I have a new site. I will be working with the Peer Educator at a small town hospital near Suva as well as with the Zone (Public Health) Nurses. I’m stoked. The area I will work in is considered a “hot spot” for new HIV and STI cases. We’re still working out the details of what exactly I will be doing so I don’t want to provide any false information. From my current understanding, I’ll be working partially at the hospital and with the school health team on outreach. The peer educator is responsible for providing health education talks to primary and secondary school aged children during these outreaches and I’ll be there to help.
So why am I back in the village when I’m working at a small town hospital? The volunteer currently living in the house I will eventually occupy is COSing in October, and because she only has two months left of service, Peace Corps didn’t want to throw any new curve balls at her. Respect. I totally understand. Therefore, Peace Corps had to get creative with suggesting I move back in with my host family and commute into town for work. I have a great relationship with my family, and while apprehensive about moving back in with Na and Ta (Mom and Dad) as a 23 year old adult who hasn’t lived with her parents for six years. Reasonable. However, after talking with another volunteer who had been medically evacuated she told me how going back to the village to visit her family was great for her mental health. I started feeling better about moving back with the family. I felt even better after I called my na a few days in advance to confirm that I was moving back on Friday, and she responded with, “isa, vinaka luvenqu (I’m touched, thank you my child). I have your room already set up.”
I got to the village Friday morning; my parents, nieces, nephews, cousins, and brother were all waiting at the house for me to come home. I was greeted with hugs and kisses and small children following me around. I instantly felt like I had just come home.
Na invited me to a function with her side of the family. The function was the one-year anniversary of a death in our family. I got to go to one of her 11 siblings villages. Yes, I said ELEVEN siblings. My aunties and I went to the graveyard where we draped a tapa over the grave, destroyed the tapa so grave robbers wouldn’t steal it and try to sell it, covered it with bula fabric, removed the bula fabric, and went back to the village for grog and lovo. It was excellent, talanoaing (telling stories) with my aunties and cousins while drinking grog for the first time in about two months and eating delicious lovo, food cooked in an earth oven, I almost cried when I got to eat one of my favorite vegetables here, ota or ferns, with coconut cream. We spent some more time with the family, and then went home. The entire time from when I arrived in the village that morning to when I came home that night I could not stop smiling. Like to the point where my face hurt.
I’m sure that there will be some struggles of living with my host family and settling into my new work site over the next two months, but to get to be home and have a transition back into Fiji life is good for me right now.
Ili in the Interior 