The cow jumped over the fence

Yesterday was pretty much a continuation of lots and lots of rain. I’m beginning to miss the sun. Apparently last semester there were three solid weeks at the beginning when you never saw the sun at all because it was raining non-stop. No wonder there were so many problems…

To make up for the fact that the rain pretty much kept us in our rooms my roommate and I have begin reading Harry Potter out loud to each other. I’ve never read the books and even now that I am I don’t really see what has caused all the hype. I’m actually quite critical of them and think Harry Potter is a spoiled little brat. I much prefer Artimus Fowl. Reading them has been something to do however when its raining outside and there is no one else around. I don’t remember if I mentioned this or not but the rest of our housemates were moved to other houses last week due to “continued breaking of the rules.” Apparently there were a lot of drunken parties when we weren’t around on weekend, plus there were other issues with rule breakage. I do miss them. All three were from Fiji and it was nice to come back from our travels and know that they would be chilling in the commons watching TV or movies. Now that they are gone our house feels so empty. But back to reading Harry Potter. We sit on the bed, make tea or milo, and eat biscuits while we take turns reading chapters. We’ve about a third of the way through the book.

Last night after reading a few chapters I went back to my room to finish up a few assignments. I was sitting at my desk when I heard a rather loud noise. “Those stupid dogs I thought…boy are they loud tonight.” Next thing I know Kalia was in my room: “Did you just see that cow run by your window?” Yeah I felt just a tad bit stupid. I mean I knew that was a cow noise. I don’t know why I thought it was the dogs. But yep, right outside our door was a huge cowing mooing and groaning and making all sorts of loud noises…at 11:30pm! We debated whether or not to call someone when we saw flashlights approaching in the distance. The security guards tried to move the cow but were successful only in emitting more cow-like noises from the animal. Kalia and I were doubled over in laughter in our house. The whole situation was just so bizarre…especially as it was happening in the rain. I think the security guards heard us because they promptly began laughing at us. I guess that’s the way things go here.

Tomorrow morning, at 2:30am we leave for Fiji. We’ll be gone for a week I believe, but I’m somewhat confused as to the actual time we will spend in Fiji as flying there involves crossing the international date line. We leave Saturday and arrive one hour later on Sunday. I might actually have internet access there since its supposedly more developed but I cant promise anything. Immediately after I finish here I’ll be going to class where each of us will be giving a five-minute presentation on some aspect of Fiji. I’m doing politics and the coup. I’m still trying to figure out how I’ll squeeze that into five minutes as there is quite a bit surrounding that issue. A lot of it has to do with racial tensions between Native Fijians and Indo-Fijians who were moved to Fiji as part of the British colonization of the island to work on the plantations. The other big issue, considered by the Fijians I spoke with to be the biggest issue, involves the land. 80% of the land is currently communal land, with leases that used to last 99 years. As a result of the tension leases have been changed to 30 years, with the result that when many of the Indo-Fijians (who are the ones leasing the land since they cannot own it as non-natives) leases expire the native Fijians are refusing to renew them. Both the Indo-Fijians and the natives recognize this as a problem, at least from an economic standpoint. The Indo-Fijians are the ones who have been developing the land for the past hundred years. As the natives try to move back in, they are finding that they do not know how to get the same amount of yield from the land- whether that is from a lack of experience or a different work ethic depends on who you speak to. But that’s a basic background of the issue. And now off to class.