Oh hey. I built a house. :)! It took us two days, but it's up! It was so much fun. It's in a place called Koripita. Koripita is a low income housing settlement that has helped SO many people. The goal is to help those with no money, save. These people come from all backgrounds and many have faced huge trails and witnessed and experienced a lot of violence in their lives. It was originally inspired because of 3 hurricanes that hit the island all at once leaving so many people with out housing. those with out money enough to get a new home became squatters and began squatter settlements. there is a big issue of land in Fiji because if you aren't a native Fijian you actually can't own land and those that do own land will take advantage of those who don't. The people in these settlements stay in there homes for a dollar a day and help build homes for others. It can be quite the adjustment, moving into a community full of people after living in the bush. People are expected to have neighbors and live by rules. they grow their own food and are expected to save money up to be able to move out into their own place somewhere else as soon as possible, many never do move out, but there is a one generation rule, meaning that the kids can't get pregnant and then move in with their parents. extended family is also not welcome to live there. however, there is free vocational training, countless classes , all free and free education for all the school aged kids in hope that even if their parents never move out of Koripita, they will and the y will have the skill set needed to move up in life and leave behind their families darker history. In short, Koripita is full of people hoping to change their stars. It is fantastic and I think that we could implement the same program in the US sometimes. Right now they are trying to implement it in other countries particularly in south America.
Koripita invited us to a dinner fundraiser. The locals made us food and we were able to look at some AMAZING hand crafted things they had made themselves and were selling. It. was. so. cool.
I do have pictures from the past couple of days, but I was transferring the files to my USB right before we came here, so they will have to wait.
We also were able to attend a ward dance at our church last night. It was SO fun. if all church dances were like that I would go to every one!
tonight I sat and watching the sunset on our swing set. you can watch it melt into the water over the rest of the city from our house. It was beautiful. There are tender mercies everywhere.
Only two bug bites! and they don't even itch. OH! I almost forgot. Annie, one of my roommates came screaming out of our room last night. a HUGE cockroach had run past her hand in her bed. it was so funny. another girl tried to catch it and let it outside in one of our bowls. Katherine, our country director about threw up when she found out and to make things even better the cockroach jumped out of the bowl and disappeared under the bed. I was laughing so hard. We all managed to get to sleep. We went for a run this morning and I used the bathroom after Annie as we got ready to go. I didn't have my glasses on and there I sat chillin on the toilet doin' my thing when I look up and see a HUGE black spot on our door. Cockroach. I think i just said "oh hello friend. I watched it like a hawk until I finished brushing my teeth and then went and got Spencer who disposed of the poor little guy. I am not a huge fan of killing things, but I'm also not a huge fan of having cockroaches running around my room. RIP little...er big guy. Sorry about that.
Things are still a little unorganized, but they are coming together. On Monday we travel to Ba and I get to meet Ana! Finally! (Ana is the principal at the special education school I want to work with! I'm stoked. There is also a counseling center that I may be able to work with in Ba as well and a couple other special education schools we're contacting. This first wave seems to be just getting the ball rolling and set up so that the second and third waves can just plow through.
Put your shoulder to the wheel! push along!
Moce
Koripita invited us to a dinner fundraiser. The locals made us food and we were able to look at some AMAZING hand crafted things they had made themselves and were selling. It. was. so. cool.
I do have pictures from the past couple of days, but I was transferring the files to my USB right before we came here, so they will have to wait.
We also were able to attend a ward dance at our church last night. It was SO fun. if all church dances were like that I would go to every one!
tonight I sat and watching the sunset on our swing set. you can watch it melt into the water over the rest of the city from our house. It was beautiful. There are tender mercies everywhere.
Only two bug bites! and they don't even itch. OH! I almost forgot. Annie, one of my roommates came screaming out of our room last night. a HUGE cockroach had run past her hand in her bed. it was so funny. another girl tried to catch it and let it outside in one of our bowls. Katherine, our country director about threw up when she found out and to make things even better the cockroach jumped out of the bowl and disappeared under the bed. I was laughing so hard. We all managed to get to sleep. We went for a run this morning and I used the bathroom after Annie as we got ready to go. I didn't have my glasses on and there I sat chillin on the toilet doin' my thing when I look up and see a HUGE black spot on our door. Cockroach. I think i just said "oh hello friend. I watched it like a hawk until I finished brushing my teeth and then went and got Spencer who disposed of the poor little guy. I am not a huge fan of killing things, but I'm also not a huge fan of having cockroaches running around my room. RIP little...er big guy. Sorry about that.
Things are still a little unorganized, but they are coming together. On Monday we travel to Ba and I get to meet Ana! Finally! (Ana is the principal at the special education school I want to work with! I'm stoked. There is also a counseling center that I may be able to work with in Ba as well and a couple other special education schools we're contacting. This first wave seems to be just getting the ball rolling and set up so that the second and third waves can just plow through.
Put your shoulder to the wheel! push along!
Moce
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