Where is Natto?: Fiji: Levuka Town

I've been at my placement in Viro Village for 4 days now and have just come up to town this weekend to drop off some papers, buy some supplies (toilet roll, Fijian style blouses) and use the internet.

I woke up at 5am this morning so I could get the carrier truck which picks people up any time from 6-7am outside the village. I'd been up till midnight the day before as I had the kava ceremony after presenting my sevusevu to officially indoctrinate me into the village so I'm glad I managed to wake up! Midway through the journey the truck broke down and wouldn't start up again. It would've been about 30 minutes to walk to town from where we stopped so I was happy to just walk there, but I soon realised all the people getting out the truck weren't getting out to walk, but to push the truck forward to get it going! I jumped back on and got to town pretty soon and found myself fmiling the whole way. My Fijian sister, Perina asked me why I was laughing and I told her that I couldn't ever imagine everyone pushing the truck and then just jumping back on so quickly back in England! No one even said a word, it was so matter of fact when people just pushing away and then running to jump back on!

Pushing the truck back onto the road

Viro Village is really lovely. I'm living on the school compound with the head teacher's family and went down to the village for the first time yesterday. It was amazing to hear children from all the houses shouting "Miss Natalie!" as I walked past :) Viro Village is right by the ocean and it was absolutely breathtaking to watch children from the school playing on a bili bili sillhouted aganist the sunset.

Everyone is really lovely and I've been invited to come into so many people's homes! After the kava ceremony, I was told that I had become a member of the village whilst I am in Fiji. I've been told to tell people who ask that I come from Viro Village. Much like a home is for a family, in Fiji, the whole village is like a house and I'm now allowed to enter anywhere as a member of the family. People are really generous and I've really been enjoying the food! Almost everything I've eaten has been grown in the village itself or fished/foraged from nearby.

Viro Primary has about 60 pupils from kindergarten (kindy) to age 13. The dining hall and teacher's accomodation (which I am staying in) were built with grants from the EU and are really nice, modern buildings. The classrooms are much older, but the teachers have decorated them with the resources they have really nicely and so the whole school is a very nice place to be. Each day, a boy drums on the lali which is like the school bell and the children go to their classrooms. So far, I've done some reading work with the kindergarten and classes 1, 2, 3 and 4. I also observed a Fijian lesson but couldn't really help much! The books I've brought over from England have been really loved already! Whenever I'm holding the bag of them children stop me and ask me to read to them or ask if they can read the books to me. Next week I'm hoping to start doing reading - I brought some Roald Dahl books and will be reading a chapter each day at lunchtime to any children who want to come and listen. The last time I started reading to 3 children in an empty classroom at recess, about 20 more appeared by the time the story had finished!