Who's That White Guy?!

 

I'm terrible at this blog thing! I really need to post something at least once a month, not every 5 months! How else am I supposed to fulfill your desire to know more about Fiji?!

Tuitai Cruise Line - a tourist boat that comes to the island

Tourism is a big part of Fiji's business economy. Since my island (Kioa) is the only Polynesian settlement in Fiji, we invite tourists to the island to take part in our cultural traditions. For the tourists, our main point of "attraction" is the Fatele, our traditional dance. The Fatele was brought all the way from Tuvalu, formally known as The Ellis Islands, when the first settlers migrated to Kioa. Fateles are very different from the Fijian traditional dance, the Meke, which is very intense and utilizes every body part. Fijians used to be known as being very aggressive in the South Pacific and took part in many tribal wars, and the Meke reflects just that. A Fatele is more gentle and has an emphasis on the hands and arms, similar to a Hawaiian Luau. Just like the Fijian Meke reflect Fiji's war history, the Tuvaluan Fatele tells a variety of stories of their homeland (Tuvalu) and also of Kioa.

Another big draw for tourists, as in many countries, are the hand made crafts produced by the local citizens. Kioa in particular is known throughout Fiji for having the best and most unique crafts. The ladies of my village spend DAYS making their crafts and then sell them to the tourists, and this is typically the women's only income. They make a variety of crafts that truly reflect the maker themselves.

Women selling their handicrafts

When the island receives tourists, they typically arrive on a cruise ship as part of a scheduled tour. The entire village, including myself, is involved in welcoming them. My role is to blend in with village, help answer questions, and also take part in the Fatele. As you can imagine, I stand out in the crowd here- "Who's that white guy??!?". After living just under a year now, I have started to realize how much more I identify with the community than with the tourists. For example, I will describe how "we" settled the island and what "our" traditions are. I have also gotten to participate in all parts of the Fatele; singing, clapping, drumming, and now dancing! When I first started to dance, I don't know who was more excited- my village or myself? Still to this day everyone gets super excited to see me put on the traditional dance attire and stand up with my fellow dancers. I'm still learning the dance moves that go with each song, but I'm getting there!

The "army" of boats to greet the big boat

Before becoming a PCV, I had traveled to over 15 countries and have done the "tourist" stuff. After living here in Fiji, and witnessing the other side of tourism, I don't know if I will ever travel the same again. When I traveled before I never really learned too much about the country that I was visiting, let alone any of the language! Now I think learning a little bit about a country, especially a basic form of the language, can really make your experience 10x more enjoyable! Experiencing local customs and what locals do is truly experiencing a country, not just visiting the touristy attractions.

The whole community gets together

Having respect for the country and it's locals is also something I have seen a lack of in tourists in Fiji. Most are young college kids who come here to party and it really reflects poorly on their home country. I have heard all too many times from Fijians, "You white people like to party! You all are very loud and get very drunk." Every time I hear this I have to express that not all white people are like that and that those individuals are not what ALL white people are like. It's hard to hear because you don't want to be clumped together with people where the only similarity is your skin tone. When I do travel now, I also seek out opportunities to experience what locals do for fun. I want to learn the basic language and facts about that particular country. Respecting a countries culture starts by learning its language and its customs. Talking with the country's local people can bring about opportunities that you can't experience through a tour guide or walking through a museum.

Now since I have talked about this Fatele, here is a video of the Fatele in my village. I am not in the dance because I am video tapping, so just use your imagination and picture me up there!
Youtube of Fatele

There I am dancing!

Since it has been so long since I posted last, I have taken a TON of pictures! I also took a 2 week vacation out of Fiji to go to Hawaii with some of my family so those pictures are included! If you have any questions about Fiji or want to know more, please email me at tdoak08@su.edu and I will write a post about it. Always looking for ideas on what to write about!




Pre-Service Training
Posters Made
Fiji 2013
Fiji 2014 (1)
Fiji 2014 (2)
Fiji 2014 (3)
Hawaii Holiday

Working Beach Corps

            Well it has been a little while since I have last updated you all, or even wrote a post! Sorry about that! Things here in Fiji are actually starting to pick up and I’m becoming
busy during the days, which is a very nice change.

            Since the last time I posted, I have been working on a variety of different projects, so I thought I would line them out for you all. 

I.               Improve the water – this project consisted of taking a survey of our current water sources and seeing how we can improve them. The health inspectors of Savusavu came out and assisted with the inspection and gave us some advice on ways we can improve them. One of the things that we have been thinking about is adding another water source to our village. We currently have two, and they dry up, get clogged, etc. every so often. This third water source is quite a distance away, and four councilmen and myself hiked to this source. Boy was it bush whacking to the extreme! A picture below can depict just a glimpse of how in the bush this place really was. 

The council men and I hiking to the new potential source

II.             Healthy Island Program – This project has become my main project and goal to complete. This is a program that the Ministry of Health (MOH) uses to encourage communities to be healthier. It has a step-by-step process to make sure that a community can be successful. I have completed the evaluation and compiling phases, and now am working with my village to develop an action plan on issues that should be addressed. The ultimate goal is establish healthy programs within the community and re-evaluate in a little over a year.

III.           Community Health Workers – The MOH has asked each village to have a Community Health Worker (CHW) because not every village has immediate access to a nursing station or health centre. These CHW assist their community by having knowledge of basic first aid, and basic medical care. They essentially are allowed to do bandages and hand out Advil. What I am doing is giving educational tools to my CHWs so that they have a deeper knowledge about a variety of health topics. I am also creating programs for them to do on their own that do not need the presence of a nurse, or myself. 

Teaching Fijian Hand Washing Song

IV.            Clean Kioa Island – Being on an outer island, rubbish (trash) becomes and issue almost every day. There are no dumps like there are in the states, which can become a problem! This project has had many steps, and began with just going around and picking up trash myself and inspecting homes of my village. While I did these inspections, I educated and suggested to people that they should have three bags in their kitchen; one for tins, one for plastics, and one for rubbish. I also gave them some information about different diseases that come from poor rubbish sanitation. It took many weeks for people to really start cleaning, but I am starting to see a great improvement in how peoples home look. The next step is creating pits for each district of the community so we can burn the rubbish. It’s not the best form of environmentally friendly cleaning, but there are limited options being on the outer islands. The tins we will bury and the plastics we will save and use for future projects to come.

Trying to get rid of the water inside the tires

Talking about Dengue Fever with the school kids

V.              Dengue Free Kioa – Here in Fiji, Dengue Fever is at an all time high. A little bit about Dengue Fever can be found at this link ® (http://www.cdc.gov/dengue/) The mosquitoes that can carry Dengue Fever breed in fresh water pools. So anywhere where a fresh pool of water is present, those mosquitoes can lay their eggs there. The most common places are; coconut shells, water basins, bucket bathes, and tin cans. With the help of our regional Health Inspectors office, we initiated a Dengue Clean Up Campaign. This campaign consisted of us going from house to house and inspecting their yards and house for potential Dengue risk areas. We found a many around, but people are starting to clean up those areas and I have seen an improvement in the areas that were at risk. 

"Wash you hands before eat!"

VI. School Visit – Twice a year, the Ministry of Health sectors the primary and secondary schools that they are in charge of. The school health team consists of two nurses, a peer educator, dentists, a dental hygienist, a doctor, and a Peace Corps Volunteer if they have one. My district consists of 3 primary schools, two of the schools are Fijian and then one school is Tuvaluan. The school on my island speak very good English, where as the two other schools do not speak English very well at all. My job in the school visit was to teach proper hand washing. I first talked with the kids about why we wash our hands and all the facts about germs and such. I then showed them how germs spread by placing baby powder on their hands and having them shake each other’s hands. They were able to see the process of how quickly germs spread, and how if one person doesn’t wash their hands after going poop they are now covered in that persons poop. After we played the game, I taught them a song (one in English, one in Fijian) to remember when we wash our hands. They can sing this song two times through and it is about the 20 seconds that they need to wash their hands. It was by far my favorite part of my service thus far. Being around the kids was the first time that I was really able to be myself and just let myself be me. Being around the kids reminded me of HH and I just felt right in my element. I am now trying to get more involved in the school so that I can have this feeling more often.

It’s only been 5 months, but I do feel like I have been working and not just sitting around too much. Sitting around and doing nothing is not something that I do well, and I don’t plan on doing that! 

As per always - here are the links to the photos :-)  

2014 Album  

2013 Album

Posters Made

Pre-Service Training

Fetaui!

The Drink of the Pacific

One of the first things I heard about Fiji when I received my invitation was a drink called “Kava”. I heard horror stories about how awful it tasted, and that it made you hallucinate! Well…to my surprise most of the things I heard were not true!

What is kava?

Kava is a drink that is consumed in many different ways throughout Pacific Ocean cultures. It comes from the root of a plant that in Fiji is harvested after 4-6 years of the plant growing. The longer the plant grows, the more concentrations of kavalactones it has. Kavalactones is the compound that creates the effects of Kava drinking. Fijians typically call the drink “grog” or “yagona” (pronounced yangona). So I will use both terms in this post.

How is it made?

(Sun drying kava)

There are many different ways to make kava and it all depends on which country you are drinking it in. In Fiji, the plant is harvested and then the roots are spread out to sundry, and then pounded into a fine powder. Once it is a fine powder, it is strained and mixed with water. You can also take the root and boil it, and then mix it with “cold” water after it boils for 15 minutes. This is called “Raw Kava”. In some other Pacific Ocean countries, the root is chewed, grinded, or pounded.  

How do you drink it?

After the kava has been pounded in a fine powder, it is strained and mixed in a Tanoa, which is a large bowl made wood that has multiple legs. Sometimes the Tanoa is decorated with shells, paintings, or carvings. Sitting at the Tanoa are three people, one sits at the head of the bowl to keep mixing the kava so it doesn’t settle too much, and the two others are on the side distributing the “bilos” out to the drinkers. The “bilo” is a half-shell of a coconut and used to drink the kava. If you are sitting directly in front of the Tanoa, then you are the guest of honor and are given the first bilo of kava. After the guest of honor is served, then it goes in a hierarchy manner. When you are given the bilo, you clap 1 time as a respectful manner, almost saying please. You drink the kava in one fluid motion, and then hand the bilo back to you received it from. Once you hand it back, you clap 3 times as a form of respect, almost saying thank you. Throughout the entire time the kava is being served, you sit with your legs crossed. After the kava has been served to everyone, everyone will clap and then you may then uncross your legs and stretch.

(This is the set up of a formal grog session) 

(This is a "tanoa" with a "bilo")

What are the effects?

Like I said before, the ingredient kavalactones is a sedative and anesthetic. After drinking a few bilos, your face and mouth become numb, and you begin to feel more relaxed. Sometimes when I drink it, I feel sleepy. It also causes you to have to pee a lot, so don’t break the seal to early!! As the grog session keeps going, you will start to notice everyone will start to relax and open up with conversations that are not typically talked about during the day. People will also bring guitars, and ukuleles and sing many traditional songs. When locals talk about the effects of grog they call it being “drunk” or “getting high”. Kava does have long-term effects on your body if drank excessively. It can cause liver and kidney damage, suppressed sex drive, dry skin patches, among many others.

(They be feeling sleepy!)

Ceremonial or social?

Kava drinking is both a social event and ceremonial. In terms of ceremonial, they are done in events such as political, religious, and social functions. The ceremony usually has a ritual presentation of a bundle of yagona, called a sevusevu (gift) and then drinking of kava. Many people drink kava to be enlightened spiritually as well. When it comes to social kava drinking, it is usually done at night or during celebrations of some short. Both men and women drink kava, but it depends on the village laws if women are allowed to join in on the grog session with men. In my village women are not allowed to drink grog in the grog sessions, but are allowed to drink it in their home. Both ceremonial and social drinking of grog can last hours upon hours and multiple Tanoas will be filled. It is impolite to leave the grog session if the Tanoa is full, so you have to wait until it is empty to leave, which can be hard when they keep filling it…

(This was during our sevusevu when we first arrived in Fiji)

Does it taste good?

When I first had it I expected it to be AWFUL! But to my surprise, it only tasted like muddy water and didn’t taste bad. After the many different sessions I have been a part of, I have come to enjoy the taste of grog. It’s funny because when the locals drink it, they give a after face and grown as if they had just had a shot of strong vodka. So I guess it depends on your taste buds if you like it or not.

So who’s ready to try some grog?! Many more pictures have been posted and the links to the albums are below! I hope that you all are trying to keep warm during the cold winter, as I am trying to keep cool and only sweat 1 or 2 buckets…

2014

Posters

2013

Pre-Service Training  

Christmas in Fiji

Even though I just posted a blog about the wedding that was very close to Christmas, I thought I would explain how my first Christmas in Fiji was.

I very much missed my family, and I had some break downs during the day. But inbetween the very few breakdowns I had, I was surrounded by so many people in my village who were so filled with joy that I couldn't be sad.

With any holiday, Kioa likes to celebrate with parities, dancing, and food. Christmas Eve started with going around with the Youth (people 18-30) singing to all the elderly and new born babies. It was really fun to be able to hang out with people my own age and just sing. Granted they sang in Tuvaluan, so I only clapped and sang when I knew the words.

The Christmas Eve church service started at 10:00pm and was a midnight service. I was given the opportunity to sing and play the guitar at the service and sand "Silent Night". I gave a little description and history of the song so that they could understand why I had chosen this particular song. They really seemed to enjoy it by the clapping and thanks that I received after I sang. Hopefully they will ask me to do some more in the church so I can better integrate and share my music.

After the service I went home to change and wait for my neighbor friend to come and get me to go to the dance. He came over and we had a little bit of grog and then went to the dance until 3:00am when the power went out. Then we preceded to go to another house and have more grog until I finally said that I had to sleep for a little while before my family called me to wish me Merry Christmas. I went home and slept until 5:00am when my family from home called me to FaceTime with them. It was so amazing to see them all for Christmas and be able to spend some quality family time.

Because it was about 6:00am when I finished seeing my family, I stayed up and took some pictures of the sunrise. The tide was low so I was able to walk the beach and get some really sweet shots!

Christmas day consisted of eating a feast with the village for lunch and dinner with traditional dancing inbetween the feasts. It was really special to be part of their festivities, and made me feel so happy that I made the decision to stay in the village for this holiday.

Merry Christmas to everyone from Fiji! I hope you enjoy your big dinners that I'm sure you are

all having right about now.

Till Death Due Us Part

The weekend before Christmas, I was invited to a wedding here in my village. The wedding was the biggest wedding that the island has had in a very long time, where both the groom and bride are from here. A lot of the times one or the other are from somewhere else and not originally my village. The nurse I work with and I were both asked to be honored guests for the wedding. Now, I thought being an honored guest was pretty cool and it totally had it perks! But then there were the downfalls of having no alone time all weekend...

The festivities started around 9:00am on Friday morning with the Church service. It was really beautiful to watch these two people share their vows, and the church was all decorated. The service was a lot shorter than I had intended. Tea was the next thing on the agenda at the brides family home, that was also short and sweet to the point. Throughout the weekend, anytime that there was a feast, (any meal that we had!) people from each side had to give speeches which made things go 10x longer!

After tea was finished, we then moved to the community hall where the lunch feast was to take place. I have never seen so much food in my life until this lunch. Food was just piled high on banana leaves (which acted as the table cloth). I was amazed and so excited because I had not eaten the day before to have room for all the food during the weekend. It was a very smart decision on my part to do this because it was 3 feasts every day!!! SO MUCH FOOD!!!

Once lunch was finished and people had done their speeches, the entertainment began. The two sides consisted of Tuvaluan and Rabian traditions. The brides family is originally from Rabi Island, but she grew up in my village. She had so many costume changes, but the dances for both sides were so beautiful!

That night we had a dance that lasted until 3:00am...I was so tired at this point because we had been drinking a lot of grog throughout the day along with all the food that was in tummy. It was a lot of fun being around everyone and really integrating HARDCORE!

Saturday, and Sunday consisted of the same thing; Feast for breakfast, dance, grog, feast for lunch, dance, grog, nap, feast for dinner, grog, dance...pretty much in that order

Once Sunday night happened I was happy to be able to get in my house and just lay down in my bed. I was very tired and my body just hurt from all the partying with the village. Who knew that I would loose all my college "skills" so quickly!

Monday morning was a doosy because I woke up to 12 missed calls on my cell phone. Now, I would normally hear someone calling me, but here I wear ear plugs so that I can muffle out the roosters and dogs going all night long. All the numbers were numbers that I didn't recognize and I assumed that it was people in my village. So, I didn't think anything of it until I got into work and Adi (nurse I work with) told me that an older man had died last night. Needless to say, Adi and I had to do take care of body and do the exam to find cause of death. Now we didn't do a full exam where we cut the body open or anything, but just did a surface exam and talked with many different people who were there. Here is that story...

The man that passed away was 57 years old and was visiting for the wedding from Rabi. Nobody knew his last name and he did not come with any children or other family. The brides side of the family had been having dinner at 12:00am...WHO HAS DINNER AT MIDNIGHT?! Around 12:30am, the man clutched his chest and said he was having extreme chest pain and it was hard to breathe. The gentlemen died approximately 12:45am.

Traditionally, the body is not supposed to be moved from where the person dies until it goes into the coffin. Therefore, when we arrived to do the exam around 9:00am, the body was under a sheet and people were eating breakfast and cooking directly around the body. I found this extremely uncomfortable for me because I have never had to deal with a rotting dead body before. I've been to my share of funerals, but those bodies are no longer rotting. This man's body was clearly rotting, began to smell, and his stomach was extremely distended that I thought the gas and fluids from his insides were going to burst out any minute.

Needless to say, it was a very interesting weekend and a experiential Monday morning.

Here is the link to the photo album. There are lots of new pictures there!
Fiji Album

Happy Holidays everyone! Christmas post will be coming soon!!!

Building A Bigger Music Library

So this post is yet again asking for your help!

Anytime I am home or at work I play my iTunes library because I don't like having quiet around. I always need music in the background to keep me distracted from negative thoughts. The power that music has is amazing! Makes me keep my faith in my Music Therapy degree and certification! I always put my library on shuffle so that I have all my music and a variety of music styles.

Consequently I have run through my entire music library a few times. I would LOVE if any of you could contribute to my music library my uploading some of your favorite songs, or any new music that is coming out in the states. I don't get to hear the radio so I have no idea what is new and hot these days. 

If you would like to contribute to the "Tim Doesn't Go Insane" Music Library, please send me an email (tdoak08@su.edu) and I will then add you to a Dropbox Folder where you can upload some music.


Thank you all so much for everything that you have been doing! You really are some amazing people for reading my blog and helping me out. Keep passing along the blog to people to read! I see how many people read this and even where people are reading it from. Crazy to see some different countries reading this blog :-)

Tofa!

Camp GLOW & Garden Time

It's been a while since I have written a blog post, so it was time to write one up!

This past week, I took part in the Group 89 Vanua Levu PCVs in Camp GLOW. "Camp GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World and is a worldwide Peace Corps initiative to empower young women of developing nations to be strong leaders. The camp focused on the development of wellness, self-confidence, and leadership. With these life skills, the participants of Camp GLOW will share their new knowledge with their communities. During the camp, we held group discussion, games, sports, crafts, exercise, gardening, health education, a career panel, and community speakers." The United States Ambassador even came to speak to the girls, which they thought was just the coolest thing ever!

 

What I mostly did to help out was run errands back and forth from town, helped with cooking, and gave a presence of a male that cares about these girls future. At first the girls thought it was weird to see a male at a Girls Leading Our World camp, but after me just being me they came around and started actually chatting with me about things. It was amazing to see these girls change in just a few short days. They really understood what we were trying to get across to them, and even taught us somethings as well.

Mental health here in the pacific is very poor. Many people (especially women) think that them hating themselves is normal, and that being miserable to normal. So many people think that happiness is what they feel, which is not the case. During this camp, the girls told many people that they had this new feeling of happiness that they had never felt before. We has the volunteers gave these girls a week that they will never forget and they will hopefully take what they have learned to their communities.

Helping facilitate the camp really brought me back to my roots, a camp counselor. It made me really miss being at Double H (HH) and being with my kids. The magic that HH has, truly is something special. Being at HH for so many summers, I have made that magic a part of my every day life. It lives inside me and I try and spread it to others in the world. This camp was a way for me to do that in a way that I knew how, being at camp. Each of the campers that I have had at HH have taught me something new about myself or about life. This one week at GLOW did the exact same as HH did. I was able to just be Tim the camp Counselor who is silly, goofy, and a little weird sometimes.

 

My major goal for projects here in Fiji has turned to doing another camp GLOW next year, and to even start a boys camp called Camp BILD (Boys In Leadership Development). I'm hoping that this will really give me a push to do something really great here during my service.

I started planning out my garden that I am attempting to have beside my house. I managed to stake out all the plots that I need, and dug for over 2 hours on the first plot and only got 1/2 way done with it. Gardening is hard work ya all!! I have never sweated so much during work in a long long time! Had to stop for the day because I was starting to get light headed from the heat and not being able to drink enough water. Hopefully I will be able to find a local kid/boy/man who will help me and maybe just do it for me :-) Use my resources as I like to say!

Hope all is good in the world of America! I have also added many pictures to my Facebook so here is the link again to the album and to the Camp LOW album.

Fiji Album
Posters I've Made Album 
Camp GLOW Album

Tofa!