FACTS about the Philippines

all information from the cia world factbook.

Background:
The Philippine Islands became a Spanish colony during the 16th century; they were ceded to the US in 1898 following the Spanish-American War. In 1935 the Philippines became a self-governing commonwealth. Manuel QUEZON was elected president and was tasked with preparing the country for independence after a 10-year transition. In 1942 the islands fell under Japanese occupation during World War II, and US forces and Filipinos fought together during 1944-45 to regain control. On 4 July 1946 the Republic of the Philippines attained its independence. The 20-year rule of Ferdinand MARCOS ended in 1986, when a "people power" movement in Manila ("EDSA 1") forced him into exile and installed Corazon AQUINO as president. Her presidency was hampered by several coup attempts, which prevented a return to full political stability and economic development. Fidel RAMOS was elected president in 1992 and his administration was marked by greater stability and progress on economic reforms. In 1992, the US closed its last military bases on the islands. Joseph ESTRADA was elected president in 1998, but was succeeded by his vice-president, Gloria MACAPAGAL-ARROYO, in January 2001 after ESTRADA's stormy impeachment trial on corruption charges broke down and another "people power" movement ("EDSA 2") demanded his resignation. MACAPAGAL-ARROYO was elected to a six-year term as president in May 2004. The Philippine Government faces threats from three terrorist groups on the US Government's Foreign Terrorist Organization list, but in 2006 and 2007 scored some major successes in capturing or killing key wanted terrorists. Decades of Muslim insurgency in the southern Philippines have led to a peace accord with one group and on-again/off-again peace talks with another.




Geography ::Philippines

Location:
Southeastern Asia, archipelago between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, east of Vietnam

Area:
total: 300,000 sq km
country comparison to the world: 72
land: 298,170 sq km
water: 1,830 sq km

Area - comparative:
slightly larger than Arizona
Land boundaries:
0 km
Coastline:
36,289 km


Climate:
tropical marine; northeast monsoon (November to April); southwest monsoon (May to October)

Terrain:
mostly mountains with narrow to extensive coastal lowlands

Natural resources:
timber, petroleum, nickel, cobalt, silver, gold, salt, copper

Natural hazards:
astride typhoon belt, usually affected by 15 and struck by five to six cyclonic storms per year; landslides; active volcanoes; destructive earthquakes; tsunamis

Environment - current issues:
uncontrolled deforestation especially in watershed areas; soil erosion; air and water pollution in major urban centers; coral reef degradation; increasing pollution of coastal mangrove swamps that are important fish breeding grounds


Geography - note:
the Philippine archipelago is made up of 7,107 islands; favorably located in relation to many of Southeast Asia's main water bodies: the South China Sea, Philippine Sea, Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea, and Luzon Strait


People ::Philippines

Population:
97,976,603 (July 2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 12

Age structure:
0-14 years: 35.2% (male 17,606,352/female 16,911,376)
15-64 years: 60.6% (male 29,679,327/female 29,737,919)
65 years and over: 4.1% (male 1,744,248/female 2,297,381) (2009 est.)

Median age:
total: 22.5 years
male: 22 years
female: 23 years (2009 est.)

Birth rate:
26.01 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 64

Death rate:
5.1 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 186

Urbanization:
urban population: 65% of total population (2008)
rate of urbanization: 3% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
total population: 1 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
total: 20.56 deaths/1,000 live births
country comparison to the world: 104
male: 23.17 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 17.83 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 71.09 years
country comparison to the world: 133
male: 68.17 years
female: 74.15 years (2009 est.)

Total fertility rate:
3.27 children born/woman (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 63

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
less than 0.1% (2003 est.)
country comparison to the world: 145

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
8,300 (2007 est.)
country comparison to the world: 110

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
fewer than 200 (2007 est.)
country comparison to the world: 119

Major infectious diseases:
degree of risk: high
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and Japanese encephalitis
water contact disease: leptospirosis (2009)

Nationality:
noun: Filipino(s)
adjective: Philippine

Ethnic groups:
Tagalog 28.1%, Cebuano 13.1%, Ilocano 9%, Bisaya/Binisaya 7.6%, Hiligaynon Ilonggo 7.5%, Bikol 6%, Waray 3.4%, other 25.3% (2000 census)

Religions:
Roman Catholic 80.9%, Muslim 5%, Evangelical 2.8%, Iglesia ni Kristo 2.3%, Aglipayan 2%, other Christian 4.5%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.6%, none 0.1% (2000 census)

Languages:
Filipino (official; based on Tagalog) and English (official); eight major dialects - Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinan

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 92.6%
male: 92.5%
female: 92.7% (2000 census)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education):
total: 12 years
male: 11 years
female: 12 years (2006)

Education expenditures:
2.5% of GDP (2005)
country comparison to the world: 158

BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER

"Dear Sister Blonquist,

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Philippines Tacloban Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.
You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, January 27, 2010. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Cebuano language. . ..........."

Sincerely,
Thomas S. Monson

Here is a slide show of missionaries/ people in Tacloban mission to help you visualize where I will be for a year and a half: (sooo excited!)



Thank you all for your love and support and much needed prayers. I am so incredibly excited, a bit intimidated by the language, but mostly humbled and honored to serve the Lord and His children fully and completely for the next 18 months.
Love,
Sister Blonquist
(more to come !!)

Get that crazy off the field!!

And into Anger Management therapy.

Watch this video of the BYU Girls Soccer team vs. New Mexico.
It's INSANE what went down...literally. Poor BYU!

tribute to madstar.

Love this girl. Once upon a time a girl from northern Wisconsin went to EFY at BYU Provo without knowing anyone. That same time once upon, another girl, this time from B-town, IL went to that very EFY at BYU-Provo without knowing anyone. . .Turns out, they became fast friends through the amount of food they could pound (and had stashed in their dorm rooms), laughing hysterically, sweating non-stop, and other bodily issues that should remain unwritten. They loved to dance and owned that dance flo, with taking moderate to long breaks to drink water, stand in front of the fan, and get paper towels to stick in their arm pits...yes, we are that cool. Maddy came to visit me in Chicago later on, and we roomed to gether for EFY the next year. We kept in contact in high school, but didn't hear from eachother too much our first year of college...BUT, once we talked it was like we had seen each other every day. Maddy then moved to Ptown our sophomore year and we were reunited once more. We are quite the pair and have a lot of similar interests and loves including birthdays close to one another andddddddddd serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Now she is off to serve tomorrow morning, and I (hopefully) am not too far behind her. What a duo we've been. I can't wait to see her in 2 years and I know it will be like we never left. we rock that much. Good Luck Maddy! I love you and I am praying for you daily. God be with you til we meet again! .....
and we lived happily ever after...

Birthday celebrations! First hers on November 3rd, then mine on November 15th.

Smoothie shots at Olive Garden? Yessss, please.

Sister Madeline P. Kusilek reports to the MTC, November 4, 2009. She will be serving in the Rosario, Argentina mission. Hopefully, I won't be too many months behind her.....

the nostalgia is never new.

new things in my life:

not being able to sleep at night.
(believe me, this is NEW.) I have prided my self for the past 21 years in the fact that i can sleep anywhere, anytime. Now, i don't know what is wrong with me. I do know, that it is getting a little ridiculous to wake up at four in the afternoon. And no, I am not depressed, thanks.

i'm remembering my dreams.

while i lived in fiji i would dream all the time and i remembered them, but that is very strange in my life and usually i never remember my dreams. . .except, now, living in illinois, it is my new thing. which, unfortunately, is not something i am super pumped about. especially when they are disturbing.

getting hired and then unhired.. three days before i start work

believe me, thats a first. turns out, i got a really rockin nanny job and after waiting weeks for her to make up her mind b/c she was concerned about me leaving sometime in the spring for my mission, she called me and gave the go ahead. so i turned down three other job offers and told everyone i got the job and was super pumped about it. then, thursday night ( i was supposed to start monday) she emailed me and unhired me. unhired me, and left me in a puddle of confusion/panic on how i am supposed to pay off my debt in the now 2 fewer months i have left b/c i wasted my time with herrrrrr. no, i'm not bitter, just annoyed.
EMAILED me. ugh..

not being stressed with school/midterms this time of year.

no, i'm not graduated. in fact, i have two more years of school. my grand plan was supposed to be: move home, work full time, pay off debt accumulated from two summers of volunteeringgggggg, prepare for the mission, leave on mission. (all within 6 months tops of living in this place).
i know, i know, life doesn't work out how you plan.



well, i must say the weather here is rainy and cold.
no, i'm not complaining. i love 50 degree weather. LOVE. makes me want to curl up with some cocoa, ditch class, and watch a movie with my roomies. unfortunately, it is strange b/c there is no class to miss, and my roommates consist of an 8month old whose attention span for chick flicks is nilch, and his parents that have parent things to do like pay bills, pass the bar exam, cook dinner, clean, and prepare for their new home in the city.

in other news, conference is tomorrow. THANK GOODNESS. i will be intently listening and watching.

life is good. good is life.
here's to another day!

--tor

A Video Recap of My Fiji Adventure.

BEFORE you click play, scroll to the bottom of the blog page and pause the music! :) Enjoy.

http://

Better Late than Not

Adjectived. (sort of)

Beautiful. Talented.

Blue eyes. Legs we're jealous of.

Cook of the century.

Great Smile.

Intelligent.

Great Facial Expressions.

Musical. Musical. Musical.

Trustworthy.

Greatest Grandma.

Best nickname (uschi)

The calm one who gets you through a crisis.

Service. Service. All about the service.

Selfless.

Seamstress.

Knowledgable.

Adventurous.

Brave.

Faithful.

Proactive.

Tear a wall down and build it up too.

Teacher.

Hardworker.

Epitome of a dedicated, loyal wife.

Efficient.

food becomes art.

LEADER.

Perfectionist.

Creative.

will take french bread and havarti over chocolate anyday.

Quick on her feet.

Well spoken.

Funny.

German.

LOVES that I call her URS.

HAPPY DAY of BIRTH, MOM. (september 17th)
Thanks for enduring 5 other kids so you could have ME!!! (and then enduring all six of us..)



Sorry, it's a day or two late. But none the less, you rock.

URS and Noel in Europe some wheres. (07)

Some family time at Blackberry Farm. (09)

Grandma and Grampa at Kiera's wedding. (05)

URS and Me. Prom sophomore year. (04)

Adventurous train ride with little spank. (09)

Love you Momma!

hope you don't mind..

"Oh the countless ways of having your heart broken-there are the cruel words and then there are the words that are neglected. There are the joyous times that you don't want to end, the times when you long for something more, the times when tears flow for someone else's pain that you can't appease. A situation, a picture, a song-all have been categorized as heartbreaking-and that's ok. I would rather have my small heartbreaks everyday, my struggles, and my happiness than any lie or fabrication." --R.A.H.

thanks xanga from 4 years ago. sure, i'm bringin it back.

thats some good writing, eh?

Charity

"A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.

Observe charity, wisdom and fellow-feeling, with love one towards another in all things, and under all circumstances.

Consider the state of the afflicted and try to alleviate their suffering; let your bread feed the hungry, and your clothing cover the naked;..do good to all men...that you may be harmless and blameless, the sons of God without rebuke."--the prophet Joseph Smith

Stairs Libs and I built.

My Last Email about FIJI! VINAKA!!

Bula Vinaka for the last time!
Hello to all my very supportive friends and family! I apologize for not updating all of you for about a MONTH. Thats ridiculous and I am so sorry! I'll be honest though, after returning from New Zealand it became very chaotic and busy for us in Fiji. As most of you know, I am home now sitting on a CHAIR in my dining room and typing on a laptop with wireless internet! CRAZY. For the past few days I kept feeling like I had to go to some internet cafe to check my email, and then I realized I could just plop down right here in my air conditioned home. I have been home for less than a week, and getting back to my life in America. It is a great place, this land we live in, and I always love when the person at customs stamps my passport and says, "Welcome Home."

Now, just a few high lights from my last weeks:

Well, I spent my last few weeks teaching a lot of health lessons and focusing more on Mind/Body Health and the benefits of understanding the power of our mind. In Yaladro, one of the last lessons was on optimism/healing power of laughter/ gratitude. I know I have mentioned my love for the people of this settlement but it only grew as we discussed the different times in our lives when we have noticed the consequences according to our attitude. It was a powerful lesson and I made gratitude journals for them and challenged them to write five things in them daily. The next week I gave them a whole binder of all the lessons that were ever taught, and I discussed with them about the knowledge they had gained and the daily life changes they had made. They also had a huge meal prepared for us which consisted of: roti, rice, curry and potatoes, vegetables curry chicken (with bones), roti balls that were spicy, indian treats, donuts, cocoa, and more and more curry. It was a sad sad day saying goodbye to those incredible people, but they will not soon be forgotten.

Our goal as HELP was to empower the women, build confidence so that the women could teach others the skills they learned and continue to be motivated to find new opportunities to gain knowledge. The people in Yaladro expressed their desire to share with others what they've learned and how their life has been improved. Sister Wilson specifically was very excited about this. We hope that they will be able to continue living their life according to their goals and be an example to their families and people they interact with daily.

Natalie and I also had a very unique opportunity to interview women throughout Tavua Town for a special research project in regards to women's opinion about health. This was extremely interesting to learn what they consider healthy, what worries they think about daily, and what makes them happy or feel successful. I think more than anything I learned that though we are women from different cultures and thousands of miles a part, we are human with very similar struggles and pain, and a desire for companionship, love, and protection. These people really are remarkable, and I loved being a part of their lives, if only for a short time.

I finished my tutoring and lessons with the little kids by teaching a lesson on social health with Natalie and handing out certificates. They were incredibly adorable and loved getting their certificate of achievement.
We also had a great time building some stoves the last few weeks with members of the church, including a bunch of little kids. The stove projects, though stressful at times, could be so much fun and required a lot of effort and team building that you couldn’t find elsewhere.

Now I am home and juggling jet lag and the stress of job hunting while I remember my 3 1/2 months living in the islands of the Pacific. Vinaka Vaka Levu (Thank you very much!) for your support and love and for following my adventure this past summer.
Now for the big question that many people have asked me: So which is better, Africa or Fiji?!?
After much thought on this very topic I realized a few things. First, Africa was an experience that I reflect upon and consider to be almost sacred as it taught me about the joys of life and the foundations of faith, the inhumanity of this world, and my specific purpose on this earth. It was an experience unlike any other, and it changed me. I discovered a lot about my strengths and weaknesses, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of all humanity. I will never forget summer 2008, nor the best friends I made as we lived, worked, laughed, and struggled together. It is because of Africa that I am a Public Health major and I want to do international health as a career with development work. It completely changed me. That being said, it was difficult to adjust back to my life in America after Africa, but it also made the decision to go to Fiji very clear for me. I needed to go.
Now, Fiji. Fiji was different than Africa, and it was also everything I wanted it to be. I had big expectations and a lot of goals and challenges laid out for myself. I had learned some intense things in Africa, and I wanted to apply them while I was in Fiji. I felt like for the most part I was truly able to do that. I wanted to go to Fiji and teach health and build relationships with the people, and put their lives and their concerns first. As I did that, I learned more about love and the value of giving than I had ever discovered previously. The people of Fiji are extremely loving and kind and have a way of showing their love that is remarkable. Often as Americans we disvalue the expression of love and underestimate its power to change lives and influence for the better. I literally witnessed the expression of love this summer and it was a humbling experience that I hope all of us reading will have the honor of witnessing one day. There is no shame or embarrassment in expressing your love for God, family, friends, or neighbors in Fiji. It is anticipated that you will say "Bula" or hello to every person you pass by, and a smile should accompany it. They believe that life is beautiful and they understand that if you love, life does work out. Their favorite saying is "Senga na lega" meaning, No worries. So, which was better, Africa or Fiji??? you may still ask. . .
Africa taught me why the world needs love, and Fiji taught me why we must show it.

I've now been able to live in two very different cultures in developing lands that have two very different kinds of poverty. I feel very blessed and extremely humbled because of these special experiences and the people I’ve lived with, loved, and served. Its been remarkable and only motivated me to want to do more of this similar work. Oh, one more thing….I guess I wanted to also mention this quickly what I learned about poverty.
I learned that poverty has different faces. Most people feel okay about helping africa because they can see the tangible pain and suffering as children walk naked and are malnourished. They see the AIDs results and the shamed faces of the victims of an unmasked war. I, too, fight for this poverty and for my beloved Africa. But, I learned this summer that poverty also comes from neglect, lack of opportunity and knowledge especially regarding proper health care, education, and freedom from oppression. In Fiji especially, Americans come and go seeing the touristy part of the island and the positive, laid back workers at the posh resorts. That is the Fiji the world knows. However, there is more to this beautiful island that many do not see nor have a desire to recognize. It was interesting when we would first meet fijians they would ask if we were here on holiday. As we replied, “No, we are volunteers living in Tavua,” their faces became shocked, and then humble and very grateful. It seems that the world most often forgets that Fiji has a lot of suffering, problems, and a huge desire to learn and gain knowledge. I guess it's true that sometimes there is much more than just what the eye can see.

So, thank you for listening to my tangents and supporting my life adventures as I learned about our world and fell in love with another culture. I hope you are enjoying the last of your summer, and I would still love to hear from any and all of you. If you have questions or comments about my summer in Fiji just let me know. But mostly, thank you with all of my heart for caring about my life and the people that I love.
Moce (bye)!
Loloma,
Victoria

The Updates from JULY

JULY UPDATES:


I’m still alive….


I’ll be honest and say I don’t remember in the slightest the last time I wrote a good update or what it was about. So I’ll just jump ahead and try to explain what has been happening in Fiji as well as my week in NEW ZEALAND.
Fiji:

Life in Fiji has become even busier than the last email I wrote. Our team has successfully opened up new villages and been making new contacts left and right. I am a part of all the projects, but specifically I’m responsible for women’s group, emergency prep, and stoves so those have been keeping me quite busy with many late nights and early mornings. In addition, I split pretty much all the health stuff with Natalie so we are busy busy busy researching, writing lesson plans, and teaching health (love that!). It’s been a great past month or so. I’m sorry, I just realized that it’s JULY now. WHAT???? Is summer flying by in America like it is here???. Okay, this past week Roger Dixon and his wife Deanne came to evaluate HELP in FIJI. He is a member of the board and spent a week and a half going to the different projects and seeing what all is going on down here. He brought us all KING SIZE HUGE ALMOND CHOCOLATE BARS which happen to be my favorite candy of all time. . chocolate and almonds, can’t get any better. ………..Well, a very strange thing has happened to me here in Fiji. I blame Africa and all the things I had to eat there. I have more problems eating things here and I am more sensitive when people discuss good food. Or give me chocolate turns out. I literally got emotional and two tears streamed down my face as they pulled out the massive chocolate bars and gave me one. What? Me, crying??…(and over chocolate, not bread and cheese???) Yeah, my German heritage is so ashamed, I know! ..Sorry, URS.

Anyways, back to the projects in FIJI! Lets do some copy and paste of some weekly reports: (if you’re really bored and want to know what we’ve been up to, otherwise skim J.. also some of these reports are from a couple weeks ago. Just wanted to give you some idea of what we do)


Hospital Project: Dani and Laurel project leads
Sometimes volunteers volunteer at the local hospital. Usually I work with the Peer Educator, Mareleta. Natalie and I taught a lesson for her to a youth group and we also discuss with her our lessons and she gives us some good posters and pamphlets. She is really great and an awesome resource to have as we go to the different villages. In addition, we had No Tobacco Day in May or June and this month it is World Population Day. Our team created a really cool program for that, but unfortunately I was in New Zealand and missed all the fun. L Here’s the report:

Happy World Population Day! This week we finalized our program. We practiced the stories with the girls at both secondary schools. We made over 700 bracelets to give out at the assemblies. Five of us went to Nadarivatu for several hours on Wednesday for (a pre-) World Population Day. We had an assembly with the boys and the girls at that school. Roger and Deanne came as well and seemed to really enjoy themselves. Friday was the big day. The theme was Educate Girls, Eradicate Poverty so we focused our efforts on the girls. We had an assembly with just the girls at Tavua District and Tavua College. We had several speakers come and talk about peer pressure, decision making, child abuse, reproductive health, and education. (Deanne spoke and was truly inspirational.) HELP performed a skit and four girls from each school read stories of inspirational women. The program came together nicely, and we were all happy with the turnout.


Business: Rachel and Dani project leads
Our team goes in pairs and teaches the business lessons to each of the different groups in the villages. On Fridays I teach my favorite women in Tavua Levu; Tiana, Leala, Mare, and Joanna. They crack me up and we have a lot of great laughs together. I am not too business savvy, but I feel like I am learning a lot and we are having some great lessons. David ( who is in fact very business savvy) comes with me most of the time and so it works out really well. I’m trying to set up a time with these women to learn how to make mats and things that they want to actually sell. Really, you all would love these ladies. They are super proactive and just always seem to be having the time of their lives laughing at eachother, me, and David.

We also head to Ba (a town about 30 min away) every Thursday to teach business to a couple youth groups there. They are pretty innovative and fun to be around. I wanted to do some other youth group activities with them, but it just isn’t working out very well. Too short on time and energy but mostly, time. Maybe I’ll pitch my ideas to a new volunteer and they could head that up.

Emergency Preparedness
Project Leads: Tori Blonquist and Natalie Gardner

Nat and I have been busy with the food dryer project. Food dryers were created by Dr. Frost Steele who is a professor of food science at BYU. He asked us to check up on the food dryer system that was created a year ago. Basically, last year there was a huge training done on how to construct the food dryers as well as how to use them, etc. The main purpose of course is to dry foods so that members of each ward can have food storage and be self-reliant as well as save money and be prepared for disasters. So, Natalie and I went to work and spent QUITE A BIT of time preparing questions and surveys and interviews. We then headed to Suva (6 hour bus trip) and stayed at temple housing. President Tangidugu (Stake president of Nasori Stake) took us around to the different wards and bishops on Friday and Saturday. We interviewed all of them and got a lot of feed back as to why the wards weren’t utilizing the dryers or what made them successful. We then spent hours reviewing all the notes from the interviewing, reported to the team the findings, and wrote up an evaluation for each interview as well as an overall assessment of the food dryers. We got all the evaluations out and plan to meet with Dr. Steele when he arrives in Fiji early August.
Time spent:
12 hours travel to suva6 hours interviewing
6 hours preparing, 2 volunteers
6 hours discussing and writing evaluations


Gardens
Project Leads: Colby and BenSquare Foot Gardening is a new concept for many of our volunteers and most Fijians…pretty much for any third world country actually. The whole point is not to garden in rows, but in squares to save time, money, water, and you get just as many crops. It’s really been successful here, and my only regret is that we didn’t create our own for our team.
Nadolodolo—example of success
The previous week we had given one of the members of the village, Sabe, a copy of the Gardening DVD. When we got to the village Sabe had built an elevated garden frame out of wood. We worked with him a little to finish it and to add the dirt. After this, we went to check any other gardens that had been built in the previous week and found that there were about 15 gardens in all throughout the village. The people are very excited about it! We also explained about the importance of compost and encouraged them to start their own compost piles, including what should be in there and what should not.
Dramasi, Nasomo, Tavua Levu, Ruku Ruku, Nabuna

9 hours in a week

Schools/Libraries
Project leads: Heather and Katy
Our team tutors at the library and at the local Tavua District High School. We also have tried to implement a peer tutoring program in some of the other schools farther out in the villages as well as working with an after school program with some very energetic kids in Ruku Ruku. Lesson plans have really took off and are going a lot smoother. Volunteers actually love going to Ruku Ruku now…

Stoves
Project Leads: Tori and Ben
This was a very eventful week in stove making. Our team was very proactive and learned a lot about how to improve the efficiency of stove building.

Nasomo
This week was the last for many of our volunteers (Jacob, Bryce, Nate) so two new leads, Ben and Tori took over the stove projects. Jacob, Tori, Ben, and Dani went to Nasomo village to build the first stove there and to teach Ben and Dani how to make them as well. The village had collected all the clay, sand, banana stock, and fiber and were excited and prepared to get started. The HELP Volunteers brought the wooden frame and together with the Nasomo people the sand and clay was mixed thoroughly. Jacob and Tori taught the importance of the right clay consistency as well as how to pound it into the frame. All the Fijians there helped mix the clay as well as pound it into the frame and set up the banana stock for the piping mold. Ben and Dani helped mix and set up an assembly line to include all the Fijians present. Jacob spoke in Fijian and explained the use for the banana stock and he worked with the Fijians to cut up the stock and place it into the frame. Tori also helped teach the proper way to put in the piping while Dani and Ben mixed more clay with the Fijians. Jacob discussed the stove more with the people in Fijian and Tori talked about the importance of covering it if it rained. Jacob also instructed that they could not cook on or near the stove and that Tori would be back to take out the banana stock in a couple weeks. This stove was the fastest stove HELP has built so far this summer, built in just under an hour and a half and the Fijians seemed to comprehend how to build a stove pretty well.

Stove Meeting
Wednesday night Tori, Ben, Colby, David, and Ashley spent an ample amount of time (unplanned) to discuss issues with the stoves that have been built thus far as well as any future problematic concerns regarding chimneys. Tori and Ashley also discussed the different uses for frames because wooden frames may be too expensive to have made each time. The group had many ideas for the frame: cinder block, have Fijians build their own wooden frame, etc. The team has not yet decided on the most efficient way. More research will be done in the following week including talking to the natives. In addition there were many concerns regarding chimneys: would/could Fijians pay for piping, does HELP pay for piping, what materials can be used for chimneys (cinder blocks?, sheet metal, tin cans, piping, etc). The group agreed to venture to Ba to compare pricing for chimney piping.

Ba for chimney
Ashley, Nate, Ben, Cami, Tori traveled to Ba to get different piping quotes. The group did some great bargaining and found 6 meter long pipes at $70 (Fijian) each. Ashley bought six of these pipes and set up a time to get them delivered the next day to our flat in Tavua.

Nabuna
David, Ashley, Tori, Colby, Ben, Jacob, Cami, Rachel, Dani all went to Nabuna to look at the stove that was built a month or so ago. Though Nabuna was told over and over not to cook near or in the stove, they had done both. They also had put cement over the top though the stove was probably not ready for that. Because of this HELP could not make the burners any bigger to fit the pots perfectly. (Though that is not necessary, it is a nice addition). David, Nate, Jacob, and Ashley proceeded to mix some cement to add the first chimney of the summer. David had figured out the best way to connect the chimney earlier that day and had the welders cut out 8 inches at the bottom of the pipe and put that on the opposite side for the top of the chimney which was then welded together. The chimney is about 5-7 feet or 2 meters tall. However, it was discovered at Nabuna that the hole for the piping goes down farther than the 8 inches that was cut out of the piping. This means that the smoke would only go through the top couple inches that were cut out. Being innovative, Nate and David decided to get dirt and rocks to put in the bottom of the chimney hole so that the cut out hole on metal piping would be level with the hole that the smoke was coming from. Does this make sense? It all seemed to work out well and then David and Nate cemented the chimney in. Ashley, Tori, David, Nate tried to mix some more cement to put on the walls of the stove, but really, it just looked silly and most of the cement fell off. David, Tori, and Nate decided to leave the cement with the Nabuna people and have them finish the cementing. The Nabuna people also suggested that HELP get a different cement and a lesser amount to make it cheaper. Overall, David, Ashley, Colby, Ben, and Tori learned a lot about chimneys, stoves, and cementing that day.

Nadolodolo
Ashley, Ben, Natalie, Cami, Nate, Colby, Dani, Bre all went to Nadolodolo to start the much anticipated stove. However, upon arrival it was discovered that the village had not collected enough clay (only one bag, 12 is needed). Ashley made sure to tell the Fijians how much is necessary and that HELP would return on Monday. Nadolodolo also informed us that they do not work on Fridays. (bahah, figures)

Ashley and David also put together a basic clay stove fact sheet and Tori and Ben decided that there should be three part lessons for stove building.

Hours worked:
1 hour-Nadolodolo , 9 volunteers
1.5 hours-Nabuna, 10 volunteers
3 hours (welding), 1 volunteer
3 hours-Ba, 5 volunteers
2 hours-Nasomo, 4 volunteers
2 hours-meeting, 6 volunteers
2 hours- Clay stove fact sheet, 2 volunteers
14.5 hours

Challenges: Many. Chimneys; cost of piping and what type of piping would be most realistic for the Fijians. Insufficient amount of clay, cementing chimney and wall of stove, cost of frames.

Plans for Next Week:
o Start Nadolodolo stove.
o Take out banana stalk of Tavua Levu.
o Supervise stove at Nabuna.
o Check up on chimney at Nabuna.
o Check on stove in Nasomo.
o Teach stoves to youth in Nasomo.
o Have a training for all HELP volunteers so that everyone is an “expert” and feels comfortable teaching stoves.
o Write three-part lesson plans and print. (done and done. 8 hours!!!)
o Decide on the most efficient way to construct frames.

Village Health
Project Lead: Natalie and Bre
We have developed really rockin health curriculum for the summer and have finished the first couple units and done some reviews. We’ve set some goals with the people and amazingly have seen some really implement them and change their lifestyles.

Yaladrou
Project Lead: Tori
I’m not sure what I’ve mentioned about Yaladrou, but it’s a settlement that I really felt passionately about since Day 1 of being in Fiji. I wanted to go there, I wanted to work with the people, and I felt it was crucial to get them the proper piping for their toilets, etc. Well, one family that lives on this government established settlement is the Wilsons. She is LDS and he isn’t. They are the coolest couple and have older three kids. Most of the people who live in this settlement have had it pretty rough, but they have all come together and respect one another. There are some Fijians and some Indians, and honestly, that neverrrr happens here. They live by each other and love one another and usually Fijians and Indians do not do that at all. Anyways, I have taught a lot of health lessons there and our team has developed such great relationships with them. As I was doing my unit review lesson we discussed goals and our own individual health plans. Sister Wilson told me that she used to crave sugar and her body needed tablespoons to a CUP of sugar in her own individual cup of lemon drink. She said she would make the lemon drink whenever she had that craving. (very similar to coffee addiction I would imagine) She said many times throughout the day she would crave the lemon drink, put in gobs and gobs and gobs of sugar and love it. She then told me as she learned more from our lessons each week she now understood how bad that was for her body, especially because she is worried about non-communicable diseases like diabetes. She told me that now when she wants the lemon drink she only needs A TEASPOON OF SUGAR in her drink!!! She has trained her body (took about 3 weeks-month) to not need the sugar that she thought it needed. She laughed and said her son hates the lemon drink she makes cause it isn’t sweet enough. J
Another Yaladro success story: An Indian man and his wife only recently began to come to our lessons at yaladrou. He is older and has many many pains and aches in his body. We taught a lesson on stretching and discussed joint pain and arthritis, etc. We taught them basic stretching exercises to do each day and we now start each lesson with stretching. This man would have his wife massage his legs and arms every day with oil because he was in so much pain. His wife told us she wanted him to learn stretching exercises, but they had never known any. But, once we taught them how to stretch properly and the whole settlement was doing them, he came back the next week and he said it was the first time in years his wife didn’t have to massage his legs because they had been doing the stretching exercises! Cool, eh?!
Women’s Group
Project Lead: Tori
Weekly Report Prepared by: Tori Blonquist

This week Tori and Natalie taught sanitation and hygiene to the people in Yaladro. Colby, Bre, Nate, Cami also attended the lesson. Bre started with stretching and each person picked their favorite stretch. After stretching was finished, Tori discussed the personal health plan that was made with each person last week. Tori went over goals that had been written down and if they had all been accomplished. Then, Tori and Natalie taught the lesson on sanitation and hygiene that went very well. The use of soap was a main point of the lesson and Cami and Nate passed out bars of soap to make the lesson more memorable. Next, Tori discussed the piping that HELP has decided to complete in Yaladro for the flushing toilets. It is HELP’s policy that if we complete the piping Yaladrou must supply 5% of the funds = $15. Goals:
o Continue the unit of hygiene and sanitation next week with Laurel, Rachel, and Bre discussing dental hygiene and food born illnesses.
o Re-write the project proposal for piping (last one was in the computer that was stolen).
o Evaluate the piping and when it should be completed by.

Tavua Levu:
Women’s group; taught two business lessons and a health lesson. Both went wonderfully and the women are now starting to understand the basic concepts of business and made specific life changing goals for health and have stuck to them. Love these ladies! Tina, Joanna, Leala, Mare.

Hours spent:
2-yaladro, 7 volunteers
3-tavua levu, 5 volunteers
2-lesson prep, 2 volunteers
Total: 7 hours

Alright, So there is some info about our projects. This took much longer than anticipated. Sorry, that’s a long, boring one! I will write another update about New Zealand soon. Just know, it was the best vacation of my life and I want to go to New Zealand on my honeymoon, but only in the winter. J Yes, I am Ursula’s daughter.

A quick review on NZ:
Auckland- love it. More cafes than Europe I swear. Night on the town. Dotti. PATIO
Whangera- Farm. Cattle. Sheep. 800 acres. Hiking on the farm. Waterfalls.
Supermarket. Pizza. Homemade icecream.
Intercity bus system
Tauranga-Cold. Literally backpacking. Broke as a joke.
Rotorua- smells bad. ZORBed (google it.) only place in the world!
Taupo-Nat and Bre bungeed. Been there, done that. Ate a lot of bread and cheese!
Waitomo Caves-coolest adventure! Dark, scary, glowworms, rushing water in confined places underground, I survived.
Hamilton- LDS temple. Stayed with a family
Whitianga- Up north. Hot water beach. Best café of my life. Perfect honeymoon place.
Auckland--movie night. A lot of food. Bri cheese and french bread. Also, best hot chocolate of my life.

Overall, a very successful and awesome vacation. Maybe someday I’ll get around to sharing the details. Probably not though. J

Hope all is well in America and July 4th was celebrated with lots of food and fireworks. I have 3 ½ weeks left of some hard work so wish me luck! And keep me updated please on your life! I love reading all about your summer fun!

Loloma,
Victoria

If you never got the emails and you're realllly bored.

JUNE UPDATE:

Hello All,
Just a very quick update. Our house got broken into while I was in the jungle so we have no laptops. Therefore, I will not be able to write a long update until HELP sends another one. I just wanted everyone to know I am alive and doing well. I can't wait to update you all on the projects we did in the jungle!
Things to be excited to read about:
--building stairs for a women with palsy
--building two kitchens
--knocking down a house
--staying with a branch president and his family
--living in a hut
-- tavueni
--house broken into
--water slides
--water fall
--skydiving
--square foot gardening
--teaching health
and much moreeeeee!

please email me about your lives! I miss you all.

Moce,
Victoria

A Few Interesting Facts about FIJI:

-Lots and lots of frogs
-Lots of dead frogs all over the roads
-Geckos are smaller here than africa
-Tavua (where we live) is the HOTTEST place on the island. (thanks,
country directors for picking this spot to live.)
-Suva ( where we are now) is cooler and rains more.
-the ocean is warm and really fun to swim in
-People live in villages and in town
-there are a lot of indians who live here
-Fijians like indian food too
-2 McDonalds on the island (hours a way)
- There are a lot of dogs here
-roads in town are paved and there are sidewalks
-Fijian people are very generous and kind
-Fijians only celebrate birthdays when you turn: 1, 16, 21. We went to
a birthday party for a one year old and it was a HUGE party. Thats the
one where they made me dance in the center in front of everyone.
-If the chief of the village dies, you have to wear black for a year
and you are not supposed to dance for year
-You cannot enter a village unless you are with a member of the
village or you have been formally introduced to the chief (savu savu
ceromonies)

thats all for now!
Keep me posted on your lives as well!

Vineka vaka levua,
Tori


UPDATE FROM JUNE:

Bula Vinaka,
Well, I hope you enjoyed the updates about Savu Savu. I just realized that was about a month ago? Weird. Time is flying by here. It is unbelievable. After SavuSavu I headed to Tavueni and stayed at a breathtakingly beautiful little place looking out right to the ocean. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. This is coming from someone who is scared of the ocean/deep water, doesn’t love the beach vacations, and ideal honeymoon is in Alaska at 60 degrees. There was no need to snorkel because you could literally see the bottom of the ocean for miles. In fact I walked into the water so Natalie could take a picture and a huge black and yellow snake swam by my leg. AHHHHHHHHHHH. Don’t worry though, the locals told me those snakes are only poisonous on land…!?!?!? Sure. Anyways, the actual place we stayed at (Nat and I) was awesome because it cost us $15 American dollars a night!!!!!!!!! We looked it up in the travel book after we got back to Tavua and it said that it goes for $ 230 a night! SAWEEEEEET. I guess we got it that cheap because we were walk-ins randomly and they didn’t have anyone staying there. It probably helped that we told the owner that we were volunteers and she could obviously see we were cheap backpackers. She rocked. Anyways, I ate a lot at the local pizza place, read a couple books, got some color on my white bod, and actually wrote in my journal a lot reflecting upon my past week in Savu Savu. OH! We also hiked to these two waterfalls…Long hike, swim in freezing water, and literal ROCK CLIMBING up this water fall (scared to death, scared to death, scared to death) and then jumping off the water fall. (even more scared…yeah 10ft high, still petrified!) Anyways, I jumped off that slick, scary waterfall and thought I was going to drown, but then was peer pressured into climbing it again…dumb! However, instead of jumping off the waterfall a Fijian man told us just to ride the waterfall into the water…uh, what?!? So, we did that. It hurt my bum a bit, but it wasn’t as scary as jumping in. We then headed to the largest waterfall in Fiji and the next day went to the natural water slides. This was literally a natural waterslide. The water had made all the rocks so smooth it felt like a waterslide at an amusement park or something. Those weren’t scary at all, just incredibly fun. That was my favorite part of the vacation. We then headed to the International Date Line and so I guess technically I have been in two days at once or something remarkable….Great weekend vacation!
Well, back in tavua things have been very busy. We opened our projects up to a couple more villages so our team was trying to keep new names like Nadolodolo and Nomosa straight and not confuse it with Nabuna, Ruku Ruku, Tavua Levu, Yaladro, Korovo. Things became pretty hectic as many of the first wavers left to go home to America, project leads switched, and we prepped for second wave. In between all that confusion I randomly decided to catapult myself from an airplane at 12,000ft. Skydive in Fiji? Check. It’s true, bungee jumping is worse. Though I never have to skydive again, it was incredible and I am so glad that I did it! UHMAZING. Don’t worry, I have the most embarrassing dvd/pictures to prove it. Anyways, here is a rundown of a work week for me. Some things are set weekly, some come and go, some I choose to go to or not..keeping busy!:
Monday:
o 8am health meeting with Korovo Rugby team
o build a stove at 9 or 10 or prep for another lesson
o Lunch
o business lesson at Ruku Ruku
o Check on stoves or gardens..teach lessons accordingly
o health lesson at 5pm with Korovo kids.
o Home for schools/tutoring weekly meeting and gardening meeting.
o Dinner.
o Chores.
--A lot of time on Monday nights seem to go to reorganizing week and lately writing project proposals or re-writing proposals that were lost on the stolen laptop.
Tuesday:
o STOVE. Check gardens/stove or go to village health lesson
o Nasomo village (3 hours)
o Lunch
o Dramasi (womens group-3-4 hours) teaching health/business/gardening
o sometimes business lesson to women in tavua
o Ruku Ruku tutoring at 4pm
o dinner
o team project proposal meeting
o lesson prep

Wednesday:
o Nasomo if I am not in charge of a stove (9am-12pm)
o Lunch
o Stoves/ Women’s group/ Emergency prep/ youth group issues/concerns/ lesson prep usually fill this time
o tutor at the library or go to RukuRuku rugby team to teach health lesson
o Volunteer with Mare (Peer educator at hospital) or prepare health lessons for youth
o Dinner
o Yaladro team meeting
o Lesson prep

Thursday:
o Yaladro lesson prep or STOVE
o Yaladro peer tutoring program
o Lunch
o Business lesson to youth in Ba (all afternoon)
o Dinner
o Team meeting
o Complete lesson for yaladro
o Prepare for Tavua Levu health lesson and business lesson

Friday:
o Yaladro lesson 9am-11am
o Yaladro school tutoring 11:20-12pm
o Lunch
o Finish lessons for Tavua levu
o Health lesson at Tavua Levu 2pm
o Business lesson at Tavua levua 3pm
o Check stoves/ gardening Tavua

So. Each day I get up at 7am or 8am depending on when or where I have to be that morning. I never get up later than 8am. (Who is shocked?) I feel like my days are pretty busy and if I am not at a lesson or project I am home working on lesson plans or how to better the curriculums. David and Ashley asked me to be in charge of making sure the curriculums are appropriate and that lessons are helpful and challenging. I am also the only lead for Women’s groups/Yaladro, still the Emergency Prep lead with Nat, and now the new stove lead…. I am also trying to develop a new project with some youth groups, but time wise it is getting a little tricky because stoves sometimes seem to take the whole day…like today. L Overall though I feel that my life here in fiji is going wonderfully and I am doing what I want to do with my life. I’m not sure how fair that is or how often that happens to people, but I know I am very grateful for this short, precious time to be in a new place and spend my whole days figuring out lessons that will be interesting and some how help uplift the people and help them better their lives. It has also been great to live in another small house with a random group of people and see what happens. J

Experiences like this just reaffirm that small things don’t matter, serving others is crucial, and caring about someone else’s happiness can bring you the joy you have been searching for....and this applies to the team mates I am around 24/7 and the Fijian people that I get out of bed for each morning.

What else was I going to say?
Fact:
I am the tannest I have ever been in my life…though that isn’t saying much.
False:
Winter in Fiji is cool (temperature wise)
Fact:
There is a huge Indian population with a huge culture of Indian things.. .ex: food.
Fact:
Development work is NOT easier in Fiji than other third world countries.
False:
I am on vacation…(as Josh would refer to my summer’s work).
Fact:
The letter “C” in Fijian is pronounced like the “th” almost D sound in English.
Example: Bye=Moce=Mo-they
Fact:
There is an invisible “N” sound before any letter D. And an invisible “M” sound before an letter B.
Example: Nadi (town where the airport is) is pronounced Nandi
Example: Nabuna (village we work at) is pronounced Nambuna
Example: Yaladro (settlement I am project lead for) is pronounced Yowelandro

Okay! Hope you get a feel for my life here! I really miss you all!
Natalie and I are going to New Zealand for a couple days starting July 3rd. Anyone want to meet us there???
Also, I head to Suva this weekend to do a follow up on all the food dryers that Dr. Frost Steele constructed last year.
I really would love to get emails about your lives!
Moce!
Loloma, (love)
Victoria

and some more...

more pics puhleeze

it takes too long to upload things here.

first one is me and my local id.
second one is me giving a speech at a local high school.

:)
sorry i can't upload more!
love,
tor

Fiji update

Bula Vinaka,
Wow, I am sorry for the month that has passed by without a report! I will have to get some thoughts together and some pictures to upload. This past month has been quite the adventure and I am truly loving my life here. I have found myself lately becoming a little emotional as I realize the love I have for these people and the love and respect they have for me. It's been quite humbling and quite rewarding. I have a week or so left and it is a busy one! Our country directors are on a much needed and deserved vacation so Natalie and I are the CDs for the week. I hope everyone is doing well back in america! Life is beautiful here, and I am doing my best to work hard all the way to the end. Thank you for all or your prayers and support! WE need it.

loloma,
Victoria

Is this real life?

what day is it????
where am i?

often, i'm not completely positive what day it is, and most days i have no concept of the time. . . even worse, its cold and overcast and i realized that i'm in new zealand in the dead of winter. WHAT? So, when I wake, before i put on my make upppppppppp.....i have to register where i am, what day it is, and figure out the time. Seriously though, I slept in a room with no window last night and woke up not knowing which side of the world i was in. Kinda cool, in a twilight sort of way, perhaps.

Okay,so currently I am in New Zealand. Whangeri, in fact. Pronounced Fawn-ger-I. I get nervous when I try to pronounce it because a) I always say it wrong. B) I feel like i'm about to slip and say the EFF word or something.

Anyways, New Zealand happens to be beautiful and amazing. It also happens to be wonderfully chilly weather and makes me fall in love with it even more.

In other news...WHERE DID JUNE GO???? I thought I was doing so well with updating my blog and adding pictures and stuff. Now it happens to be July? OH! Its July 4th in America isn't it?!?!? Happy INDEPENDENCE DAY! NAT, BRE, AND I have been discussing our july 4th traditions continuously all day. I am sad I am not there. I love July 4th in B-town. Good food, good friends, great fireworks show. Wow, hope everyone enjoys it!

OH! Also, I think a majority of my family is in OHIO for Big Rigg's baby blessing. (also known as Maguire Riggs Kirkham, my new nephew)....So, thats another great BLonquist reunion i am missing. Shoot. Eat some of Ursula's baked beans and potato salad for me! And a hot dog AND HAMBURGER. maybe some bbq chicken too while you're at it. . .I'm sorry did this turn into a food tangent? Per usual.

Speaking of food. Turns out New Zealand has great food. What kind of food? Only my favorite ever ever everrrrrrrrrrrr. BREAD. CHEESE. MILK. ohhhkay. Also, we strolled upon a cheese cellar store and they let me eat all the free samples i could manage! Can you imagine!?! Also, the lady had me try honeycomb on "subtle blue cheese." yeah, okay. Turns out she was 100% correct when she stated that i would love it. Also, turns out they have delicious icecream that tastes very similar to NUTELLA, but BETTER. Did I just type that? YES, cause its a fact. BEcca, believe it. An icecream that is similar to nutella, but better, and an icecream shop that gives you A LOT of it b/c they obviously see your poor self strutting through their shop with your backpackers pack and two dollar coins.

COOL.

OH yeah, FIJI.
The reason I haven't updated IS BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN SO BLOODY BUSY OVER HERE. BUSIER THAN BEFORE when i wrote an email about what i do on most days. Got more intense and I spent the last two weeks up late and rising early. Thats the life though.

Natalie and I traveled to suva to check up on the food dryer situation.
Many, many lessons, many many great successes.
It's been wonderful.
I will try and write an email later to describe the business if possible. But for now, I earned these vacations days, So i'm off to enjoy them!

GOD BLESS AMERICA! HAPPY FOURTH!!

moce,
Victoria

Hungry? WHY WAIT.

..grab a taro root....or ten. (also, random pic of some people from our team when we did our talent show for eachother.)

okay i'll try and upload some pics

SO, I wrote that rockin savu savu update with pictures and all, but it wouldn't upload and then the pictures would n't upload to the right part of the update, so i'm just going to try and upload a bunch of pictures and probably without captions. enjoy!

savu savu update

SAVU SAVU WEEK:
417

(Waiting at the airport..Me, piper, maria)
So, I went on a separate project with 6 others to a different island called, Vanua Levua, to a smaller town called Savu Savu. This place happens to be gorgeous. I guess tavua (the place were we live) is sort of like the nebraska of fiji….it’s still pretty of course, but there are many other places that are just breathtaking and Savu Savu happens to be one of them. I went with Bryce and Jacob (the 2 rm who served here), val, piper, libbie, maria. The boys had set up this whole project with their former mission president who was funding all the money for the construction aspect of these projects. It was pretty cool because we flew to this island specifically to help members of the church which isn’t something I have ever necessarily done. So our plan was to knock down this lady’s house (Sister Low), because she was being evicted. We were going to knock it down so that they could move it to a different location. We also planned to build 2 kitchens, bench for some business, teach health, education, and business lessons, and bring supplies to a village up in the mountains that was 4 hours away by bus. We also were supplying some things for a septic tank. We had 4 days to do all of these projects and lessons so it was pretty busy.
Project one: Sister Low’s house~ Saturday, May 30, 2009
pictures at top
Brcye, Jacob, Tori, Val, Maria, Lib, Pipes travel up the mountain and find the dirt path up the hill to sister low’s home. Slick, muddy path, but we made it. Her house is bigger and made of sheet metal and wood. Turns out sheet metal is really strong and hard to knock down. Often harder than the rotting wood. We spent a lot of time and a LOT of sweat knocking that place down. The Fijians helped of course and we could not have done it without them. It started raining which I appreciated, but I’m not sure others did as much.
We got a large portion of the house knocked down, but not all when Jacob decided he wanted to travel to Tukavesi village to see exactly what materials were needed there. I decided to go with him and we got on the 2pm bus.

Project two: This bus ride was just like a roller coaster, except dirtier, no seat belts, and lacking the fun down hill feeling. Mostly just jerky and bumpy and intense. It was 3 ½ hours long. We got to tukavesi and the sister who’s house we were building met us at the bus stop. We walked to the branch presidents land and he showed us where we were sleeping. Turns out to be a small hut/home this one lady gave up for us. Two double beds with mosquito nets. It looked very comfortable and I was excited about that. Here’s a pic:



We stayed in this lady’s house. I dunno how to put pictures on this thing, turns out......

It gets dark here around 6 so it was already pitch black, but we then walked a couple feet to the branch president’s home where we ate tin fish and dalo leaves for dinner with a lot of dalo and cassava roots. We then talked and played with the kids for a bit and then went back to our hut around 7:30pm. We were exhausted. Jacob and I talked for a bit and then I realized I had to go to the bathroom so bad because I had had 5 glasses of water at dinner…Turns out tin fish and dalo leaves aren’t my favorite dish ever…I went outside next to the house and went to the bathroom. Got back inside and into bed when we heard 3 dogs barking and running straight towards our hut. (luckily our huts are elevated) they ran over barking and started digging up the spot where I had just gone to the bathroom. They were furious that I had just marked on their territory I spose. They then marked their territory again and ran away. Weird. Anways, we fell asleep probably around 8:30 or 9. The branch president came and woke us up at 6am. Jacob showered and I got up at 6:30. Church was at 7am.
Sacrament meeting in the BUSH:
We walked to the local primary school with the branch president and his family. There we set up the room for church and a few others strolled in. Probably ten adults total, Jacob and I included. These people know English, but are too shy to speak it, so everything was in Fijian. The lesson was on agency and adam and eve and the branch president taught it. Next, Jacob was asked to teach gospel doctrine. Then sacrament meeting was last and Jacob and I were asked to be the speakers. It went really well and I really enjoyed being with those people and even talking for a little bit in their sacrament meeting. By 10am it was extremely hot and we walked down to the spot of land where we were supposed to build the house for this sister who was currently living with the branch president and his family. Jacob talked to them about the supplies they needed and got everything set for that project. We then walked back, changed, and had HOT tea and scones/Fijian pancakes for breakfast…..it was already 100 degrees with 100% humidity and I was drinking hot tea. Needless to say, I was dripping dripping drippppping sweat at the table. Embarressing. We then went to our hut to take a nap and I was so hot and uncomfortable I was in physical pain and couldn’t fall asleep for 30 minutes. Frustrating. Then I dreamed about telling Urs how I needed surgery to stop all this sweat because it was so embarrassing and the Fijians didn’t know what to do with someone like me… Oh wait, that part is true. We then had lunch (spinach leaves in coconut milk/cream) which always makes me feel like I am having an allergic reaction. The dalo leaves are intense. We then played with the kids for a while and hung out with the families. I loved that. We hopped on a bus and had a 4 hour long roller coaster ride home.
We got back to Sister Low’s where the gang was watching a pirated version of “Twilight” and eating bananas and having lemon tea. We then headed back to our new hotel which had Air CONDITIONING AND WARM WATER FOR SHOWERS. Amazing. And breakfast was included. All for $10 american dollars a night.

Projects 3 &4: Monday the girls went to sister Low’s to finish knocking her house down. The local elders came as well. One of them was Fijian and literally took a tree trunk and bashed down the walls in 2 seconds that we had been trying to get down for like 2 hours. Awesome. We then headed to our separate projects. Bryce, Me, and Libs went to a separate village to focuse on building a kitchen for a women who had some type of palsy and couldn’t speak. She also was paralyzed on one side of her body. Libbie and I were in charge of cutting out an opening for the door which meant cutting the sheet metal that was already on her house. Turns out that took about two hours. That stuff is intense. A man called Pwata helped us. The lady was so cute and funny. She would just giggle and laugh and slap your back.
I noticed that the stairs going into her house were rotting and had large spaces between the slabs. I was helping her up the stairs and she fell through them, and so did I. It was awful. I thought why were we building her a kitchen when she can’t even get into her house? I talked to Libs and we decided we wanted to build her a new set of stairs. So that became our project while bryce worked on building the kitchen with the Fijians, Libbie, me ripped the old stairs out and built new stairs with Pwata. It was pretty difficult to communicate how we wanted them, and it was hard work actually building them, but we did it! My camera was dead, so I’ll have to get some pictures from Libs. It was so awesome! I was so happy we got to do that. The others were building a kitchen for another family as well as building and teaching some things for a separate home. We did these projects for a few days as well as taught health: basic health, first aid, sanitation/hygiene, business, and importance of education lessons.

Back to Tukavesi:
Wednesday I took Libs, Pie, and Maria to Tukavesi. We left around 10:30 and didn’t get there til about 3pm. The bus wasn’t that full until we got about 20min away from where we were supposed to get off. It became jammed pack and we were of course, in the very very back. People loaded corn and huge bags in the middle of the bus and we couldn’t get out. The three girls threw their stuff out the window and then they jumped out the windows as well while I was literally climbing ontop of bags, corn, and people to get to the front. IT was quite funny and embarrassing. It then started to rain so we hung out at a random house for a while and I practiced my Fijian. The branch president came and met us and we went back to his house for some juice and cookies. I then taught basic health and sanitation/hygiene lessons for over an hour and it went really well. I also taught about stoves and we went on an adventure to find some clay. They have easy access to clay so that was exciting for them! The girls went back to the hut for a while and I played with all the kids (10 or more) for an hour and a half. I got so buff swinging them all around and playing all their crazy games. Bryce, Val, and Jacob arrived around dark and we had a business lesson and then dinner. Fish, fish , and more fish. Usually they have a bucket of water for you to rinse before you eat, but they brought out soap with it! It made me happy that they were implementing what they had learned in my health lessons. We talked some more about health and education and had some great discussions with the people. There is this one little boy, Michael who is Fijian but has blond curly hair (his dad is Australian I think)..and was absolutely adorable.


I played with the kids for a long while and started dancing with them. Fijians think it is the best and most hilarious thing in the world when Palangis dance. It was really fun. The little kids also love my long hair and were playing with it and braided it. I looked like Madusa, but it was cute. Around 9 I went to bed with the rest of us in that same hut Jacob and I had stayed in on Saturday.

This one lady, Rita really stood out to me. She was very helpful in all the lessons and finding clay. I talked to her for over an hour about her life. She wasn’t a member of the church yet, but her husband was. She called her husband, “my honeybee” and they have been married for 7 years. She grew up in Suva, but came to this village with her parents when her uncle had died. She realized then that she wanted to live a village life, and soon after met her now husband, Rafeal. They got married, but the pastor didn’t get it legally recognized. Their marriage certificate was also misplaced so now they have to pay to get transport to town ( 4 hours, $10 each) and then get re-married, and pay for a marriage license ($20+). They do not have those funds. She talked about how she could not join the church until their marriage was legally recognized. It was fascinating and devastating. It probably costs $50 total to get the license, but they haven’t been able to save that money in the recent years. Wednesday I said goodnight and went to bed, but I didn’t specifically say goodbye to her. That is my biggest regret. I wish I could have given her a gift and said goodbye properly. She was amazing and I miss her already.

Thursday we woke up at 7,and ran to the bus. We then got off and got on a boat that took us to Tavueni…known as the “Garden Island” of fiji. I’ll write more about that rockin vacation later!

Hope you enjoyed the very long update!

Savu Savu and Tukavesi were beautiful: