Frequently Asked Questions: PT 2

How do you like it?

So far, it's a lot of culture shock, integration and lessening. You know that mundane training that everyone has to go through when you get a new job? Yup, the only difference is add in a little culture shock. Supposedly they make PST a little mundane to get you amped for site? You get this picture in your head of what peace corps will be like after dreaming of it for so many years. Even after being told to have no expectations, it's hard. It's everything I ever dreamed of and so vastly different all at the same time.

Do you enjoy your little piece of paradise?

I'm not sure bucket baths, sweltering heat, cockroaches, rats, and stinky lamb sausages = paradise. Don't get me wrong, Fiji is beautiful, but I'm not living on a resort for the next two years. The black sandy beaches (SURPRISE!) are beautiful and there are palm trees everywhere. But, these island countries have people who have lives, an infrastructure, jobs, businesses and transportation; they are so much more than the resorts. It is beautiful, but not in the way you would expect.

Are they feeding you? How's the food?

I have plenty of food. It's not vastly different from the states, except that everything is cooked in coconut milk (I've only tried one dish with coconut that I liked). Lots of snails, fish, oysters, and mussels. Lots of meat with bones in and tons of fresh fruits. Vegetables aren't as common, but I get them when I ask. There are quite a few starchy, potato-like plants that are decent and tons of refined grains.

Do you get to swim?

I've only been swimming once... I am here to work. Haha.

What's the time difference? 

I am 17 hours ahead of CST.

Can we plan a time to talk?

Right now during PST, I am not in charge of my schedule or life, so I have to decline. It also gets overwhelming to try and explain the exact same thing to everyone, over and over; not your fault! That's just why I have the blog! When my schedule gets more stable after swearing in, in November, I'll be able to talk more. Thanks for being patient!

Are you better? 

Yes? Maybe? Apparently being sick is part of training.

What's your village and host family like? 

I have 2 parents, who have 5 children, although one is out of the house and has a daughter. They range from 17 to 3 years old. There's also a sister in law, with her daughter and 2 6 month old grandchildren. There's another aunt and son...that's just during the week! On the weekend the family comes in from the city and there are more children/adults! There's always something to do! My village has sbout 15 houses and is on a black sand beach. We have a community hall and chief.

1 Stripe, 2 Stripe, 3 Stripe, 4 Stripe

In my village there are a ton of cats. Those of you who know me from the states, know I have two of my own furbabies, Symphony and Madi. Thankfully I have an awesome friend looking after them. Anyways, pets aren't seen the same here as in the US, because they are more for practical purposes like guarding houses or catching the geckos and rats. Yesterday, we had a momma cat bring it's baby into the house (the cats normally stay outside) and chaos erupted. Mostly it was loud and people were afraid. This caused the momma cat to drop the kitten and run away. I returned the kitten to it's mama after the cat "showed" me where to put it. I'm the only one who really pets the cats, so they are starting to trust me more.

I told my family the story of how my mom's cat, "Roo," got her name; she used to pounce everywhere when she was little. I asked if the cats had names yet... There are four orange and white striped cats, which we named "Stripes." Yes, all four have the same name because we can't tell them apart! Haha! Now, we have "Stripes Junior," although I joked that he/she should be named "Plaid."

Singing "Let It Go" in my host village, Dravuni, Fiji

Our goals for peace corps are to 1) bring another skill to empower your community, 2) bring awareness of American culture in Fiji, and 3) bring other cultural experiences, in my case Fiji, back home. It's nice to be able to show the local children they don't have to be afraid of animals just by a simple act. I work on goal three by having a blog... Because I can assure you that Fiji is not all resorts; I love the unique experience of the local villages, even when it is totally different than what I imagined.

Funny story of the week: we were doing presentations and asked to come up with a metaphorical symbol for change. I suggested a butterfly, but in a flit of inspiration, my group decided to tell everyone that a "Bebe" (mbeh-mbay) is actually a cow... Oh our language teachers laughed and laughed! I finally said what was going on when I couldn't stop laughing at my own joke. You know how we are the ones who think we are the most hilarious? Ha.

On a positive note, I'm starting to feel better, but they keep telling us that being sick, gastrointestinal issues, and other unpleasant human body experiences are part of the experience here.

I'm excited about getting to see how the current volunteers live in our host visits next week. A secondary benefit is definitely eating more American-ized food. I can't wait to see which parts of the Fiji culture my hosts took to their sites and which parts of the American culture they took, too. I know gender empowerment is a large part of how we live our home lives.

Good things are happening! If you want more information about my site placement or details then email me or use whatsapp. Because my blog is a reflection of the US government, I can't post everything that's considered "subjective;" my interpretation of our potential site placements is subjective because it is my personal experiences and interpretations.

Leave your questions below! Again, I am typing on my phone and it's hard to proofread!

It's the Little Things

I woke up Tuesday feeling extremely lethargic, headache, sore throat and achey... I checked my throat and saw white spots on my tonsils. I texted our amazing Peace Corps Medical Officer and was tested for strep throat. I tested negative on the rapid test, but because of my symptoms, I was given antibiotics. I don't take penicillin, so they put me on a different antibiotic...the downside is the constant extreme nausea. But in the past few days, I've realized a few things.

1) The gate theory of pain control is real and effective! This means that distraction will minimize pain because your body can only process so much at a time. My stomach pains and nausea went away with distractions.

2) I wouldn't trade this time laughing with my host family and playing uno in Fijian for anything.

3) Sometimes something as simple as a hot bucket bath is all you need to make you feel a ton better.

4) We all have our own personal struggles; treat everyone extremely kindly. Every single Peace Corps Trainees has personal drama and struggles back in America. We all lead double lives; neither of which intersect. It's so important to be patient and remember why we signed up!

This is a short post because I'm writing on my phone; therefore, please excuse the typos.

PS: I have no envelopes or stamps to mail anything yet, but I LOVE MAIL! A simple letter from home literally will make my month. My contact info page has my address! Shout out to Annie B. For the first letter.

PSS: We have our host volunteer visits next week where we get to stay with a current volunteer for a few days... Once again, I'm on the beach! :) I get to stay with a volunteer who was supposed to complete the Hindu Firewalking Ceremony last year and I am stoked!!

Love you always,

Kelli Maddock, MMT, MT-BC, PCT

Tau Tauvata (Same Same!) My 3 year old host sister, Ilisapeci.

Un-posted Post

This post is from my first week here!

Bula! My updates won’t always be this frequent, but I wanted to have a short update that I landed in Fiji this morning. And, after traveling for 12 hours on an overnight flight, we were ready to begin training. I successfully managed to stay awake until now. It’s 6:51PM, Thursday, September 3, 2015. On the positive side, we landed right as the sun was rising and were greeted with the Fijian version of a mariachi band. I can barely hold my eyes open while I type this today, but it is so worth it. This island is beautiful, and I will have pictures after I figure out how to get them off my camera. 

We have been training with the Tonga volunteers and a fun fact about Tonga is that even though they are in the same time zone, they are over the International Date Line! They are exactly 24 hours behind us and they will be flying back in time. The idea of relativity of time is fascinating. Even though, technically, in the U.S.A you are in the past, you are still at the same present as the volunteers over here in Fiji.

We had our welcome ceremony complete with the consumption of Kava, which is a depressant made from the root of a vegetable grown on Fiji.  Traditional ceremonies, as someone trained in psychology and music, are fascinating! What does this ceremony really mean and where do the traditions come from? The traditions of the music and how each song has been developed are fascinating. I’ve also had coconut, cassava root, several fresh fruits and a few other delicious, traditional Fijian meals today.

I also went for my first run today and I brought my sole sister with me in form of our “Sole Sister” tags on my shoe. I took a ton of pictures because I wanted to be able to share my first run in Fiji with everyone, but I forgot that I needed an SD card reader for my computer! We happened to stumble on either a Hindu temple or Hindu shrine; I’m not aware enough of the Hindu culture to know the difference and therefore, we did not enter the temple. We saw many people and the reaction to three obvious Americans running was interesting. We take for granted so many things in the United States! I’m pretty sure many people had never seen a woman in work out clothing, even if they were modest, or running with guys before.

I can’t wait to see where the rest of this week takes me. My updates will be sparser after Monday, though. I feel like I have so much to share with everyone that I will probably upload several entries at once. Do you want me to continue writing the detailed entries, or would you prefer the non-detailed entries?

Staging in Los Angeles

As of 8AM this morning, our staging facilitators called Washington D.C. and we are all officially serving in the Peace Corps! Wow! The past two days has been a whirlwind. Yesterday my flights did not go according to plan, but I managed to get to Los Angeles with all my bags and only one was overweight. It is absolutely nuts and I feel like I should wake up from a dream at any point now.

I am where I am supposed to be and these are my people. As much as my life has been amazing, I feel like I have really found my tribe and my calling. I am so ecstatic to be getting on the plane tonight! I have one more thing tup finish and then all my U.S. responsibilities are done. I can't even begin to describe the feeling of meeting people who want to do the same thing as you and applied for this crazy adventure just like you. They get it! They don't tell me it is stupid because I'll get hurt or that I'm going to be living the life by living on an island; they just understand me.

The concept of two years is really starting to sink in, but at the same time, I have no schema to even begin to interpret going overseas for that long. I am a day dreamer at heart and I cannot dream about this because it is so out of my world. I have begun to realize that every job following this one will probably pale in comparison and that I will be constantly searching for more.

We have done a lot of orientation, get to know you activities, and basic trainings on safety and culture today. We were given time to create a skit to put our "Peace Corps: Core Expectations" to use... and of course, my group performed a song parody to "Let It Go" about how to deal with witnessing corporeal punishment by one of your community partners, as an education volunteer.

Fiji and Tonga Volunteers at Peace Corps Staging

After September 8th, 2015 my phone is set to turn off, but that gives me time to contact people if I need. Please download what'sapp, viber or skype to chat with me! I want to keep in contact with everyone and that is an amazing way to do stay in touch. My blog will be the first place you will start to see how I'm doing. Eventually, I'll have a way to book time to make a call or run with me, in your timezone, too! I will land at 12:50PM, Wednesday, September 2, 2015 Central Time, but it will be 5:50AM, Thursday, September 3, 2015 Fiji Time... I think, the timezone thing is still a little confusing. 17 hours ahead from Central Time!

The next step is our flight tonight, Fiji Airways 811, and then we begin pre-service training in the morning in Fiji. We receive our host families and placements for training Saturday. I'll try to post on here when I've made it to Fiji, but no guarantees.

The bus to the airport! #peacecorpsfiji

If anyone wanted to mail me anything my address is in my "contact me" section!