Tropical Cyclone Pam

Those of you in the US may not have heard of Tropical Cyclone Pam, but it’s the only thing anyone in the South Pacific has talked about all week. Early in the week the cyclone seemed to be heading halfway between Fiji and Vanuatu with the possibility to swerve in either direction. Fiji was spared. In Suva we’ve had minimal rain and winds that might have been slightly stronger than normal, though it sounds like there’s been some flooding in the Western part of Fiji.

Vanuatu was not nearly as lucky. At this point the official death toll is 8 with the unofficial death toll over 40. The eye of the category 5 tropical cyclone passed directly over Port Vila, the capital, and also a couple of other islands. Every island of Vanuatu was affected, with the outer islands probably in the worst shape, but without communications working it’s difficult for anyone to know. I visited Vanuatu for a fabulous vacation in October. It was a beautiful country full of friendly people. I am saddened thinking of how devastating the damage is and how many of the places I visited just 5 months ago might not exist anymore.

Unfortunately, Vanuatu wasn’t the only country in the Pacific affected by the cyclone and the accompanying tropical depression that formed in its wake. The Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and Kiribati have all suffered serious damage this week. The government of Tuvalu has declared a state of emergency.

I haven’t posted in a really long time and have not updated you on my work, but Kiribati is one of the countries I am working with. I have visited there twice and had previously planned a visit this week to conduct a training with the Kiribati Red Cross. While the training will not be able to go forward as planned, I am still traveling to Kiribati tomorrow. I will be supporting the Kiribati Red Cross in their assessment and relief efforts. In addition to the tropical depression, Kiribati has been affected by king tides and expects more king tides in the coming week. I’ve been told that in Kiribati the king tides can reach up to 4 meters; the land mass of Kiribati is only 3 meters. The severe flooding this week has ruined many houses. One of the smaller hospitals flooded and everyone had to be evacuated. The causeway that connects the main part of the island where the airport and main hospital is with Betio, the section of the island where the Kiribati Red Cross office is, collapsed this week. It has been rebuilt but only small vehicles are allowed on it. This limits access for food, gas, and water to be transported from one side of the island to the other.

In Kiribati most people live in houses that are more like huts, built themselves out of wood with a tin roof and very susceptible to damage with any bad weather. The main island, South Tarawa, is extremely overcrowded, with about 50,000 people living on a landmass that’s only about 6 square miles. It takes over an hour to drive the ~30 km (18 miles) from one side of the island to the other because the road is in such bad condition. In the best of times Kiribati is prone to power outages. Diarrhea outbreaks are a common occurrence. Pigs live just outside people’s homes, often tied to a tree but not in any sort of pen. Small children run around barefoot and naked. When I first visited it reminded me of rural Kenya, but smashed together into slum-like conditions. It’s located very close to the equator, so it’s very hot year round. The general smell in Kiribati is a combination of fish, sewage, and body odor. Additionally, over the last few weeks they’ve had an outbreak of Chikungunya, a mosquito-transmitted disease with similar symptoms to malaria. Adding flooding to this mix cannot be a good thing.

If you want to read more about what’s happening in the Pacific, here are a few links:

• http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-14/tc-pam-leaves-trail-of-destruction-as-it-moves-south-of-vanuatu/6318652
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-15/tropical-cyclone-pam-in-pictures/6320242
• https://www.facebook.com/HumansOfVanuatu
• http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/67366444/cyclone-pam-hits-vanuatu-death-tally-begins

Australian Red Cross has launched an appeal to support response, relief, and recovery efforts in Vanuatu. If you can afford to help, please donate to the Red Cross or another organization working in Vanuatu. The recovery from this devastation is going to take years. As far as I know, American Red Cross does not typically collect money to support disaster response work in the Pacific Region.

Suva vs Leluvia

When I said I was moving to Fiji, most people probably pictured this:

Or maybe this:

You probably did not picture this:

Unfortunately, the third picture is what Suva actually looks like. Suva is Fiji’s capital city. It’s where the government and most big businesses are located. There is no beach in Suva. There is a sea wall and a port, but nowhere you’d want to swim in the water. It’s actually quite clean, especially in comparison to every other developing country I’ve visited, but it’s not a pretty city. There is no Suva skyline and there are very few buildings notable for their appearance.

According to the most recent census from 2007, about 20% of the total population of Fiji (837,271) lives in Suva and it’s surrounding areas (Lami, Nausori, and the related peri-urban areas). About half of the population lives in rural areas, some on outer islands with no access to electricity or clean water.

Thankfully, in Suva there is both electricity and clean water the vast majority of the time. You can even safely drink water from the tap since they chlorinate the Suva city water supply, though it tastes a bit like pool water.

Sometimes you need an escape from city life. For such times, we’re lucky enough to have gorgeous beaches not very far away. The top two photos are from Leluvia, a tiny island about a 45 minute drive and a 30-45 minutes boat ride from Suva. I spent a weekend there about a month or so ago. It was beautiful and relaxing – a perfect getaway from every day life. You can walk around the entire island in about 20 minutes. The lodging is all simple bures (huts) with a shared bathroom area in the center. There is no hot water on the island. Pretty much every weekend it’s full of Suva expats looking for an escape. I’m sure I’ll be back.

Here are some other pictures from my weekend at Leluvia:

         

A Little Update

I’ve now been in Fiji for three months. Next week I’ll finally move into the apartment I’ll be in long-term and will be able to start to feel settled. I’ve been living in a temporary apartment that’s going to be renovated as soon as I move out, and in my opinion it really needs the renovation. There’s a big crunch in Suva for expat housing right now. I’ve talked to a lot of people who have said that because of the election there are more expats here than normal. Because of the large and real risk of burglaries and theft in Suva, many expats, myself included, want or are required to live in a house or apartment with 24-hour guard service. There are a finite number of apartment complexes that offer this. You can always hire a guard for a house, but many landlords want tenants who will sign 2-3 year leases which expats who are here on a one-year contract cannot do. All of these factors have led to a housing crunch. Despite this I managed to secure a two-bedroom apartment in a really nice apartment complex with a big, beautiful pool living directly below a colleague. I’m really excited about moving in and getting to feel more settled.

Throughout the last few months I’ve had quite a bit of work travel. Since arriving in Suva I’ve been to Kualu Lumpur, Melbourne, Northern Fiji, and Western Fiji all for work. The trips were all really good, but it’s been nice having the last month not travelling anywhere to get adjusted to life in Fiji, start meeting people, and develop a routine. I’ve joined the Rucksack Club, a group of mostly expats who organize hikes and events, and started a book club.

Taxis in Suva are really cheap and always use the meter, so there’s no need to buy a car or any other mode of transportation. At night it’s not a good idea to walk anywhere since muggings are common, but there are taxis everywhere and typically cost between 2-5 FJD (~$1.10-2.70 US). When I’m going somewhere during daylight, I’ll usually take a public bus which is only 70 cents (about 40 cents US) or walk if it’s close enough. Both my current and new apartments are less than a 10 minute walk to the office so my commute is super simple.

I do most of my fruit and vegetable shopping at the public market. Saturday is market day, so there’s a lot more variety and the food is a bit fresher. I’ve learned that buying tofu at the market on Saturday is great, but later in the week it’s turned a bit. There are a number of different supermarkets here and you can find almost anything you want if you’re willing to pay a surplus for it and potentially go to 5 different stores before you find it.

Overall, Suva is a really easy place to live. Life is comfortable, it’s easy to get around and communicate (everyone has perfect English), there are very few things you can’t buy, and there’s a decent-sized expat community. I’m sure the longer I live here, the more disillusioned I’ll get, but for now I’m enjoying life.

New job, new continent

As seems to be my pattern, I started a new job in March and moved to a new continent for it. Eventually I’ll run out, but thus far this pattern seems to be working for me. I’m now based in Suva, Fiji working for the Australian Red Cross as their Pacific Regional Health Delegate. This title is a fancy way of saying that I’m supporting the local Red Cross Societies in Fiji, the Cook Islands, and Kiribati (and maybe Micronesia, but that’s still TBD) to plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate their community health programs. There are some fabulous and extremely dedicated local staff and community volunteers working in each of these countries, though the Fiji and Cook Islands programs are much more established. I’ll be helping them set up systems that improve their programs and streamline their data collection for ongoing program monitoring, as well as adding technical rigour and support when it’s needed.

This program is community-driven, meaning it’s designed to respond to the health needs that each community identifies. It’s much more flexible than the programs I’ve worked on in the past since theoretically each target community could identify completely different health needs. In reality, there are a few key health issues that keep coming up. The biggest problem that’s been identified in every community thus far is non-communicable diseases (NCDs). That’s just a technical term to lump together diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, cancer, etc. For those of you thinking that NCDs are just a problem in the US, Europe, and other developed countries, take a look at some of the WHO statistics. NCDs are estimated to account for 77% of all deaths in Fiji and 74% in the Cook Islands. Obviously the need is there. This means our community health programming will focus primarily on increasing healthy eating and physical activity along with reducing tobacco and alcohol use while also responding to the other needs identified by the communities, like diarrheal diseases/water-borne illnesses, tuberculosis, and dengue fever.

As in the past, this blog will probably focus more on the cultural aspects of my life in Fiji, but I wanted to give you a little bit of an overview of why I’m here and what I’m doing with most of my time. I’ll be spending some time travelling to each of the countries I’m supporting and also to the target communities in the Northern and Western divisions of Fiji. Hopefully there will also be time for some fun weekend or add-on trips to the beautiful beaches that are purported to exist in this part of the world.