And So It Begins...

Heyo, homies! I'm in Fiji!

What it do baby– what it do? Well, this is going to be the longest blog post of my life. This isn’t saying much since I’ve never really blogged, but this will be my longest post thus far. I keep telling people in my group to let me copy and paste their blog posts so that I can tell people about the adventures here in Fiji but no one has willingly agreed yet. So, here we go. Maybe this will become my new hobby. Alright, we all know that won’t happen. Bad joke, bad joke.

Well, I’m not really sure where to start so I’ll just give a brief synopsis of getting here. I left SLC airport and flew into LAX for an hour and a half layover. No stress. Easy, breezy, beautiful… not. It was pure chaos. This is my first time traveling alone mind you, so I was so happy to see a familiar face from my team – my homie G, Grey. However, even with his help, we were a lost cause. We literally found our gate as we were supposed to be loading the plane. But we DID find it and that’s ALL that matters. The plane ride was looong and uneventful, which was nice for trying to get some sleep before arriving in Fiji at 5:30 am. We made it to Fiji and found the rest of our crew and headed straight for the beach. For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a beach girl at heart. The beach we went to was like a small piece of heaven on earth. Seriously. It was breathtaking. We played Frisbee, went kayaking, and just bummed on the beach for most the day. Eventually we packed up in a bus and took the four hour bus ride to Suva. Me and my girl Sar-bear partied it up the whole time. We are the annoying girls in the group. Hands down. But we were especially obnoxious on that bus ride. We finally made it to our humble abode and everyone crashed.

The next day was Sunday and my first time attending a ward outside of the U.S. I absolutely loved it. The people there were so amazing and welcoming. I had a hard time understanding everyone and had to ask everyone’s names a million times. I’m terrible at understanding accents. My family can testify of that. They always make fun of me when we go to Chinese or Mexican restaurants because I’m the absolute worst at understanding the waiters. I’m getting much better as the time here in Fiji goes on, but I’m still not perfect. But the ward was fun and it made me realize that the church is the same everywhere, even if there are cultural differences. Sunday night was sooo long for me. I was antsy to get going on projects and the afternoon felt like a million years. I obviously passed the time by dominating everyone at a few games and we eventually made our way to bed.

 Monday came and I attended some meetings, looked into some different projects, and by the afternoon was on a bus with Lucy (one of my country directors) to stay in Lautoka for a couple days. There we stayed in the city in an apartment with the General Manager of SPBD, Ace, and another lady from the office, Margareta. The bus ride is about five hours and so by the time we got there we went straight to bed. My bed was literally a thin foam pad on the ground but I could have cared less because I was tired from the time change, jet lag, and traveling all day. The houses here in Fiji have one big difference from that in the U.S.  The toilet (as they call it here) is literally just a toilet. Rarely is there any toilet paper, a sink, soap, etc. Just a small room with a toilet. This is the case in homes, public restrooms, etc. My hand sanitizer is being used regularly. That’s kind of a big deal because hand sanitizer is definitely not my favorite thing in the world, but this trip I’ve grown to absolutely adore and cherish it. My mom, who is a hand sanitizer connoisseur, would be proud of the amount I use in a day.

Tuesday and Wednesday.

This is when the real adventure begins. We got to the SPBD office and met the team – they are hilarious. Seriously. We had a morning devotional (scripture and prayer of some religion) then headed out to the villages. The first village I went to was called Narokorokoyawa… I gave up trying to remember village names after that. But, the villages are breathtaking. I can honestly say that I fell in love with the villages’ beauty. Not just the physical beauty, but the beauty of the people and feeling. I can’t put into words how humble, kind, and respectful the people of these villages are. I’m going to give an overview of how the meetings go instead of talking specifically about each one.

So, the meetings are spoken in Fijian until it’s time for me to speak. Everyone here can speak and understand English; they just aren’t as confident speaking it. Then I talk to the women about their small businesses, which consist of many different trades – anything from jewelry, sewing, baking, or reselling goods. Then I discuss basic business ideas and see if they have any questions. This was my first good learning experience. I asked what they do if there is someone else in the village selling the same goods as them. I was looking for answers about differentiating their product – finding a way to make theirs appear better then the competition. Instead, they answered that the two women would split the village in half and one take one side of the village and the other take the other side or they would find a way to work together so that both could be successful. My heart was filled. It’s just a completely different mentality here – it’s all about brotherhood.

Anyways, the sanitation here is very minimum as I mentioned before, but even more so in the villages. We got offered drinks in most the villages (which we technically aren’t supposed to drink because their water isn’t clean – don’t worry though I didn’t get sick), but we had to drink them because they gave us two cups, one for me and one for Lucy. It would be disrespectful not to drink at least some. So, we drank some and then said we were done. The two cups were eventually passed around to everyone that was in the room without hesitation. That’s when I got nervous about my cup because who knows when the last time they washed it was.

 The best part of Fiji so far is when I got to work one-on-one with the women and teach them how to manage their money better. I got to help them understand how to record their cash inflows and outflows for their businesses and households. In my favorite village, the women had just started learning how to keep a financial diary the week before. They were skeptical of their accuracy and understanding of the concept so I got to go around and re-explain and help them understand it better. My favorite lady, Arieta (Eta), was so bashful about showing me her record she had kept the week before. She finally showed it to me and as we talked about it and looked through her record – she had done it right! That was the best experience of my trip so far because it was amazing to celebrate this small accomplishment with Eta. She was beyond proud of herself and I was proud of her too. She talked to me about all her saving goals and my heart melted. The amount of income these women survive on is remarkable. It makes me feel like I’m making a real difference in the lives of these women by being able to help them accomplish their goals and attain self-sustainable skills.

Until next time, you little cutie pies.
Peace.