When I joined my college fraternity, I didn't know very much about Fiji except that it was the nickname for my fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta. And of course, I knew it was an island somewhere in the Pacific. Each year, my fraternity celebrated "Fiji Island", billed as the best party each year on campus at West Virginia University. We built a lagoon, a waterfall, tropical huts and dressed like Fiji islanders, or at least how we thought a Fijian would dress. Mostly it was about drinking, but was always a lot of fun.
Now the real Fiji is top of mind again. I've spent a good deal of time looking at different blogs from current and former Peace Corps Volunteers since I decided to fill out my application. I have always thought that Vanuatu was where I would be headed as a volunteer. Now, I believe the most likely place could be Fiji. I've looked at the start days for different volunteer groups based on their blog entries. Here is what I discovered:
East Timor July
Fiji June
Kiribati October
Malaysia Unknown
Micronesia November
Palau October
Papua New Guinea January
Samoa October
Tonga July
Vanuatu April
UPDATE: See later post for more information on this.
It is also possible that it could be Malaysia. I couldn't find much about that area, however, on the Peace Corps web page, they link Micronesia and Palau together, which may mean they both depart in October.
Peace Corps service was stopped in Fiji because of political unrest in 1998 but was restored in 2003 once the country settled down. According to one blog, the Fiji dates from last year align almost exactly with the dates I received from my recruiter for this year.
I'm hopeful that I will receive medical clearance this week. I am supposed to call her on Wednesday if I do not hear by then. I hope that an invitation is issued shortly after that.
I found some new links. The first is the Fiji Welcome book provided by the Peace Corps to all new volunteers in Fiji. The second is from another blog but shows a packing list and photo of what one guy took with him to the South Pacific.
If I do end up in Fiji, I would be "A Fiji in Fiji".
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