Day to day...

Many of you have asked about day to day life here for me… I haven’t replied because every day is different…as I like it!  I go into the  Microloan office (my host company) about 4 days a week at different times  for difference hours on different days.  I really like being with my coworkers-they are great ladies.  It is a small office with about 10 of us…all ladies and one male guard.  When I go to ‘work’ in the morning I get up about 6:30AM do some laundry- by hand (only have water 4-8AM and again 4-8PM) make some breakfast in my electric frying pan and catch a bus at 7:30AM or catch a ride with my landlord into town-about 15 ride.

On the bus I am packed in with kids going to school. The young men always give me a seat…and I am so very happy.  That is a time when I know I am truly integrating and becoming part of Fiji.  The kids are respectful yet curious about me and have the best smiles! Monday mornings we have a staff meeting at work and I am always there. We have prayer, bible reading in English, Fijian and Hindi. They’ve asked me to sing lately ..so of course I do-Amazing Grace, How Great Though Are… I love how religious everyone is in Fiji!! Then we go around the table with-how our weekend was and/or any problems or news.  Really very bonding!

For this first month-I have been doing a lot of observing…as clients come in the office to pay loans. I’ve been going out with Field Agents to collect money in the market and in shops.  I have moved furniture around and created a much nicer office space for both the clients and the staff.  We will be working on customer service soon…hard to imagine how such a sweet group of ladies can be so rude to clients!  

I spend a lot of my day walking around this city (about the size of Ventura California) meeting and talking with officials in the government, provincial (rural-villages) and city council offices. I am working on getting them to work together on issues. My main work is in Business Advising but as a Peace Corps Volunteer, we are expected to have secondary projects. I have several issues I am bringing to them –air pollution (they burn everything-all the time), litter, dog over population, women in business and domestic violence.  I am mostly well received and if they laugh at my idealism-  I just laugh with them  (Fijians laugh at everything) and tell them I am going to be around for two years bugging them …and I do keep stopping in!  Just heard some good news!  As a result of my ‘bugging ‘ them…the government agency and city council have really addressed the over population of dogs. There are about as many dogs as people in the city! At night you hear them in packs and getting hit on the road.  In the last two weeks these agencies have: trapped and euthanized 26 dogs, licensed 50 dogs and have 55 signed up for spaying and neutering next week!  This is SUCH a big deal!  There are only three veterinarians in all of Fiji and one will visit here to do the neutering..I’ll be there congratulating the owners and handing out treats!

 Recently , the Prime Minister has asked for success stories from all the microloan companies  and I am going around interviewing clients and taking pictures, then submitting  reports.  One such day looked like this:  up at 7:30am, caught bus to bus station..by 10:30…hoping to catch a bus to Rakiraki-a 2 ½ ride north .  Alas...no bus until 12:15 so I go to the mini bus stand ..a bus is leaving for Ba  just  then..so I figure I’ll get that far then figure how to get to Rakiarki.  They pack you into these vans..not too much fun..but again I am integrating. The old guy taking the money takes my $5 (for a $2 fare) and walks away…so I get out and have to explain that I need change…he really didn’t know how to count money…I am certain he wasn’t trying to rip  me off…sad. A nice guy in the minivan tells me how to catch a bus in Ba…he actually walks me over to the bus stand and stops a bus leaving for Rakiraki!  So I arrive by 1pm and bring lunch to my coworker -we have an office there, and she came in earlier.  She was so pleased to see me…and we wait for Sisili to come to the office.  When she arrives we take a taxi to her house and sit (on the floor-up against furniture) and talk.  She describes her life of growing up on her family farm and in her twenties-setting up her own stall at the market place to sell the root crops.  She expanded to two stalls and when she married helped her husband open a pawn shop. She has asked me to help her with sewing lessons-her next business venture. Sisi says that she can succeed at anything she sets her mind to. She sits in front of an elaborate alter to Mother Mary and Jesus and attributes her confidence and good fortune to her faith.  After our ‘interview’, four of her friends show up and we have a sewing class. I always start (sewing classes)with their sewing machine…what repairs etc it needs.  I show them how to take is apart and maintain it then thread it.  Sisi’s friends are all very receptive but madua (shy)..so I get them laughing and soon we are all good friends!  As we are leaving, Sisi tries to give me money and I explain how I cannot take any pay as a Peace Corps volunteer. We will have these ‘classes’ for the next couple of Fridays and hopefully then get them developing a business around sewing.  They all have machines (which is the good news!) and they will bring them to class to take apart and maintain. I catch a ride back home, and on the way stop by Abraham's pawn shop (Sisi's Husband)..about a three hour ride past burning fields. I am home by 7pm and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, spend some time emailing and early to bed-  that was a great day!