Some of my photos in a video ~ enjoy!
Thursday, 17 May 2012
Monday, 7 May 2012
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.
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.
Thursday, 3 May 2012
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.
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.
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| Dishing up a pasta lunch |
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| Ruci and a dog :) |
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| Tiger mask! |
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| Rotis and lemon tea |
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Day Three ~ Monday 16th January
Sega na Lega ~ No Worries (this will become a tattoo!)
Another night of not so great sleep and had to get up early to go to summer school in a village on another island, one GVI had not yet been to. It took about ten minutes to get there by boat, then we walked to the village hall to meet the chiefs and say 'bula!' We had to wear our sulus (sarongs) and GVI tops. All the kids came and shook our hands individually and then sang a Fijian song which was really sweet. We then went to the school and started setting up and suddenly loads of kids appeared from nowhere. Me, Emily and Nat were in charge of facepainting and head-bands and the other group did masks and drawing. I have never done so much face-painting on so many sweaty faces! Loads of kids were running around with bunny ears and whiskers.. so cute! We then put some pop music on which I hadn't heard in ages, was weird to hear in such a contrasting location. We had lunch and then had to say goodbye! All the kids cling on and its hard to go. We had to jump off the boat back at base and got soaked, such an unusual way to get to work every day. We had ages when we got back so we made lots of crowns and masks for tomorrow. The cooking team made noodles and veg, delicious!
Another night of not so great sleep and had to get up early to go to summer school in a village on another island, one GVI had not yet been to. It took about ten minutes to get there by boat, then we walked to the village hall to meet the chiefs and say 'bula!' We had to wear our sulus (sarongs) and GVI tops. All the kids came and shook our hands individually and then sang a Fijian song which was really sweet. We then went to the school and started setting up and suddenly loads of kids appeared from nowhere. Me, Emily and Nat were in charge of facepainting and head-bands and the other group did masks and drawing. I have never done so much face-painting on so many sweaty faces! Loads of kids were running around with bunny ears and whiskers.. so cute! We then put some pop music on which I hadn't heard in ages, was weird to hear in such a contrasting location. We had lunch and then had to say goodbye! All the kids cling on and its hard to go. We had to jump off the boat back at base and got soaked, such an unusual way to get to work every day. We had ages when we got back so we made lots of crowns and masks for tomorrow. The cooking team made noodles and veg, delicious!
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| Amelia making a crown! |
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| Mask making |
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| Drawing and colouring :) |
Sunday, 29 April 2012
Day Two ~ Sunday 15th January
Bula! ~ Hello!
Planned the holiday school today and decided to take face paint, coloured card, tissue paper and glitter. Couldn't sleep at all for the first night, due to the huge amount of mosquitoes and the heat, although my bed is next to the window. My mosquito net is far too small so I got slightly eaten alive. The dorms are very basic. I share with ten other volunteers with two shared showers and toilets. Luckily, we have one solar light but sometimes it doesn't work and the water can be off for a day. Later in the evening, the generator broke and there was no water for showers or washing. The other dorm found a Huntsman spider, the size of a dinner plate ~ thank god it wasn't in ours! Had curry and rice for dinner, yum! The base is in an amazing location by the sea, it has a well and a shared kitchen. We have cooking teams and shared chores ~ mine is compost and recycling! There's two dogs on base, Matty and Junior and they belong to the three in-house families. There are so many adorable kids running round, impossible to remember names!
Planned the holiday school today and decided to take face paint, coloured card, tissue paper and glitter. Couldn't sleep at all for the first night, due to the huge amount of mosquitoes and the heat, although my bed is next to the window. My mosquito net is far too small so I got slightly eaten alive. The dorms are very basic. I share with ten other volunteers with two shared showers and toilets. Luckily, we have one solar light but sometimes it doesn't work and the water can be off for a day. Later in the evening, the generator broke and there was no water for showers or washing. The other dorm found a Huntsman spider, the size of a dinner plate ~ thank god it wasn't in ours! Had curry and rice for dinner, yum! The base is in an amazing location by the sea, it has a well and a shared kitchen. We have cooking teams and shared chores ~ mine is compost and recycling! There's two dogs on base, Matty and Junior and they belong to the three in-house families. There are so many adorable kids running round, impossible to remember names!
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| Matty? |
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| The kids having fun in the tree |
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| Angela and Matty |
Day One ~ Saturday 14th January
Had to catch up with these blog posts as unfortunately I didn't get the chance to write out there and then came back early cos I got ill :(
The Journey Begins!
Got up really early (6am!) to catch the boat over to our Yasawas base. Met other GVI volunteers at breakfast but also shared a dorm with a few girl volunteers. Haven't met anyone yet who is doing the childcare project for 3 months (like me!) Met a lovely Australian girl called Emily but she's only doing Childcare for 2 weeks ~ she lives so close! Shared a dorm at Aquarius with Sanna from Melbourne, doing the Expedition project, Kristina from the Gold Coast, doing the Marine project and Lydia from Switzerland, also Marine. Everyone's really friendly but people will come and go so will be a big mix. :) The boat journey takes four and a half hours to the base and we spent the time on the deck, island watching. There is no internet on the islands so took the opportunity to email before leaving (there was as I found out later but minimal access). Also bought a Fijian sim card for cheap texts and calls but may not be much phone signal! Nadi town, on the mainland, reminds me of India, loads of little shops and markets selling everything under the sun. We got into town on a rickety old bus with a bicycle bell attached to string which had to be pulled if you wanted to get off! Everything was ridiculously cheap, apart from sarongs ~ strange as everyone wears them. Resorts are expensive too, especially as its tourist season. The islands should be much cheaper. There are many places I would love to go to at the weekends that we have free but it takes so long to get anywhere by boat. It takes 18 hours to get to Taveuni, one of the best islands for exploring and hiking.
The Journey Begins!
Got up really early (6am!) to catch the boat over to our Yasawas base. Met other GVI volunteers at breakfast but also shared a dorm with a few girl volunteers. Haven't met anyone yet who is doing the childcare project for 3 months (like me!) Met a lovely Australian girl called Emily but she's only doing Childcare for 2 weeks ~ she lives so close! Shared a dorm at Aquarius with Sanna from Melbourne, doing the Expedition project, Kristina from the Gold Coast, doing the Marine project and Lydia from Switzerland, also Marine. Everyone's really friendly but people will come and go so will be a big mix. :) The boat journey takes four and a half hours to the base and we spent the time on the deck, island watching. There is no internet on the islands so took the opportunity to email before leaving (there was as I found out later but minimal access). Also bought a Fijian sim card for cheap texts and calls but may not be much phone signal! Nadi town, on the mainland, reminds me of India, loads of little shops and markets selling everything under the sun. We got into town on a rickety old bus with a bicycle bell attached to string which had to be pulled if you wanted to get off! Everything was ridiculously cheap, apart from sarongs ~ strange as everyone wears them. Resorts are expensive too, especially as its tourist season. The islands should be much cheaper. There are many places I would love to go to at the weekends that we have free but it takes so long to get anywhere by boat. It takes 18 hours to get to Taveuni, one of the best islands for exploring and hiking.
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| Ready for an adventure! |
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| The beautiful islands ~ from the deck of the Yasawa Flyer |
Monday, 9 January 2012
Farewell England!!
The next time I write I will be in the paradise that is Fiji..
Goodbye England! See you in three months and ten days..
As I will be residing on a remote island I may not get to the internet as often as usual, therefore expect updates every week or every other week (should get to a computer most weekends!).
Goodbye England! See you in three months and ten days..
As I will be residing on a remote island I may not get to the internet as often as usual, therefore expect updates every week or every other week (should get to a computer most weekends!).
Monday, 2 January 2012
I go on Tuesday!!
Can't believe I'm off on Tuesday and in less than a week I will be soaking up the Fijian sun.. don't get me wrong though, this is not a holiday!!
Been shopping today as I'm working my way through the extensive kit list.. will literally have to sit on my bag to squash it in..
So far I have a pile that consists of:
2 pairs of baggy shorts
Flip-flops
Hat
4 Sarongs
Chinos
2 pairs of Sunglasses
Waterproof
Towel
Sun cream
Head torch
Normal torch
Cutlery
Mosquito Net
Insect Repellent
Batteries
Detergent
Dry Shampoo
Shampoo
Dry Bag
Rash top
Notebook
Money Belt
Times table book
Paracetamol
Travel tablets
Plasters
Have yet to pack many things such as, long sleeved tops, tees, cossies, school resources, adaptor, water shoes, camera, mug, toiletries, pjs, more light trousers and shorts, more first aid necessities
And the obvious ~ flight tickets, passport, accommodation reservation, insurance deets, etc, etc
Been shopping today as I'm working my way through the extensive kit list.. will literally have to sit on my bag to squash it in..
So far I have a pile that consists of:
2 pairs of baggy shorts
Flip-flops
Hat
4 Sarongs
Chinos
2 pairs of Sunglasses
Waterproof
Towel
Sun cream
Head torch
Normal torch
Cutlery
Mosquito Net
Insect Repellent
Batteries
Detergent
Dry Shampoo
Shampoo
Dry Bag
Rash top
Notebook
Money Belt
Times table book
Paracetamol
Travel tablets
Plasters
Have yet to pack many things such as, long sleeved tops, tees, cossies, school resources, adaptor, water shoes, camera, mug, toiletries, pjs, more light trousers and shorts, more first aid necessities
And the obvious ~ flight tickets, passport, accommodation reservation, insurance deets, etc, etc
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