Sunday, August 1, 2010

Jai ho

This was such an awesome week!- let me give you a little tidbit of how it went.

First off, I got to skype my family- what the what!?! that never happens- they were all in Jackson lake, babies and all, and they made the trek to the lodge to get some internet service so they could skype me! Best ever. My finding a computer wasn't so easy, I'll tell you that much. Long story short, after running all around Tavua town (I was literally running, just a little info to help with the mental image) to and from all three internet cafes to 1. Find a internet cafe that wasnt all shut down for the day 2. Find a computer that had a camera for skype, and 3. out of those computers, sift through the ones which were broken, find a computer that had skype that worked/was fast enough to actually be worth it. 20 minutes later, sweat dripping down my face, I finally got to a computer! I wanted to sing praises out loud, it was such a miracle. Anyways, I filled my family canteen there.

Second, in addition to all the other team projects, all of my music projects went really well! I am teaching two new kindergartens, one is a Fijian kindergarten in a village called Rambulu and the other is a Muslim kindergarten in a village called Korovuo. Those went really well, I will be going there every week until I leave, and hopefully will be teaching some more music classes to those schools in the older grades. Music in Lautoka has turned into a choir class, which was super successful, after I finally figured out they learn everything in solfedge (?? I have no idea how to spell that) which is the do-re-mi singing - for all you 'sound of music' fans, it's like the song on that movie. Praaaaise you sight singing classes at byu, the only way I could teach them the songs was to translate everything, using the stuff I learned in that class. Anyways, I'm teaching them be still my soul right now using solfedge, and they are lovin it- they sound amazing! On Mondays, I'm teaching a village called Vatutavui how to play guitar, ukulele and keyboard- that's goin pretty well. It's kinda hard to teach, cause they don't have a guitar or keyboard there, they just have some in their local methodist church- but they reeeally want to learn it, so whatevs. That village is sooooo sweet, it's right on the ocean, and all their houses are bures (however you spell that one) which are the houses you see in the movies and on the internet, the ones with the roofs made out of palm tree leaves and the base made out of wood and everything. Obviously, i'm terrible at explaining it, i'll just have to post a picture of it sometime when I get back. I'm still teaching piano lessons to a young single mother who used to be a member of the church and who is starting to come back to church (her name is Suzi Q, and her cute daughter's name is Fanny) She is practically family to us, she comes over all the time, I go to 'training' with her (which is just scrimmaging soccer every night) and she has hung out with us on the weekends for the past couple of weeks. Aaaaanyways, moral of the story is, music is going really well, and I'm really excited about that!

Last, I had the sweeeetest cultural weekend. Sorta last minute, Saturday morning a group of us woke up and went with Suzi Q and Meli (another Fijian guy) to a nearby village called Nodolodolo and went on a hour long boat ride through the river to the ocean to this tiny island the Tavuans call their 'picnic' island- it's just this tiny island right off the main island that is pure white sandy beach, big enough for two palm trees and a bure. (once again, I have no idea how to spell that). We pretty much just sat in the sun, ate coconuts, and played in the water all day, it was the beeest. The island was completely COVERED with starfish, they were all over the place- I actually took a bunch and just spelled my name with them. So sweet. Kayla actually found like 5 in her hair, I guess that would be a downside to an island infested with starfish haha. Anyways, it was really fun. I might have gotten some cooked legs, but other than that, I didnt burn anywhere! Pretty successful weekend. That night, we went to Suzi's cousins 21 birthday- which is something to compare to a latin girl's 15th birthday- cant rememeber what it's called, quincienta or something? Probably way off. Anyways, they have this whole cultural dinner with the village and neighbors, the birthday boy was all dressed up in the native Fijian outfit skirt- flower head dress thing, and we just danced and partied. So fun! Then Sunday, we all donned our indian outfits we bought at Rups big bear and went to an Indian wedding- so cool! It was actually a Christian wedding, but they had some of the Hindi traditional things included in there to get the best of both worlds I guess. We proceeded to be the only dancers on the dance floor, being the display of the party once again, most people just like to watch the white people make fools of themselves. Which is alright with us, as long as we have fun right? haha. guess so. Anyways, 91 pictures later, I would say it was a pretty sweet weekend. Alright! Till next week readers. Moce Moce

1 comment:

  1. Oh Rach! I love love love to hear how you are doing! It was SOOOO awesome to talk to you. Sorry I had to leave so fast. Silly baby that had to go to sleep! Anyways...that island sounds SWEEEEEEET!!! Seriously! What a paradise! Can't wait to hear more next week! Love you!

    ReplyDelete