My cat's name is Bogi (pronounced Bongi) and boy, he's just the most. He's a little runt of a guy that I'm trying to fatten up by feeding him leftover coconut grounds (from making the lolo). He LOVES coconut and I think he will really come in handy when I move to site and have rats running around... oh, I just recalled having a dream about a rat last night, yikes! It's pouring rain outside right now, which means I'll be sprinting back to the office building where we have our Thursday class sessions. Fiji is as crazy as ever, although I'm just days away from finding out my site location. I think it is far away --- as during my interview I was asked if I mind love rides on small fiberglass boats. I said, I CERTAINLY DON"T MIND!!! Bring it on woo hoo!!! The perks of living on a "far away" island is that I will maybe have a nice beach area nearby. Man, that's my ultimate hope. Maybe even reef!? The downside is being far away from towns and other Americans. Honestly, at this point, being somewhere beautiful definitely takes the cake. I had a discussion with my host Na today that it would be a GREAT idea to put away foods so that ants and other bugs stop invading them. I have gone over this before to no avail... she calls bugs in the food "medicine." I'm about done with my daily intake of medicine quite frankly... especially when I wake up and am particularly ornery (past roomies can attest). NOT a morning person haha. What else what else, oh, I hear that I'll either be doing marine/coastal sciency work or eco-tourism, and I told them that I was leaning towards eco-tourism, but we'll see. Both are a dream come true for sure! Not without plenty of challenges though.
What else... the people here are always proving to be so hospitable and welcoming. Anytime we make any attempt to do something Fijian (like cooking Fijian food, or speaking Fijian) they squeal with delight and say vinaka vinaka - which means thank you and good at the same time. Very confusing - many words here have more than one meaning. I long for the day that I am fluent. Oh, my host Na made some awesome arrangements to have us go on a picnic on Sunday. She spoke to our neighbor who then spoke to her father and asked him to take us on his boat through a narrow channel in the mangroves to the river which then fed into the ocean. Right at this delta area were vast mud flats. So we pulled over there and walked to a line of coconut trees to eat in their shade. We then waded around in some tidal waters and I swam a bit in the water. This water was murky brown by the way. haha, go ahead and rid yourself of the notion of clear blue and white sand!! lol!! I had a blast swimming - despite being in my river clothes as bathing suits are unacceptable. I keep forgetting that I have to wear a skirt in the village, so sometimes when I return from an adventure in the farm, or elsewhere, I have to be reminded to wrap my sulu around my waist. Amazing. OK, that's it for now. More later! Love and hugs - Z OH! And my Fijian name has been deemed Rosie. Apparently because I am like a Rose to them. One guy has named me Tema after his wife. Apparently a compliment!
It's so great to be kept in the loop about what's going on with you honey! I'm so glad you're having such a great time and look forward to your updates so much. On the "many words here have more than one meaning" thing: just remember, many languages have words with this particular 'issue'. My favorite would be a word that starts with "f" in English...it not only has many meanings but can be various parts of speach as well :-)
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