Fiji: A Busy Week!

Ahhh the last week has been really busy but really interesting :)

I spent the weekend in the village - well Saturday was spent painting a bookshelf for the library in school, going on walks and hanging with other teachers and their kids in the school compound and on Sunday I spent my day in the village having lunch and tea at different people's houses after Church. I spoke to an amazingly hardworking woman who wakes up at 1:30am everyday to bake bread to sell to people in the village, cook and do all the laundry for her family because at 6:30 she takes the carrier truck into town to work at another job at the tuna cannery. I really enjoy going down into the village and talking to people, everyone has a story!

Late on Sunday evening, a visior (to stay!) arrived. We have a trainee teacher who's come to Viro School for her practical training and it's really great to have someone my age here! It's also nice to have someone here who's newer and fresher than me! Her family all came up with her and I helped serve tea and dinner to them as they were guests in the school compound and it was a great compliment when one her aunts asked me how long I'd been at Viro and I said "2 months" and she said "and so which school were you teaching at before?" - she told me she thought I'd been living here for around a year because of the way I acted, the language I was speaking and the clothes I was wearing! It was really nice and made me feel very at home. I know all the kids names, I know when they're about to be naughty ;) and I can speak enough Fijian to give them instructions. I now know all the etiquette of the home -not to sit with your legs up, not to point your feet at the Chief or the tanoa bowl, not stand up straight without saying "Tilou, tilou" and that it's normal dress to wear something ankle length.

Over this week I've been teaching classes 3 and 4 since their teacher has had to take some leave as she's pregnant. They're a great two classes and are very fun to teach! We've been diligently finishing maths problems in the morning, doing some english composition after recess before doing Fijian, science, sports and art and craft in the afternoon.For their Fijian lesson I had them get into groups and teach ME Fijian words on the topics I gave them since... well... it would be pretty interesting if I was teaching THEM Fijian. The picture above is the join venture of a health science class followed by an art and craft lesson.

The only downside is that my library hasn't been getting much attention and I'm praying I'll finish it up in time... Also, I gave the kids a maths class this morning and had to handwrite every test paper - which meant waking up at 6:00am to ensure they were finished in time!

Anywho, my the pick up truck back to my village is leaving soon, gotta rush! Hope everyone's well and HAPPY DIWALI (it's a bank holiday weekend here, yes!! Holiday time!! I'm going to the beach with some other volunteers! :D)