Tommy (April 2014- July 8, 2014)

At the end of April 2014, a tiny brown stray puppy was born (along with many others I’m sure) here in Suva, Fiji.  I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting this little guy until June 20^th, but I’m quite sure that he was quite the adventurous little rascal, because it was his sense of adventure that brought him to me.  I was working hard on my auditing tool in my office at the Ministry of Health’s health promotion office and it was pouring cats and dogs… literally.  I heard something crying outside the window and I left it for a while until finally I couldn’t ignore it anymore.  There was this poor drenched little puppy stuck in a deep ditch.  I whipped off my sweatshirt and wrapped him in it and brought him to my office.  My coworker, Ai, poured him a bowl of milk, which he gobbled up, and then he snuggled up in my sweatshirt on my lap and fell asleep while I finished my work.  I took him home and gave him a bath and quickly took him to the animal shelter, because he was getting sicker by the minute.

Puppy's First Bath

It broke my heart, but I exchanged my sweet, but very sick little baby for a form that asked for his information, including his name.  I decided that he at least deserved a name.  One of the girls with me volunteered the name Thomas, so I settled on Tommy.  I gave him one last kiss and left him there.  I came back at least once every week (sometimes twice).  Tommy got better and better!  He looked happier and healthier, and the nurse even said that he was becoming quite the little rascal: waking everyone up with his howling early each morning, and just being a little rascal.  I was such a proud mama!  On my birthday I visited Tommy as a birthday present to myself, and he was sick again, but the nurse assured me he was a fighter and that he would pull through.  She let me sit with Tommy for a while and rock him, he was finally starting to recognize me and snuggled into me.  I didn’t know that that would be the last time I would see my baby boy.

Tommy and I on my Birthday

This week work and drama and life piled up and I kept putting off seeing Tommy, finally today after a long day of work and feeling completely exhausted I decided to drop everything and go see Tommy.  When I got there one of the workers nodded me on to go visit Tommy like they always do, when I got there I couldn’t see him and his nurse, who was feeding the dogs, turned around and her face dropped. “I’m so sorry,” she said, “Tommy died on Tuesday.  I did everything I could, but he was just so sick.”  All I could think to do was thank her for all that she did for him, linger for a bit and watch the other puppies all excitedly bark for my attention, and then I left.

I’m glad my little rascal doesn’t have to feel so sick anymore, I’m sure he’s up in puppy heaven causing trouble and having a blast doing it, like all puppies should.  I just hope one day I can see him again and watch his little eyes light up because he recognizes me.  But if anything I hope my naïve little rascal was able to understand that I loved him oh so very much, and always will!

My little Rascal!

Lost My Voice to Volleyball

After two very long weeks of locking myself away in the Ministry of Health's Health Promotion Offices in Tamavua, I FINALLY have finished writing my auditing tool that I will be using to evaluate the maternal and child health component of all the health facilities here in Fiji.  So just to give you an idea its made up of 13 sections each with it's own set of instructions, about 5-10 questions (although one section has about 40 questions... it's a supply inventory though so don't be too impressed), and it's own little macros code that automatically computes the grade each facility gets based on how each question is answered (don't be fooled... this coding has been the bane of my existence, and once got me so frustrated I may have almost thrown my laptop across the office).  

This is what my computer screen has looked like non-stop for the past two weeks... and this is the uncluttered version!

But anyways I felt like I needed to reward myself with a little human interaction... so what better than to go teach a bunch of fifth grade girls how to play volleyball!?

These were the most adorable little girls ever, they honestly made me feel like Taylor Swift the way they all crowded around me for attention.  I had an absolute blast teaching these 50 girls how to pass the volleyball and get it to go where you want it to go.  But getting 50 girls' attention requires lots of yelling... and I mean lots!  By the end of it my voice was almost totally gone... needless to say when they asked me to come back every afternoon for the rest of the week and possibly start up an after school volleyball program, the first thing I did was run to the nearest Sports World and bought myself a whistle!

Playing the Alphabet Game
(The girls pass the volleyball around the circle to each other, every pass is a letter starting at "A" and finishing with "Z", but if the ball touches the ground you have to start over)
Needless to say... we never got to Z :/

Say Yes to Yasawa!

The Yasawa Islands are an archipelago of islands just northwest of Fiji, and they are pretty much THE MOST GORGEOUS group of islands I have ever seen in my entire life.  The water is completely see through and gorgeously blue, the sand is gorgeously white and as if the place couldn’t get anymore perfect they have these outcroppings of rocks that are perfect for bouldering.  My island activities this weekend included:

-Kayaking

-Taking mermaid pictures

-Stargazing… finally saw the milky way for the first time

-Skinny Dipping

-Hammock Naps

-Wrangling Wild Hogs

-Rock Climbing

45 feet free diving to see some of the greatest coral I’ve ever seen

Blue Starfish hunting

Snorkeling with Sharks

Watching amazing sunsets

Drinking Kava

Pretty much the greatest weekend yet here!!!

Crazy in the Clinic

Contrary to popular belief, I really am here in Fiji to work.  For the last week I have been observing at a maternal child health (MCH) clinic at the Ministry of Health here in Suva.  It's been an absolute blast!  The first day was a little awkward, as to be expected, but I held in there and at the end of the day was rewarded when I got to go with the nurses to the neighboring hospital's NICU to give some babies their immunizations... talk about some seriously small, sick... but seriously CUTE babies!!  On day two the clinic was SWAMPED with mothers and their kids needing check-ups so they put me to work!  I quickly learned how to measure each baby's weight and height and how to record it on their medical cards as well as in the clinic's record book.  I measured babies as young as one week old and some as old as two years old!  Pardon my Grey's Anatomy reference (its my guilty pleasure) but Arizona Robbins had it right when she said,

"These are the tiny humans.  These are children.  They believe in magic.  They play pretend.  They hope, and they cross their fingers, and they make wishes, and that makes them more resilient than adults.  They recover faster, survive worse.  They believe."

I have seen a lot of healthy kids these past few days, but I've also seen a lot of kids who are struggling, but all of them cracked a smile when I said silly things, made silly faces, or played little games with them.  These tiny humans are strong and I love them oh so very much!

I just hope that somehow what I'm doing gives these little humans the chance to one day grow up to be big humans who somehow contribute to making this world a better place.

Tutoring with FENC

So while I’m waiting for my evaluation of Fiji’s maternal healthcare system to get under way I have been volunteering my help with other people’s projects, namely Holly’s project with Foundation for the Education of Needy Children (FENC).  So last Thursday I went with the whole HELP team to a village to help tutor the kids there.  I spent most of my time working with an 18 year-old senior girl to explain how to write a resume and how to do well in a scholarship interview.  All the kids there were adorable and all wanted to be my best friend (talk about a confidence booster)!  I talked to one girl who was a track athlete who found out that I was an athlete in high school and was super excited to do a work out with me the next time I came.  All the little 4-year-old kids just wanted to be held and played with and you just can’t help but love them!

Snorkeling with Snakes

While I am interning in Fiji I have the weekends off to explore this beautiful country.  Not that this week was particularly grueling… getting projects started is the most painstakingly slow process EVER!  Anyways we decided to take a minibus from Suva to Nadi at 1am so that we got to the boat docks at 4am.  The night security guards took pity on us and let us go inside the terminal to sleep for the next 4 hours until the docks opened up.  One of the guards gave us some wooden boards to sleep on so we wouldn’t get cold on the tile floor (if you’re wondering they worked like a dream).

 Sarah and I at Malolo

At around 8am we hopped on board PJ’s Sailboat and headed out to the Malolo Island to snorkel, get some sun, and eat an awesome bbq lunch!  Snorkeling was pretty awesome I saw one of the most deadly sea snakes (swam 3 feet away from it), a manta ray (it was kinda shy), and one of our guides found a super cool conch shell for me!  I’ve also discovered that sail boats are my new favorite form of transportation, there’s really nothing better than laying out in the sun with the wind blowing through your hair and the sail billowing right above you!

This banded sea snake is one of the most venomous in the ocean... I had to get a closer look ;)

A Perfectly (rainy) Day for the Beach (May 17)

IDEALLY:

Our team had plans today for our first Saturday in Fiji to go snorkeling at Mango Bay, we were going to be ready to leave by 6a, to catch the bus to the market where we could get fresh fruit for lunch, and then ride a bus for an hour and a half to get to the beach, where we would snorkel happily all day.

REALITY:

The night before we were supposed to leave it poured… hard.  It poured so hard it woke me up multiple times.  I woke up at 5a (still pouring) so I would have time to shower and get through most of my yoga.  At 6a only one other person was up (still pouring rain).  Around 7:30a it was still raining and we said, “last chance guys… does anyone want to offer up another plan?”  No one said anything… so at 8a we trudged out into the rain to the bus.  At 8:45a our soaked group took the freezing, hour and a half bus to Mango Bay.  When we got to our stop we realized there was a mile and a half hike to the beach.  Oh by the way it was still pouring and pouring hard.  I think I spent a total of 5 minutes in the ocean, only to realize the only people in the ocean included the only three boys on the team… and me.  The 6 other girls were huddled under an umbrella… sitting in the pool, laughing at how bad the day had turned out.  I still don’t know if they think that it was funny how the day turned out so badly, or if they’re actually really pissed.  Eventually we made it back home and our directors came home an hour after with pizza. 

Secretly… I had a blast!