Success! (7/10/04)

I spent 2 hours online today at Fintel, an internet "cafe" in Suva with no food or drinks. It's only $6 an hour to connect, but they wouldn't let me hook up my thumb drive that had all of my posts. So, here I am again, online in the lab. I was smart today and brought my power cord with me.

I went out of my way to try to plan this trip, and you know me, I'm usually fly by the seat of my pants. I'm begining to think that this "planning" crap is just that... a bunch of crap. There will ALWAYS be things that pop up unexpectedly. Like the girl moving out of my apartment who's suppose to be taking care of the boys. And, today when I went to check my bank account, realizing that Ga Tech screwed me out of $500 this month! (My paycheck was $500 less than it should be). I bugdeted this trip down to the wire, and now I'm kind of screwed. The check sent to my credit card company may bounce. I transfered money from the little I have in savings. I'm hoping that will prevent any bounced checks... but I'm living on the edge - - tightening my waist belt. I may end up sitting on a piece of cardboard in front of the McDonalds or KFC with the Indo-Fijians begging for money... selling shells or dried peas.

Before being bummed out by my financial fiasco, I had a great day. I spent it walking around Suva and checking out the market where villagers come to sell their wares (woven baskets, wood carving, shell jewelry, etc). I also went into "mom & pop" clothing stores (where they make the clothes from scratch - not mass produced). The other guys here like to go into "fancy" stores equivalent to Old Navy in the States, but I like to support the smaller shops. Plus, I got 3 long skirts (sulus or wraps) for as much as ONE would cost at Wai Tui (fancy-schmancy place). I also went into some really cute "sweets shops" and tried some strange pastries. They were good, but the best snack here is the spicy green peas. If I can, I'll try to bring some home.

This morning I went shopping at the hardware store for field supplies. They "Hardware" store is very interesting. They sell everything from power saws and nails to nail polish and coconut graters. Anyway, I bought cable ties, large nails, a big tarp, rain coat, hammer and chisel, and dried blood. The nails and cable ties will be used to mark coral heads. I have numbered tags that I will connect to the nails and the nails will be driven into the substrate near a coral. If I do a shading experiment (to test the effect of decreased UV light on coral health), I'll used pieces of the tarp to shade corals. The dried blood will be added to slow released fertilizer I bought for an experiment investigating the effects of elevated nutrients on coral. Dried blood is rich in nitrogen and iron, both of which are limiting in ocean water.

Tomorrow I'll head to Cost U Less to buy groceries and dishes for my expedition. I'll also get a mosquito net. A very important purchase seeing as I've nearly been sucked dry so far and I'm only in the CITY. The "jungle" will be a sweet blooded white girl's nightmare.

Here's a story specifically for 'Shell and 'Manda (and whoever else reading this loves heartbreakingly cute ki-ens). During my shopping spree this morning, I went with Zach to an aquarium store. They didn't have what I needed so I was fartin' around waiting for Zach to get done. I saw a hairball in the corner and when it started to move, I went over to investigate more closely. Oh my god... hold on, I'm getting verclemt! It was a 5 week old ki-en with spiky soft fur and a nubbin tail. She was white with black spots and big, pitiful blue eyes. She went "mew" in a high pitched little kitten voice as if saying "Sara, don't you want to play with me?" Of course! I picked her up and she started puring so loud I thought her little engine would pop out of her chest. She was soooo tiny, she fit in the palm of my hand. (I'm tearing up at the pain of her cuteness). I put her back on the floor and she started attacking my feet. I wanted to stuff her in my pocket and take her home, but the owner seemed to really love her. He said he'd had another cat in the shop for years and someone stole it. He missed it so much and his customers were so used to coming in to visit the "shop cat" - - then this ki-en came along... so he took her in. She seemed happy. There were PLENTY of kitty TV's, and lots of things to play with. *sigh* Ki-ens are so cute when they're spiky and clumsy.

I miss my boys.
Okay... gotta go work on my paper and start organizing things to pack up tomorrow.
I'll try to get up another post or two before heading out to the village.

Cheers,
Sara