No Rest for the Weary

Unfortunately we don’t have too many witty stories to tell today, as we spent a better part of the day hard at work! We have a little more than a week left here, and are trying to make sure all of our loose ends are tied up before we sadly leave this beautiful place.

This morning we again drove over to Buca, this time to collect water samples from the taps and perform our health/water usage survey. After doing similar surveys in Loa and Vunikura we have it down to a science and don’t even blink when we ask whether someone has a “running stomach.” We were accompanied by a small entourage of local children, including two kids from Scotland, who grew up with their father in Fiji. Between health assessment interviews we enjoyed an epic swordfight and a quick break for some delicious fresh coconut milk.

This was our first contact with Buca villagers other than the leadership, and we enjoyed making friends with the women and children. We were surprised by the relative “affluence” here – one family even had a washing machine (no running water in the house, but a washing machine!)

On our way back from Buca for lunch, we gave a ride to Asi, one of the cooks here. We are becoming quite the regular taxi service! Lunch today was an amazing yet strange combination of spaghetti with tomato sauce, boiled dalo (taro leaves) with coconut milk, taro root fries with ketchup, and watermelon. After lunch we had a group g-chat with our Engineers Without Borders team back home (hi team!!), and then got to work sifting more sand, running water quality samples, etc. It was a busy afternoon of paperwork! We are starting to pull together our final thoughts on each of the villages in preparation for our wrap-up meetings (and going away parties!) with each of the villages, scheduled for next week.

All in all we are happily settled into our routine here and are very fond of all our new friends - the secretaries/nurses that work in the clinic, the ladies that prepare our meals, the various gardeners and security men around the Mission campus, and of course the welcoming and warm residents of Loa, Vunikura, and Buca.