2. Completion of the first dry compost toilet on Vatulele. Drew, his counterpart Emori, and the carpenter, Joe, helped coordinate a grand opening complete with a ribbon cutting ceremony, a traditional kava ceremony, and a village wide BBQ. They invited a representative from the resort to stand in place of the Massy-Greene Family, the kind donators, who share our vision in improved quality of life and environmentally friendly practices on Vatulele.
3. Our Kids Club. Every Saturday we spend 3-4 hours with the 25 village kids teaching, reading, playing, and mentoring. We have found this to be our greatest accomplishment yet because every meeting we see them grow in leadership, creativity, and confidence. We feel like we are really shaping the next generation of Vatulele Island.
4. Our chickens. One mom hen, four chicks, and two adopted new borns we’ve had our hands full, and we are anxiously awaiting fresh eggs. We've been keeping the newbies in our house because the mom hen isn't accepting of other chicks- so we've become quite the barn with puppies, Tave, all the geckos, mice, and I think the giant spiders count if their bigger than the chicks.
5. Our TeiTei (garden). We have one giant plantation next to the red prawn sacred pool and another small one behind our little tin abode. Drew has become quite the farmer sowing tomatoes, squash, string beans, cassava, sweet potatoes, carrots, eggplant, plantains, basil, beautiful flowers and soon to come- watermelon, honeydew, and cantaloupe. We have found it is very satisfying and humbling trying to live off the land.
6. Beautiful scenery. We were crossing our fingers for a country with just a patch of green grass after our first invite to Niger, Africa. Fiji has been a dream come true and we feel so blessed with more lush greenery than we could have ever imagined.
7. Our first annual non-communicable disease awareness week. Liss helped get funding for a week of events and helped teach screening techniques to a new group of health workers she has been training since October. They screened about 400 adults more than 40 % of our population for diabetes, cardiac disease, hypertension, and cancer.
8. Our village community. We feel very blessed to experience this new sense of communal living in a new culture. We love laughing with our neighbors and sharing the fish we've caught for the day. We love eating and celebrating with our mataqali (our extended village family) for big events like a new baby coming home, or a church event. We love working together building new projects or just doing a village clean-up. It helps to give you a sense of love and support from your entire environment and a feel for the beautiful Fijian Culture.
9. Friends and Family. You all may not be physically with us, but all the letters, emails, calls, and love you send provide so much encouragement to support us so far away. We very much appreciate you all in our lives and we thank you for giving us this time to spread our wings and experience new worlds.
10. Each other. It's been two years married on November 20, 2006. We couldn’t be happier we made the decision to join Peace Corps together. Many of you know that we discussed our dreams the first day we met, and we knew we had something special with all the common passions we shared. Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves to believe that we are already living our most amazing dreams and we get so excited to think of all the adventures we have to look forward to in our life together.
We love you all so much! Happy Holidays! Here's to finding new love, adventure, and happiness in 2007!
