America consumes. and Fiji keeps on living.

Since being here, I’ve become much more aware of what it means to have come from a consumerist society—a society of people that can’t get enough of bigger, better, newer, and shinier. Millions upon millions of dollars are spent on advertising alone. I haven’t done any formal research or anything, but if I were to guess I’ll bet we could feed a nation of starving people just using all the money we spend marketing products most of us don’t actually need…and if we did we could just go to the supermarket & find them. No offense to you all whom I love dearly at home, but checking facebook these days just makes me nervous to go back to that consumer world I came from. Every five minutes a new status update tells me that so and so has a new i-pod, that someone’s partner proposed & now they have a really expensive ring on their finger which no doubt will be posted in its own photo album where everyone will ooo and ahhh over the huge rock, that someone’s phone is broken—God forbid you not be able to communicate with them for the day it takes to fix it….you get the picture. Now I can’t point any fingers because I too come from this world…a world where half the fun of the Superbowl is the commercials, where buying a few cups of Starbucks a week is normal, and where last season’s clothes are sent to Village Discount because they’re no longer good enough to wear. I just hope I don’t fall back into this love of material things…and I probably won’t be as big of a waster of money as I used to be….but the temptation to fit in has remained with me—whether here in Fiji or back in America, and in America to fit in is to consume.

To contrast America…let me give you a few of my favorite examples that describe the simpler way of life lived here. Commercials here probably cost about $50 to make. Seriously, they just go to someone’s kitchen & film them cooking up some chow noodles (similar to ramen) and then put a low budget jingle to it. No fancy technology, no woman in a bikini eating a seductive bowl of noodles….just an ordinary mom in a sulu stirring a pot. As far as clothing goes…I can walk out of my house wearing a bright pink sulu (piece of cloth) tied around my waste, an orange Illini t-shirt, and old flip flops…and no one would give me a second look. No one would look me up & down & then turn to their friend and quietly talk about how my shirt didn’t match my skirt or how flipflops were SO last season….in fact I have gotten a few “URO!”s (the equivolent of Sexy! or Healthy!) in that exact outfit. I don’t seem to need much here, I don’t have a craving for bigger or better…I mean a good beer would be nice, and a dress without bleach stains might be a good addition to the wardrobe…but I honestly don’t feel that desire to have the latest version of the i-phone, or a bunch of accessories that only match one outfit, or thirty pairs of shoes (and you all know how much I love shoes)…I don’t want much here…I’m content with having enough, and I hope that attitude crosses cultures when I get back to America.

Now a look into my life over the last month (minus 4th of July…those will be up soon!)

On this particular day it was probably about 80* outside...brrr! Winter has arrived!

My herbs are growing! Fresh basil, thyme, rosemary & oregano...mmm mmm delicious :)

This is what the steam that feeds right into the ocean looked like before the community clean-up.

Clearing twisties wrappers out of the bushes.

Two little helpers ready to take on the leaves.

The kids each colored a letter during art class the week prior.
The boys decided to surprise us with a dance they made up during recess. Hilarious.
I've honestly never seen him so into anything in my life. I have discovered the way to his heart is through pop music & dancing.
They made up a rap about the school. He wants to be like "Chris Brown." isa.
blue eyes. One of my favorite kids ever.