Working Title

So in my last post I said I would put a post up this (last) weekend. Better late than never. I doubt that anyone really noticed or cared, rather, but I'm going to stop saying when I'll post things and just keep to vague temporal promises. My next post will be sometime in the future.

Fiji is divided into 4 divisions: Northern, Central, Eastern, and Western. Each division is subdivided into provinces, with 14 provinces total in Fiji. The closest thing I can compare the setup to is states/counties in America, though obviously slightly different here due to the different governmental structure. I'll get into the details in another post. Maybe. Its complex, especially since coups happen here more often than not. There are further subdivisions within the province level, but they are based on native clan land partitioning and I haven't learned much about it yet. I hope I will, but since I'm not living in a village I won't have as much exposure to it.

I live in the Northern division in Macuata province. Bua and Cakaudrove are the other two provinces in the Northern division. The three provinces split up my Island, Vanua Levu, with Bua to the western third and Macuata and Cakaudrove splitting the rest of the island north/south, respectively. Here is a good map so you can get a better idea.

I'm working with the Ministry of Fisheries, which is half of the Ministry of Fisheries and Forests. I've only been there for two weeks so I'm still getting a feel for it, there are a lot of things that I'll be able to do though. I have work every day, I work primarily with two Fijians named Epeli and Toka. They are my ICCPs (Initial Community Contact Person) and both worked with the volunteer that I'm replacing, so they are familiar with the Peace Corps and speak English quite well. The office I work in is the Fisheries office for Macuata province, but it also doubles as the head Fisheries office for the Northern division. This means that we oversee policy for the entire division and I'll have a lot of travel opportunities, but also that the people in my office have to deal with a lot more desk work. I've already been to the Fisheries office in Cakaudrove twice. They go out in the field a lot more than the people in my office so I'm looking forward to working with them, hopefully I'll get some diving in. They are currently working on liaising between villages and a Chinese company that wants seaweed, so I'll be able to help them with setting up seaweed and/ or maintaining farms. At this point I'm still getting my feet wet. Not literally though, unfortunately.

The Peace Corps doesn't send us to site with explicit objectives or an agenda. Its up to us to identify how we can apply our skills, which has its pros and cons. I am working with a government agency so I don't have as much freedom or free time as volunteers in villages, but I have access to more resources and funding. I can also do secondary projects that are not related to my assignment at the Ministry, so I'll have a lot of independence to do those. One I get started on a project I'll put up a post about it, so far at work I haven't been very productive though. Good thing I have two years to change that. Until then I'll be starting to learn Fijian. Hindi is only so useful when none of your coworkers speak it.

Here's a picture of a copra (coconut meat) plantation in Cakaudrove. So many trees...: