Mozzies, machetes and chickens.

(Monday)
The plane arrived at the gate around 7:35am local time, after 10 minutes of the immigrations office holding us on board, the many sleep deprived passengers stumbled our way to the immigration and customs officers through the open air walkways. Once inside, we we're greeted by traditional guitar and singing from two Fijians that definitely were not jet-lagged. I qued up in another line being thankful that I was seated towards the front of the aircraft (row 16) and thus would not be having to hold my 50lbs of luggage as long.

After what I later found out was a very rare and brief questioning from my officer, my passport was stamped and I was on my way to the foreign species checkpoint where the sum total of my three bags were scanned and checked. I exchanged a $50 USD bill at the arrivals gate and was greeted with the 'friendly' tourist charge of rouhgly 10% fee--very thankful I didn't need to exchange more. I made my way to the departures drop off where the a bus picked up approximately 20 of us. Walking on board the bus, it was clear that it was more about number of people on board than comfort. One of the few available seats was towards the front on the aisle next to an older Indian gentleman. This seat, which allowed roughly 75% of my body to make contact, was my new home for the next 4+ hours.

After being picked up from the bus stop from Lynnie (who, due to not having adequate means of communication with me--ie, me having a Voda phone SIM card--waited for approximately two hours at the Suva bus stop and holiday in hotel..). I ate lunch at the market with her husband Mark and daughter Akasha. And did my best to start assimilating information.

Upon arrival to the campus from the market, a 20 minute drive, I was welcomed into a brand new studio-style accommodations (one of 4 studios in a building, two of the other units are occupied--more on that in future updates). The roughly 5x5 meter room contains a mattress, two chairs, fridge, sink and cabinet, hot water kettle, microwave and frying pan. The attached bathroom has a sink, shower and toilet. The most impressive and luxurious part of the abode however is the deck that wraps around the east part of the building, the views from the deck/porch overlook most of the campus and have a wonderful vantage point of the local forrest and the newly landscaped garden beds/slope.

After taking a quick shower, I tried to stay awake, but ultimately gave in around 7:45pm and headed to bed.

Tuesday:
Today was the first full day at the Homes of Hope campus.

I woke up this morning nice and early! 3am, to be more precise. Jet lag has it's downsides. And for me, it was not as bad as it could have been as I had only gotten approx. 9 hours of sleep over the past 3 days. I was able to reasonably quickly fall back asleep until 6:30am (which is approx. Mid day, the day prior, back in Colorado). After waking up more fully, I realized that my wrists, ankles and legs had some itching going on. What do you know, I had a few red bumps! I stopped counting at 100.   

...that being said there are these neat anti mozzie plug-ins that are supposed to last 12 hours. Either they don't work as well as others on campus say, or I am just a good deal more delicious than the average person. Either way, it is a good lesson in ignoring the itching, and willing yourself to not focus on it.

After attending the staff meeting, I toured the campus along with 5 kiwis who are visiting for the week--making my 'short term' of 3 months feel notably longer feeling. Having said that, I am starting to get the sense that the time will go by quickly.

The remainder of my day was spent with Siri who takes care of the farming, some of the grounds keeping, chickens, meat birds, two pigs and two dozen sheep. After collecting eggs (roughly 6 dozen, of the roughly 400 gathered daily), feeding of the pigs and letting the sheep out if their pins, I helped Siri with weeding for the afternoon--which involves a machete, and a lot of swinging! Very foreign to me is the amount of vegetation that grows--gardening here is mostly hacking away at what you don't want, and doing that every week or so. To say that the soil is moist is an understatement. Although, the past few months have been extremely dry and much if Fiji is actually in a severe draught.

Besides being used in campus, most of the eggs are sold to a local restaurant for $11 per 3 dozen (that is about $6 USD). And thankfully for the water storage and stream that we get the water from, there was light rain most of the afternoon. I am also thankful for my chaco flip flops, as I was all about and throughout the forest and hillsides today, and it won't be the last time to do so!

Wednesday:
Is hopefully going to be a successful day orientating to the various computer needs and at the immigrations office obtaining a volunteer visa that will cover the entire time whilst in Fiji. Currently I am on a 'business visa' and have a mere 14 days of eligibility. Prayers for a smooth process tomorrow are GREATLY appreciated. I'll be bringing food and water, as the process usually consumes at least one day.

Until next time (which may become less frequent as my acclimation period draws to a close, and my responsibilities ramp up). Thank you all for your prayers, I can almost feel it when someone is praying. The struggle for me is obviously still in acclimation, but also the reality of my near future and the tasks at hand. On one hand, 3 months feels like a long time, but seeing the amount of help that could be used on campus, I know that I could easily spend every hour working on something and still there is more to be done.