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After a few bus rides, a hostel stay, and a four hour ferry ride, we have arrived to our village, Nasolo! We rolled up driving through their grass and sat around in their community hall for the welcome ceremony all wearing our new fancy sulus. None of us were accustomed to any Fijian words or traditions yet but we all sat around fascinated of what I think was a blessing of some kava roots. After the ceremony, we got to meet our host families calling our new dads for the next couple weeks Tata and our new moms Nana. We all got time to rest, meet our families, and play some sports before heading in for our first meal in the village–all pleasantly surprised at the amount of food on the table for us! After that, we all got a good nights rest for our first sunday in the village.
On Sunday, before our first Fijian church experience, a couple of us took a bath in the river to get clean for the service. Most of the community was present and we were all their wearing fancy sulus that we borrowed from our families. From then on, we all started to get accustomed to the village–learning new words and understanding their way of life.
On Monday, we started on our work project! We were given the task of fixing up and painting their community hall. We put new windows in, cleaned, painted the inside and outside, and on our last day of work we painted the Carpe Diem logo on the door as our final touch. It was incredible to have the opportunity to work alongside some of those in the village and get to know them more.
On our off time, we have all had the chance to play with the kids, swim in the river, just off into it from the amazing rope swing, drinking kava, get some one on one time with others in our group, and have some time to reflect on almost reaching the half way point in the trip. With the new experiences, the group has definitely been feeling up and down with the culture shock. However, I think we are all starting to get familiar with the beautiful village and are excited to see what next week holds for us.
-Evelina