Gregg - Week 6 Fieldnotes

Note Index | Erinn Gregg

Erinn Gregg Week 6 Field Notes excerpts - Life Cycle continued

MONDAY - WEDNESDAY, October 11 - 13, 1999

(written October 20, morning)
SUMMARY

Michelle and I wake up at the Rakiraki hotel by a phone call from Steve who says they are going to the hospital in Suva. Michelle asks if I would like to go and I agree. [hey why not...a road trip to Suva!] After getting our things together we leave for Suva around 11:00 a.m. and arrive there around 2:30. We go directly to the hospital where the doctor sees Michelle. He tells her that he does not believe she has appendicitis and she should stop taking the antibiotics that the doctor in Vaileka had prescribed. He asks that we stay overnight and return on Tuesday for x-rays and an ultra sound. We check into the Suva Motor Inn and get something to eat. We then return to the hotel and sit around for a while watching television. Around 6:30 we go to the movies and see American Pie. [I can't believe I am watching an American movie in Fiji and it throws me off a bit]. We return from the movie and attempt to watch television. The only programs on are the visitor information channel and the Rugby World up. Michelle and I are not interested in either and we fall asleep. The following morning we get up around 9:00 and after packing up our things we go to the hospital. We see the doctor again and he sends us to the x-ray room. The hospital is quite crowded and we wait in the x-ray room for two hours before Michelle has her ultra sound and x-ray. After the results we head back to the doctor and he takes a look at the x-rays. The doctor determines says that he would like to call in another doctor to look at the x-rays. He arrives and they suggest that Michelle stay overnight in the hospital. We are not keen on this idea and Steve suggests that we stay overnight in the hotel. We also ask to see the American doctor who is at the hospital and they tell us that we can. We go to the doctor, Dr. Merchant and he checks out Michelle. He tells Michelle that he thinks it might have been either fish or water that caused her stomach pains. He asks us to stay over for another night and we agree to do so. We head back to the Suva Motor Inn and decide where to eat dinner. We go to dinner at 6:30 and return around 8:15. Michelle and I watch television and then fall asleep. On Wednesday morning we get up and Michelle calls the doctor. He tells her that she can go home today and advises her to be careful about what she eats and drinks in the village. [no kava!] We get our things together and leave for our drive back to Rakiraki. When we arrive home we celebrate Jeffrey's birthday [my mom's birthday too even though she isn't there]. I return to Michelle's house to interview her sisters. Dilly asks me to stay over and talk to her in the morning, which seems like a good idea since it is already 9:30. Michelle and I sit around talking and go to sleep around 12:30 a.m.
I. American Doctor in Fiji - Dr. Merchant

The American Doctor in Fiji tells us that he from Chicago and explains how he arrived in Fiji. He circumnavigates and a few years ago he had stopped in Fiji for typhoon season. He had been out of medicine in the states for a few years but when he saw that there was a shortage of doctors in Fiji he decided to stay. He has now been there for two years. Dr. Merchant explains to us that he sees a lot of tourist accidents especially being an American doctor. There are numerous accidents related to diving and climbing but mostly he says there are car accidents. Tourists who are not accustomed to driving on the other side of the road or get confused at the turn abouts. Dr. Merchant also tells us that he is the president of the Fijian Cancer Society. He explains about the rare cases of cancer he has seen in Fiji and while he has not proven anything he suggests a link between nuclear testing in the South Pacific and the cancers he has seen in Fijian women.
II. Independent Study Interview - Rose

Rose and I begin the interview by talking about people she admires. She begins by talking about her friends saying, "I prefer to be friends with girls who are my same age, same height as me, same build. Like I am not big and my friends are not either. I do not like to make friends with girls who are big because I thought big girls like that they are greedy". For the opposite sex she admires people who are tall, good builds, and dark skin color. Rose tells me that you would describe a guy she admires as, "He is so damn cute". In Fijian this would be, "Uro," which means cute. Also she would say, "Rere vinaka", "He is handsome". She would say the same thing for girls. A girl or boy could be described as muse done as well which also means that he or she is cute.

I ask Rose what makes people attractive and she tells me that if they look after themselves properly they are attractive. They know what to do in the morning and take care of themselves. "Even if they are not good looking if they take care of themselves they are attractive". For males it depends - if his family has dark skin then he will also have dark skin. She says his looks will depend on where he is from. "The girls who o not have good looks, if they look after themselves they are attractive. That is they look after especially their face, their hair style".

We then discuss what is unattractive. Rose tells me that she dislikes the scales on the skin when people drink too much grog. "I just hate it!" But not all people get scales from drinking grog because they put on oil. Rose would say "kanekane". She describes an unattractive female as one who also has scales on the skin. In addition those females who lose their front teeth. "One I saw yesterday in one of the buses when I cam back from school you know she was so tiny. She's about, I'm bigger than her and she is so small. And she does not have any eyebrows at all like she plucks all her eyebrows out and she put the pencil on her brows. She looks funny and she as wearing dark sunglasses and cream all over her face, a common cream in Fiji, Butterfly, and I just don't like that. She looks funny".

I ask Rose if people comment on her appearance and she tells me that she I not boasting but most people say she is cute, she is good, and a fun person to talk to. "But I don't like people talking to me like that. When they talk to me like that I never reply, I just ignore them". I ask Rose if people talk about their weight and she at first is unsure about what she prefers. She tells me that she likes people who are heavier in weight. "For me I don't like my weight because the last time I applied for a job they required the weight - you should be forty or fifty kg and I did not even reach that weight. I was I think 39, that's why I hate light weight so I prefer being heavy". Rose says she eats a lot so that she can gain weight. People comment on her weight saying, "She is light enough to carry because she is thin". Sometimes she does not like it but sometimes she does. Rose thinks she weighs close to 45 kg at the present time. Her ideal weight is closer to 50, "Because I want to go for a job at a local airport and they require your weight to be 50 to 55 kg". That is the exact weight they want and if you are close to 50 they will not hire you. This is for a job at the Air Terminal System, ATS, where you load the planes but do not board them.

I ask Rose about television stars that she admires. She likes Noah Wylie from E.R. "He is cute. I like the tone of his voice. I like him also because on E.R. he does not have one of the girls there". The female actress that she admires is Wynona Ryder. "Because we have the same horoscope - we are both scorpions. So for every horoscope in the magazines I buy from the bookshop my horoscope is the same as hers. The way she cuts her hair. She is also tiny just like me. She is small and could gain some weight. She should gain more weight because I am gaining weigh. The way she dresses herself and her eyebrows".

Rose tells me there are some Fijian women who are really big and those are the women she does not like. "They look untidy to me. When they get dressed their shirts are tight and their tummy. Especially with sulu and shirt and it is tight in these women". Rose tells me she never trains especially in the village because people make fun of her. "They always laugh at me ad say why you want to run? You are already skinny and you want to run".

Top of Page | Note Index | Erinn Gregg

THURSDAY, October 14, 1999

(written October 20, morning)
SUMMARY

I wake up early today so that I can interview Dilly and head back to Drana. She is busy preparing lunch for the men who are working on her family's sugar cane fields and asks if I can wait until she is finished. I sit reading and then decide to go to the Rakiraki Hotel so I can call my mother for her birthday. On the way back to Michelle's house I run into Elder Dyer, the missionary I had met a few weeks ago in town. We talk and he tells me that he would like to come and teach us sometime. I go back to Michelle's house and read for another while waiting for Dilly. I interview her and when I am finished Michelle and I eat lunch and then head into town to do some shopping. We go back to Drana and then head to Wananavu with Michelle to inquire about talking to the women who work there as I noticed previously that they are all very slim. In addition I was curious if their contact with westerners might have any effect on their appearance. We sit at Wananavu and Michelle interviews one of the employees, Papu Pangalu. I talk to him about appearance and weight. We are then joined by a few tourists from New Zealand who sit with us for quite some time. We eat dinner and leave Wananavu around 9:00 p.m. The taxi drops Michelle off at her house and I head to my house. Savu and I sit on the back porch drinking tea and catching up. I go to my room around 10:30 and read before going to sleep at 11:15.
I. Independent Study Interview - Dilly

We begin the conversation by talking about people whom Dilly admires both of the same and opposite sex. She asks me if it can be an actress and when I reply with a yes she tells me Demi Moore. "She's gorgeous hey. She's cute. She is smart in acting. I love the way she walks, she talks. And I also love the dimples on her cheek...her eyeballs". I ask Dilly about a male she admires and at first she giggles at my question. She then asks me what I would like her to say and I tell her anyone. I explain that if she does not want to tell me the person's name she can be general. "I admire guys who have huge muscles, play rugby". She is unsure about what she wants to say so I ask her how she would describe a person she admired. She replies, "Handsome...sexy", giggling, "caring and gorgeous too I might say". In Fijian this would be rere vinaka or uro. Dilly tells me that rere vinaka is the best way to describe handsome. An attractive female would be described with the same words. "Uro is a kind of slang for us in Fijian". According to Dilly a woman is attractive, "If she is tall, the look, the figure". I inquire what figure is attractive and Dilly replies, "Tallness, hairstyle goes, appearance, how wealthy she is, family background, her high school performance".

We then talk about what makes someone unattractive in Dilly's opinion. "People who don't look after themselves. If she is not well dressed. Some of them don't groom themselves. The way they dress, the way the act. Performance too...it shows. If you go to a certain high school hey - what level of education you are at it shows. Most of in the village its like that. If you don't go to secondary level it shows up in you. You'll never mix up with people; you'll just stick to your own. If you go to school you'll stick around with people from there". I ask Dilly to explain what "ungroomed" refers to. "Your look, your hairstyle. You don't look after yourself well...you don't put on any..you look uh..your hair is bushy - that's ungroomed hey- you don't look after your body well".

Unattractive males - "They don't shave. I hate males that don't shave. I they don't cut and trim their hair. Especially the ones who don't brush their teeth". They are described in Fijian as duka, which in Fijian means dirty. It is the opposite of rere vinaka and can be used in reference to both males and females.

Discussions of weight - At first Dilly is confused by the question and thinks I am inquiring about the way people are. When I explain she replies, "Umm..Females - I love females who have their weight not more than 70 kg. Less than 70...fifty to seventy. And males it is good for the males to have this weight 70-80. If they look skinny I don't like them". I ask her if people talk about their weight and Dilly says, "Not most, only some. Mostly woman care about their weight when they are in this condition of pregnancy and having babies. Me, I don't care about my weight". She says hat the last time she weighed herself was in the month of March for netball training. She was 67.3 kg then but she does not know how much she weighs right now. "I think I have gained more. I think I am 70 or 71". I ask her if people comment on her weight and she does "Oh yes, sometimes they say that if I put on a tight fitting dress and it fits they say Oh you have gone too fat. But for me it's good eh...People will say, 'My you have gone fat wearing that dress, it doesn't fit you. But if I put on something big they will say, 'My you have gone skinny, you should eat a lot. That is the way we talk about our weight by putting on a dress. Normally we don't get into the habit of checking what is their real weight. Unless you are pregnant or if you have a netball match then you have to put on weight and check on our weight. But we normally check on our weight by putting on a dress or a sulu. That's in the village but I don't know for those in the city they might check their weight".

Training - When I ask Dilly if people train in the village suggesting perhaps walking or running she laughs and replies with a no. "I go to the farm and that is how I lose weight". She has never been on a diet. "I never miss any meal, breakfast, lunch no I never have been on a diet. Only if I have a heavy breakfast and I don't feel like going for lunch. Dinner is a must...must have dinner".

Comments on weight of others - Dilly says that personally she does not comment on other people's weight but that she does hear it from other people. "Yes they normally comment on other people. Some of them comment like not as a good comment but as gossip. Some of the Fijian women comment in terms of like, Oh she has gone to fat she must be eating a lot or she must be do some other things that are not appropriate. In terms of drinking - for us drinking make us go fat...drinking alcohol".

Media and television - "I admire George Tavola. He used to host this t.v. program on Saturday. He is handsome, cute, sexy, gorgeous". The female media influence whom she admires is Rebecca Steel who used to be a newscaster. "She is cute, pretty and also gorgeous. She has this height and her looks...just pretty".

Treatment based on weight - Dilly says that she does not treat people differently. "Myself, I just react to that fat old lady who is sitting beside me normal. But I don't know how she will react to me - if she will like me or hate me". Dilly remembers an incident on the bus last year and she tells me, "It was like this - there was happening like this- We boarded the bus, The Sunbeam Express, this is the first tome I ever saw. I went to Suva and boarded the bus here and we were sitting in the back and it was raining and the bus was full. And this old lady boarded the bus and I was already in the bus and I managed to have a seat. This was on a Friday night. So I managed to get a seat, a two-seater- so I sat beside the window and I was sitting with a guy. And nobody even bothers to move for this lady. So I stood up and the manager of the bus who collects the tickets told me to go and sit in front. So I managed o give her a seat. She was old but she had gone fat. Some of the people don't care to even stand up but I do that".

Eating - Dilly tells me that some people never care about their weight and they just eat whatever. "Most of us eat a lot of starchy foods like cassava. We eat starchy foods for lunch, starchy foods for dinner. Some of them they do care but you'll see most of our mothers they have gone fat. And some of the young girls too at the age of sixteen because they never care about their figure and they just eat and eat and eat". Dilly tells me that she personally does not eat a lot of red meat. "Because - to be healthy. I eat fish and lovo food and a little bit of red meat. Not too much cassava and not too much dalo just a little bit - one slice. Bread of course". In a normal day Dilly tells me that she would eat roti, curry or bread for breakfast with tea. Usually whatever is left over from the night before with a cup of tea. She will not have lunch if she eats a heavy breakfast but will just have a cup of tea. If not she will have fish with cassava or rice and curry, or dhal soup for lunch. Dinner consists of fish with cassava, curry meat or tea. "I don't eat a lot of cassava just one piece or two because starchy food it makes you heavy".
II. Male Thoughts on Weight

While at Wananavu I talk with a worker from the Ra Divers, Papu Pangalu. He tells me that people should not be concerned with what they weigh and how they look. "Looks are like a fancy dress - you take it and put it on a pig or a dog and then what?" In his opinion women should eat whatever they want and drink whatever they want because, "As long as you are happy, what are looks?"

Top of Page | Note Index | Erinn Gregg

FRIDAY, October 15, 1999

(written October 21, evening)
SUMMARY

Today I wake up around 9:00 and eat breakfast with Savu. I then decide to go walking and come back after approximately one hour. Savu and I sot talking and she gets ready to go to a ladies church service in Vitawa. I remain behind to get some work done as well as do my washing for the trip to Taveuni. I go into town at approximately 1:30 and on my way out stop in and check with Mere that I can come over this afternoon and interview her. She says it is okay and after buying a few things in town I come back to Drana. I put my things away and then head up to Mere's house. We sit in the main room of the house and I conduct my second life history interview. Mere and I talk for about an hour and when the interview is over I see that Savu has come home from Vitawa. We talk for a bit and then come down to the house. I get a few things together for the trip and Savu makes us tea. We sit and drink tea until about 6:00 and then prepare things for dinner. Savu cuts up read while I make soup. We sit eating in the dark as the light in the main room has been moved to the back porch because it had gone out the night before. Savu and I sit drinking tea after dinner while talking about falling in love ad husbands. Around 8:30 Makareta comes down and we go into my room to do the third life history interview. The interview lasts about and hour and after we are done talking we just in my room while I get the rest of my things together for the trip. [now I know it might sound like I was packing a quite a lot here but I really didn't pack that much!] Around 10:15 Savu comes to my door and tells us that she is going to drink kava. We decide to stay behind and make some tea. We drink our tea and have some rice to eat while we talk about plans for next weekend. [nice...another person who likes to plan things!] We get ready to go to sleep and Makareta reads a magazine I had purchased in Suva while I read a book from home. She sleeps on my floor and we go to sleep around 12:30.
Independent Study Ques. for Mere:

People she admires - "I used to admire Diana. Princess Diana. The way she dresses up and the way she talking. She looked good. She's always neat and whatever she wears suits her". Mere has to think about males that she admires and then tells me there is only one that she admires at the moment and that is her husband.

Descriptive Words - URO - whenever you admire someone. Before it used to be barewa which is the same as uro.

Attractiveness - "The way she suits - her figure and her appearance makes her attractive". For a male Mere tells me it is the same thing which she finds attractive. "The way he smiles and talks".

Unattractive - "You look untidy and you grow your beard". Mere tells she would describe this as, "Yuck - we use the same thing hey". She tells me you can describe them as seche, which is not a good word.

Discussions of weight - "For us Fijians that doesn't really matter. Because we eat a lot and we don't care when we go fat or what. As long as you married you forget about it". Mere tells me that there are some women who worry about their weight after marriage but it is rare.

Comments in weight - "Oh yes we always talk about it. Just like us, yesterday and I was talking with Savu and we were talking about our weight and all. Man I love to join with you in jogging because I am gaining a lot of weight. I used to be thin. We were just talking about it yesterday. We were talking about our cousin Maki, you know, Savu's sister - she has gained a lot of weight".

Mere and weight - Mere tells me that she does not know her weight but she thinks that she is close to 80 kg. "Last year weighed myself and it was 73 but I was a bit thinner at that time. Now I have gained a lot of weight - maybe more than 80 kg". She says that if she eats too much her mother will tell her, "Hey you eat a lot, you eat too much you better cut down on food". Mere says she likes to have healthy food and he family eats a lot of fish. However she does not like fish.

Daily Meals - Usually whatever they have to eat. Tea in the morning and sometimes tea for lunch and then a heavy dinner. "Ninety-eight percent of Fijians are doing that are having heavy things for dinner".

Train - Mere used to train herself but she doesn't train anymore.

Television - She doesn't really watch all that much television because she doesn't like it. She doesn't really admire any particular actress or actor on television.

Dieting - "Just when I was single but now I can't. I always try but I can't. When I was single I just cut down on food. I just had tea and bread and tea and bread. And sometimes I would just have tea. I would cut down on meat and then fish I had fish. Fish was the only thing I could eat and egg. But red meat no, just cut out. After I got married it was meat again". She says that being in the village now she finds it hard to lose weight. "Because someone starts eating well you join and then you compete".

Eating Disorders - I ask Mere about eating disorders in the high schools and she tells me that it is quite hard to see that in Rakiraki. You can see that maybe in Suva and Nadi but not very often in Rakiraki.

Top of Page | Note Index | Erinn Gregg