Fiji Pictures

Fiji Pictures

Fiji

Fiji was WONDERFUL! The food, the people, the beaches, everything was beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I was in Fiji to attend a training class at the University of the South Pacific on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The class was made up of approximately 40 students from islands throughout the South Pacific including Micronesia, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, Tahiti, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Samoa, and American Samoa, amongst others. They represented governments, NGOs (CI, TNC, WWF, etc...), community groups, schools, and a myriad of other organizations. Everyone came with different experiences and perspectives and it was fascinating to learn about successes and challenges facing other island nations. 

Perhaps the most inspiring participant was the girl from Tuvalu. Tuvalu completely fascinates me. The country is made up of four reef islands and five atolls and has a total land coverage of 10 sq miles. It is the fourth smallest country in the world (before the Vatican City, Monaco, and Nauru) and fewer than 12,000 people, the third smallest population of any country in the world (before the Vatican city and Nauru). In addition to being really really small, Tuvalu has very low elevation. The highest point is 16 feet, making it extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels. It is for this reason that I first learned about Tuvalu in 2007 while I was working as an intern at the UN in New York.

I was covering the Commission on Sustainable Development and for two weeks the US and China had been bickering over carbon emissions and the meetings had come to a complete standstill. On the last day delegates from the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) were given the opportunity to speak. Most of the delegates gave long speeches detailing the various threats to their islands and asked for help in a way that suggested that they knew that they would not receive any. Then the delegate from Tuvalu stood up. Now keep in mind that the people from Tuvalu are traditionally worriers. They are very large and they are very intimidating. It is no surprise therefore that most armies in the world (including the United States) consider their soldiers with Pacific Island heritage the most valuable and the most courageous. So this huge guy from Tuvulu stands up and very slowly walks to the front of the room. He takes his time to make sure everyone is paying attention to him. Once he is situated he looks out at the room and says in a very calm very reserved manner: "I have just one question. Where are you planning to move my countrymen when you drown my country?" And he turned and walked off the stage. This guy was a total rock star! And ever since then I have been totally rooting for Tuvalu!

As a complete aside, I think it is a really interesting twist of fate that the only reason Tuvalu can afford a UN delegation is because they were able to lease their area code (900) and sell their internet domain name (.tv) for $50 million. 

So I was really curious to hear what the government of Tuvalu was doing to help protect their own environment. I was not disappointed. One of the girls who was my age talked about the times when she was a child when she would watch elders from her village eat turtles straight from the shell. She told how at a young age she made a promise to herself that she would protect the sea turtles no matter what it took. After attending University in New Zealand she returned to Tuvalu and now works with the government to develop community outreach programs to teach villagers about the ecological value of sea turtles and the importance of protecting the marine environment. She has been extremely instrumental in establishing several community-based marine protected areas throughout Tuvalu and she is committed to continue her work until turtles are no longer consumed in her country. This girl's passion was completely contagious and she captivated the attention of everyone in the room when she told her story - in much the same way that the Tuvalu delegate had in New York. 

Anyhow after a week of learning about everyone's experiences and making more poster boards than I ever thought possible (the class was very hands on), it was time to explore Fiji! There are only two flights per week from Fiji to Samoa and so I was "forced" to stay in Fiji through Tuesday. Needless to say very little arm twisting was required. My friend from American Samoa flew out and we drove down the coral coast from Suva to Nandi before hopping aboard a boat for a remote island in the Yasawas. But I'm going to hold off on stories until I get pictures uploaded....

Update

I can't believe it is already September! My rotation in American Samoa was supposed to end on September 1 (hence the title of my blog) but a number of different factors delayed my study this summer and my rotation has been extended to November 2. I feel really fortunate to have the opportunity to spend more time in American Samoa because I am really enjoying my work here and gaining some really valuable experience.

The last three have been a total whirlwind of activity. Kelsey's last week here on the island overlapped with survey week! Survey week started with a training class for the four volunteers from the American Samoa Community College who would be helping me with survey distribution. After reviewing the survey and going through various scenarios the volunteers divided up the survey villages were ready to go. For the next seven days the volunteers visited households in the villages adjacent to Fagatele Bay and distributed surveys. I was a little apprehensive about people's willingness to respond to the survey but it turned out my concerns were completely unnecessary. The response rate was nearly 100% and in seven days the girls were able to collect nearly 500 surveys! I met with the volunteers throughout the week to discuss their experiences and so I knew that things were going well but I was overwhelmed by the response considering I was only hoping to collect 120 surveys. I suppose the high response rate may have been in part due to the fact that we gave out free pens to anyone who completed a survey. According to one of my volunteers, word got out that we were distributing pens people were tracking her down on her cell phone to ask if they could participate in the study! On Thursday when I went to Cost U Less (American Samoa's take on Cosco) to buy more pens the cashier commmented "Oh are you from the group that is handing out pens in Vaitogi [one of my survey villages]? My mom was talking about you guys. Do you think you could come to my house?"

The only downside of collecting so many surveys is that we now have to enter all the data into a database for analysis! I considered using several programs for data analysis including SPSS and Excel but at the end of the day I settled on Survey Pro, a software program often used for social science research that is frequently used in American Samoa. It is extremely simple to enter data and most of the analysis is done automatically which is very time efficient. I have enlisted the help of Noel, the summer intern, for data entry and I have given her the task of entering all the Samoan surveys, not an easy task since many more people completed the survey in Samoan than in English. She is a total rock star however and I have every confidence in her ability to get them done!

Last week I headed to Kona for the Coral Reef Task Force Meeting, a bi-annual event held to bring together people from different organizations who work on coral reef conservation and management in the United States and in US Territories. Ten people from American Samoa attended the conference including the Governor and his wife, the Director and the Deputy Director of the Department of Commerce, the Superintendant of Fagatele Bay (my boss), and several staff from the Coral Reef Advisory Group (CRAG) and the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR). Also in attendance was the Governor of Guam and the President of Yap and the President of Palau. The conference was a great opportunity to meet with people from other islands to learn about their experiences. I am very inspired by the work that is being done and I hope to have the opportunity to visit some of their sites.

I returned to American Samoa on Sunday and fortunately Monday was a holiday so I had an opportunity to rest before returning to the wonderful world of data entry. I am trying to get as much done as possible this week because tomorrow I am leaving for Fiji for a 6-day training on Marine Protected Area (MPA) capacity building. The course is being help by NOAA and the University of the South Pacific and focuses on coral reef management in the Pacific Islands Region. I will be attending the course with two people from the Coral Reef Advisory Group (CRAG) which is housed in my building in American Samoa. I feel extremely fortunate to have this opportunity to participate in this extraordinary course in such a beautiful location. The training ends on Saturday evening but due to the flight schedule we will not be returning to American Samoa until the following Tuesday. My plan is to rent a car and drive around the island as much as I can. Then it's back to more data entry...