It's not always coming up roses...& my new address

Photos may speak a thousand words but when they are posted on FaceBook they have usually been very carefully selected to not make myself look fat or to display an environment that is reality but ridiculously joyful. However, this obviously doesn’t cover the not-so-awesome behind the scenes moments. The ones where I miss my Mom and the comforts of the familiar and having my closest friends to talk me down are lacking. So in an effort to keep this Peace Corps experience a reflection of reality, but not too much of a bitch fest, here are a few examples.

I made sure no one took a photo of me to be posted to the Universe when I had a 101 degree fever, was sweating through clothes & shitting myself inside out for 2 full days. I surmise this sickness occurred because I regrettably did not wash a pear and carrot that I had eaten earlier that day. Lesson learned. Interestingly, I am finding the Indo-Fijians to be very superstitious as my host Mom was telling me that I was sick from too much admiration. She said I needed to put a black dot behind my ear to protect myself from people telling me how much they dig me. Interesting & duly noted.

There will be no photos of me when I woke from a horrible nightmare at 3:30am & couldn’t shake off the fear. Additionally, no photos will appear of me when I was on the cusp of utter emotional & mental bankruptcy after having several 14 hour days, language tests, homework & community presentations. I promise, that was not pretty. Alas, a few good night’s sleep & doing some shopping in Suva for my upcoming move to Lautoka, where I will be spending the next 2 years, did the trick to bring me out of my funk.

It is very interesting how I have witnessed myself reacting to certain things totally different & I know that the Fijian context has everything to do with it. For example, the pre-historic sized cockroaches that come out at night that climb on the counter while I brush my teeth..…not even phased. If this happened in the US I would have grabbed the heaviest object & splashed its guts straight away. Today when I was putting on my socks I noticed blood on the sole of my foot that had been acquired from the chicken that was killed the night before for dinner. Awesome. Or how about the spider that was in my bedroom that had the leg span of a softball…..no worries. My host sister says, don’t worry they have their own home. Okay then, hopefully it doesn’t make it through my mosquito net later. Not even the little mouse that was climbing down the light cord in my kitchen raised an alarm. Thankfully, I think I managed my expectations of Fijian creatures fairly well.

To keep this PC experience even remotely possible, focusing on the negative doesn’t do me any good. However, it reminds me that I have fortitude & really allows me to enjoy the pleasure of the good times. Like the “Indo-lovo-disco” we had last night as a going away for us here in the settlement. We had a traditional lovo……think Hawaiian luau-dig a pit, place in hot coals/rocks, chicken-fish-casava-dalo on top, cover it up, 1.5 hrs later, uncover & consume the deliciousness. We ate, danced & laughed. All of us, young and old; a cross-cultural, cross-gender, cross-age-range throw down.

A local tv station, Fiji 1, came around & filmed some volunteers in the villages while we were in class, yours truly starred on the 6:30pm news speaking Hindi. Right set (which means something like great, cool, good).

I especially enjoy walking down the long road in front of my house. It is lined with palm trees & since this a rural area, there are plenty of horses and cows moving around on the land. Sometimes it reminds me of the farm land in Ohio, I never expected that. The people that walk by are always saying Bula & ask me where I am going. Or sometimes I catch a few kids along the way & they come with.

I will be leaving the rural road behind me & moving to Lautoka town, the second largest city in Fiji. I am anxious to get settled in, learn where the markets are, practice my language, get to some serious cooking and start my work. I’m also planning my first trip to visit my friend in the Yasawa Islands, the location where the movie Blue lagoon was filmed. Right on.

Until next time.

Fir Milenga (see you again)

Love, Sara

My new address, i moved to Lautoka on July 7th

Sara Szunyogh

PO Box 4166

Lautoka, Fiji Islands

On the daily.....

I thought I would post what a typical day is like for me in Fiji during training.

6:15am Wake-up (to the sound of roosters & this very strange habit that many Indo-Fijians have...when they brush their teeth they make this gagging/hacking up a lung sound. The first time I heard it I thought my host sister was throwing up.)

6:30am Go for a sunrise jog or try & do yoga in my room. (there is NO privacy. We jokingly call what we have the coconut wireless...literally the other people in my village know what I ate for breakfast 10 minutes after I ate it, so doing yoga outside means I have an audience.)

7:00am-8:00am Shower & eat breakfast ( Meaning I fill up a bucket with cold water (I have not felt hot water out of a faucet since I’ve been here) from a spicket inside the shower room & use a small bowl to dump water over myself to get clean. I can fill up a tea kettle & heat up water to warm up my bucket & that helps tremendously.) My mom prepares my breakfast & serves me, niiiccce. Breakfast is always roti, an unleavened flatbread & some kind of curry, pumpkin, egg, eggplant.

8-10am Language class (I am learning Hindi-Fijian. Its like broken slang Hindi- a mixture of Hindi, Fijian, English. Its held outside on the porch of the house next to mine.)

10:30am-11am Tea time (A tradition held over from British rule. Usually served with biscuits...what they call cookies.)

11-12:30pm More language (We've only got 7 weeks of training to become conversational)

12:30pm-2pm Lunch (Again, host mom is a wicked awesome cook & makes my lunch. Usually roti or rice, a different curry, left overs from dinner & a piece of fruit.)

2-3:30pm More Training (It varies from learning how to garden in this environment, to cultural differences, to learning about the water, health & trash problems in Fiji.)

3:30pm-4pm More tea & snacks (they like to eat)

4-5:30pm More Training

5:30-6:30pm Relax, go for a walk, read, talk to my family


6:30pm-7:30pm Have Dinner (Mom makes dinner too, another curry. She goes fishing everyday, so we eat fish everyday. I am happy with that.)

7:30/8pmpm-8:30/9pm Write letters, take a bucket bath (we only have running water a/b 30% of the time), talk with my family, rest, have tea

9:30pm Go to bed

On Thursdays we go into the nearest town called Nausori & have class with our entire group of 35 volunteers. On the weekends I spend time with my host family, work on homework, go into town, wash my clothes and relax.

So much love to all of you from south of the equator. And yes the water does flush down in the opposite direction :)
xoxo
Sara

First update from Fiji

Bula & Kaise!!

Hello & whats up in Fijian & Hindi! I have to keep this brief because PC has us VERY busy. I have been been assigned to an Indo-Fijian family about 30min outside of Suva.

Our days are filled with safety, cultural & language training in our host villages & in the closest main town of Nosouri. I am learning how to speak Fijian-Hindi & am doing really well.

It is hot, a/b 85 and pretty humid all of the time. However, it gets cool at night and with the aid of my mosquito net, I have been sleeping very well.
My mattajii (mom) is a rediculously amazing cook & is probably feeding me better than an other volunteer!

I had swim training the first day, the water was a welcome bath after 11 hours on a plane. The staff & other volunteers are great, there are 35 volunteers in this group.

Fiji is beautiful, however, in the rural areas the best word to describe it DESTITUTE. There is a major problem with trash and good water quality. I have to take a "bucket-shower". Literally, pouring cold water over myself from a bucket. It kind of suck, but it does the trick after sweating all day.

I will try to connect again soon & should have a phone in about 5 more weeks.
Sorry this is kind of generic, but there is way to much to share too short of a time.
Many blessings.
Achaa fir melegaa......see you again soon.

xoxox
Sara
My family gave me the Hini name of Rani (queen :)

The Dance

Thousands of people from all over the world coming together at the New Jersey Int'l Salsa Congress for the love of dancing. Baila, Baila, Baila, Baila! One of the hundreds of reasons I love dancing is because, like yoga, it excludes no one. Tall, thin and sexy. Short, round and uncoordinated. All are welcome.

I won a pass to the NJ congress & flew to meet up with my friend Wardell. I danced over 20 hours in 3 days and slept for about 10. The days are filled with workshops, ranging from ladies styling, mambo turn patterns, to one of my personal favorites-afro-cuban body movement. This type of movement encompasses the energy of the afro-cuban slave to convey emotion & literally communicate through body language. It is primal, Earthy and sweaty.

This trip marked monumental experiences. Not only was it my first official salsa congress, but it was also an opportunity to apply all that I have learned about mambo and BRING it to an event filled with some of the best dancers in the region and possibly the country. I was very proud of myself for being able to keep up with the level of dancing. I was dancing SO hard in fact that I nearly broke my toe, had multiple calluses, mysterious bruises and the entire surface area of my body pretty much hurt. Dancing to live music, with a total stranger, letting yourself go, becoming the dance, allowing the movement to come from a place that is pre-cognitive...it nourishes a place inside me that can not be satiated with food.

This experience allowed me to spend time with some beautiful strangers. Making new friends in Toronto, DC, LA and NY. There is something about sharing the commonality of love for something, that can turn a complete stranger into an instant friend. Perhaps my newly made amigos is a foreshadowing for international friends to come.

This trip was a welcome respite from the endless preparation for Peace Corps. I was able to put all planning, listing and working aside. I was able to fully immerse myself into dancing before I have to take a voluntary salsa-celibacy. I was coming down from the high of dancing for so many hours & working through complete exhaustion, that Wednesday I wept on and off all day at the thought of having to box up my dancing shoes and leave them behind. Salsa has changed my life in more ways than can be written. It became a form of therapy after my divorce. A way to give and receive affection in a healthy, functional way. It became a positive social network and now some of these people are my best friends. I am going to miss my favorite partner Paul. Even now when we dance sometimes I get weepy at the thought of having to leave this behind. I have my ipod loaded with salsa songs & my computer has videos to watch so that I can keep up my moves. I am already looking forward to my next salsa get-away.

My next adventure.....participating in a NASA fitness study.
Until then......Baila, baila, baila, baila!!!
PS. Look closely at the picture, that is not a sweat speckled lens-those are orbs of peoples awesome vibes!!

The Pedulum Swings

I expected to feel emotional about leaving all I love & cherish behind, but it has proven to be even more stormy than I expected. In thinking about what the prospects hold in Fiji & what foreign experiences I will be enduring, I become excited at the "Indiana Jones" like adventure. Then I begin to experience a moment like the one I had today when I looked at my beautiful yoga class & felt so loved, at home and proud. As I was driving home from the class, I felt like I was seeing the trees around me bud for the first time, even though I have lived on that street nearly my entire life.

I've had the sensation that I only have "X" amount of days to live since I accepted the Peace Corps invitation. It has been quite liberating actually. Living through the perspective that my life with never be the same again after my return & that I will no longer relate to all that I do now in the exact same way, has made me feel this acute sense of awareness to how I feel & perceive things RIGHT now.

It has created the perfect prescription for presence.

I can take in the energy of laughing with my little sister much more fully. I can love more deeply when I see all of my student's smiles. And I can appreciate all of the details of a regular day with so much more gratitude, when they would've normally been multi-tasked through. I feel like living from the understanding that life as we know it will NOT last forever gives me the freedom to tell people exactly how much I care about them, even if it makes them uncomfortable.

I have so much busy-ness happening in the next 3 weeks. I am headed to E. Rutherford, NJ this weekend because I won a full pass to the NJ Salsa Congress and will be headed into NYC and going to the Jivamukti Yoga School. I have never taken a Jivamukti class in NY & I am so psyched! I am using this trip as a last yoga, salsa and food huraahh!


More friends to dine with, parties to attend and essentials to buy. More emotions to encounter.
xoxox
Sara

Living an Extraordinary Life

The count UP has begun!! I leave for Fiji May 17th. I have a generous mixed bag of emotions, excitement, fear, missing people I haven't left yet.

I get the same questions again & again so I thought I would address them:

1. Why the hell are you doing this?
Because I have committed myself to living an extraordinary life & i think joining the Peace Corps counts. I feel like I have reached my maximum wing capacity in my hometown of Cleveland, OH & desire to experience living in a whole new way.

2. What will you be doing for 2+ years?
(The work part) My "title" is community health volunteer, so my understanding is doing nutrition education, positive lifestyle habits, confidence building activities etc. I am hoping this includes teaching yoga...I'm sure I will find a way. And maybe I can teach them the basics of Mambo...hmmm, not sure if that will go over so well. I can just hear the village mayor "You sent us this woman that just dances around whipping her head, shaking her hips & doing body rolls all day!!??". HA!
(The fun part) Learning how to cook traditional Fijian foods, learn their native dance, swim, snorkel, learn how to surf, hike, yoga & reeellaxxxx.....the Fijian way--which I've learned they have mastered like a fine art.

3. Will you have a phone &/or computer?
Most likely I will have a phone, but not right away. Training is 7 weeks or so & I may not have one then. I will have my computer but internet access is questionable. Not sure when or how often. Many current volunteers have blogs so I imagine access will be fairly regular.

4. Will you have running water & electricity??
Probably?? Really I have no idea...& somehow oddly I am okay with that.
Probably because its more of a surreal concept then a reality. Hopefully, yes & yes. While water quality will be questionable & electricity intermittent some volunteers have both all of the time.

5. What can you bring?
2 bags, totaling 80#, no one bag can weigh more than 50# How am I gonna pack all of my supplements & skincare?? Ha! Just cause I am on a tropical island does not mean I will skimp I what I consider essential. High maintenance, perhaps, there are other things I can do without though like socks & underwear :) (all I will be wearing is flip-flops & underwear is overrated)

I am a "lister"..always have been..so
Things I Will Miss
My Mom's awesome hugs
Sunday dinners at my dad's & "desserting" for hours after with my sisters
Interpretive W African dancing with my sisters to hip-hop music
The W Side Market
Yoga at a real yoga studio
the local college radio station
Talking to Colleen everyday
Salsa dancing...oh that one reallly stings
Refrigeration
WIFI
My bicycle
The Metroparks
Washing machines & dishwashers..oh yes, all by hand friends, all by hand.
Oh crap this list is getting too long....& I 'm sure once i'm in Fiji it will get much longer--but for now, not to exclude...of course, all of my unbelievably loving friends, students and family.

Things I Won't Miss
SNNNOOOWWWWWWW!
Lack of sun for days on end
Worrying about the price of gas...no driving the ENTIRE time I'm gone.
Wal-Marts
College loan payments

Hm, this list is much shorter. Probably because I have a f*^#ing awesome life & really do appreciate what I've got.

I am going to do my best to keep all abreast of any updates & happenings.
Peace!!
Sara