Sunday, February 27, 2005

blogger email no.3

Sa vakacava tiko? (how are you doing?)

Flora and fauna:
gigantic cochroaches (luckily not too many of them - I think Sydney has more)
mice living in the roof and eating my bananas and pawpaw at night
geckos
ugly toads that you can step on if you don’t watch where you walk at night
mongoose whose tails stick out very straight behind them parallel with the ground and who run faster than any rugby player anywhere
earwigs
worms
centrepedes
ants - millions and millions of ants. I think I had about 5 million in my toilet the other night. They formed a column like Orcs from ‘Lord of the Rings’ going to a battle. They were transporting white particles from one hole in the wall to another hole in another room. The column snaked around the toilet and down one wall. I swept them all up but within an hour the masses were back. So I left them to their work and sure enough by morning they had all disappeared with the job done.

Here is a recipe with ants in mind:
“on one piece of bread, apply peanut butter so that it covers all of one side, place a second piece on top. Leave sandwich on counter for 10-15mins. This step will automatically add small ants for added protein. Enjoy!”

In the backyard: two coconut trees with coconuts that fall regularly and which I husk and grate to eat, a breadfruit tree, and some growing pawpaw trees and pineapple plants. I am growing some ginger plants which have gorgeous red and pink flowers. Someone living here before has planted some roses. They look like they don’t belong. I plan to pull them out.
I am on the look out for all my favourite tropical plants and where I can pinch them from. I have a back and front yard that is all my own. I plan to plant all my favourites and start a tropical paradise. The plants I have planted so far grow a leaf a day - and this is the dry season.

I had the pleasure of shaking the hand of the Vice President of Fiji. Fiji being a republic has a Prime Minister and President. I was at the awards for Human Rights achievements in the Pacific. The umbrella body that the Association of the Deaf comes under (Fiji Disabled People’s Association) won an award last year. All the diplomats and VIPs were there. The police band played and they had dancing from the Kiribati islands, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands. If you appreciate physical beauty of the human kind, there was plenty to look at. I hope I wasn’t drooling. FDPA won again this year. The boss is blind so she asked me to walk with her to get the award. Otherwise she could have asked Sajend who is in a wheelchair or Aquila who is even more blind than she is or she could have asked Serevi who is deaf but very shy. So it was me. And that is how I got to shake the hand of the Vice President, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi.

Things that make me laugh:
At midday yesterday while on the bus, I see two council workers having a snooze. One is sitting in the wheelbarrow hunched over and the other sprawled on the pavement in full view.

Getting in a taxi in the back seat, I see on the dashboard written in white pen corrector liquid “put seatbelts on pliz”. So I reach behind to locate it behind the seat and I have to wrestle with the belt to pull it on, and I get black dust on my hands in the process, then I go to clip it in and there is no buckle so I give up. It is the law that you wear seatbelts mind you.

The only way to get traffic to stop for you on a pedestrian crossing is to be half way out in the middle of it. I did this the other day and a military officer just managed to screech to a halt to stop from killing me. There are letters in the paper regularly making the point that you can’t expect the populace to obey traffic rules when they see the Police, military, taxis and bus drivers regularly flouting them.

A story from the paper
“A kindy mum and her daughter got into a bus at Narere and paid 90 cents to go to Suva. Upon returning, mum and daughter boarded another bus belonging to same company who charged extra 50 cents because cunning driver said 4 year old had no kindy uniform on”.

The use of the word “cunning” is very Fiji.

Next week I am borrowing a ladder from the husband of my boss. I am on a mildew exterminator expedition. I feel like that mutant robot from ‘Dr Who’ whose sole lines in the show were “you will be exterminated!” said in voice rising with hysteria. The bathroom here is covered in a mottled grey wallpaper actually heavy duty mildew. Maybe it’s part of settling in and feeling at home or maybe it’s that manic cleaning side of me coming out but I am determined to have a mildew free house even if it’s only for a month before I have to start all over again. So I am very excited about my weekend of scrubbing ceilings coming up.

It’s now 2am. I have been having trouble sleeping not due to the heat but more from thoughts whirling around in my head related to work. My body is still adjusting to being here. I find that I can’t eat much breakfast and anything rich gives me rumbles. I am eating lots of pawpaw and drinking lots of tea. I go to the markets every week and get fresh fruit and vegetables. Bread lasts only 2 days before growing mould and that’s in an air tight container so I have given up bread and am eating crackers instead. People have a lot of sugar in their diet which explains why you can only buy 2 and 4 kg bags of it. I had to lug a 2kg bag home with my shopping today. People have been telling me about a great Australian style supermarket to go to. I tried it out today but chocolates, Timtams, pasta sauces, pesto and dried fruits are the last things I want to eat. They just don’t work here or not for me yet. I am sticking with root crops, bananas and pawpaws and curry and roti and Indian sweets. Last week I fainted in the middle of the night while on the toilet with an upset stomach. I woke with my head on the floor and a huge bump on my forehead the next day. My stomach seems to have settled down since then!
Sototale (till next time)

Kate

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

edition 2

Hi everyone

Further observations:
A Non government legal organisation here (like Legal Aid) where another volunteer works is fighting to have the Vice President put back behind bars. He was sentenced to gaol just last year for his role in the 2000 coup. He has served 3 months of his sentence and has been released. The public reason is that he is in bad health while privately it is known he has people in the right places to work to get him released.

Another volunteer who works at Suva Grammar which is a well known government high school in Suva (my Dad went there) says that all the Indian teachers have not been paid. It is now 3 weeks into the school term and all the Fijian teachers have been paid as they have been given their employment contracts. When an Indian teacher went to talk to the Principal (he is Fijian) about the struggle to live on no money he said “ you are not going to die are you?”.

An Interpreter who works at the Gospel school for the Deaf is also in the same situation and has not been paid as she also has not been given an employment contract.

Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama is the head of the Military in Fiji and also played a big part in restoring law and order after the 2000 coup. He has been in the papers alot as he constantly criticises the government which is trying to restore the country back to a democracy of some sort. He is seen as being arrogant and sticking his finger in where it should not be. He is an employee of the government but is not seen to be loyal to the government. He was given a warning this week by the Government for blowing his budget by 3 million ( lots of money by Fiji standards). He then responded by withdrawing security for the Prime Minister saying it was a cost cutting measure. The Prime Minister is now using the Police to provide security for him.

Now to more lighter observations:

hot water is too expensive for most people including me so we use only cold water for showers and washing. It is surprisingly easy to get used to and cold showers are more refreshing than swimming in the sea.

I have not been bitten by a dog yet.

I have found out that “taliban” is not a Hindi word and does in fact refer to what I thought!

It is hard to share an office with two of us working full time and only one desk and one computer. The Deaf Association got its first ever computer thanks to the Australian High Commission in Dec last year.

As I walked to the pool today to swim (this is in the heart of the city) and sweat while swimming, I saw coming towards me two gorgeous blond tanned white girls with bikinis on, hair wet from being in the water and with towels wrapped around them and nothing else on. No local person would dare do that in the middle of the city and in any other city of the world I bet it does not happen.

My flatmate told me that last year while a cruise ship was in town, there was a white woman walking around with a top on (thankfully) but a g-string for the bottom. It caused so much offense that a photo was taken and it was printed in the newspaper and locals gagged over it. White people can be so sensitive eh?

When you shake hands with someone for the first time, you shake in the Western way but with one firm shake only. When you shake hands with a close friend you clasp the other person’s hand and then slide hands to the fingertips and then you slightly bend the hand and finally let go as if you have fallen off a cliff and are unable to hold on with your fingertips any more.

Suva has a McDonalds. Bugger!

For Valentines Day, there was an advertisement in the newspaper saying that you could book a special table at KFC where the children’s play area had been converted to a lover’s corner and where you would receive a free bottle of non alcoholic champagne (apple cider). Romantic eh?

Smells of Fiji:
Sweat (my own and everyone else’s)
Diesel fumes (from cars and buses)
Coconut oil
Burning off
Rotting rubbish
Sweat
Diesel fumes
Chicken curry
Sweet air (when not getting whiffs of diesel)

I went to see a Hindi movie on the weekend. Unfortunately I walked out at intermission as it was in Hindi with no English subtitles. It was also the first time I have seen a Hindi movie that had very passionate wet kind of kissing. Worse than watching that TV show “days of our lives”. Even though I could not hear, I am sure they were making lots of noise - it was that kind of kissing if you know what I mean. I have never seen a film where the sole purpose was to titillate the audience. The shots, the closeups, the non plot and the terrible acting gave it all away. I stayed as long as I could more out of disbelief that it could be so bad! Hope I choose better next time.

I am gradually learning Fijian Sign Language. Day by day. A lot of the signs are derived from Auslan, ASL and lots of Signed English (ughhh!). The Deaf don’t call their sign Fijian Sign Language but rather “broken English” or “broken sign”. I have slowly talking to people about the difference between the English language and a Deaf Sign Language. Interpreters here even tell the Deaf that their sign is not that good because it is not English enough! So I have a few challenges! Today we decided to set up a group who will meeting regularly to start discussing Fijian Sign Language and what that might be. The understanding by the Deaf was that I would tell them what Fijian Sign Language is or that I would make up the signs for them. But that is not how language develops and that would just mean another white person has come in and decided how it’s going to be. It’s only day 2 at work so I still need to just observe. It is very easy to just jump in and start making decisions and pronouncements about what I have observed.

I want to write so much so that I remember as much as I can. I hope this email has not gone on for too long. There is so much to take in and observe.
Till next time eh?
Moce (bye)
Kate

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Edition 1

2005 edition 1
Bula Vinaka!
“Seek and ye shall find” : Motto of Suva Grammar School
z I have arrived! z

My mother did not believe when I told her that there are direct flights to Suva instead of Nadi which is on the other side of the island. She then got a good laugh when we arrived at Sydney airport to be told that the direct flight I was booked on had been cancelled! No reason or explanation given. I was told that there would be buses (not planes) to take me from Nadi to Suva (distance 168 km) which would take 3 hours or so. The journey begins eh?! The journey ended at 1am (midnight NSW time) with me knocking on the door of a house trying to wake up Robyn who I will be living with. Dogs were barking, chains and bars on every door but on the front door was a familiar sticker - “not happy John”. I knew I had come to an Australian house! After the flight, the long waiting in queues to get through immigration and customs, the busride where we stopped at Hideaway resort for dinner at 10pm and then waiting anxiously at another hotel in Suva where the buses dropped us off for Robyn to pick me up, then giving up, looking up her address in the phone book, hiring a cab who then got lost and did not know the street I asked for (I ended up giving him directions as I knew it is on the same road as Suva Grammar School), I flopped onto my little bed, pulled the mosquito net over me and slept till 11am the next day.


Dogs are prevalent in Fiji. In my street alone it appears that each house has at least 3 dogs. Anna and I came up with a term to describe them on our last trip to Fiji - “Interbred”. I actually saw one today that had remnants of Boxer in his face. His great great great grandfather may have been a Boxer. Most Interbreds are a fawn color with spots of white and black. They tend to be the same size and all of them thin, whippet-like. I have been told stories of many people being bitten by dogs so I guess it is a matter of time before it happens to me as it did when I was two by our family dog at the time. I have already had my first fright when I was walking home and already had 5 dogs trailing after me. Next minute, two more black ones lept out of the bushes and were barking madly. I thought “here it is, my moment to be bitten by a dog and it’s happening on my first day in Fiji!” but they were more interested in ripping flesh off each other. Other locals just walked by as if nothing was happening while I was standing frozen in the middle of the road. “I just got to act like them” I thought. I was already proud of myself for getting into the amble gait of people here. Too hot to rush anywhere anyway. So I have been ambling all day and just a few times have had to check myself for my speed. So back to the dogs: their attention was on each other so it was a good time for me to amble on by while doing an internal “phew” with my hand.

My house is a 3 bedroom government house. All the houses in the street are the same. This street (Veiuto Rd) used to be jokingly called Earl’s Court because it was full of Australians. Thankfully it is more mixed now with some Tongan medical students across the road and a Japanese family further up. The furnishing is plain and simple and the floors all bare lino. The windows all louvre and we have purple hibiscus curtains hanging. The local policeman was told a new Aussie had moved in so he paid a visit and took my name and noted where I live. Good security eh? Tonight I was given a welcome ceremony by Seini who lives across the road and Robyn who I share with. We sat on the mat and drank yagona (kava or muddy water as some Australians like to call it). It leaves your tongue pleasantly numb for a short while.

My room has a bed, a desk and a bedside table with a built-in wardrobe. I have stuck some watercolours that Mum did of my favourite flower - Hoya on the wall. I have a fan which I have not had to use yet. I am sweating most of the time but I don’t find it annoying. I have a mosquito net over my bed which also keeps the geckos away. They are plastered to the walls motionless. The first time I saw one on my window sill, I thought it was a plastic toy left by a child till I realised it was real.


Observations to date:

Written on the bus visor today was “taliban”. I have been told it’s a Hindi word.
Bus trips costs 60 cents
A glass of homemade lemon juice on the road side costs 20 cents.
Downtown Suva has a huge billboard of Lote Tuqiri which I can gaze at.
The Vice President of Fiji has just been put in jail for his role in the 2000 coup.
An article in the Fiji Times states that Bollywood is now making movies with Lesbian themes.
The average size of a household/family is 6 (according to the Fiji Times)
Men play rugby/do rugby training/ warm up for rugby on any spare piece of land.
You can hail a bus from anywhere on the road.
Only when the bus completely stops do you get up to get off the bus and you can take your time.
By 2006 it is expected that there will be 90 000 squatters living in Suva (Fiji Times).
The water in the Olympic pool that I swam in yesterday was 24 degrees.




Tomorrow I start my Fiji language classes and meet the executive of the Fiji Association of the Deaf (FAD).

Till next time.......
Moce (pronounced “mothe”)

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

She's off!!!

Kate made her flight and should have arrived safely in sunny Fiji - although a unscheduled change of destination from Suva to Nandi (the other side of the island) will mean a 3 hour bus trip across the mainland.

Did she have to share the bus trip with a few goats and chickens and the odd cane toad?...highly likely!

Airport leaving photos - up shortly.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Pre Departure


Kate is now moving furnature - will she make the airport in time to leave???