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!