Fiji Gallery.

Here are a selection of photos taken by a friend in Fiji - she took over the Class 5 reins when I left...

Base!

Kitchen at Base. (complete with rats!)

Dining room/lounge area at Base.

Lo's Tea House along the beach - best banana cake! 

Class 5 tykes. 

Mischief on the field! 

Class 5 girls.

Emma - adorable little girl who lives on base. 

Naughty boys from Class 5!

Class 5 boys - crazy! 

Class 5 in class - not working!

Toilet/shower on base.

Teaching at a Fijian school... finally!

More extracts from my Fijian diary...

Day 17 ~ Monday 30th January 2012

Went into the school finally to do some teaching but we had to go to assembly first. We sat in a line in front of the kids and introduced ourselves and listened to this long assembly. They all said 'good morning' to us individually which was so cute and then they had to say prayers and sing songs. When I walked into my classroom I had to introduce myself and talk to the kids but then the teacher ~ headmaster Mr. Minoa walked out and said 'I'll be in the office'! I started to teach English which he told me to do until lunch! I used the Fijian comprehension books which the children were obviously finding boring but I had nothing else planned. I can't believe I have to teach the most difficult class, with no teacher and everyone else and everyone else only assists the teacher. They only teach Music, P.E and Art on their own. Guess I have more freedom to do what I want! I was going to do Maths after having lunch in the 'library' but the headmaster shut the school suddenly after it was discovered that a cyclone was apparently on the way. All schools in Fiji were shut for the whole week as a precaution and all the boarders were sent home. Great! Another week sat on base in the pouring rain. Of course the kids were ecstatic.

Not such a tidy entrance!

At the school... finally!

Before assembly... little tykes! 

After a bit of direction... 

Day 18 ~ Tuesday 31st January 2012

We were called for an urgent meeting and told to pack two bags to prepare to evacuate. Something was headed for us and to be on the safe side we needed to get back to Nadi, on the mainland - a five hour boat journey. All the windows had to be boarded up, all the bags moved into one dorm and the beds shoved next to the windows. We then boxed up all the education resources to put under tables in the middle of the education hut. After all this we sat down and waited and waited and waited until we were finally told that there was no need to evacuate! Argh. Personally, I had been looking forward to a warm shower and a clean bed! We watched the film Death at a Funeral in the evening - very apt. After three kavas - Fijian alcohol made from a root - my mouth felt very numb.

My last diary extract was on Sunday 12th February 2012 - Day 30 which reads:

Haven't been doing much because of the weather but went to the school this week and finding teaching my class difficult as it's only me. Hopefully, me and another volunteer will be able to handle them more easily.

And then it all started to go downhill...

The Reality of the Situation...

I know I haven't written for a very very long time but I started studying Communications and Media at Bournemouth University in September so I thought it would be a good idea if I updated my blog and continued to write. I hope there are still people out there who will continue to read about my experiences!

I have just picked up my Fijian journal and decided that I would skip a few days and continuing writing about my trip from the beginning of the Fijian school week. Or at least what was supposed to be the first week back at school after the long summer. However...

Day 10 ~ Monday 23rd January 2012

I have to teach Class 5 - aged ten to eleven, luckily quite a small class. We couldn't go to the school and meet teachers as there was a massive storm and it rained all night and into the day. Had to plan lessons all day - Art, Music and P.E we teach alone but English, Maths and Science we help with (in my case, I taught everything... keep reading). We also take English workshops every week.

Day 11 ~ Tuesday 24th January 2012

No school again today. Been raining constantly and now Nadi is flooded, the airport is closed, there are no boats running and Ratu Meli School is closed, possibly for the whole week. Some people are going home on Friday and they haven't even had the chance to visit the school. Not able to wash or dry anything, everything smells.

Cooking lesson with Lice... how to demolish a coconut! 

Lice cooking hundreds of pancakes (with our help!) to raise spirits on base. Fantastic cook!

Day 13 ~ Thursday 26th January 2012

We went to the school today to clear the classrooms and paint murals along the outside of them. The construction group built a barbed wire fence. We listened to the 'Chief of the Yasawas' for ages, he talked about how no-one came to help him with the school. We do see a lot of Fijian men lying around or drinking Kava - what's known as 'Fijian time'!

Before painting the mural...

Day 14 ~ Friday 27th January 2012

I have been in Fiji for two weeks. The divers (on the Marine program) were able to go out yesterday after the shitty weather but they all came back really ill and had to go on oxygen because they thought it was to do with the tanks. They all went to hospital on the mainland, 2.5 hours away (it took us 5) - it turned out it was mild carbon monoxide poisoning.

Went to a cute little village called Malakati and played volleyball in the searing heat. We were wondering where all the kids were until they started coming out to play. It was getting too hot so we put some paper down in the shade for drawing and painting but the kids mostly wanted to paint themselves!
After lunch it was time to say goodbye to the two-weekers, sad. Stood on the beach waving like people truly stuck on a desert island.
Finding it very hard to sleep in this heat with the mosquitoes for company. Mice seem to love my bag for some reason. Wonderful. I eventually caved in and took my washing to Lice (local woman who lives on base) as I knew she'd do a great job.

Day 15 ~ Saturday 28th January 2012

The rest of the group went diving but I didn't have a spare $600 so I sat on a deckchair at Nanuya Resort and sobbed on the phone to mum. I was emotional about sitting around doing nothing for two weeks (and having no internet!) Hard to have any alone time when you're always around such a big group.
Back at base we met the new volunteers, three Aussies and one American, all really nice.

Day 16 ~ Sunday 29th January 2012

Went to the church on base at 10am but it didn't start til half past - 'Fijian time'! It is one of those things that the guidebook suggests to do while in Fiji and I highly recommend it. I went with a new volunteer ~ Ann, who's 67 and from America. It was a really unusual but interesting service as the church was just a little shack with a traditional woven mat to sit on. I was given a woven fan by a Fijian lady which was sweet. We sat cross-legged on the floor in sulu's - not as easy as it sounds! They sang beautiful Fijian harmonies and part of the service was read in English, just for us! It was such a calming atmosphere, I nearly fell asleep.

My Fiji Photos :)

Some of my photos in a video ~ enjoy!

Day Six ~ Thursday 19th January

A few people have been ill already, luckily not me! Lauren (education leader) was ill with tonsilitus so couldn't come with us to the village. Other people have developed tropical ulcers from mosquitoes bites, after being in the warm sea containing bacteria. Lovely. Can't believe how amazing it is here though, it's exactly like the paradise you see on a postcard. Yellow sand, crystal blue water, blue sky, literally perfection. Our turn to make breakfast today so I got up at 5.45 to make porridge and toast with tomatoes. As soon as I entered the kitchen I saw a mouse scurry into a hole in the wall and Angela felt a rat across her foot!! It was dark so we had to use torches to fry toast. We went back to the village we went to on Tuesday ~ Makavakalevu or something and sat by the sea again, painting shells and playing 'Paraball' with the parachute. We blew up some balloons for them and wrote their names on them, played snakes and ladders and volleyball. Well I sat and watched the volleyball in the shade while the little ones clambered over me. We had leftover dahl baht from yesterday which was warmed up for us, is was delicious and is exactly what is eaten in Nepal. The education leader, Jackie, spent 3 months volunteering in Nepal, Tibet and India and when in Nepal she helped at an orphanage in Pokhara, what a coincidence! We got back and could be lazy, in true Fijian style ~ swimming and lying by the palm trees, we can even buy beer for $3. We were sat relaxing and suddenly the base kids came running up with homemade pea shooters, made with seeds from the trees and began firing them at us! Last night we watched a film on a projector called The Guard.

Day Five ~ Wednesday 18th January

We went back to the village that we went to on Monday and made the shell jewellery, crowns and painted shells. Outside we played ball and got the parachute out. I played with a girl called Rebecca (aged 13). It was so fun but it got very hot. We had lunch with the locals who cooked rice with a fishy noodle sauce and what looked like cockles with breadfruit. The breadfruit tasted powdery and strange. The Fijian hospitality is so friendly, they all have huge smiles. Didn't bother wearing shoes today so I was worried I would tread on some weird bug. There is apparently something called a Spab or spider crab that can drop from the trees and kill people! We were also told to be aware of poisonous cone shells, stingrays, jellyfish, stonefish and sea snakes! All of which can be deadly. Do not pick up any pretty shells! When we got back we pretty much jumped straight into the sea to cool off.

In the education group there is Emily (Australian), Angela (Swiss), Jon (Canadian), Nat (US) and Tyler (US). Other people joining us at the moment are Nish (UK but born in Sri Lanka) and Lena (UK but part Danish). They also do construction ~ glad I'm not doing that in the heat! So there is a real mix of people. Everyone has to do base chores and I do recycling every Thursday and a kitchen clean every Tuesday as well as cooking ~ not like home! Other chores include looking after the veggie patch, rot patrol, cleaning the toilets and the GVI blog.

Day Four ~ Tuesday 17th January

Vinaka vakalevu ~ Thank you very much!


Had a better night's sleep although there was a massive storm and I thought the trees would fall through the roof :L The mariners have such an intense course compared to us and have to have lectures to study fish. It does look very fascinating though. Their course is brand new and involves marine research to protect the fish. Went to a different village today to do the summer school again with a much smaller group of 15 kids. The facepaints were trashed so we could only use blue and red but the kids had so much fun. They also made crowns but tipped half a ton of glitter on them! There were some amazing masks ~ a tiger and some suns. The other kids made bracelets and necklaces. We sat outside, right next to the sea and at lunch time the village women made lemon tea and buttery rotis ~ they were delicious. We then played ball and frisbee with them on the beach. I can't believe this is work! The kids got hold of our cameras. Uh oh! One of them, Vina, took mine and took pictures of EVERYTHING. Consequently, my camera then die. By the end the ground was COVERED in glitter, card, paper, beads and paint. It was worth it though to see the kids so happy and helping each other :). Again it was hard to go as they stood on the beach and waved to us. Aww. When we got back we spent hours painting penne pasta and shells from the beach for the kids to make bracelets and necklaces. For dinner we had potato, beans and fruit. We walked along to Lo's Tea Shop later and had delicious banana cake andd chocolate sauce, whilst digging our toes into the sand of the beach.

Dishing up a pasta lunch

Ruci and a dog :)

Tiger mask!

Rotis and lemon tea