Taking a Break

We are coming to an end of our month long vacation back home in sunny California. The Peace Corps gave us 30 days break when we extended our contract an additional 12 months. We arrived at the end of October to be welcomed to LA engulfed in smoke from the Santa Ana wind fires that took over southern California. We have been enjoying every minute being back home with our friends and family. We can't tell you how nice it is to not have mosquitoes swarming, and dirt between our toes. We have been travelling quite a bit to see everyone this last month. We were able to be a part of Drew's longest friend's beautiful wedding: Congratulations Mike and Nika Starkey! We went up to San Francisco to see our brother Scott and friends in their band, Arcadio (See link to the right, for a sound clip). We also took a few days to go out to Arizona to see Melissa's Aunt Roxanne and check out potential dental schools. Phoenix was a definite highlight of our trip topped off with a Suns vs. Bulls basketball game with Roxanne and our grandma. For our third-year anniversary we stayed at a lodge in the Sequoia National Park to see the giant sequoia trees and take moment to ourselves between all the visiting. Thanksgiving was a whirlwind of family and the of course, scrumptious food. It was Drew's first time doing a double Thanksgiving in one day on Melissa's side and he didn't seem to have a problem devouring turkey dinners back to back. A day later we joined up with the Loganbill family in Cambria for another Thanksgiving at a beautiful house on the ocean. Now we are preparing for our return to Fiji and picking up on the projects we were working on before we left. Liss will continue to teach computer skills at the school, and Drew will begin the construction of his water distribution project. We also look forward to opening our village dispensary, and beginning the construction of a new compost latrine facility at the school which both were greatly supported by our friends the Massy-Greene family. We appreciate everything that all of our family and friends have done to support us over the last two and half years. We thank you so much for the time you have taken to spend with us this last month and we wish all of you a wonderful holiday season! We love you all!

Google Earth Tour

Hi Everyone!

We recently discovered that you can check out Fiji and our island if you visit Google earth. You can download Google Earth for free through http://www.earth.google.com/ or click link on the left.

Below are some images we copied so those of you who are computer challenged can see some satellite pictures of our island.

This is the Fiji Islands (minus a few small outer islands). The large circular island is called Viti Levu and this is the main island we travel back and forth from by boat.

This is Korolevu village on Viti Levu Island. This is the reef passage our boats travel into from Vatulele. It usually takes anywhere between 1 hour- 3 hours depending on the weather. Our boats are 20-25 foot fiber boats with one outboard engine. The open sea passage can get a bit rough, but don't worry because Peace Corps equips us with a gps, life jackets, and a satellite phone.

This is our island Vatulele. The whole island is about 7 miles long and at it's widest about 4 miles. There are 4 villages on the island with 4 separate chiefs. The chief in Ekubu Village (located in the North east, see picture below) is also the paramount chief, and he makes final decisions for all of Vatulele.

This is Lomanikaya Village which is located about half way down the island on the east side. Our village has about 75 people year round and around the holidays about 25 extra family members (mostly children who school on the main island.) You can see our church at the north end, our newly finished dispensary where the red cross is, our house just below, and even our old village boat (which was repossessed a few weeks before we left.) Our house is the only home located on the other side of the road so our backyard is all rain forest.

This is the north end of Vatulele Island where the school and health center are located. Liss rides her bike here everyday and Drew comes to work at the school about 2-3 times a week to paint his World Map with the children. You can see many houses because Ekubu village and Taunovo village blend together creating a small town with about 650 villagers.

This is the other side of our island (the same side as the infamous Vatulele Island Resort.) It takes us about 30 minutes to hike across to the white sandy beaches and turquoise water. We usually do a lot of fishing on this side because the coral reef is much closer to shore making it easier to catch fish. We try to hike across with our dogs about once every couple of weeks.

We hope to keep this post updated as Google earth updates their satellite photos, so stay tuned :)