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!

Cola Vina (Vatulele dialect for Bula Vinaka)

These last few months have flown by, but it has been a truly wonderful eye-opening experience in our new home. OUR LITTLE ABODE!

Everyday we learn more about our hard working village, Lomanikaya. The women continue to beat the tapa cloth from the masi tree from dawn till dusk. The noise has dwindled down to a dull hum now instead of a hammering carpenter's convention like when we first arrived. The men of the village continue to play outside all day ~ fishing, gardening, and of course drinking the kava- bilo after bilo (coconut cup). They continue to give us food everyday, so much food! You would think we had six children the way they haul over bananas by the hundreds on the massive stalks. We also have our garden sprouting so rapidly we have about 50 Chinese cabbage ready to pick and eat. We love being apart of a community that shares everything. DREW IN THE GARDEN/BACKYARD

Our biggest obstacle at the moment is the language barrier. The island dialect is completely different from the dialect the Peace Corps spent 2 months teaching us, so we are in a constant state of confusion. We usually just nod or give the Fijian equivalent, a double eye-brow raise, followed with an "Io, Vinaka." Which translates as "Yes, Thank you" or "Sure, Good". We never quite know what we're agreeing to, but so far we seem to be staying out of trouble. The island nurse has been tutoring us 2-3 times a week which has been helping- gradually.

HEALTH CENTER WOMEN/Liss's Co-Workers

Lately we've been helping with the village projects-- mostly fundraising events for our new church.

ROAD TO EKUBU AND HEALTH CENTER We walk every single day

A few weeks ago Drew helped with a fish drive where all the men of 2 villages (almost 100 men) made a giant Fijian-style net out of palm leaves ( around 1000 meters long). They dropped boat fulls of men out at the reef and they swam in with the net scaring the fish towards shore. They gradually enclosed the fish wrapping the net in half circle next to the beach while the men held it secure ensuring no escapes.

THE FISH DRIVE

One by one the fish were speared and thrown onto the sand while the women gathered their share. They drove about 300 fish up ranging from 2-3 pounders to 30-40 pounders. They sold all the fish to one man who sells them on the mainland making $1500FJ. We took home 10 fish including a 15 pounder which we happily made tempura filets. We also helped with their eco-tourism project when 13 toursist came for a day trip to the island. It is purely arranged by the village and begins when enough people sign up with a villager working on mainland. They do no advertising, so people only hear about the opportunity by word of mouth. We were impressed to see the whole day in action and the mass effort behind it all. LIKU BEACH

They arrive by our village boat about mid-morning to a small band playing traditional island music at the entrance of the palm tree lined project area decorated with tons of flowers. They are served fresh coconuts to drink and they relax in the bures ( traditional houses made of bamboo and palm). They have a sevusevu with the chief (formal kava session) and spend the most of the afternoon at the remote beach Liku. They return to a feast of roasted chicken, fish, fresh picked veggies and fruit, and traditional dancing and entertainment. We tried our best to hide when they arrived, hoping to blend and not look like vavalagi (foreigners), but as we were ducking in the trees the chief yelled "Peace Corp" and we had to graciously wave and help entertain. When it was all over we felt more blessed than ever just thinking that we live amongst this beautiful culture and paradise island. Plus anyone who visits will get so much more than the average vavalagi vacation!

LIKU BEACH SUNSET

Dad Styles, Dad Loganbill, and Brother Brandon Happy August Birthdays! Prayers to the Garcia Family ~ We love you all.

Disclaimer

"The contents of this website are ours personally and do not refelct any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps."

Lomanikaya Life

We are officially Peace Corp Volunteers and we even made it on the six o'clock news. We are now living in our small house on the island of Vatulele in the smallest village called Lomanikaya. There are only 90 people in the village and about 1000 on the whole island. It is absolutlely beautiful and the people are so kind. They bring us food almost everyday ranging from banana scone to fresh octopus. Our house is surrounded by breadfruit and mango trees and we started a little garden with around 160 cabbage and 50 tomato seedlings from the mayor's garden. It's been two weeks and we already facing the issues concerning the villages. There is no running water and we have to fetch all of our water from the well. We get our drinking water from rain water collection. Melissa has been working in the health center with the only nurse on the island in the neighboring village. Drew has been scoping the out the island checking out the eco-tourism project and looking at the water situation. We are very happy here and living healthy with the large amounts of food we get from the villagers.

Our going away dinner in Raralevu

Our going away dinner in Raralevu
Originally uploaded by Susan & Tom.

Liss, Katie, and Tina

Liss, Katie, and Tina
Originally uploaded by Susan & Tom.

Wearing Indian outfits at our house in Raralevu (Indo-Fijian community)

Family in Vunivaivai

Family in Vunivaivai
Originally uploaded by Susan & Tom.

Drew, Cama, Nasoni, and Runuku ready to go to church in their sulu's

House in Vunivaivai

House in Vunivaivai
Originally uploaded by Susan & Tom.

Kids in Bega

Kids in Bega
Originally uploaded by Susan & Tom.

Starfish at Beautiful Bega Beach

Starfish at Beautiful Bega Beach
Originally uploaded by Susan & Tom.

Bega

Bega
Originally uploaded by Susan & Tom.

Grace (the volunteer living in Bega), Devon, Liss and Drew outside of Grace's house

Drew's Mustache and Award

Drew's Mustache and Award
Originally uploaded by Susan & Tom.

Our brothers and sisters

Our brothers and sisters
Originally uploaded by Susan & Tom.

In the living room in Vunivaivai

The Family-Vunivaivai

The Family-Vunivaivai
Originally uploaded by Susan & Tom.

Paulini next to Liss, Runuku in blue, Bu Lo and others

We're going to Vatulele!

After weeks of antagonizing anxiousness, we finally found out where we will be spending the next two years! The Peace Corps staff set up a large map of Fiji on a big field with rope, and put little trees on each site where each of the trainees will be going. Slowly, one by one, they called our name and walked us to our little tree and gave us a sheet of paper that describes our job description, and village. We were ecstatic when we found out we will be living on a small island called Vatulele, famous for its bright red prawns and beautiful tapa cloth. We will be the only volunteers living on this island in a small house recently built just for us. There are only 4 villages on the island, one resort, and roughly about 1000 people. The island is a one hour boat ride from Sigatoka town on the southwest side of Viti Levu the biggest island. Also, we found out that it is only $25 for family and friends to fly to this little island from Nadi (the international airport). Drew will be working on an ecotourism project, monitoring the coral reef, and doing environmental education in the village. Melissa will be working in the only health center on the island with nurses promoting health, and also counseling single moms, teens, and people with long term diseases. We will be arriving on site around the 14th of August after our official volunteer swear in date on August 12th. Congratulations Scott and Dana! Happy 25th Anniversary Mom and Dad Styles!

Back from Beqa

Think long sandy beaches, palm trees lining the sea, and a small village on the water front with beautiful green flora rising up the mountains. This is Bega, the island of the firewalkers. This last week we spent 3 days with a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) living in a beautiful two bedroom home on the western oceanfront of this small island. Beqa only has 9 villages, 4 resorts, and no cars in sight. The people live off of the land and the sea, and they truely seem to embrace the beauty that surrounds them. During our stay we got to visit the school that the PCV is a librarian at, we snorkeled the beautiful coral reef that surrounds her village, and we even got to hike up into the mountains to the villager's gardens. Drew also learned how to harvest cassava plant with the village pastor. This was truely the Fijian Peace Corp experience we imagined. The visit was such a nice break from our host family and language classes everyday. It is becoming more of a challenge everyday to not have privacy, cook what we would like to eat, and to babysit several children all the time. We are truely looking forward to living on our own. Only 4 more weeks!

Life in Vunivaivai

Well, we are officially villagers in the 'koro' of Vunivaivai. We are staying with our host family who has adopted us already as their own. We have a host grandma we call Bu Lo (bu is grandma in fijian and Lo is her name) and she has 7 grandchildren that live in our house with us and a smaller house next door. They range in ages 5 - 22. Ranuku, the youngest, is our best friend! He follows us everywhere and pretty much everyday Ranuku and Drew play touch rugby with all the boys. All the other children help out with cooking, cleaning up, and helping teach us fijian. Our room is quaint, but we have electricty and cold running water. Brrrr, fijian morning showers are the worst. Fortunately Bu Lo is a fantastic cook, as she was a professional cook in a boarding school for 10 years. We spend most evenings with the family talking or playing cards- we just taught everybody "go fish" and they loved it! During the day we go to language lessons in the village for 4 hours in the morning. After that we have community time which we learn cultural crafts and activities. Late afternoon we usually exercise with the rest of the kids and villagers. Melissa has been teaching yoga to the chief's wife and 6 daughters, when Drew has to teach 8th grade at the local school. Today we learned how to make brooms out of palm leaves by braiding them between your toes :) We are really enjoying the village life so far. There is only about 200 people in our little village and they are all so welcoming. The first day we walked into our house they draped us with flowered lai's with long pieces of fabric tied on like capes. That night we had to eat dinner with the chief of the village, and drew had to spend the evening drinking kava with him. We are so glad to hear about Dad Loganbill's news of being cancer-free! Good luck with everything and we love you all so much!

Message from Drew and Liss--June 17th

Hi guys!

We just wanted to update you really quick on our current experience. We were supposed to move into our host family yesterday, but thursday evening liss got kicked in the head by a fellow trainee during a ultimate frisbee game. She had a concussion and even though she was fine the Peace Corp medical officer advised that all necessary precautions be taken. She had a catscan and everything looked good and they made us spend the night in the private hospital to monitor her over night. They also booked us a hotel in the city for the weekend just to relax before having to have to much excitement in the new adjustment with the family.

Everything is fine now, really it wasn't necessary for the whole ordeal, but always better safe than sorry. We are enjoying our city time with hot showers, tv, and a refrigerator :) (ahh cold drinks). We even got to see game four NBA in our room!

We are off to a movie now, but we were hoping somebody might be able to post a couple fo pics that we tried to send on our blog for us. We don't have enough time to download all of the software.

Pics are of our lovo night, our bure, our view from our bure, and the rest are from Colo i suva the rainforest reserve.

We love you so much and we will write again soon.

Love,

Drew and Liss

Our Bure Originally uploaded by Susan & Tom.