I have just returned from a week long visit to the district (tikina) where I will be spending the next two years.  The area is often refered to as the coral coast, though as of late, it is becoming more well known as Celebrity Love Island.  The tikina is right along the southern coast of Viti Levu, and all but one of the 5 villages are located along the ocean.  Don't fret though, the village away from the coast has a spectacular waterfall.  It really is a beautiful, amazing spot-the ocean on one side and mountains on the other.  In that ocean, of course, are coral reefs (once beautiful, now marginal...which is probably what my work will focus on).  It's also a pretty touristy area.  There are several really big, really ritzy resorts in the area; The Warwick, The BeachHouse, and Mango Bay Resort.  I think it'll be an interesting and challenging place to work, being a kavalagi (european/foreigner) and not a tourist in this area.  More incentive to learn the language, I suppose.  My visit this week was great, I got to see all of the projects that Alyson (the volunteer I will be replacing) is working on.  She has done so much in the area; built 6 composting toilets, started an environmental club, started a kindergarten, started a library, and so on.  I have some large shoes to fill in the tikina.  I also got to have a bit of a vacation from training, which has been a bit grueling.  I finally got to go diving, hiked to a watefall, and finally had a beer.  All in all, it was a wonderful site visit. 

So, this area is now being called Celebrity Love Island because a British reality show is being filmed in at the BeachHouse resort.  From what I can gather, all of these C and D list British celebrities came to live on this deserted island (that is, the main island of fiji).  They were flown into Nadi and then helicoptered to Mango Bay Resort.  From there they kyaked over to the Beach House resort.  How they think this is a deserted island, I have no clue; especially because the main highway goes right next to their deserted island compound.  There are about 5 guys and 6 girls on the show, and they are supposed to pair off.  People get voted off the island based on the number of votes they get online (or something crazy like that).  Yup, trashy television at it's best is right in my back yard.  If you want to follow the show, check out the website, loveisland.itv.com.