Bula... Au sa tiko mai Nasouri, en a Internet Cafe. Au na gunu bia yakavi levu. Hello, i am in an internet cafe in Nasouri. I will be drinking beer late this afternoon.!Just sharing a little of the language with ya'll......So i thought i might take this time to let you know more about my daily life...So usually i wake up around 6 am everyday and have breakfast which my Host mom(Nau) has already prepared for me.. Most time it is something like Bread and butter with bannana's(Jaina)(Pronounced"CHI-E-Na") or Papaya and bannanas or oatmeal type stuff with powdered milk, or Vundi(Plantain) which are basically HUGE bannanas and taste so good right off the tree.Then most days i go off to language training with my LCF(Language teacher) and the other KaiValangi's(White people/ peace corp Volunteers) in my village...There are 4 of us total that stay in my Host village.. Me, Carina, Joe, and teri.Language lasts until about noon.. Then its home to have lunch already prepared by my host mom or sister..... A lot of days it is things like fish(with the heads still on), roro(Giant boiled leaves of the Dalo Plant which is a root crop) this is often time served in a coconut milk type concoction called Lolo. Some times Chop Suey. , rice, mangrove crabs and lobster, and the root crops(Dalo, Tavioca, Sweet potatoes,and yams.. Not like the ones you think of back in the states either).... They like to have Tea at every meal but i have managed to tell my family that i don't like the tea so they never give it to me any more but they do still offer it... So moslty i just drink water at every meal and that is it.. On a rare occasion i will drink fresh guava juice that was made with guava fresh off the trees....After lunch, its off to peace corp functions and workshops with other PCT"s(Peace Corp trainees)... This usually is over by 5 or 6, but sometimes the villages that we are in having the workshops like to have dances and grog sessions for us.... Basically what this means is sitting around and having lots of Yaqona(YANG-GO-NA) and having the village woman ask us to dance constantly... It can be very entertaining since thier idea of dancing is way different than ours...... Then its back to home where even if i get in late my mom or sister is waiting up for me to feed me... I never wash any of my clothes or cook yet.. the woman here do everything domestic and then men nothing other than the handy work like building and maintaining things.... Each Village has a Mayor(Turanga ni Koro) and a chief.. My host dad is the Chief of my village... But my family rocks.. they take great care of me..... And i am usually in bed by 9 pm most nights.... WAYYYYY different than i am used to and it has def been an adjustment to get used to after 10 years of staying up till after midnight each night......So i am going to come up with a wish list of things i could really use so if any of you can find it in your heart to send me anything it would rock!!!! They will be simple things most of them... If not no biggie..... I'll keep you updated....Till next time!!
Peace out,
matthew

So i just got back from a Trip with a few other Peace corps volunteers to a Village in the Interior up in the rain forest and the mountains called Namosi Village..! It was pretty amazing.. We hiked up to a couple waterfalls which were beautiful and we laid under them for awhile and relaxed in the water pools.. Pure mountain water runoff.. It was great.. we stayed there for a couple nights as part of what is called a site visit where we go around and stay with another volunteer to see what life is like for other volunteers. Last night i gave a speach to the village letting them know and understand how much we appreciated them leting us stay in thier homes for a couple days and feeding us... The ride there and back was pretty bumpy in the back of a truck in which we sat in the back.. It had a canopy covering it and we had other villagers with us who were coming and going into the big city and coming back from the big city... Some guys who drank too much Yaqona(Yang-go-na)(It is a mild narcotic drink that is made from a pepper type plant.. It tastes like crap but makes you really mellow.. Makes you really tired the next day too..), ie grog, ie , Cava, the night previous, stopped and got a bunch of beer, Fiji Bitter, and we had what was called a "Wash Down" where we basically chugged beer on the way back to the village. They do this in order to move the Yaqona out of thier systems and make them feel better.. This was good for me as well because i had had too much Yaqona the night before too! lol The scenery in the mountain village was just amazing.. Something out of a postcard... On the way back to town our truck stopped to fill up with gas on the main road(Queens road) and they filled it up with unleaded and it needs diesel, so we had to empty the tank out and put the new gas in which took another hour... It was like a 4 hour drive there and a 5 hour drive back... We got there on Saturday night and left this morning at 6 am..
Keep the emails and letters coming.. it helps...
and i did get a couple pics posted.. But those are really only the tip of the ice berg.. It is so hard to post pictures on here as the conecction speeds are not the best...... More to come soon..!

So my Fijian is Coming along Slowly.. I can converse a little better now... I am going Snorkelling on one of the reefs later today.. I will know on July 4th where i will be placed Permanently for the next 2 years... My village is hosting the event and there wil be a huge festival, with native dancing, tons of food, and the US Ambasador is coming over to celebate with us. I bunch of us Peace Corps volunteers got our picture taken by the FIJI SUN newspaper on Monday!!! So i'm already famous here! lol I leave on Saturday for a remote village in the Interior called Namosi Village. I am staying there for a couple nights with a few other volunteers to experience village life in another place. Issac, another Peace Corps volunteer is hosting us since it is His Village.Its alot colder up there and there are waterfalls and Mountains.. Apparently a plane crashed into one of the mountans a few years back because of cloud cover.So we started out as a group of 30 and now there are just 28 of us , as 2 have went home.... hopefully all of us can make it through the next 2 years but stats would say not. Guess we will see.. we have a pretty good group. And just to let people know if you put a comment on here make sure you leave an email address so i can write you back.. For some reason it won't let me write back on here...
Keep the comments comng.. it def helps.....!!!

FIJI Fun.....~

So here i sit at an internet Cafe in Suva, FIJI. First day in the big city after having been in my remote village for the first few weeks..!!!
Internet is $5 an hour here(about $3 U.S.) but seems like alot with our allowance, lol. i've been swimming in the ocean a few times now as i will take a jog down to the beach and back and when i get to the beach i usually take a swim or do some lame attempt at body surfing since i have no board... I usually have class all week long with my fellow PC trainees and then sometimes at night i drink Grog(i.e Yaqona, Kava) till i about fall asleep..! lol The stuff tastes like crap and pretty much just makes your head into a fog. The language is coming along ok but i'm still not the best.. I can actually form sentences now and tell people where i am going and where i have been and what things i like and want , plus i can count past 100 in Fijian now. I am visiting and staying in a remote Village in the interior part of FIJI next week called Namosi Village. You might be able to find out some things about it if you do a google search but i'm not sure. It has dramatic beautiful waterfalls from what i hear along with dense Jungle. Guess i will find out. Life isn't always easy here that is for sure.. Waking up in the morning and pouring that first Ice cold bucket of water over my head is still something that takes getting used to. That and the million bug bites i have. Hopefully i will be able to make it to one of the reefs soon to do some skin diving and maybe get some underwater pictures.. I really am working on getting pictures up and on the internet but just understand i am dealing with 3rd world computers and internet speeds here. I hope everyone is doing great back home in the states!!!!

Bula Vinaka...~

So for all of you who thought FIJI was paradise well let me tell you.. After your first Bucket bath and first 1000 misquito bites and the insane humidity you might not think the same !!!
It is truly an alien world here.. I go to church all the time, have no running water and live with a host family of about 7 and have about 30 cousins aunts and uncles....
I live in a small village of about 80 people called Muana I Ra(Sp?).. Its a methodist community.. I have 2 brothers 23 and 27, and 2 sisters.. not sure how old they are.. maybe 20's? And i have a cat named Mini and a dog named Tailevu... My brothers are Netava and Sekeli. My mom is Mereami and my dad is Jolame.. My sisters are Merama and Ranadi.... I have no running water so i take Bucket baths everyday and it is hot as hell and its only the cool dry season! lol(It still rains almost every day...) With all that said my new family is great.. They feed me way too much!!!!! So i run every other morning.
My address here in Fiji is :
Peace Corps/FIJI
Private Mail bag
Suva, FIJI
SOUTH PACIFIC
I hope everyone is doing good and please feel free to write me on what is new in the world as i have no idea what has been happening the last couple weeks...!!!
Sota Tale... Moce.....
Matthew
p.s. I will try to get some pictures up soon but this internet cafe connection is way too slow.....