular basis.

15) It’s like pulling teeth trying to refuse a plastic bag in Fiji.

16) Fijians think my pimples are mosquito bites, so they don’t mind pointing at them.

17) Life is pretty good in flip flops.

18) It’s hard to learn another language.

19) I miss a lot of things, but am living fine without them.

20) I can see 3 other islands from my house.

21) Bread only has 5 ingredients and isn’t as hard to make as I thought - but I still can’t do it b/c the dough keeps sticking to my hands.

22) Fijians have lots of different dialects.

23) Most people who just meet me think I’m a teacher. It’s a little annoying.

24) I’ll drink black tea with lots of sugar in it.

25) You must wash dishes immediately to fend off ant invasions.

26) 1 small drop of anything sweet on the counter means ants in 5 minutes.

27) A cat in your lap makes you feel loved (like now).

28) A cat snuggling with you at night makes you feel less alone.

29) When sand hits tin under the force of wind, it sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

30) No drug has a more uplifting effect than mail from friends or family.

31) When I was little and dreamed of a princess bed, all I really needed was a mosquito net.

32) Cane knives must be sharpened regularly with a giant file.

33) Breakfast crackers taste good with peanut butter and jelly on them.

34) Breakfast crackers taste good broken up in your sugary black tea.

35) I can eat 5 kg of breakfast crackers in just about 2 months.

36) There is no sustainable substitute for the banana if you live in the US, but it is sustainable if you grow them in your backyard (New York magazine) – how convenient!

37) Reading a book where the main character goes out for sushi is painful.

38) I like dalo best when it’s cooked in the lovo (underground oven).

39) I like breadfruit better than cassava.

40) I like mashed pumpkin cooked, and then covered in lolo (coconut milk) and sugar.

41) A house can have tin walls, grass roof, wood windows, and coral floors and be perfect.

42) Things I keep under my pillow at night: flashlight, LED light, book, glasses.

43) Things I’ve lost since arriving: headlamp, couple of pens

44) Things I’ve broken: watch, water bottle, laptop

45) Things I’ve used my leatherman for: making coconut bilo (cup), making sasa, carving name in cane knife and sasa, opening tuna, making homemade cat toy

46) Papaya tastes the best when it grows low on a small tree and you can pluck it right off with your hands and don’t have to figure out how to wrangle it off with a stick.

47) Cats don’t get milk mustaches, they get milk goaties. Dogs get milk lipstick.

48) Cooking bread in an oven made of a metal barrel covered in cement is hard to perfect but tastes good.

49) I think I want to celebrate the Jewish Holidays a day late for the next 2 years so I know I am celebrating with my family in American at the same time.

50) Bats sound super creepy at night.

51) I will never like the taste of yaqona- I’ve tried, but it’s grainy, dirt-like, and numbs my tongue.

52) When I DO end up drinking yaqona, almonds, mints and Tang make alright chasers.

53) Drinking the water from a green coconut is ok, brown coconut – not ok.

54) Wild yams are purple.

55) If you have coconuts, why not boil all foods in its milk?

56) Fish eyes are delicious – via word of mouth, I will still never try them.

57) Motor oil is a perfectly acceptable way to mark the boundaries of a volleyball court.

58) 1 large Fijian foot is the equivalent of the most expensive hiking boot on the market.

59) I like the concept of sulus – wearing simple wrap for bottoms daily with no worries, but I can’t ever seem to get mine to stay on, no matter how far I tuck them into my underwear!

60) Ice cream tastes delicious when made with passion fruit.

61) Ice cream tastes delicious served over Jell-o!

62) If someone looks like they are waving you to go away, it really means to come here.

63) If someone sounds like they are grunting “uh uh (no)” they mean yes.

64) CHOW noodles with Kraft parmesan cheese is a daily staple.

65) Kraft parmesan cheese doesn’t have to be refrigerated after opening. Thank G-d!

66) Sitting on the floor all the time leads to lower back pain.

67) A steel bar with hangers caddy corner to logs is a perfectly wonderful closet.

68) “Cea” is Fijian text slang for “there” or “thea” because c= th sound.

69) I read my first Jane Austin book in Fiji – Sense and Sensibility.

70) Every once in a while I wonder about cyclones.

71) I need to become an expert in drainage, fish houses, coral farming, reef monitoring, seawalls, cooperatives, renovation, waste management, and fund raising.

72) A compost toilet apparently doesn’t smell contrary to popular belief.

73) Pigs make the most horrible, tear-inducing sounds when they are being tied up. I hope I never have to be around when one is slaughtered.

74) Lying is perfectly acceptable if they think it’s what you want to hear and will therefore make you happy.

75) The back of my front door has items mailed to me from USA: advertisement with sushi art, hand drawn picture of sun with shades (courtesy of Maxwell), photos, post cards, and magazine article about my famous and admired Grandpa.

76) I try to do laundry 2/week so my hand wash loads are very small, buts been very rainy and cloudy lately so I am way behind.

77) I can cook if I just do it, but I still get discouraged when there are too many ingredients.

78) Most of the ingredients I would need to follow recipes from the Peace Corps cookbook would NEVER been found on my island and would cost a fortune in Suva.

79) It’s nice that when I first got here, my stomach wasn’t the only unpredictable one in Fiji.

80) I’m going to run out of DVDs to watch – I didn’t bring enough.

81) Jodi Picoult writes really great books, but they all seem to involve going to court.

82) I am slowly getting used to the sound of hermit crabs crawling around the house at night amongst my coral floor.

83) My neighbor asked me to do her homework for her – 2 pages on poverty. Ironic as she lives in poverty and I grew up a Jewish princess, there is no way I know more about poverty than she does.

84) It seems normal for kids to get other adults to do their homework for them here – Inoke tells me it’s because they don’t have proper resources at school. Maybe I’ll raise funds for encyclopedia sets or computers with internet.

85) The previous Peace Corps Volunteer for this village made me tye-dyed curtains. Groovy.

86) Read = wilivola, book = ivola, write = volavola, envelope = wagavola (boat book?)

87) It’s illegal to catch turtles here to eat them, but if they get stuck in your net by accident it’s ok – I sat at a table where people ate turtle.

88) I set up my smoke alarm first thing when I moved in because I know it’s important to my dad and I’m paranoid because half my house is made of grass.

89) My house doesn’t fit into one of the 3 little pigs: not sticks, not straw, and not brick. What happens to the tin house when the wolf blows? Might be good to know in cyclone season.

90) Fijians all seem to be quite friendly but I still hate when they laugh and I don’t know why!

91) Moli means orange AND lime – it’s an unfortunate set of foods to mix up.

92) Wonder how long it will take for my laptop to break.

93) I’ve tried 3 times to grow tomatoes but I don’t seem to have luck with them yet.

94) I used to be scared to leave my mosquito net at night, so I wouldn’t go to the bathroom even if I had to. But I’m braver now!

95) The word for going to “pee” is “mee” – I’m not sure if “poo” is “moo” but I think not.

96) Powdered milk smells bad, but tastes OK in Weet-Bix cereal (with lots of sugar!).

97) Parrot fish probably taste delicious but whenever I eat one I can’t enjoy it because of the guilt.

98) Despite living in Fiji for almost 4 months now, I’m still not very tan.

99) The plants in my garden go through major growth spurts after heavy rains.

100) You can’t climb a papaya tree – it gives under your weight. Trust me.

Home Sweet Home ...

Learning to mix the yaqona. Doesn't look like I'm doing it right.

Scraping the coconut as fast as I can, subsequently winning the coconut scraping contest!!

My Fijian Ta and I at the homestay family appreciation day. We match ... awww.

Video of my new home in the village.


YAY! So the video FINALLY loaded, and now I feel the pressure to write a small blog as well to go along with it while I'm online. The video is a bit long, I apologize, but I hope it gives you a good idea of where I am living these days. You will notice that it is not insulated or sealed from the environment in anyway. The small broom leaning against the wall is the "sasa" I made from coconut palm fronds. How handy am I? There has been a few rearrangements with the arrival of a small table to go in the corner by the door. All the tubs on the counter in the kitchen house dried beans, rice, sugar, and powdered milk because I have no fridge. Even with the tubs and putting EVERYTHING I open in ziploc bags, ants are prevelant. So far (knock on wood) I have not seen a rat. Perhaps Simba is scaring them away by his king-like presence.

Besides the ants, I have what can only be called a hermit crab infestation. I know you think such a thing sounds crazy, but hear me out. The floor of my house is dirt. On top of that dirt (this is also in the video) is coral rubble, then dried sasa, then the mats. Inside all of the coral rubble happened to live hermit crabs before they were so rudely displaced to become my floor. They then like to crawl around the mats at night and against the tin walls and be all "clickedy clickedy like" ... is this not an infestation? Newest form of entertainment sans tv is to watch the kitten attack the hermit crabs.

Attempts at cooking in my kitchen have led to many failures. If you have any good recipes for how to cook dried kidney or black beans, please share!! I attempted to cook them and they didnt pick up the spices I added and just tasted bland and dry. My 2 attempts at making dahl (aka split pea) soup also ended badly: once because apparently chic peas are NOT split peas and 2 because the split peas never softened despite constant boiling attempts. Sigh ... I need Bobby Flay or that hot girl from the food network.

I would like any veternary advice anyone has for me: my kitten had what appears to have been a grand mal seizure yesterday. I've googled it and found out that cats can indeed have epilepsy. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with this and advice to give me. The whole thing lasted about 5 minutes. He started to twitch and contort his body, lost control of his baldder, eyes were rolling about, and he started to foam at the mouth. Then he was fine and slept for like 2 hours in my lap and has been fine since ... back the annoying habit of sucking on my face at 5 am.

And on a final note, I guess I could bring up work. I've met with a few people in Levuka town on Ovalau that would like my help with some things like environmental impact assesments and giant clam farming, etc. Hopefully I will get busy soon because as of right now, I've read 5 books in 2 weeks.

Hope this has satisfied your Fijian thirsts and please stay in touch!

The one with all the videos ...

Above is a video of my friend Courtney (gorgeous, I know) showing a bit of a the small patch of beach (gorgeous I know) that we went to for lunch after a day of snorkeling. Wild right?! The video quality is subpar since I minimized the file size in order to try and upload it faster. And to see if I could actually upload several in one session!

The above video is of 3 of the other trainees in my host village with some of the young men in our host village performing the taivovo - the war chant done by the Fijians before rugby games, much like the haka done by the New Zealanders before their rugby games. I am not sure of the translation of what they are saying, but I believe it goes along the lines of "watch out because im going to **** your **** up" or something like it. On the left you will see Brian, then Monte in the middle, and Asa is on the end. Girls were not allowed/encouraged to do the taivovo and after watching it I can kind of see why - it may look rediculous. :) This took place at a home stay family appreciation day that our village put on. There were different performances put on by all the other villages that hosted trainees. Besides the taivovo, our village did a relay race. We each picked a partner (10 year old kid or younger in the village) and had to crack the coconut, then we each scraped a half while our partner did the other half. My partner and I smoked everyone!! I have video of that as well, but its hard to choose what to post - this one was more entertaining to me.

The final video I am going to try and upload is of my itatau. Cultural sidebar: when you enter a village you have to bring a gift called an isevusevu, which is basically a bundle of yaqona roots and there is a ceremonial giving of this gift to the village mayor (taraga ni koro/TNK). When you leave you do the itatau which is the reverse of the isevusevu. We did a village wide one with all the volunteers in my host village, and we also did individual ones with our families. My Ta (dad) here had our family come over and celebrate with me. The guy sitting on the far left leaning against the chair singing with his back is the chief of the village and also my ta levu (or uncle/big brother of my dad). Also present are several other uncles, aunts, and family. The little girl is Salote who helped me win the coconut scraping competition at our farewell ceremony. The little boy is Manasa and he is totally cute and dances with me often. The guy in the middle is the one mixing the yaqona that we are drinking. The song they are singing is called Isa Isa Lei and it is the goodbye song in which the Fijians lament the departure of their visitor and friend and hope for their return back to the village. I love it and think its amazing so I wanted to share it with you.

SCARY NEWS HERE: There has been a slight change in plans lately in terms of my site. I was informed over a week ago that it was completed. I was then told yesterday that ... NO - it's not done. It was decided after some discussion with Peace Corps staff that I would not move to my site yet and will give them a week to finish up my new home. For now I am stranded in Suva and will possibly be heading to a resort to relax at tomorrow and then Monday - Wednesday attend a marine management workshop of sorts. I do feel a little sick, though so I hope that clears up before I had to Ovalau.

So in an attempt to give you more insight to life here, I am trying to load my first video on a Fijian slow internet computer. My videographer held the camera sideways and I dont quite know how to flip it, so just tilt your head! I am opening a coconut, which I will later scrape to get the white meat inside of it out to then squeeze into coconut milk (aka lolo) which they cook with almost everything.

I decided that part of today's blog will include some of the interesting fijian words I've learned since being here. Enjoy:
1) The word for EYEBALL is yaloka ni mata. Mata is the fijian word for EYE and yaloka is not the fijian word for ball, but the word for EGG. So our literal - egg of the eye. who wants breakfast!?
2) We will stay in the face region with the word for EYELASHES. It is bekebeka ni mata. Again we see the word for eye and beka is the word for BATS. So the literal translation here is face bats. Gives the phrase "batting your eyelashes" a whole new meaning, eh?
3) The word for hurricane is cagi laba. Cagi is the word for WIND and laba ... MURDER! So the literal translation for the word for hurricane or cyclone is wind of murder! Again, whole new meaning to hurricane season.
4) Lastly, this is just a strange one for me maybe. But in Fijian some words mean many things as they do in English. The word uto has two meanings: it is the word for breadfruit and the word for heart (as in, the thing in your chest that pumps your blood). I dont really see the similarity. Of course, the word gaga means both staring into space AND spicey/hot - but the stress is placed differently in the word. I dont know if that is the case for the breadfruit heart. I feel as though my heart is now edible.

I also thought you might enjoy learning some of the games that are really only played in Fiji - at least I dont remember playing them back home:
1) NAME THAT SMELL! Is it burning garbage? sewage of some kind? mold? or maybe even me?!
2) READ AS FAST AS YOU CAN! I have read 5 books in less than 3 weeks and am attempting to finish the second Eragon book before next week because Im borrowing it from a friend who will be wanting it back before we move to site.
3) WILL A FIJIAN MAKE ME CRY WITH THEIR HONESTY TODAY? No, I havent REALLY cried because of anything a Fijian has told me - but how long can you put up with people looking at pictures of you taken not that long ago and tell you how fat you are in the picture. How big your arms are now and how "levulevu" your belly is? And seriously - I look the same as I did when I left.
4) GUESS HOW MANY ANTS ARE IN MY MOUTHGAURD! Each night is a debate: will I put in my mouthgaurd tonight because if I do open the case - how many ants will be crawling around in it? And I clean it every time I take it out! Of course, Asa told me when he brushed his teeth once, there were ants all in his mouth before he realized that had been all over his toothbrush ... what is in our spit that they like? Anyone?
5) WHAT TO DO ON SUNDAYS!? Not much going on Sundays in the village because people aren't supposed to work and do much (kinda like Shabbat I guess). So it's a struggle to figure out what I can do on Sundays when technically I am supposed to do nothing more than go to church or scratch my ass. And I dont go to church.

I hope you all learned a little something in todays vuli (class). As far as event updates: went snorkeling last week, saw a seasnake, ate lunch on a small patch of sand in the middle of the ocean, cooked mexican food in Fiji in an iron chef style competition, won an honorable mention for my mexican burgers that I made in said competition!, final language proficiency interview on thursday, homestay family appreciation day on saturday, scavenger hunt in the capitol city of suva sometime this week too, move to my site next week!, continue to struggle with the language, and continuing to adapt to the culture which is very friendly. No word on the progress of my house - just that apparently there is progress. I think I will know more in a few days.

xoxo to all!

Set Tiko

Pictures have been added to the album so check them out! Click HERE.

So I've been to Ovalau and returned and it is such a beautiful island! I took a small plane from the eastern side of Viti Levu on a 10-15 minute flight and had one of the smoothest landings I can remember when we made it to the eastern side of Ovalau. The flight was delayed taking off for 2 hours because of the weather though - so I was definitely nervous about getting on the plane! But it was a really nice flight. Asa (the other volunteer coming to Ovalau) told me if I needed to squeeze his arm as hard as I could then I was allowed - lucky him I didnt need to because it could have been ugly! My counterpart offered to open the window of the plane so that I might throw up out of it ... lucky that wasn't necessary.

My counterpart (ICCP or inital community contact person) is really nice and his name is Inoke. When I first saw him we were all standing in the room waiting to be introduced to our ICCPs. I nudged everyone around me "hey! do you see that guy in the red bula shirt? check out that GIANT mustache!! If he is my ICCP all I will be able to do is stare at his upper lip!!" And of course who do they call forward when they are introducing me? GIANT MUSTACHE MAN! He is great though - very funny and well educated and well travelled. His wife is Australian and has lived in the village for 20 years. Amazing. My house is right next to Inoke's and he told me I would be safe because he has his M16 pointed out his window. Ha! I have 3 papaya trees in my garden as well as some eggplant. It needs some serious work though. Oh yeah, my house has not been built yet! Im a little nervous because I need a place to live. And because they are running out of time, the house is not going to be the traditional bure, but will be a tin house. He is going to paint it blue for me. I'm going to bake! I got to go snorkeling in my MPA that is nearby and it is really great - lots of fish and beautiful hard corals.

I've also got a new pet! The volunteer leaving Ovalau found some kittens and is raising them. She isnt going to take them with her when she leaves, so I am going to get one of the kittens. I have named him Simba (like the lion king) and he will help keep my house rat free! He is freaking cute! I never have been a cat person either, but I like this little guy so much already. He is in Ovalau waiting for me.

Sorry this email is more details than fun stories but they are sure to come! First of all, imagine my trying to cook anything without a microwave. Imagine me in a garden. Imagine me when I wake up in the middle of the night to find a spider crawling on my face. I hope Simba likes to eat bugs too.

Site Announcements ... CHECK!

Pictures on facebook. Click here.

What a big day ... we finally found out where we are going to be placed for the next 2 years of our service. I will be on the island of Ovalau which is off of the east coast of Viti Levu! I could NOT be more excited or happy with my placement. I don't know TOO much about it, but I was told I would get to monitor the Marine Protected area that has been set up by a previous volunteer. Also will be doing some other environmental education outreach, working on cleaning up their piggeries (the villages all have lots of pigs and they are RIGHT on the water, so we are learning to set up a compost piggery so that the waste from the pigs can be recycled as fertilizer! not the most glamorous job, but the MPA monitoring more than makes up for it I think!), setting up other income generating businesses, and more. I will be living in a traditional Fijian bure (for an example google image click here) and can't be more thrilled! I have heard that the other kinds of housing that I could have gotten are like ovens in the hot season. Just imagine living in a tin house in 90 degree weather! I do have water and apparently 24 hour electricity! So lucky. I can't wait to learn more.

I am going to finish up online and go grab some drinks with my friends to celebrate our site placements! I look forward to hearing from you guys. I wrote a few letters to some people but I need people's addresses to be able to write more! So email them on!

xo
Tuli (this name may be changed because everyone keeps calling me Julie and you KNOW I hate that.)

What yaqona (kava) looks like.

Me drinking my first/2nd bowl of yaqona. Didnt post the picture after this of me making an icky face.

Me in my first mosquito net!

Flying overFiji upon our arrival!

So, it has been almost one month since arriving in Fiji and already I’ve done more out of the box activities than I would have done in 1 year back home. Who is ready for a list of things you never pictured this Jewish princess doing? Let’s just dive right in shall we?
· Hand washing my clothes! I soaked and then rubbed them with a GIANT bar of soap and scrubbed them on a board made of wood. Soak, rub, scrub, squeeze, rinse, squeeze, hang, wait. I cannot see my clothes lasting 2 years with this cleaning method. There is already a hole in a pair of unmentionables.
· Making jam!!! That’s right, I made jam. During a site visit to current Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) she took us for a nice walk/hike into the woods where she climbed a tree and we collected “Fijian Cherries” off the ground and from the tree. Let’s call them Schnozberries. Then she taught us how to turn those schnozberries into jam – boil, strain, boil, add equal parts sugar to strained berries. Turned out good! I gave the bottle I got to my Na (Fijian mom). She was very excited.
· Beekeeper. I went to a local school in the town nearby where a current PCV is working and got to put on a beekeeping outfit and check out the “hives” (boxes of bees). It was pretty cool feeling invincible in the outfits, except that right as we were walking to where the bees were, the guy said “the suit doesn’t completely protect you, if you get stung and can’t stand the pain, back away slowly or else they will attack.” Yay. But at the end of the day, after all the groups went to see the bees, he brought back one of those slabs filled with honey and we all just dug right in. I felt some guilt stealing all the hard work from the bees, but it was so tasty and delicious the sugar high from the gallon of honey I sucked out of that thing made the guilt disappear. I wanted some apples and no one understood why. Anyone like to hazard a guess?
· Carve a coconut cup. After cracking open a coconut, I scraped out the innards to use for food and then continued to clean out the shell to make it smooth(er) and then had to bury it in a drainage ditch to make it turn black from the sulfur. This brings us to the next bullet of things you never thought I would do …
· Dig in a ditch of mucky crappy grossness trying to find half of a coconut shell. My bilo (Fijian word for cup, so these coconut halves are referred to as bilo ni yaqona or cup for drinking Kava) went missing for a while, but was found later in the night by someone with a shovel who dug it out for me after I gave up. The head of our village (Turaga ni Koro, TNK) stopped by to give me the news about how it was found and then to laugh at me because it smelled soooo bad that one of the trainees said he would not be caught dead drinking from my bilo. I am going to give it to my Ta anyway – he doesn’t have to drink from it. PS: I scrubbed the crap out of it so it smells muuuuch better. And rubbed coconut oil on it to make it smooth and shiny.
· Cooked food in an earth oven called a lovo. It tastes like grilled food because there is that distinct charcoal taste to it. I don’t LOVE lovo food because I don’t usually eat lots of grilled stuff. But it is tasty. I helped wrap a fish with coconut milk concoction in some leaves. Crazy huh? I wrapped up a very liquidy … liquid … in leaves and it stayed in, then put them on red hot rocks to cook. Neato.

Lately the language has been a little frustrating for me. I already feel like I am picking it up a little slower than the rest of my group, but a couple days ago I would have given anything to be able to snap my finger and change the Fijian language! In terms of pronouns, there are … almost 15 or so. Not just I, You, He/She/It/We/Us/Them kind of pronouns. But there are specific ones that are for 1^st person including the listener and 1^st person excluding the listener, 2^nd and 3^rd person. AND as far as singular and plural – try singular, a group of 2 people, a group of 3-5 people, and a group of over 5 people. AHH! Then with family relationships you have different names for your cousins depending on whether they are the children of a sibling of the same sex as your parent or the opposite sex. Then even that is different with your mom and your dad. And there are different names for your siblings depending on if they are the same sex or opposite sex. Then within the “opposite sex” grouping, different names depending on if they are older or younger! Phew – talk about a look into the Fijian culture. It’s interesting but difficult to pick up as quickly as I’d like.

That about wraps up this week’s episode of “Juliana goes to Fiji”. Hope to hear from people. I’ve gotten to contact a couple of you guys and it’s been really nice!! Try using Skype to my cell. I can’t do computer to computer skype yet because I am using internet café computers without microphones and speakers.

Again, I am going to try and post pictures, but I can’t promise anything.