This blog has MOVED!

Hey all, this blog has moved over to a new site. Sorry for the trouble. Also, the new site is password protected (something we couldn't easily do with this website, hence the change). To get the password, please just give us a quick e-mail to clencurry@gmail.com. It would be nice to hear from you anyway. Plus it will give us a chance to explain exactly why we need a password protected blog. Anyway, sorry for the inconvenience, but it is necessary. If e-mail isn't your thing, you can use facebook too. Or I guess you could call us, but that might be a little expensive.

Here is the new site:
http://clencurry.wordpress.com

We wont be updating this site anymore, so from here on out, you can go directly to the new one. Thanks for looking in on us. Hope to hear from you soon.

Chris (and Nan)

Happy 4th!

Chris and I recently returned from a visit to where we'll be working and living in Suva in just THREE weeks! We arrived on Sunday and spent the day enjoying Suva. We walked in the heat for awhile checking out each of our work locations in preparation for Monday morning, saw Transformers 2 at the air-conditioned Cinema 6, enjoyed a beer with Bob and Julie at the Suva Yacht Club, and then had a dinner party at Maya and Teri's. (Maya and Teri are FRE-4 and FRE-5s that will be leaving this month; we''ll be moving into their house.) As we were starting to fall asleep in our shared twin bed, Chris and I both started to feel a little sick. We spent the next 24 hours dealing with stomach issues in the most intense way (feel free to read in-between the lines). Evidently it is not a wise decision to eat popcorn at the Cinema 6.

On Tuesday I had a chance to spend the day at the Adolescent Health & Development Center, where I will be working for the next 2 years. I met most of the people I will work with and had a chance to see the Center. I am fortunate to have an assignment in a fairly progressive office. The center's walls are covered with posters for Save the Children, the importance of condoms, and the message that "Equality Empowers"! I think I will fit in just fine. The day I was there they were hosting an STI and HIV/AIDS workshop, so I had the chance to sit in and see what a workshop looks like in Suva. The take-away message for me was keep it relaxed- start on Fiji time (read Late), have plenty of tea breaks, a long lunch break, and frequent breaks for stretching. Overall, it was an enjoyable day at "work" followed by an hour stroll home along the sea wall. Is this sureal or what!??!

As mentioned in the last post, Chris will be working with Save the Children. It's an international NGO focused on the protection of children's rights. Chris will be working in the Child's Right's and Participation department travelling around Fiji doing workshops and other related work. He's very excited and has been reading non-stop to figure out what exactly all that means. His office is in Suva in a converted house that is very full. Save the Children Fiji has outgrown their workspace and is looking for an annex... but for the time being, Chris will have a desk (think small table) in a very little room (think closet) with the two other people that make up his department and about 60 boxes full of pamphlets and posters... it's good, I think, that he'll be travelling alot. He's learned a lot so far and is looking forward to training being over so he can get in and do some real work.

Just to give you an idea of the extreme difference of life in the big city of Suva and our present life in the village, here's a little tidbit about the morning...
Most mornings I go for a run with the other trainees in our village. Now that we have been here for almost 7 weeks, we are allowed to run outside the village in knee length shorts. Yeah! If you've ever run in an ankle-length skirt, you will surely appreciate this advancement of ours! Of course, we cannot just go walking through the village in shorts so we wear sulus, wrap-around skirts, until we leave the village. Every day we tie our sulus to a post at the edge of the village and pick them up when we're ready to re-enter the village. Today, however, three of us went for a nice run of about 5 miles. When we got back to the village, and to the post where we had left our three sulus, we saw only an empty post. Much to our embarrassment and cultural insensitivity, we had no choice but to walk the half mile through the village wearing shorts. If you're wondering if anyone noticed the three kavalagi ("English") girls scantily clad in their knee length shorts, I can tell you for certain they did. When I arrived home, my host-family expressed concern about my lack of sulu. My host parents are concerned about what happened and are planning to address this at the village meeting. Ratu, my host-dad, assured me this will not happen again and that he will do his best to insure the return of our sulus. The chiefly system can really be effective in this type of situation, so I am hopeful that my hot pink Peace Corps sulu will be returned.

To wrap things up, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Fourth Of July! And a special shout-out to Chris's grandfather, Poppy, as it's also his Birthday! So, to Uncle Sam and Poppy, congratulations on completing another year and a very happy birthday to the both of you!

With love from Fiji,
Nan (and Chris)

Some folks have asked us to send out our mailing address again... so here it is:

Chris Clendenin or Nancy Curry, PCV
Peace Corps/Fiji
Private Mail Bag
Suva, Fiji Islands
South Pacific

Now please enjoy these pictures from the opposite hemisphere.The Group in Our Village

Chris and La hanging festive curtains... those curtains are being turned in to shirts for Rahim, Chris and Nan

Sean and Chris

Nan and Kara wearing traditional Jabia Sulus (pronounced CHAMBA SOO-LOO)

Nan picking Papayas

The inside of our soon-to-be house in Suva

The outside of our soon-to-be house in Suva

FISH!

Happy Father's Day and Site Announcements

Happy Father's Day to all the great father's that are checking this blog! And a special greeting to Chris Zorn on his first Dad's Day! Congratulations!

We have some good news of our own. We found out today where we will be stationed for our two years in Peace Corps service. We will be living in Suva. It is the capital of Fiji, so if you look at a map of the world, it's very likely that Suva will be the first city in Fiji you see. It's on the south western corner of the biggest Island, Viti Levu. It's very exciting for us to finally know where we're going. And our jobs, you ask? Well, Nan will be working with the Ministry of Health working to better utilize a community center for youth. They have a structure but no programs working so Nan will be designing programs that will hopefully be in place for years and years to come. It's very exciting work and Nan is looking forward to the challenge. I, on the other hand, will be working with the international organization, Save the Children. They have some national campaigns that they will be implementing from Suva and I will be working on developing those programs some how. It's all good work and I look forward to working there.

Anyway, I just wanted to hop on and let everyone know what we're up to here. Thanks for reading, everyone!

Chris and Nan

A Few Pics from Fiji

Hi all! Here are a few picts we'ld like to show. Sorry there aren't more. Hopefully we can put more up soon!
Nan and Melissa cleaning their water bottles

Nan enjoying her first drink of yaqona (pronounced YAWN-GO-NAH and also called Kava or Grog, for slang)

Our neighbor kids posing for the camera

Our host brother, Junior, shucking a niu (pronounced KNEE-EW, it's a coconut)

A Fijian sunset at our first training village... not too shabby...

That's all for now. Thanks for looking in on us. We'll try to put more up soon!

Love,
Chris and Nan

Bula Vinaka!

Bula vinaka! Greetings from Fiji! Chris and I found ourselves with a free hour so we wanted to update you with the happenings of our first 2 weeks on country. So much has happened, it's hard to begin...

Staging in L.A.
We spent about 24 hrs in L.A. preparing to leave the country with our fellow 30 trainees. It was an exciting time as we met all of the people in our training group (FRE-7). Each trainee brings so much to the table we’re having a great time getting to know them! Peace Corps staff was in L.A. to collect final paperwork, screen us for Swine Flu, hand out Peace Corps passports and international plane tickets. The two staff members gave us a list of phone numbers in case of emergency and sent us on our way…

…and two days later we arrived in Nadi. We took a 6 hour bus ride across Viti Levu, the main island, to the Tailevu province were we will be for the remaining 7 weeks of training. By the time we got to our training site we were completely exhausted from the jetlag and near 30 hours of travel! We ate dinner and headed to bed at 7:30pm.

Training Center
The next morning we had our first yaqona ceremony welcoming us to the village and Fiji. It is Fijian village protocol that anyone who wishes to enter a village must request permission from the village chief and present an isevusevu, a root that can be ground and then mixed with water to make a drink called yaqona (Kava, in English). Fortunately, while we are still learning, someone else does that for us every time we enter a new village. After 5 days of language and culture training our 32 trainees were split into groups of 5-8 trainees and assigned villages in which to live for the remainder of training.

Home-Stay Families and Living in the Village
Chris and I had been expecting to be split up during training, but were actually assigned to live with the same host-family! We live in a large village with more than 500 people. We’re staying there with 6 other trainees and 2 host-country national LCFs (Language and Culture Facilitators). Our family is fantastic! We live with our host parents (Nau and Ratu) and a 23-year-old brother (Junior). During the week, our host-sister and her adorable 7-month-old stay with us.

Our host family has been a huge help with language and culture. They all speak fluent English, but do their best to speak in primarily Fijian so as not to hinder our learning.

Food
I am including a section on food in this blog as food is a rather large part of Fijian culture. For example, when we return from a day of training our host-family will ask “Kana cava?” (“what did you eat?”) instead of “how was the day?”. As many of you know, Chris and I were worried about the food in Fiji as we weren’t sure what to expect. No need to worry about our nutritional intake. Our diet consists of fresh fruits and vegetables ( most of which are from our village’s plantation), fish, chicken, tinned meats, and a lot of starches- root veggies, ramen noodles, rice, bread. The cooking methods in Fiji tend to include a high amount of oil and butter, but our host family has been really flexible with this so we’re not always eating fried eggs and fried meats.

There is much going on, but that will have to do for an update as our hour is almost up. We miss you all! Please feel free to write (address in previous blog)! Also, check out the pictures in the blog posted right before this one. We’ll try to post more soon, but our access to Internet is very limited!

Nan (and Chris)

All Our Bags Are Packed...

...and we are most definitely ready to go! Our four check bags are weighing in just under 150 (collectively), which gives us about 10 pounds to spare.

Today is the day! We can't believe it's finally here! We're leaving this morning for PDX to catch our 11:20 flight to L.A. We'll spend tomorrow (Tuesday) meeting our fellow trainees and preparing to leave the country. Our trans-Pacific flight is at 9:30pm TOMORROW!!! Once we arrive in Nadi, Fiji, we'll have a 5 hour bus ride along the coast to Suva where our training will begin.

During the first 5 days of training we will be at a vocational training in Suva. During these 4 days we'll start our language and cultural training. On May 25 we will split up into groups of 5-6 trainees and live in villages in the Tailevu area with host families. We'll have formal training Monday-Saturday, and will be able to structure our own learninng and spend time with our host families on Sundays. Week 5 of training we'll find out where our site will be for the next 2 years and we'll get a chance to meet our community contact!

It sounds like our first 10 weeks in Fiji will be packed and we may or may not have access to Internet until July. We'll post blogs if/when we can, and try to get some snail mail out if we are unable to post.

Feel free to write us. We'd love to hear from you!

Our name(s), PCV
Peace Corps/Fiji
Private Mail Bag
Suva, Fiji
SOUTH PACIFIC

Thanks for reading!
Nan and Chris

Bon Voyage Dinner

While Kevin was in town, Chris Z. and Karen treated us to a bon voyage dinner at Portland's Greek Cusina. On a typical night at Greek Cusina, the house is packed and diners are entertained by traditional Greek dancing, plate throwing, etc. Volunteers are pulled from the crowd to become part of the show for a few minutes, and then retire to their dinners to enjoy the rest of the evening. When we happened to go it was a cold and rainy night in Portland (no kidding!), and we were the only guests at the restaurant. So instead of being entertained, we were the entertainment! Chris Z., Karen, Kevin, Chris, and I danced until our feet were sore. We counted to three in Greek, yelled "Opa!", and broke plates. Chris and I sat in chairs while the very Greek owner of the restaurant poured Ouzo into our mouths. It was a fun, and exhausting night. Too much fun. (Check out the pictures below!)

Nan (and Chris)

Me and the owner of Greek Cusina

Chris drinking Ouzo Greek Cusina style

Owner of restaurant teaching Chris, Kevin, and I a traditional dance

Chris Z. doing a little solo dancing

What does one take to Fiji for a two-year stint?

With only 4 days left in Sandy OR, the time to start packing has arrived. After a few requests, we are including a photo of what we’re taking in our 160 pounds (80 lbs each). We, by no means, claim to know what would be best to bring. This is only what we are bringing. We used input from the Peace Corps official packing list, the revised list from PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) already in Fiji and input from PCVs and RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) via our Facebook group, "Peace Corps Fiji". Note: we are, of course, not taking the bed, the bedding, the art on the walls, the bedside tables, or the lamps.


This is a list of the items in the picture. It roughly goes from left to right and top to bottom. I stress roughly!

• Snorkeling gear sets (2)
• Camping pillows (2)
• Bag/purse (made by Mom and Karen from the scraps of my homemade, ankle-length skirts)
• Inflatable globe (to show people where we’re from or give as a gift)
• Stuffed animal monkey to keep us company
  
• Power adapter
• Sunglasses and cases
• Asis Eee PC Laptop computer
• Non-stick pots and pans
• A really good can opener
• Silicone spatula
• Camping bowls and cups
• Light My Fire all purpose utensils (It's a knife, fork, and spoon all in one!)
• Cheese powder from Kraft Mac and Cheese (for a homesick day when we just want some junk food from the USA)
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Mini globe ball
• iPods
• Alarm clocks
• Bag of batteries (AA and AAA)
• Digital camera
• Small cord (for clothes lines and other times that we’re sure we’ll be glad to have it)
• Carabineers
• Really good scissors
• Shortwave radio (Primarily in case of emergency, but also in case we don’t have electricity in whatever type of home we have. We have to have music!)
• Headlamps
• Pocket knives (assorted; Jonathan and Megan, we like yours the best!)
• Duct tape
• Books: Journal from Josh and Meg, sketchbook, Lonely Planet‘s South Pacific and Micronesia, God: A Brief History, Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, Obama’s The Audacity of Hope, Lonely Planet‘s Fiji, Map of the South Pacific Islands, Wellspring journal, "The Calorie King", Fijian Phrasebook, Webster’s Pocket Dictionary, The ADA Complete Food and Nutrition Guide, How to Cook Everything cookbook, two small photo albums of winter scenes and most of the people we love
• Fancier digital camera
• Headphones
• Gameboy
• Hair clippers (I’ve learned to cut Chris’s hair for him, but I think I’ll just let mine grow)
• Electric shaver
• iHome speakers (in little black bag)
• Games: Uno, 2 decks of playing cards, Dominoes, Quiddler (Tim and Debbie, we love this game! Thanks!), Zigity, set of dice, SkipBo, Phase 10, and Bananagrams
• Screwdriver
• Pliers
• MSR micro fiber towels (4)
• Ziploc bags (200; assorted sizes)
• Beaded bracelets that change color in the sun and Obama buttons (gifts)
• Tent
• Kitchen knives and knife sharpener
• Stationary
• Calculator
• Water bottles (a few of which are not PBA free, but we‘re hoping the BPA scares away the worms!)
• D-link portable wireless router (for use when we have Internet access, however often that may be)
  
• ShedRain umbrellas (2)
• More calculators (gifts)
• Bag of pens, pencils, and Sharpies
• Frisbee
• Raincoats
• Nan’s clothing
• Cubs hat
• Beanie for cold nights
• Nan’s shoes: Chaco sandals (2), flip-flops, trail runners
• Chris’s shoes: flip-flops, chaco sandals, trail Runners
• Chris’s clothing
• Cardinals hat

Not pictured: toiletries, inflatable sleeping pads, the few items of clothing that we are presently wearing or are in the wash, and our silk sleep sack. We opted to leave the 20 degree down sleeping bags in the states, and instead will use a thin silk sack for camping and overnights at any questionable hostels.

Now if we can just get all of this stuff into our four bags and distribute the weight evenly enough so that no bag weighs more than 50 lbs. Oh, and we'll also need to pack the bags so that 2 of them have everything we'll need for our first 10 weeks in country. We'll have access to the other two once training concludes. This may take some serious strategizing!

Nan (and Chris)

Victoria Trip

Neither of us, I'm somewhat embarrassed to say, had ever been to any part of Canada. We decided since we were so close we should fit in a trip before heading to Fiji. After a short drive north in our styling PT Cruiser rental car, we took the ferry from Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, British Columbia, and had a fantastic three day visit. We stayed at this really cute hostel- The Ocean Island Backpacker Inn- and even had a private room and bathroom! We were close enough to downtown that we could walk everywhere. We walked almost 12 miles on Friday and another 6 or so on Saturday seeing as much of Victoria as we could.

At the Bug Zoo we held a 400 leg millipede and watched a school group of 5-year-olds put it on their faces. We also saw the biggest ant farm either of us have ever seen. It may not show up in the picture, but the bottom left cube of the ant farm is filled with dead ants- the "graveyard". We also checked out the Miniature World, which is a museum with dioramas of everything from World War II to fairy tales to dollhouses to the heartland of the USA. One of the highlights of our trip was taking a walk out on the breakwater. We saw an otter, watched float planes take off and land, and watched scuba divers doing their thing. We took a lengthy stroll through some random neighborhoods and ended up at Beacon Hill Park, which was in full blossom! We got to Victoria just in time to see the end of the tulips. My favorite! We continued our walk on Dallas St. along the coast. It looked like it might storm any second, but never did, which was great because we were ill-prepared for a downpour.

Though I'm not entirely sure Victoria is known for their food, we had some of the best sushi on Vancouver Island, the tastiest (and greasiest) fish and chips at Fisherman's Wharf, and real Dutch Pannekoeken at De Dutch!

When we got back to Sandy, OR, my brother, Kevin, was here. We've been hanging out with him for a couple days. Yesterday we hiked Multnomah and Wahkeena Falls. Beautiful!

More Peace Corps info to be posted soon!

Nan (and Chris)

Room at Ocean Island Backpackers Inn

Dinner at Azuma Sushi

Chris Walking Through Beacon Hill Park

Houses at Fisherman's Wharf

Victoria's Coast

Shaman, the Street Performer, on the Skateboard of Death!


Nan Sitting In a Big Tree At Beacon Hill Park

Millipede with 400 Legs! Ewww...

Giant Ant Farm at the Bug Zoo

Kevin and Chris at Wahkeena Falls

Two more weeks stateside...

Hello everyone!

Today marks a mere 13 days until we finally leave for our adventure. It has been a long wait and as the actual date draws close we find ourselves double checking all of our preparations. Move out of apartment: Check. Sell car: Check. Quit jobs: Check. Fly back to Tulsa/Kansas for one last final goodbye: Check. Frantically run around purchasing last minute items: Check... but we'll probably do that again on the evening of the 17th. The most common question asked of us right now is are we getting excited yet... and finally the answer is YES. We've both packed our bags to make sure everything will fit. We've read and re-read our orientation information and can't wait for the next two weeks to pass.

So, here's the update on what we've been up to for the past month since we last blogged. The Currys came to visit. Well, almost all of them. Bob, Sheri, Michelle, PJ, Haley, and Parker came to visit a few weeks ago. Their visit was full of visits to the zoo, fish hatchery, and the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival. The adults also made a trip to Marakesh, a Morrocan restuarant in downtown Portlant. There we sat on cushions on the floor and ate many different Moroccan dishes. Loads of fun!

Nancy and I also made it down to McMinnville for a day to visit some friends from North Carolina that have moved out here. Megan and Jordan worked with us at Wellspring Adventure Camp two years ago. We were their daughter's, Molly's, very first baby sitters. She's so big now and since they've moved out here they've added one more to their family. Welcome Katie! Congratulations Jordan and Megan!

We also had another visitor recently. Jess Thomas, one of the officiates at our wedding (and my college roomate) came out to spend a weekend with us. We spent the weekend snowboarding and skiing, playing board games, and enjoying Sandy, Oregon's happening night life. Oh, and by 'happening night life' I mean the two bars here in Sandy, which are mostly full of older cowboys... We had fun and it was great having him here.

This last weekend we flew back to Tulsa. We drove up to Wichita, KS with Nan's mom to spend some time with the KS sect of our family. We spent the day visiting with Nan's family (Grandma Betty, Kara and Kirby, Linda, and Al and Marilyn). It was really nice sitting and visiting with them for a day. We then headed back to Tulsa where we spent an evening with my family. Nonny and Poppy, Lauri and Ian and my parents all got together for a big family dinner. Later that night, Jeff and Erin (Jeff was in our wedding... Erin, his wife, was in the audience) came over to hang out and catch up. The whole trip was a whirlwind of visits and errands, and goodbyes, as trips home always are.

So now, we're living at the Zorn household, with Karen, Chris, and Baby Olivia. We are driving a rental car (PT Cruiser!) and gearing up for a trip to Victoria, Canada. We'll spend a few days there for one last vacation before we spend two years in service with the Peace Corps. When we get back, Nan's brother, Kevin, will be here for about a week. And after that, we leave. Our time right now is by no means empty, but hopefully we'll find some time to relax before we head out. For now, though, our May 18th leave date is careening toward us.

Thanks for looking in on us! This month marks the 1 year and 2 month aniversary of the creation of this blog and this month we will finally leave. If anyone mentions to you that they are thinking of joining the Peace Corps, give them some good advice. Tell them to go ahead and apply and decide later if they actually want to do it. As of today, it has been 643 days since we turned in our Peace Corps applications. What an adventure!

Chris (and Nan)

Peace Corps News

We've been very busy the last couple of weeks, which Chris will be telling you all about in a soon-to-be posted blog, and our next few weeks promise to be just as busy. My grandpa passed away yesterday morning, and though we wish we could be in Wichita right now, that just isn't feasible. Instead, Chris and I are headed to Wichita, KS in a couple weeks to see my grandma and family, and celebrate Grandpa. We'll also be able to spend a couple days in Tulsa seeing family there and saying goodbye one more time. Our apologies for all the false alarms!

We received an exciting e-mail from Peace Corps this morning! The e-mail included information about packing (we're allowed 80 lbs each!), staging (aka pre-departure orientation), and the itinerary for our international flight! We had posted months ago that we would be leaving on May 21. We're actually flying from Portland to L.A. on May 18, and we'll leave LA at 9pm on May 19 for Fiji. We're scheduled to arrive in Nadi, Fiji by 10:30am on May 21!

It sounds like some stagings are longer than others, but ours will just be the Fiji folks (we think about 20 of us) and will be brief. Our staging is really just turning in a few forms, sitting through about 4 hours of presentations of the really important info (you know... how to manage risk, departure plans, etc.) and then we all head to the airport for a 13 hour flight to Auckland. From there its a short 3 hours to Nadi. Oh, and while we're rushing through staging process in L.A. we'll all be required to wear business casual clothing.

What else...? Oh yeah, we have an address for our first 10 weeks in-country:

"Nancy Curry and Chris Clendenin", PCV
Peace Corps/Fiji
Private Mail Bag
Suva, Fiji Islands
South Pacific

We'll be reachable at that address until we post a new one on here, and we'd love to hear from you (now or during training)! Speaking of addresses... if you have a new one or want to make sure we have yours, please shoot us an e-mail at clencurry@gmail.com. I've been compiling my list and seem to be missing a few. We will do our best to write some snail mail letters during training as it looks like we won't have Internet access until after the 10 weeks.

Love to all!
Nan (and Chris)

Spring Break!

Last Friday my day at work consisted of playing math games, doing Sudoku puzzles, popping popcorn for the kiddos, watching a movie, playing Twister, and eating poppy seed cake. Ahhh.... the last day before Spring Break. It was wonderful! And now I am enjoying 9 days away from it all. I could get used to working in public school.

In other news, Chris and I joined the Correspondence Match Program through Worldwise Schools. They have matched us with a school of our choosing, New Leaf Academy in NC (a good friend of ours, and an old dodge ball and soccer teammate, Jeremy Clayton, works there). Over the next couple of years we'll be writing letters to his students telling them about our Peace Corps adventures. The students will get a chance to write us as well. The organization reimburses us for any postage costs, which is kind of cool. We sent our first letter this week!

A quick shout out to Meg and Josh who are expecting their first child in August! Congrats guys!

Not much news to report otherwise.

We're still counting down the days (57) and enjoying our time snowboarding and hanging out with family.

Nan (and Chris)

The PSN, Snowboarding, and Our FRE-7 Status

Hi all! It's been a while since we've updated the ol' blog so I thought I would give everyone an update.

Not much is going on for us here in Oregon right now, so there isn't much to report. I will upload a few photos at the end just to share with everyone. Nan and I are moving along slowly but surely towards our May 19th leave date. We have a few things lined up to help move time along. We are looking forward to Nan's parents, Michelle, PJ, Haley and Parker all visiting in mid-April and Kevin is coming in mid-May. Also, we've (and by 'we' I mean Nan did all the planning) planned a trip to Vancouver Island in May as well. We figured since we're so close and neither of us have ever been to Canada before, we might as well hop on up there for a few days. Nan's last day of work is planned for May 5th and mine May 2nd. May really can't come soon enough.

We got an e-mail from the Peace Corps a couple of weeks ago with some very good information. The purpose of the e-mail was to get us in touch with the Peer Support Network, or PSN for short. The PSN is a network of people who are currently in or have returned from the Peace Corps who can answer questions for us to help us prepare and/or fight off any feelings of unease as we get ready to go. It has been very very useful as we are gathering the last of the supplies we need before we go. They've given us all kinds of information from clarification on what daily life is like in Fiji to insight on what is necessary and unnecessary on the official Peace Corps packing list (and what was omitted) completely. They were also able to answer a question for us that we couldn't seem to find an answer to in any of the hundreds of pages of Peace Corps documentation we've recieved. As we have been reading blogs and posts and messages from Peace Corps volunteers who have returned, we noticed many of them mentioning their FRE status. Some were FRE-1 and others FRE-3 or 4, but we could not find what this meant. We recently found out that we are FRE-7. FRE stands for Fiji Re-Entry Group. Awhile back (about 7 years ago, actually) the Peace Corps was allowed to re-enter Fiji. For a number of years Fiji was having trouble with some revolts and revolutions. The government was unstable and thus, the safety of Peace Corps volunteers could not be ensured. The US Government decided to abandon Peace Corps operations in Fiji until things were settled and safe. Nan and I are among the 7th group of volunteers to re-enter Fiji. This means that most of the projects going on in Fiji are relativly new and there is much to do. It's exciting and we look forward to the challenge.

So, that is our latest Peace Corps update. We are still counting down the days until we leave (78 and falling!). That number is much less gigantic than other numbers... for example, the number of days since we turned in our initial Peace Corps applications (578!) So, here we are, sitting and waiting to leave. Nan is taking the GRE next month and has signed up for a drawing class at the Sandy Community Center, so everyone should wish her luck with those endevours. I am still snowboarding nearly every weekend with Adam (who is Chris Zorn's brother) and as the temperature warms up I'll start looking for an ultimate frisbee team to play with.

As promised, I'm including a few recent photos of what we've been up to lately.

Thanks for looking in on us!
Chris (and Nan)


Olivia Lynn Zorn is getting so big and it seems like she gets cuter everyday.


These are pictures of me, Adam, Nan and Karen on a recent ski/snowboard trip to Ski Bowl on Mt. Hood.

Anniversary

Yesterday Chris and I hit our one year wedding anniversary! In a way it seems like a much longer time than a year, and in another way it feels like our wedding was just yesterday. On Saturday, we celebrated at Cinetopia, a fantastic movie theater in Vancouver, WA. The theater has recliners and leather ottoman's for viewers to relax in during the movie, and they serve food and beverages directly to the seats. We saw Taken, which had many high points. My heart was racing and beating so strongly that it felt as if it would pop out of my chest. Well done, Liam Neeson! SPOILER ALERT! We felt that the ending of the movie was lacking, so on the way home from the movie we re-wrote the ending a few times. Our best idea was as follows: father gets daughter safely back to the U.S. and then promptly does an about face to go deal (single-handedly) with the trafficking and drugging of young women in the greater Paris area. This way, we estimated that the action could have continued at least another 30 minutes.

Before the movie started we got to enjoy some really great accordion music. I don't remember the guy's name, but I think he said something about "Accordion Crimes". Anyway, he was very good, and it was refreshing to enjoy some tasteful music instead of watching the pre-preview advertisements.

In honor of the traditional paper theme for first anniversary gifts... Chris and I have ferry tickets to go to Victoria, British Columbia, in May! We decided since we are this close to Canada, and neither of us have been, we might as well pop on over before we leave for Fiji. More on that in a few months.

Of the many things to celebrate in our lives at the moment, we celebrated the 100 day mark to our staging date. We leave in 14 weeks (98 days) from today!

Love to all!
Nan (and Chris)

... and the snow finally comes

Well, there never was an "Arctic Blast" in Sandy, but we did end up getting some great snow- and enough to have a white Christmas. Chris, Adam (Chris Z.'s brother), and I spent days building an igloo and a quarter-pipe for snowboarding. One afternoon we went snowboarding, sledding, and snowmobiling at Trisha and Brian's. When we were about to leave, Karen noticed a tree that appeared to be leaning due to the weight of the snow and ice. Trisha assured her that it had been that way since they moved in. The extra weight started to be too much for the tree. There were some popping sounds, and then a crack or two, and we watched the very large tree break and fall onto a power line. Scary stuff!



Pictures- Chris looking into igloo, Chris Z. and Karen on snowmobile

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We celebrated Christmas and brought in the new year with Chris Z., Karen, Olivia, and Chris Z.'s family. It was fun being with family, even if it wasn't our own. We spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Dec. 26th playing board games, eating fantatsic food, and watching movies and the snow. Last year we brought in the new year in Malaga, Spain with my parents, siblings, and siblings-in-law. The tradition in Spain is to eat 12 grapes at midnight on new years- one at each bong of the clock. We continued this tradition this year followed by a lunch of black-eyed peas and cornbread on New Years Day. We're set for a great year!

The best part of the new year for us is that now we are in the year that we will actually depart for Fiji! No more saying, "we're leaving in May of 2009." Yes! Only 5 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days.

Speaking of Fiji... we've learned a few Fijian words:

Hello - Bula (pronounced 'mboo-lah)
How do you say ... in Fijian? - Cava na vakaviti ni ...?

-Nan (and Chris)