Fieldwork fun

Sorry for the late update. I've been really busy planning travel and working on my independent study project. My main contact for the project is Elia, a really nice guy who works at the Fiji Museum. He's been guiding me around alot of the World War II remains near Suva. So far we've been in three sets of tunnels, to three defensive batteries, a radar station, and to the army camp in an unsuccesful attempt to gain access to their archives. Trekking to the remains has been really fun. I wear a headlamp and protective face mask in the tunnels. We found some 1940's coke bottles in one. The trip to the army camp was pretty hilarious. I was a bit nervous because its "the" army camp, that's headquarters to the interim regime, aka, the belly of the beast. We essentially just kept getting passed off to different people until we were finally told we'd have to wait to hear from their superiors, which I'm still doing. I doubt I'll hear from them. They're kind of busy at the moment. Elia has been amazingly helpful throughout the whole process. I'm so grateful he's around and willing to help a lowly undergrad.

This past weekend was really fun. I've been hanging out with my family alot. I played touch rugby in the rain with my host brothers. It was a blast. We were diving in puddles and sliding all over the field. Last night I saw Star Trek with Brian and Austin. It was really good and I highly recommend it. Seeing movies here is really cheap. It's five FJD for a ticket, which is a little over 2 American. There are also tons of dvds for sale around the city for 2FJD. Movie watching is a big part of the city culture.

One part of the weekend that sucked was my brother Danny getting really sick. His intestine ruptured because of a weak muscle and he had to go the hospital for emergency surgery. It was really frightening. I spent a lot of yesterday visiting with him at the hospital. He's doing better now and getting discharged today, which is a relief. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

I'm traveling this week on a mega roadtrip around the main island of Viti Levu. I'm planning on going to Nadi to see a gun battery, Sigatoka to visit some awesome sand dunes, and to Pacific Harbor for a Fijian wedding and some diving. I'll keep you posted.