Never home

I knew October was going to be a busy month filled with lots of traveling and people invading my house. It's actually been quite fun.

As a volunteer we are required to meet three times during out services (at 6 months, at a year and a half, and right before we leave). Its already been 6 months? Where has the time gone?

Our conference was held at a resort in Nadi. It was a five day workshop to see what other volunteers were doing and also learn about potential projects and additional resources. Coming into it I dreaded the thought of re-experiencing the oh so frustrating pre-service training that forced us all to endure endless hours of unnecessary time wasting. But, I was pleasantly surprised at how painless the workshop was, not to mention it was nice to hear about other peoples experiences. I'm starting to see how vastly different the lives of rural and urban volunteers are.

The day before and the days following the workshop, I had plenty of people crashing on my couch and extra bed. Lautoka is about 25 minutes from Nadi so some people who came in a day early and left a day or two after stayed and partied their little hearts out, a luxury not always available living in the bush.

It didnt stop there. The day after everyone had finally cleared out was the day of the "Stand up against poverty" campaign. A local NGO held an event (a game really) similar to the Amazing Race- which everybody BUT me seemed to know about. There were 16 teams at 25 different locations. Essentially its like a scavenger hunt with questions challenges at each sight. I was stationed at MaiMIX FM- the only radio station in the west. I wasn't very creative with my challenge because I was at the beginning of what I would later find out to be a bad case of Strep throat. Admittedly lame and boring, the challenge was to spell "Alleviate poverty." Other people had limbo contests... I cant remember any others right now, but I do remember really wanting to limbo.

Two days later I was off to Suva. Amoxycillin in one hand and a jug of water in the other. 5 and a half hours later I arrived a mess at the bus station on Sunday afternoon (Everywhere in Fiji all but shuts down on Sundays). I was sick, carrying a heavy load, nothing was open and I couldnt get a hold of my host. Everything was all wrong. All I wanted to do was turn around and go back home.

Another 5 hours passed as I sat staring at the water with my backpackers pack still on. Finally, a call came and I was off to Kaori's house. Kaori is a JICA volunteer who works at Ministry of Health headquarters in the HIV prevention section. She and I are collaborating on a club outreach project for the major cities in Fiji (Suva, Lautoka, Labasa, Nadi, and maybe Savusavu). The outreach will be focusing on condom distribution and HIV awareness. The program is in response to people feeling that accessibility is apart of the reason for not using condoms consistently. Hopefully through this and other projects and programs we can provide information and material to make it easier to access condoms throughout Fiji.

We've spent the last week in a workshop learning about Behavior Change Communication. It ended on friday, so we're just starting to make plans for our launch on December 1st, World AIDS day. It should be really fun.

I'm still here and I will be for another week. Its been a lot of work, and little down time- which is good, but unusual for Fiji as everything moves quite slowly here. I'm starting to really feel like I have a job. I foresee busy months ahead, lots of preparation and condoms... lots and lots of condoms.