After a very busy day today (picked up rubbish with kids in the morning and went snorkeling in the afternoon), I decided to lie down and take a nap. This is the life, I thought. What a great job! I can go snorkeling and take a nap, and it’s all part of a hard day’s work. As I settled down for my slumber (maybe light sleep would be a better description) I heard all kinds of sounds that I think are very descriptive of life in the village…

Most noticeably, I hear the kids playing right outside of my window. Despite the fact that they keep me from sleeping super soundly, it was nice to hear their laughter and shouts. They are playing this game called Pani, which I suppose is some sort of a mix between Cricket and Dodgeball. There are two teams. One team has a tennis ball and is trying to throw it at a tower of coconut shells. After the stack has been knocked over, the other team tries to hit the players of the other team, dodgeball style, and get them all out before they can restack the coconut shell tower. The trick is that the team restacking the tower and getting hit by balls is allowed to carry boards. If a ball is coming towards them, they can swat it away with the board, giving them some extra time to restack the coconut shells. If all the shells are restacked before the other team gets everyone out, they “win” and start over again. If everyone gets hit by a ball, the two teams switch roles. It’s a really confusing game that I had to watch at least for a week straight to understand.

Other sounds that I hear include lazy dog barks. The dogs here are much quieter than they were in Lauwaki, but you still hear them from time to time. There are three that hang out by my house, and since it’s the afternoon and hot, they are just lolling around making occasional snuffles.

Also, a new, but welcome sound at my house is the sound of my shower dripping. It might be a loud, slightly irritating sound, but it does mean I have water, which is a very enjoyable development, and worth putting up with a noisy drip. For all of you hippies out there afraid that I’m wasting water, no worries. I catch the water in a bucket and then use that water to bathe with rather than the zero-water pressure shower head. It works out quite nicely.

I also hear my friend Laite outside. Well, I don’t hear her, persay, but the sound of a lit being put on a pot. The women in Fiji cook with these gigantic aluminum pots. While most houses have kitchens and stoves inside, the really big root crop dishes, like cassava or taro root (which are eaten at almost every meal), are usually cooked outside over a fire. I think this is because they can take as long as two hours to cook and use so much heat, that to save fuel they are cooked over a fire instead of over a gas stove. Laite is usually cooking for at least six people (husband, husband’s parents and 2 brothers, and any nieces or nephews that happen to be around) so she cooks over the fire a lot and I often hear her opening and closing pots.

So, as I drifted off to sleep, I smiled about being able to take a nap when working and I smiled about living in Namatakula Village. I smiled about my village clean up, people I know, and my house, and thought to myself, this is the life. Then I frowned. I realized that it was a Saturday. Most people don’t think of Saturdays as work days, and can take naps anytime they want. Foiled again! Then again, most people don’t think of snorkeling as work. Take that suckers!