Taki-Taki

Hello again guys, gavin and becca here blogging from tavua. We've been away from internet and telephones for a while in the beautiful classical fijian village of nananu. Working under the hot sun and getting to know the amazing generous people of the village while also getting alot of down time in the shade getting to know each other better, this down time is called what the people like to call "fiji time".
so this is what we have been up to...
After a long and interesting system of public buses and sitting in the back of trucks we finally arrived to the village. we were welcomed by a colorful party of children dancing laughing and singing and host mothers embracing us and giving us fat sloppy kisses even though they never meet us before, just a small example of how warm and welcoming everyone here is. The group was split up into pairs and after the welcoming ceremony had come to a close we were handed over to our host mothers and quickly swept away to meet our host families. The group was slightly skeptical about the living conditions at first but it was all put to rest when we found out there was running water and showers and the food was certainly nothing short of incredible.
We have been treated to four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, tea, and diner. Breakfast is a combination of kinds of cakes, pancake like things cut in the shape lightning bolt, and fresh fruits. The favorites are usually the rainbow cake (multi-colored cake with frosting on top) and bananas (in which we put penut better that we bought in town).These are the same kinds of food also found at tea time. We also try the mystery meat of the day at lunch and dinner loaded with their version of ketchup (which we place on everything) Oh but the highlight of one of our days is when a fan was installed by Collie in the dining room, its not exactly winter over here it reached a peak of 103 one day.
During the day we work on building a cement road that goes through the village. We collect small rocks from outside the village, mix cement, dig some dirt, or a large amount of time napping in the shade. After our work is done we go soak ourselves in the river trying to get cool. One day we were rewarded for our hard work and the villagers took us up to a waterfall right out of national geographic.
The people here are very spirited, the nights are never quiet. On special accosions they will offer us an ancient Fijian tradition of kava. It was interesting to gain insight into their culture through this age old tradition. During this time music is a large part, they listen to Chris Brown and other popular American artists along with a lot of native island music, while they dance to the early hours of the morning.

Till next time....

Gavin and Becca

**BULA**

A warm hello from FIJI!!! With new Fijian words flowing from our mouths and sweat dripping down our faces from the beautiful sunny days, we are finally all together as a group. After our long yet exciting journey, we reached Nadi at 5:30 am on Feb 13th. Since then,we have been busy learning important information for our semester, scavenger hunting around the city, buying sulus (a sarong that will soon be our main attire in the village), watching rugby while eating breakfast, learning about "fiji time", swimming in the pristine postcard perfect beach water but most importantly, beginning to get to know each other. Tomorrow we head to Nananu for our first homestay, where we will be for almost 2 weeks. (we will be out of touch during this time but will write as soon as we can).
Sending lots of love**

Moce mada (bye for now)

Andy & Suzanne

It's some sort of miracle

It's some sort of miracle that we managed to get everyone, from the East Coast, from the West Coast ... well ... everyone! Despite cancellations from weather in NH, MA, and NY, we pulled some sort of rabbit out of our hat and sure enough everyone is together, safe and sound, in LAX.

Thank you all (especially the East coasters) for your perseverance and communication as we navigated one heck of a last 48 hours.

Stay tuned and check back often for more group posts,

Yours in spirit,

Ethan Knight

Executive Director

FANZ Spring 2010!

Dear FANZtastic crew 2010 Kyle, Rebecca, Ethan, Jordin, Shelby, Maxx, Cordelia, Sarah, Rebecca, Mathew, and Gavin....

We hope you have all been enjoying your winter breaks and are getting excited for an amazing semester down South! We are super pumped to meet you all and begin our adventures together! Expect a call from one of us in the next few days to introduce ourselves and answer any last minute questions you might have. Guess what...we fly in 6 days!

This is our travel blog where all of our friends and family back home can keep up with our adventures. Each week one of you will be our official "blogger" and will get to write our travel tales for our dedicated followers around the globe. We encourage you to peruse past blogs to get an idea of what they might look like. Also, please inform your family and friends of this site, and show them how to log in, so they will know what an amazing and authentic experience we are having. In addition to gaining responsibility of the blog, there will be other roles assigned and rotated every 1-2 weeks to help you take ownership of our trip and get the most out of the semester. Contemplate which one you are most enthusiastic about taking charge of for the first couple weeks of the semester...

Cribs: Organizes any sleeping accommodations we need. ie: hotel/hostel/camping

Hotwheels: Coordinates our transportation to and from cities, activities, hostels, etc.

Captain: The leader of our team who creates the overall vision for the following week, makes sure we are getting places on time, staying within budget, and ensuring that others are accomplishing their roles.

Regulator: One of the most important roles, the regulator makes sure we are leaving places cleaner than when we arrived, organizes games and other activities during down time, coordinates displays of our gratitude to communities we visit like thank you letters, gifts, performances, etc.

Clark Kent: News reporter for the group, Clark Kent helps us stay up to date on local, national and global news by giving brief presentations on current happenings.

Bilbo Bloggins: Blogs our adventures for friends and family back home.

Fun Finder: Researches and presents to the group potential activities and fun stuff to do during free time.

National Geographic: Researches and keeps the group informed about people, place, culture, language, cuisine, etc. of the unique cultures and communities we visit.

We are so excited to head to summer time in the South Pacific and hope you are too! Be sure and enjoy all of your favorite things at home before we head into the unknown :)

Peace.

Suz & Andy