I think I may be getting the hang of this

Well that’s it. I’m officially 2 months into my three month placement. That’s right.. 2/3 of the way through. Incredible. As the days tick by I think they go by as they should but now looking back and realizing that as of Thursday (the 1^st of August) I only have one month left. I feel like I’ve done so much while being here but I also keep thinking of things I still need to get done. I am back into the swing of things at Tovuto Base and am pretty comfortable with my daily responsibilities. My new project is organic gardening! There is a small orange beetle with a big bum that keeps eating the vegetables we are planting at school (mostly the long beans). I am going to try planting sunflowers and certain herbs, because they are good, but also because they are supposed to attract parasitic wasps which take care of pests pretty well. The only problem is that I don’t know whether there are parasitic wasps in this region of Fiji… any other suggestions?

Today on construction was pretty successful. This morning we picked the first vegetables that were fully grown in the garden at school. These cabbages were planted about a month ago so have a pretty good growth rate here. It was exciting for me to see one of my projects from start to finish and great to see the kids at school having some fresh veg in their lunch. Afterwards we detached and cleaned a whole water tank from the inside out as a rat had gotten in. Seeing how the water tanks work and knowing how each and every part of one fits together is something that I feel will be very useful in this coming month because we plan on installing many water tanks at many different villages surrounding us in the Yasawas. When we were done cleaning and setting the water tank back up where it was supposed to be we cleaned the filter and made sure everything was working properly. After lunch Mr. Kant, the class 6 teacher, came to me and explained that the guttering on his water tank was constantly breaking. By taking a quick look we managed to fix the breaks with glue and supporting beams to ensure it wouldn’t happen again. Our last task of the day was watering the entire garden, which is quite a task now as it has grown quite a bit since I first got here. Overall it was a successful day which I thought went through without a hitch, which is a pretty big deal with Fiji Time.

I think I will begin my diver training this week as I will have to fill out tests, practice, and complete my Open Water all on the weekends.. and there really aren’t many of those left. This weekend the plan is to have a girls staff day at Blue Lagoon Resort where we can escape from Base for a day and have some casual drinks, good food and a sit by the pool. Fingers crossed it will work out! I hope everyone at home is doing well. Please continue to comment and email, I love hearing from you!

Xo H