june 8

The following was written on June 8, but I couldn't post it then.... Oh, wait! It's June 8 where you are isn't it! Ha ha. Sneak peak: Tuesday is good!

On Saturday night, the base hosted a party for the local teachers at the village schools where we do our community service projects, to allow us to meet them and open a dialog. It was a feast of island food, Indian food, Chinese food-- salads with mango and cucumber, chow mein noodles and vegetables, curried chicken, an amazing fish salad with cilantro and lemon juice. The party was kicked off with a kava welcome ceremony. When I read about kava ceremonies, I guess it seemed a bit to me like something they still do for the benefit of tourists. We had been through several already, so we knew the drill, but this was the first one where I think I actually got the point of it. There is a very specific protocol, and the beginning is the most formal, where a group from the hosting community makes the kava drink and then offers it too a chiefly representative from the visiting group. It seemed a little contrived when it was being offered to us as representatives from the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, but when the visiting group was other Fijians, the social ties that it creates were much clearer. The ceremony has such a clear protocol, and I've already gotten a feel for how much and when that protocol can be followed in a less or more formal way.

Kava, in case you were wondering, tastes to me a bit like a mixture of muddy water and Orajel, with a similar, slightly numbing effect on the mouth (though it's a very mild effect). I haven't yet had occasion to ask any of the locals if they actually like the taste of kava, or if it's more the whole experience, but it's hard for me to imagine it's not the latter.

Sunday was full of training material. Lots of discussion about culture and the structure of our schedules and program budgets and dealing with critical situations and less critical situations and such.

On Monday we finally made it onto a boat and stopped at a couple snorkel spots that we'll be taking the kids to regularly. We also got out to Cloudbreak, a world-class surfing spot where the international Fiji Pro surfing competition was going on. And, Cloud9, a floating bar with oven-fired pizzas.

I swear we also did a lot of training. Really.

Tomorrow is our last day of training. Students arrive Thursday.