Here's to 2007

Another Christmas season away from home, and we can’t tell you how much we really were dreaming of a white Christmas. This hot season is not messing around this year, and we have the prickly heat rashes to prove it. You know it’s really quite amazing how tin homes replicate the phenomena of a real oven. Thank goodness this season we invested in battery operated hand held fans, which if you turn them both on at the same time and close your eyes it’s almost like air conditioning. :)

The holiday season brings in all the children who school on the main island, Viti Levu, all year long. Most of them only get to see their families during this one month summer vacation, so everyone makes it extra special with lots of big teas and picnics. Drew and I helped out a lot making bread and scones over the fire and making the Fijian Lovo, an underground oven. We also had the chance to do some workshops with the youth on environment and AIDS. It's bizarre sometimes to have all teenagers missing from the island, but then again that 14-20 age can bring out the rebel in some. In the picture to the right, my village lady friends are buttering up breads for a big tea. With 2007 finally here, we can say confidently that we feel culturally adjusted in the village and quite comfortable with our island dialect. We can now slurp up fish head juice and octopus suction cups, we now too can pull up our shirts to compare our boils, and belt out church hymns while using our machete for every purpose possible from cleaning our nails, to chopping wood, to slicing papaya, and scratching our backs. We feel so Fijian at times it's scary. The left picture shows Liss is in her handsewn Fijian dress she made and Tave is showing off one of his tricks. We took a nice break over New Year’s Eve and treated Drew to a surfing excursion to one of Fiji’s best waves, Frigate’s Pass. It’s a beautiful consistent wave in the middle of the ocean that took about an hour by boat to get to. On the boat ride we also fished a bit and caught two yellow fin tuna, and a Spanish mackerel. Needless to say Drew was the happiest guy in Fiji that weekend.

We are working hard right now with about 8 grant proposals pending right now between the two of us for four different villages, the school, and the health center. It’s a very busy time, but we really feel like we have been making great progress with all of our work.

We are happier than ever right now. Surprisingly, it seems to be getting easier as we assimilate more and more.

Drew at the Covula (sacred red prawn pool) with Marica and Tukala

On vacation in Yanuca Island for New Years.

Top Ten Things We're Thankful for in Fiji

1. Tave, the koli ni vavalagi (foreigner's dog). A recent new father to four new puppies, they all have been keeping us entertained everyday. We love having him greet us on the beach after a long boat ride, sleep under our mosquito net with us at night, and having him use our kitchen window as a doggie door. Tave makes Vatulele feel like our home.

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!

My Grandpa

Hi everybody,

I hope you all don’t mind, but I wanted to say a little something about my Grandpa Styles. For those of you who don’t know, he passed away last week on Monday October 23^rd, peacefully in his home. He was 70 years old, and was still very young at heart. His last day was spent in Morro Bay at his recently rented beach house just ½ a block down from my parent’s house. He beat my dad in golf that morning, my brother took him and grandma out to a nice lunch, and he spent the evening helping my dad grade his hydrology and structural concrete class’s homework (two classes my grandpa took himself at Cal Poly almost 50 years ago).

My grandpa was a very special man. He taught me many things, like how to hip-check on a basketball court, and how to be a humble human being conscious of their values. He taught me family is the most important thing we have on earth, and it is very important to put them as a top priority in your life.

The last time I saw him was in the picture below. It was just 3 weeks ago now. He and grandma drove me from Morro Bay to Thousand Oaks so they could see Drew before we returned back to Fiji. We chatted the whole way down mostly about family history- Grandpa loved learning about our ancestry.

We are very blessed we got to spend time with him, and that we got to see most of you on our visit home. Because his departure was so sudden and unexpected it left many of us quite heart broken, but my grandpa could not have chosen a better way to go. He lived his life to the fullest until the last day. He really did have a beautiful life, and it should make us all realize how precious our time really is here together. I hope everyone is doing well, we send all of our love to you and your families.

Love,

Liss

Ena Ka Sewa- It’s the Little Things

Our little island of Vatulele, as we fly over by sea plane. Well there are so many details about our everyday life we feel we have yet to share with all of you, so we thought we'd dedicate this entry to all the small experiences of our life. *The beauty of the traditional art and the work that the whole island puts into producing the tapa cloth is just amazing. The men plant huge plantations of the mulberry trees, and harvest them after 9 months. The women and children peel the bark, and let it soak. Then the women spend countless hours beating it thin, letting sundry, and then printing it with paints made from other native trees. It is a long tedious process, but the most beautiful creations are made everyday. Keasi our neighbor is printing a 14 ft x 14 ft piece at 11pm at night in her home. *The solidarity of our new culture. Everyday having someone come over and ask to borrow our hammer, or some salt, and then asking them later if we can borrow some sugar or their bike- this is called the Kerekere system. Saying hello to every single person you pass down our one dirt road. Usually you ask where you are going and where you're coming from, but it's not a stopped conversation it's usually a yelled out "Mai Vei or Lai Vei" followed by a village name. *Our favorite past time activity is a game of cards. Great Grandma and Grandpa Barnes are smiling down on us, because we have taken over their friendly competition of cribbage. Here we play our favorite game, 'Shipwreck'.

*The fact that after you build a home you get to name it anything you want, usually after another village or city in Fiji. Instead of saying I'm going to Emori's house you say I'm going to Rakiraki. We named our house after our first hometown together, Ventura. *When your ideas and suggestions are put into action and projects actually get started. Here Drew helps our carpenter Jo, begin the framework of the compost latrine. Composting toilets have been a breakthrough in Fiji, stopping pollution into the ocean, and creating a cleaner, more hygienic living space. It has been very trying convincing them that they can reuse all their organic waste, but they are now excited to see what we have been talking about. *We have the most gorgeous bush roosters you have ever seen. They are fast little suckers and I'm still working on getting a picture. They are all different in colors, but my favorites are the brilliant spotted orange ones with teal green tail feathers. They start their crowing every morning at 3am. *Every morning all the children from the south end village, Bouwaqa, ride by on their new bikes. Our pastor recently had an Australian friend round up about 40 used bikes, from small kids bikes to classic cruisers, and ship them by barge to Fiji. Now the children can leave their homes at 7:00am instead of 6:00am (before dark) and even stop and have breakfast in our village. As they ride by in little groups, about every 10 minutes we get shouts of "Yadra Melissa, Yadra Adriu...Moce Melissa, Moce Adriu" (good morning and good bye). We love having our home right on the road to pass out ripe bananas or plastic bags when it starts to rain.

*We love having extra down time to perfect our cooking skills and try out new recipes. Everyday we cook at least one meal together in our little kitchen. Our favorite dishes at the moment our fresh tortilla chips, and aFijian variation of ceviche called Kokoda (marinated fish cooked in lime juice, onion, and coconut milk).

*We love exploring. Our island is small, but you can walk around the entire island through small plantation paths. Last week we hiked to the furthest point south and found two small islands about 10 meters through crystal clear shallow turquoise water.

It's amazing to be surrounded by the hustle and bustle of village life and have no privacy, and then hike about 2 hours and have an entire beach to ourselves that is so pristine we have to bring our machete to hack back overgrown vines and giant spider webs.

*Oh the mosquitoes! Definitely better than they were in the humid season, but still always buzzing. People tend to think the tropics are all warm sun, and beaches, but the mosquitoes can make you insane. Just thought we'd give you an idea of the giants we have to defend ourselves from every single day (notice the needle like mouth- and yes you feel them prick you!)

*Drew especially, appreciates the hard work it takes to garden everyday. Here is Kumala (sweet potato) planted in giant mounds, the sand on top is to deter island rodents.

*The Preschool Brigade as we affectionately call them: Mala 2yrs, Pita 3 yrs, Tagitagivula 3 yrs, and Bubu 4yrs. These are the ring leaders of a group of about 8 munchkins. We get them over practically everyday, just charging through our door curtain and starting up with a thousand questions "Where's your mom, where's your dad, where's Soxsan (Aunt Roxanne), where's Tave, What are you doing and between each question they ask Can we have a biscuit?) This particular day they were munching on raw sugar cane and we kicked them outside because they were spitting their fibers on our floor inside.

Break out the beanies

It's Wintertime in Fiji!

Believe it or not we have been so cold and we actually sleep with 2 blankets.

When we first arrived in Vatulele in August last year, we laughed at everyone in scarves and jackets, but now we are right there with them. We have definitely adjusted to the climate and we actually think 65 degrees is cold. We are going to die when we go back home. And just to think about the water in Cali makes us shiver. Aunt Roxanne paid us a visit in mid-May. She actually thought it was humid and as she was fanning herself, we were unpacking our long sleeves. We had a fabulous time entertaining her for 10 days.

Aunt Roxanne and Liss after a wet boat ride from Sigatoka

She got exclusive tours to Liku, our pristine beach on the other side and the limestone caves where we went for a nice swim in glowing candle light. She also helped us with our Saturday class, reading, blowing bubbles, and trying our first jump rope out. Everyone still thinks she was Drew's sister no matter how many times we try to explain. She was our savior stocking us up with some much needed goods and she was our lucky charm to get our electricity running again.

Aunt Roxanne reading to the village kids

We have been teaching like crazy these last few months. Luckily, Aunt Roxanne and Aunt Lynne's friend Marty from Australia gave us art supplies so the children have been having a blast painting and coloring. Titi and Mala are our biggest takers trying to come over everyday for more rokaroka (coloring). Drew played his first rugby game last week and fit right in except for his pale white skin. Even though he doesn't understand the rules all that much, they really encourage him to play. We think it may be a source of comedy for the fijians to watch the tall, clueless, white guy get creamed. We are finally going to be building some tangible projects next week, so the villagers are very excited. A wonderful family from Australia donated money and we will be putting it towards the village and a workshop. We love and miss you all. Until next time, stay healthy.

The kids after Saturday school with their ocean artwork.

Drew with our gang after a beach clean-up

Back in Suva…again!

The Lost Fiji Boys It sure seems like we have been on the main island Viti Levu a lot lately, but we promise we really are getting work done in the village on Vatulele. Since we last wrote so much has seemed to happen, which is really quite unlike the typical Fiji Island way of life. Back in Lomanikaya village, the most exciting event in our personal lives was that we managed to catch 6 wild chickens. Yippee fresh eggs and chicken! You may think that sounds like an easy task, but an angry Hen with her 5 chicks is quite a challenging feat. Armed with a cane knife and beach towels we cornered them by our garden and jumped on the chicks. After putting them in our homemade coop, the mom hen just walked in- that was the easy part. Twice after trying to feed them though, they escaped, and we had all of our neighbors running in the bush clucking and cooing trying to help us get back our new livestock. They have never contained them before, but they do trap them to eat. It sounded great to us, but they don’t quite understand and yet again, we manage to look like the “crazy foreigners.” We taught our first swimming class to all the children, which proved to be much harder than we expected. Almost everyday you can find all the kids playing in the ocean, so most of them know how to dog paddle, but that’s it. Before we jumped into the water the kids serenaded us with a Meke song and dance.

Hello everyone!

We are back in Suva getting some work done and enjoying the city luxuries. Island life has been wonderful as usual, but lately we have been feeling the pressures of cultural differences. Gender roles have always been somewhat of a challenge to fall into, and we always seem to be trying our best to set a new example of equality in a relationship. This year seems to have brought an increase in domestic violence, primarily spousal abuse, and as sensitive as that issue may be we are trying to figure out ways to educate and make some change. We knew aspects of living in a new culture would prove difficult, and we just thank God that we have each other.

We are finally feeling like we are falling into a bit of a routine

and it's starting to make the days really fly by us. We taught a nutrition series together in the 8th grade and had so much fun laughing at each other because of all the kid's blank stares. We have also started our Saturday class for all 25 of the village kids.

So far we did a physicl health class where we taught them the hokey pokey, a little yoga, and played 20 games of freeze tag. We also did an adopt a tree class and the kids just loved it!

We went from tree to tree where Drew taught them about the differences and they did some climbing, and collected the seeds. Then everyone collected a plastic bottle from the beach and they each picked which tree they wanted to plant. It can be quite challenging with the kids all ages from 2 to 12, last time we had the waterfall effect where 4 of the youngest ones started a cascade of crying.

It is such a blast though, and the parents love the break.

Liss had a fabulous 25th birthday complete with a Betty Crocker double layered yellow cake with Chocolate frosting (compliments of Drew's fire baking skills). We actually found a cake mix in Suva at a big supermarket and real frosting. She took a run with Tave in the morning to watch the sunrise, and then we all hiked to Liku Beach to watch the sunset. Drew made a big sign, and built a table out of bamboo for her present.

The weather is starting to cool down a bit and the mosquitos are beginning to dwindle. The garden is healthy with beans, eggplant and the corn has just sprouted.

Malakai (Mala) has been over everyday pestering Tave, and eating all of our peanuts (he loves them!).

His Mom is always beating the tapa cloth so he's allowed to roam freely- which usually means he finds his way to our house. He's still not talking, but we have a feeling he's going to be a chatter box when he learns. On this particular day he showed up naked, and I walked in from the garden to find him riding Tave like a horse. Drew has been successful in monitoring the reef in front of our village (the main fishing area) and is already seeing an increase in more fish and octopus in the taboo fishing area. Melissa has been busy since we got a new nurse on the island and they have been planning a workshop, and a grand opening ceremony for our new village dispensary.

We completed a few project proposals this week so we are hoping they are accepted and so we can get some funding and start on some bigger projects in the village.

We hope everyone is healthy and doing well! We miss you all!

"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory!"

Little Pita here knows all too well what Gandhi means by victory!

Another Day in Paradise

Hi everyone! Can you believe it's been 8 months since we left? Only 19 more months to go and we know they are going to fly by! Life on Vatulele is heating up everyday. Now that it's the rainy season, it really has been coming down and everything is growing at exponential rate including the humidity. You know it's harder than you think to cut the lawn by hand. The mosquito's have hit frenzy status but somehow we are managing to cope with them. We recently received a small plot of land for a garden with the help of the village men and planted nearly 100 cassava plants (root crop that is eaten almost everyday). There is lots of room for vegetables still so we will see what the next season will bring. Since we came back after Christmas we have been very busy working on projects on the island. Drew is working to get running water into the village and is on the paper work phase of the project. Melissa has been working at the health center and recently conducted a dental survey of all 175 school children. We realize education is the key and we are pulling together our resources to get on it. We're still teaching at the primary school and we've decided to start a Saturday class for kids to teach them first aid and other life skills. Melissa's getting her yoga/nutrition class started while Drew is refining his fishing skills. We decided to go to Suva, the capital, for one week to get back in touch with the real world. Of course we have been enjoying all the popsicles, and cold water we can possibly drink, but it's really been meeting after meeting with Peace Corps Staff, NGO's, and other government ministries. It has been nice to have some good dinners, see a couple of movies, and not worrying about combating the bugs. We still love our little abode and our garden is booming right now with basil, eggplant, tomato, melon, and papaya. Our puppy 'Tave' is still keeping us entertained. He follows us everywhere, which can be annoying when he runs after you all the way to the next village. We taught him how to shake with saying "Bula" and he is pretty good at sitting and laying down by command. We still receive tons of seafood and recently someone gave us a lobster. It was such a treat! We are staying healthy with fresh island lifestyle and we are as happy as ever. We love you and miss you all!

Marau ni Siga ni Sucu! Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a beautiful holiday season--it's hard to believe this year is over. 2005 brought so many surprises an life changing events, but everyone sems a little bit wiser and more compassionate. Our hats are off to Tom "Dad" Loganbill! He is the man of the year in our books as a cancer survivor and eternal optimist! Well, it's the first week of the new year here and it seems the children have taken over the village. There is constant beating of the lali (the village drum), kerosene compression bombs, water fights, and so much shouting and singing you'd think a carnival was in town! The Styles Family came before Christmas and we had a lovely time on the island. WELCOME AT THE AIRPORT The villagers just loved seeing family and of course the food just kept coming. WITH THE VILLAGERS We then went on an express tour in Australia with the Fam covering most of the east coast. THE FAMILY IN AUSTRALIA We spent our Christmas with Aunt Lynne and Steve in their beautiful home they built just north of Brisbane. We spent time exploring the coast and chatting with their friends who were the first Aussie's to sail around the world! It was just wonderful to gorge on good food, good wine, unlimited ice, and of course, to spend time with family. DREW AND AUNT LYNNE After all the indulgence coming home was a bit hard, but we are still in love with our village life and especially our big bellied dog, Tave. We hope this new year brings new inspiration and happiness! Our love to everyone. "Be the change you want to see in the world" ~ Gandhi HERE ARE A FEW MORE PICTURES! MELISSA BAKING COFFEE CAKE MAKING TAPA CLOTH IN LOMANIKAYA READY FOR CHURCH SWIMMING IN VATULELE WATCHING THE AUSTRALIAN COAST

New Pictures!

Liss doing first aid to a local girl Here's a picture of inside the house From the kitchen into the bathroom Drew's Harvest Drew with the neighbor and Tave "the puppy"

Running into the Wet Season

Yadra Vina (Good Morning), Spring is upon us on Vatulele! Never have you seen so many beautiful flowers and never have you felt so many bugs. We do believe butterflies fluttering on the beach is one of the most beautiful sights of nature on the entire island. With abundant tropical showers and the summer humidity right around the corner, our island is becoming a breeding ground for some interesting creepy crawlers. Palm-sized spiders, bat size moths, terydactyle dragonfly, black hornets, finger-sized cockroaches, beetles galore, and our all time favorite the black and white striped mosquito. Of course the mosquitoes are the worst, making anywhere outside our safety zone bed-net a battle ground. Night time is the worst when making an unexpected bathroom call and exposing your undeeted skin to the enemy. After running for cover, we always count how many times we were hit and tend to our injuries with vats of cortisone. We've discovered you have to thoroughly bathe in repellent several times a day due to their highly intelligent detector system. They have no mercy and they'll aim for below the belt, for between the eyes, and between the toes. The other crawlers aren't so bad, its only when the terydactyle flies into the house and you have to run and hit the deck or when you reach for toilet paper with morning grog to see your hand 1/2 inch from a spider that can literally cover your face. We both have let out more screams that have most likely been heard by the 22 houses of our quaint little village. And we wonder why we don't always get invited over :) Aside from the battle of the bugs, we are very much enjoying finding a productive balance. We both began teaching at the primary school. Drew is teaching about the environment and Liss on life skills and health. Liss is still working in the health center 3-4 times a week and has became the village health advisor as people come to her with aches, pains, rashes, and boils. Drew recently went to a workshop for composting toilets with a fellow villager and he has two compost toilets scheduled for construction. This will be a major milestone for the entire island as these new latrines require no water which will increase overall health and sanitation. Due to the scarcity of water, villagers either flush seldomly or go anywhere around their houses. It feels good to see some progress made and know there is still so much to do. Life as been a little more exciting last week since we adopted a 4 week old puppy, named Tave (means black shell in Fijian). He has given us a many sleepless nights with his whimpering and howling, but we just love having him around. He is definitely an island puppy because he can't get enough of the coconut, papaya, and the freshly fallen mangoes from our tree. Having a dog is making Lomanikaya feel more and more like home. We are just getting back from Diwali Festival of Lights in Raralevu. We spent our time with our host family eating tons of Indian sweets, scrumptious curries, and lighting off heaps of fireworks :) We just love spending time with them because they make us feel so at home and it's the closest feeling to family that we are going to have for a long time. We miss you all so much! Garcia's our prayers are with you everyday! Happy Birthday Mom Styles and Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad Loganbill!