She's an Island Gurl... again :)

Last time we chatted, I was ready to change my life forever. I told you that I was moving near Australia. Well, I did. I have been living here now for about 3 months. It has truly been some of the best months of my life. Where am I living for the next two years? Fiji :)

I am a volunteer with the Peace Corps. I applied to be a part of CEEP which stands for Community Economic Empowerment Program. The purpose of this program is to help communities abroad in three areas: Project Design and Management, Income Generating Activities, and Personal Money Management. We live in a village community for 2 years. As a volunteer, we will serve as a point of contact and collaborators. We will help the community with whatever future project they would like to work on.

Before we went to our villages we needed to complete a 10-week training program in another village. Here we are exposed to the Fijian language and culture. We are placed in different workshops to learn the proper ways to teach the CEEP courses. In these training villages, we are trained to be volunteers. When we entered Fiji, we were PCT (Peace Corps Trainees.) We weren’t considered volunteers until we completed the 10-week training.

Let’s rewind a little. I went to California for a staging event. Here I met the other PCTs and some of the Peace Corps staff. The staging event lasted about 1 and a half days. We arrived on Sunday and flew to Fiji on Monday night. Side note: I tried In N Out and the hype is real. The best fast food burger ever. After staging we traveled to Fiji. This part of the trip was both exciting but also tiring. The second flight was about 12 hours. Everyone was over it lol.

Once we arrived in Fiji, we went to Suva. This is one of the cities of Fiji located in Viti Levu. Here we took a small training that took a few days. Then from here we got divided into PST (Pre-Serving Training) Villages. I landed in Nukuloa with Matthew, Emily, Taylor, Liam, and Christian. These folks have become part of my family and we are considered the Nuk gang :)

The first few days at the village were extremely challenging. It was hard to find what to do. Not having a schedule or a plan for what we were supposed to do was hard. Coming from such a fast-paced life to the calmness that is Fiji was a cultural shock. There are so many differences between both cultures that I will do another blog just for that.

One of the many challenges that we experienced was having to tell our host parents where we were going at all times. In Fiji, the youth consists of people up to almost 35 years old. So to Fijians, we are still considered youth. Because of this, we needed to report our whereabouts at all times, and we couldn’t go anywhere without an adult or a local (which usually turned out to be a 12-year-old.) Adjusting to this was very difficult because, for the past few years, we had been living on our own for a while. We didn’t have anyone checking in to see where we were at all times. We also didn’t have to ask for permission to go anywhere. Aside from this, everything else was kind of smooth sailing.

We had class Monday-Friday. These consisted of language courses that lasted about 4 hours, culture classes, and more. On Wednesday we had HUB days where all the trainees met in one of the PST villages.

Sundays in Fiji are very holy, which means people don’t usually do anything. Besides going to church and having lunch as a whole, everyone in the village meets in one of the houses, and nothing much occurs. Every so often we would drink kava (grog) the traditional drink of Fiji, which is kind of a sedative that comes from the yaqona which is a root that they pulverize and mix with water. It’s very calming. I don’t like the taste so I barely drank it.

In my PST, I was placed in the chief’s house. My host’s parents were Ratu and Kelera. They were truly wonderful. Nana cooked amazingly and Ratu always made sure to get me what I wanted. He would occasionally go to town to get me the oranges that I loved or went to the farm to get me vundi (plantains). They always made sure that I was happy and content.

One of the challenges that I experienced personally living with my host parents was getting used to sleeping with the radio and the light on. We shared the overhead lights because our rooms were adjacent to one another. Going to sleep wasn’t an issue, what was difficult was falling back asleep when I woke up in the middle of the night. For the first few weeks, I woke up in the middle of the night quite often. Whether it was because the chickens were going crazy or because my back was hurting because of the mattress, I always ended up waking up. When I started to ask around why they slept like this, someone once told me that they did this to scare the rats. After this, I kind of dealt with it.

My PST village, Nukuloa is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is located interior of Naitasiri, which is a province in Viti Levu. There are numerous mountains, hundreds of coconuts, and a beautiful river. The people are beyond wonderful. Everyone was always happy and smiling. The only downside of Nukuloa was that there was no service. However, we thought this was a downside at the beginning. By the end, we figured out that it was a blessing.

Every night after dinner, we met at Emily’s house to play cards. Here we played Cabo and Kings in the corner. Cards became our lifelines. We used playing cards as excuses for seeing each other at night. Usually, we weren’t allowed to be out very late in the night. However, since we were playing cards, it was occasionally fine. During those nights, we got to know each other on a more intimate level. Because of this, we became the village with the tightest group.

One of the most challenging days for me was site placement days. Coming into the program I knew that we were all going to be separated and placed in different villages. However, I was not expecting to grow so close to the team. I wanted to be placed near them. When site placements were shared, I realized I was placed far from everyone. Luckily, Mattie and Christian were placed next to each other. I eventually ended up crying because I was very sad. I wanted to trust in the staff that they placed us in our specific villages for a reason but still. I wanted to be near my friends. The pain took a little while to go away.

As the weeks to closing PST approached, everyone was feeling sad. The community was already feeling our absences. The tears were already flowing. Everything felt so surreal. The last few weeks had flown by in the blink of an eye.

As I reflect on my time in Nukuloa, I am very blessed. I was blessed to be put in such a beautiful community with wonderful individuals. I was placed in the best PST group ever! I learned so much about the culture, the language, and even myself. I had a lot of grown-up experiences that truly made me feel as if I had aged a few years. All I can say is thank you Jesus.

The last week of PST was very hectic. On Monday we moved out of our villages and went back to Suva for our Swearing-In ceremony. This is the ceremony where we went from Trainees to Volunteers. Our PST was dry, meaning we couldn’t drink alcohol during our training. After the swearing-in ceremony, we all went out that night. We went to a bar and then the club. Other PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) from previous years joined. We had a blast. Everyone was vibing and having a good time. The clubs closed at 1 am. We got back to the hotel at around 1:30 am. We needed to be in the lobby at 2:30 am to leave for our site placements.

Originally we were 20 trainees. Only 19 became volunteers. 17 of us were placed in Vanua Levu and 2 were placed in Viti Levu. That morning, saying bye to two of our volunteers cemented the fact that we were all going our separate ways.

We took 2 separate vans to get to the bus station. We got there at around 3 am. Turns out we were taking a public bus to the pier and not a charter bus. The bus was scheduled to arrive at 4 am. Now, picture this, about 19 volunteers, 16 ish of them hungover, with 1-2 suitcases and a bunch of backpacks at a bus stop at 3 am. It was hilarious and scary. Everyone was joking that we were going to get jumped.

 The bus arrived. Ironically enough, we were the last group to board (I don’t know how the heck this happened because we were the first ones to arrive at the bus stop.) The bus ride took about 2 hours. We got to the pier at around 6 am. Then we got on the ferry and rode the boat for about 3 hours. On the ferry, most of us fell asleep on the floor. Funny story: Liam woke up with the craziest sunburn on his face and neck lol. After arriving in Vanu, we took another bus to Labasa and that took about 1 hour and a half.

We stayed at a hotel for the counterpart's conference. Here we each meet with the person who will be running our villages. My first impression of my TNK (Turaga ni koro) was that he was super sweet and kind.

After the conference, each day we went shopping for things we needed for our homes. One of the requirements that the Peace Corps has for the villages who wants to partner with them is that they need to provide the volunteers with a home. These homes need to have a bed frame, a table, and a chair. The rest, we need to purchase. Some villages go above and beyond by giving the volunteers other things like plates, mattresses, utensils, and more. After shopping, we usually went out for dinner and drinks.

The dreadful and exciting day of departure came. That was Saturday, December 7. Everyone got up super early to take all their purchases to the main floor. The carrier that had our extra bags and mattresses had arrived so we had to unload them and place them in corresponding piles. The volunteers were separated into 3 provinces; Bua, Cakaudrove, and Macuata. The groups that were going to Bua were separated into different carriers, while the Macuata group left together. My group, Cakaudrove, took a bus to SavuSavu which is another city in Vanu. From there we each took separate carriers to our villages.

Saying bye to my friends was very emotional. However, I told myself that I was not going to cry, which I didn’t. I am very proud of myself for that because if I did, it was going to get ugly lol. One thing that kept me sane was reminding myself that I was going to see them again.

Fast forward to today, it is December 31. I have been living in my new home for about 3 weeks. I love my community. Everyone is so nice and welcoming.

Thank you for reading this blog. If you have any questions or suggestions please don't be afraid to hit the chat or email me.

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Stay tuned for my next vlog -> PST and IP Recap

XOXO Yerika