Spring in Suva

Life keeps marching on so quickly. I'm down to my last two months in Fiji which seems really hard to believe. Two years really flies by, and I'm looking forward to having a longer time to settle in to my next post (Guayaquil, a 3-year assignment).  This year started out with a visit from Dad and Tammy, during which we spent almost a week at Navini Island in the Mamanuca group. We enjoyed a lot of snorkeling, good food and relaxing together. We really appreciated their coming to visit, especially since the trip is so long and expensive to make.

Alex was gone for almost a month in Feb-March for his job, visiting the U.S. Embassies in the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau, with compulsory overnight stops through Honolulu and Guam. He was able to fit in some good diving along with the work he was doing. A highlight was diving in jellyfish lake, full of golden jellyfish, whose sting is not strong enough to affect humans.

During his trip, I stayed busy in Suva with a few different activities.  I needed to wrap up a few projects at work and draft my personal statement for our annual employee reviews (these are a huge deal in the State Department). I also enjoyed attending the Women in Business Awards Gala; one of my colleagues was a judge for this annual competition in Fiji, in which women are nominated and evaluated on their small business or their managerial roles in bigger companies. This year, our new ambassador was the keynote speaker, and several people from the embassy shared a table and enjoyed ourselves at on of the fanciest occasions that exists in Suva (especially since we don't have a marine ball).

The Hindu holiday Holi fell on March 6 this year, and some of my soccer friends brought colors to our weekly 5-a-side game. It was fun to experience a little bit of this culture, close to what I learned about in Hindi class before coming to Fiji.

I've begun with the many tasks required before a State Department transfer is possible: getting travel orders, looking for a place to stay during training, figuring out which training I can get, deciding what to sell here and what to pack, scheduling pack outs in Suva and DC, and trying to do as many of the things I want to do before leaving Fiji. It seems like just as I'm starting to figure a place out I have to pick up and leave again. Yesterday we took a day trip to Takalana Bay to see the dolphin pods in the Moon Reef and snorkel around the reef. I saw squid for the first time!

Lovo pit at Navini Island Resort

With some co-workers after the traditional farewell ceremony for Ambassador Reed

playing colors on Holi

Merry Christmas from Suva!

I have thought many times over the past months how I should write a blog to update all my friends and loved ones on what is new with me, and I just haven't done it. Logging into my blog, I see that it's been 10 months since I last wrote--I'm sorry not to stay in touch better.

I have been staying busy with work, but I have also been struggling to feel ok and have energy to live life. After beginning to work with a functional medicine practitioner in the States over Skype about 3 months ago, I am hopeful that I will start to see some improvement--I found out I have adrenal fatigue (after 3+ years full of hard losses and moving away from friends and family to a somewhat stressful job) and am still fighting a parasite that has been really affecting my quality of life. I'm starting some treatments that I hope over the next few months will help me start feeling back to normal.

This is not to say the year hasn't been full of many great experiences and things to be thankful for! Some of the highlights of the last year for me have been:

• Several long weekend trips to beautiful beaches in Fiji for snorkeling and relaxation
• Finding a couple of string players to meet up with and play chamber music--I had not played in a group with my viola for years
• A trip back to the Venezuela with Alex for a visit and to the States for training, visiting friends, and spending time with family for a few days
• Welcoming my nephew Hunter into the world
• Several trips to Tonga to provide consular services (and a weekend swimming with whales!)
• Receiving tenure and being promoted at work
• Weekly soccer games with a nice group of friends from work
• Game nights and dinners with friends
• A visit from Gerry Smedinghoff to run the Suva Marathon
• Diwali celebrations with friends
• An amazing R&R trip with Jenn and Alex to the Great Barrier Reef and Sydney
• Alex's starting to work in the embassy here, in a similar job to what he did in Caracas
• Countless amazing sunsets and beautiful views

In November, I found out that I will be heading to Guayaquil, Ecuador, next July, and now this final year seems it is really flying by.  Two years feels really short to try to settle in to a new place, and I am really looking forward to a 3-year tour for a change. We're looking forward to a visit from Dad and Tammy next week; we'll show them around Suva for a day or two and then get out to one of the scenic areas to enjoy snorkeling and relaxing. We think of our friends and family who are so far away from us here often and miss you all. We are thankful for the important part you all play in our lives.

Christmas kalavata consular section

Alex at colo-i-Suva

with Allegra and Jane at the 4th of July party

happy Diwali

Hoping you all have a happy holiday season and new year celebration!

Just another day in paradise...

I've been meaning to sit down and type up another blog post for weeks. Between being super busy at work and super tired at home I just haven't gotten to it.

In a consular section, an American is almost always required to be present in the section due to the presence of what are called "accountable items." These include visa foils, blank passport books, embassy seals, etc. So in a section with only three Americans, it can sometimes be a real challenge to make sure we have sufficient coverage. In our office, that has recently been compounded by the fact that my boss is leaving and doesn't have a replacement yet (we don't know when there will be one). Additionally, since we cover 7 countries, we have to travel quite a bit so that's less coverage available. In Fiji, there is currently a dengue outbreak, which has taken half of our local staff out of the office for several days at a time. It's no wonder I feel like I'm going a little crazy sometimes.

Outside of work, Alex and I stay busy with tennis lessons and soccer matches. I recently met up with some people who play violin and viola and we made plans to have a regular night to play music together. This is a real treat because in a country like Fiji there are not a lot of opportunities to play classical music with other people. There's also a brand new American-style strip mall that has a nice cinema, a food court, several restaurants and shops, and a great new grocery store with lots of imported products. We have spent many weekend afternoons or evenings at the Premium theater, where you can recline in comfortable chairs and order food and drinks to your seat. Movies come out the same time here as in the US, but a regular ticket costs 8 FJD (about $5 USD). The premium ticket costs 20 FJD and includes a small popcorn and juice.

Fiji currently has a coup government, meaning the Prime Minister came to power after a military coup several years back. This year, they are supposed to have the first democratically held elections since the coup. Though there are quite a few things that Fiji and Venezuela have in common, their realities are completely different. There is not much violence in Fiji, and guns are extremely rare. This is much easier to control in a small island nation than in a country like Venezuela, with land borders to other countries. I've been watching the news and my friends' facebook posts about what is going on in Venezuela and mostly feel at a loss, wishing there was something I could do. I am proud of them for standing up and finally doing something to express how they feel about the current state of affairs. I'm also worried for their safety and well-being.

A few weeks ago Alex and I had the chance to get out and see some parts of Fiji we hadn't yet experienced, all within a few hours' drive of where we live. One day we drove to a village, where we participated in the sevusevu, the ceremony in which we present a gift to the village chief and request permission to access their land. From there we hiked about 45 minutes to a large waterfall. The land and water in those areas is so pristine. I'll put pictures below. On the way back, we stopped and visited a huge cave that took us 30 minutes or so to walk through. The following day, we visited a moon-shaped coral reef about 30 minutes off one of the coasts of Viti Levu (the island we live on) by boat. When we arrived, the boat driver told us we at a 100% chance of seeing lots of dolphins. Within two minutes we were watching them swim in pods of about 10-20 all around the boat and the reef. We snorkeled on the reef for about an hour, then got back in the boat and went back for lunch. The beauty was incredible.

As usual, I continue to have ups and downs with my health. I've been working through a new book called Your Personal Paleo Code by Chris Kresser. I've been following his website and podcasts for about a year now, and was excited to buy his book when it came out at the beginning of this year. He addresses a lot of the issues I struggle with regularly, and discusses the research behind his ideas, which I really feel help me. I've come to realize that this will probably be a lifelong challenge, with ups and downs. Currently, I'm grateful that I'm able to remain active playing soccer and tennis, and am otherwise learning how to adapt my life around the other symptoms I deal with. I was very grateful recently for friends and family who mailed me Claritin-D! It's the only medicine that really stops my allergies and is not available locally. I used to order it online, but recent US regulations for buying it online make it impossible for me to order it any more. I tried going off it for a while, but really feel much better now that I'm taking it again. Vinaka (thank you)!

Welcome 2014!

It has been hitting me this week that I've completed a full 6 months in Suva as of this week. It's hard to believe, since in many ways I still feel "new" at the embassy and in general, though at the same time I do feel like I have a much better handle on the way things work here. Since Suva is a "family post", meaning just about everyone who works at the embassy has kids this is a good time for people like me to volunteer to work while all the kids are on school break and families like to travel home for the holidays. I'm now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after being the sole consular officer at post for at least three out of the last 5 weeks and being duty officer for my third week out of the last four weeks. The duty officer carries an extra cell phone 24/7 and responds to emergency calls after hours. The calls should be for US Citizen emergencies only, though lots of other types of calls come through. The 1st was unusually busy for duty.

My exciting news just before Christmas was that I got tenure! We are required to be tenured within 5 years of entering the State Department, but not eligible to be considered for it until we've been in for 3. There is a tenure board that meets a couple of times a year and we get considered each time the board meets until we receive it. This was my first time to be considered, and I found out on Christmas Eve that I'd gotten it. I'll now be eligible for promotion next April. For my next assignment, I'll be finding jobs that interest me that are available and networking and lobbying to be picked for the assignment I want. It seems like a really overwhelming process and I'm not looking forward to that part of it, though I do like the idea of having a little more influence over where I'll be heading next.

Suva rivaled Caracas for fireworks per capita on New Years night. We had fun spending the evening with friends from the embassy and setting off some of our own. We could see others setting them off all around the city. They continued throughout the day on the 1st and I'm listening to some right now even. Because it's summer here now,  this is the long school break between school years. Classes ended around the 2nd-3rd week of November and will start up again late January or early February. So far there hasn't been a big storm here, though it's probably just a matter of time. The cyclone season goes through February I think.

I was shocked and delighted to find that my okra was already too big to eat, approximately 2 months after it was planted. It is amazing how quickly things grow here. I pick small green citrus fruit from the tree in the back any time I need some for flavoring in the kitchen. They look like small key limes, but are more orange-yellow inside and have a flavor closer to orange but a bitterness like a lemon. On google, I can't tell for sure, but the look kind of like these.We also have what I think is a pomelo tree. I haven't found much to use them in yet, but I like that they're there.

Below are a few pictures of Christmas around Suva. The first one, from the embassy holiday party, shows several of my consular colleagues, whom I really enjoy working with.

Water Water Everywhere

It's hard to believe it's already the week of Thanksgiving and that I've been living in Fiji now for almost 5 months. I love to live in a place where I don't have to deal with the cold and the snow, though the humidity in Suva is not without its challenges. We have 4 large dehumidifiers in the house, which all have to be emptied every other day in order to keep the mold and mildew at bay. We also have window air conditioning units. I was surprised to find out our recent air conditioner troubles were the result of being clogged from the outside with gecko droppings. The geckos are everywhere (there's no way to keep them out of the house), and I originally thought they were cute, but have been slowly learning more gross things about them. Besides the trouble with the droppings, I also found out that they're cannibals and my colleague also caught one drinking the saline out of her contact case on the bathroom counter. Not quite so cute anymore. We're soon entering cyclone season,  and not exactly sure what to expect. Last year the big storm knocked the power out for 2-3 days for most embassy housing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we won't be hit as hard this year

I just got back from my second consular visit to Tonga. Alex went along for some diving and photography. We went a couple days early so I could also do some of the fun stuff. I saw two different kind of sharks (a small reef shark and a leopard shark) while snorkeling. I don't remember ever seeing a shark before, so that was fun. I was also amazed at the different types of coral that I've never seen before and looked like they were taken directly out of a cartoon. I also saw big oysters, sting rays, clown fish and sea anemones, and even got head-butted by a little jellyfish (one of my biggest fears in the ocean). I haven't finished my certification to dive, as I struggle with being able to take off my mask underwater. I think I'd struggle with feeling claustrophobic too, so far underwater. I'm a huge fan of snorkeling and have done a good deal of it. Alex and I enjoy snorkeling together. I get to swim around and find all the cool stuff to point out to him to take pictures of. When he did a couple dives and I snorkeled alone we both realized it wasn't as fun. I had no one to take pictures of the cool stuff I found, and his camera slows him down under the water to the point that he prefers having an extra set of eyes to find cool subjects more quickly. Luckily there is plenty to see while snorkeling in Fiji and the surrounding areas, and since we have our own masks and fins, it's generally a free activity.

check out some of Alex's recent photos here:

Nemo

Low tide

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we'll travel to one of the closest small islands that should offer some more great snorkeling and swimming. While it's not too hard to get away on long weekends and visit the beach, it is somewhat of an effort to get to the beach. Suva is surrounded by water, which is beautiful, but doesn't have beaches or any real place to swim. We're always grateful when we catch a sunny weekend day so we can use the little pool in the back yard.

Not too long ago I finished (hopefully) the final treatment I'll try to kill the parasite I've had trouble with for so long. My health really suffered while I was on it, and I'm trying to rebuild my "gut health", as my doctor calls it. What this means is getting probiotics from as much food sources as possible (as opposed to only popping a probiotic supplement). I recently found a pretty decent greek-style yogurt made in Fiji which I believe has active cultures in it. For the most part, fresh dairy products can be hard to come by, so I'm glad for that. I've also branched out in my kitchen activities to try my hand at making sauerkraut. Other than a bad cut on my thumb, that turned out pretty well. My most recent attempt was kombucha (since there's no such thing as a health food store here!). My first batch came out relatively good. It's not just like store bought, but I am pretty pleased with it. I was also glad to be able to add fresh kumquat juice from the tree in the yard and grated ginger (which cost about $2 USD for a big bag of ginger root!). Kombucha involves a culture/starter that keeps on growing as many times as you care to use it, so I started fermenting another batch immediately and I'll try to get it even better this time. I do feel improved energy to a certain extent, so I think I'm on the right track.

Suva at sunset

Happy Diwali!

About a year ago at this time I spent several hours making brightly colored tissue paper lanterns for the Diwali party at FSI during language training. This year I get to see the celebrations first-hand, fireworks and all. Every night for the past week or so we've heard and/or seen fireworks around our house. Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights, the most important festival of the year for Hindus. It lasts five days (based on the lunar calendar), but it seems like it lasts at least 2-3 weeks based on the fireworks going on here. It kind of makes me feel at home after two years living in Venezuela. This weekend Alex and I attended a Diwali celebration sponsored by the Indian High Commission and the Indian Cultural Center. A co-worker offered to let me borrow the sari she bought to attend another Diwali party, so I took the opportunity to dress up.

People have asked about Hindi and the Indian culture/population in Fiji. I've been surprised at how much of the language and culture is preserved in the Indo-Fijian population. I come across at least a couple of visa applicants almost daily who do not speak English enough to carry out an interview. Even those whose English is fluent also speak mostly Hindi with other Indo-Fijians (referred to as Indians in Fiji even though they are Fiji-born). I was warned that Hindi in Fiji is nothing like Hindi in India. While I do find this to be true, I don't think it's so far off that it's very difficult for them to understand it. For one thing, Indian pop-culture has a big presence in Fiji, so the popular movies, music, and TV shows are all over the media in Fiji. I think this is part of the reason why they can generally understand my feeble attempts at Hindi. Similarly, though the language is used differently here, the base language is the same, and context gives a lot of clues which help in understanding the gist of a conversation. I've explained it like this: Hindi has conjugations of verbs that vary for gender, plurality and formality. I haven't heard Indo-Fijians use any conjugation other than the singular masculine informal regardless of the subject's gender or plurality. That kind of makes it easier for me since I don't have to worry that I'm conjugating correctly. I'll sometimes do the interview in Hindi, but will often ask a local staff to interpret, though I can usually understand most of the applicant's responses.

I also regularly use the Tongan interpreter (though almost all Tongans graduate from high school where English is taught in every grade, they tend to pretend they don't understand me until I get the interpreter--I think there is some perception that they have a better chance of having the visa approved if the interpreter is used). About 3-4 times so far I've also called upon local staff to interpret for me in Fijian. There have been times that I wished I could also speak French and Chinese. Already in 4 months I've seen passports from more countries than I did in my entire two years in Venezuela. My boss says we interviewed people from at least 50 different countries last year. It keeps work interesting and keeps me on my toes as well, always learning new things.

scouting at a village outside of Suva

8 Countries in one month...

Granted three of them were just the airport, but still....it's been a really busy and hectic month! Alex and I had a great trip to Madrid for a wedding and then on to Portugal that started at the end of August. To get there we transited Seoul, which has great facilities in the airport for a five-hour layover. We drove from Madrid to Faro, Portugal, which is on the southwest coast. There, we met up with our good friend who's currently posted in Munich and we all rented a little apartment near the beach and spent a week laying by the beach and catching up. It was one of the best vacations I can remember ever taking. The return trip was brutal (transiting Hamburg, London, Seoul, Nadi) and took about 40 hours straight, but we left on a Saturday morning and arrived home on Monday at noon due to the time difference.

I was in the office four days before we left for my first work trip to Tonga (one of the countries in our vast consular district). Alex went along on the Tonga trip and enjoyed snorkeling with whales (and a shark), photographing the blowholes at sunset, and discovering what Tongatapu has to offer. It will be a somewhat regular trip for me, so we'll probably plan to take advantage of the trip over and stay a weekend at one of the other islands where there are lots of diving/snorkeling options. Though smaller and more rustic than Suva, Tonga has a lot of beauty to behold, and I look forward to getting to see more of it on future trips. (Check out Alex's picture of the coast at sunset here).

Returning to Suva from Tonga, I was very eager to get home and stay here for a while! It was nice that it is finally starting to feel like home. We still have a few things to work on to be completely settled, but I was able to spend all day Saturday unpacking and arranging some of the last boxes that had been pushed to the back of closets for storage. There's not a lot of storage room, and I brought quite a bit of consumables, so it's still a bit of a challenge finding a place for everything.

Below is a random list of some highlights that stick out from my travels:
-buying tons of fingernail polish and hair mousse in Madrid to replace all of mine that was not allowed to be packed in my HHE
-being in Mariola and Lucas' wedding (seeing her for the first time in three years)
-seeing Jenn for the first time in a year and feeling like no time had passed
-eating the most delicious seafood I've ever had in Portugal
-kayaking through the stone arches off the coast of Portugal
-sitting in the hammock on the porch listening to the rain in Suva
-providing American Citizen services to US citizens who required Tongan translation across a folding table at a conference center in downtown Tonga
-talking about laptop visa adjudications on camera for the local news in Tonga
-spraying myself in the face with coconut juice as I tried to cut a hole for my straw
-taking a picture with a US flag tattooed man on the streets of downtown Tonga (he looks like he may have done time in a California prison based on some of his tattoos)

with Jenn in Lagos, Portugal

kayaking in Portugal

waiting for sunset at the blowholes in Tonga

interesting guy on the street in Tonga