Chris and Nan's Peace Corps Experience: 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.