Fiji: Busy, busy, busy!

Bula!
After an amazingly relaxing Diwali bank holiday weekend with the other volunteers it's back to school. We went to a tiny island beach called Cagali (pronouced THANG-A-LIE) and had a Diwali bonfire, white sand
and volleyball! But being the dedicated volunteers we are, all of us teachers brought some work to do! Miss Jessie from Uluibau was planning class 8 maths lessons, Miss Sarah was writing out the blueprint for annual Class 4 exams (see the top 2 photos!) and Miss Parry and I were stressing and planning for the weeks ahead. The volunteers from Vutikalulu building project were really appreciating electricity which they don't have at their placement! I was a bit worried I'd have to start teaching full time as a pregnant teacher was having to take extra leave and was possibly going to start her maternity leave a month early, however, the doctor said she was fine and it means I'm still free to finish making the library at Viro Primary.

Above are some progress shots. I've collected all the books the school has and have opened every single one, cleaned it, fixed it and rubbed out any pencil marks (and I tell you, EVERY SINGLE BOOK needed to be fixed). Unlike England, the classrooms are very open and there are insects everywhere. Almost every book had some sort of mite which would crawl out when I opened it and some books actually had nests
built inside them. It's taken me weeks to clean and fix every book, but I finished at the beginning of this week. I've rearranged two of the classrooms in the school so that I could get 2 bookshelves for the library and you can see I've been working on the from the photos above. The bookshelves ALSO have nests built in them which make them all very muddy and so first they were cleaned and rusty staples and pins were removed. I then papier mache'd the holes up before painting them so they're in much better condition! SO PLEASED when they were finished, I was very, very stressed over the weekend that I wouldn't finish and have to start teaching full time!

I've read and categorised all the 'easy reader' books and sorted them into 3 reading levels and am in town at the moment to get labels for every book laminated so they STAY organised on the shelf! The kids will pick them up and move them around otherwise and everyone will forget which book is in which level when I'm gone! The second shelf has had all the fixed and cleaned books shelved alphabetically and
looks a bit fuller thanks to an amazing book donation from The Children Of Fiji charity who came to visit me a few weeks ago. Also, I have to thank my Aunt who is a Librarian for donating a lot of excellent picture books which have been really loved by the kids. When I first came, I brought a lot of books to donate myself, but there was no library to put them.... so it's really satisfying to finally see my books shelved! As well as the books and the shevles, the actual library building is very old, over 20 years old and has had to withstand tropical cyclones and rain in its lifetime. The floor has A LOT of holes in it and I've been finding pieces of wood to cut and hammer down. I'm glad to say it's now safe to walk on the floor without fear your foot will drop through!

I'm now working on all the non-fiction books and also.... another Guide camp! I really didn't want the last camp I took the girls on to be their first and last after seeing how much they enjoyed it, so I've met up with Miss Kiarah in town, another Lattitude volunteer at the neighbouring school to organise a joint camp between Viro's Guides and Rukuruku's Guides. I love working with the Guides and last picture is me with Railala and Unaisi - I had a lady from the village come and teach the girls mat weaving and whilst they were doing it I also
taught them how to use my camera (they were excited to say the least!). The mat we're holding that says "Fiji 2010" is one that I wove a few weeks ago! I've also got the girls to write letters to my Guides in England, a Guide is a sister to all other Guides, no matter if it's the other side of the world!! They're really excited to hear
from their penpals :)

SO! BUSY BUSY BUSY! Not much left of my time in Fiji.... School term ends on December 3rd and then I fly out on Decmber 13th. Golly gosh I'm going to miss my island home, my friends and family here and all
the kids :(

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)

Fiji: So, What Do I Do All Day?

A little post about my daily routine in Viro.

I wake up around 6:30am every day and have breakfast at home, this is also the time I call England since with the time difference it's 7:30pm (I have to climb a small hill behind my house to get signal!). Breakfast is usually crackers and tea, but sometimes there's pancakes and Fijian dumplings depending on whether there's flour or oil in the house.

The lali starts to drum at 8am and all the kids have a tooth brushing drill where they brush their teeth together before spitting in a big ditch! The children start arriving to school from 7:30 and go to their classrooms to finish up any homework and just chat to each other. After tooth brushing drill the children have Devotion where they sing a few hymns in their classroom or the whole school gathers in the Dining Hall and the village preacher comes along to talk to the children. I love the Monday and Friday whole school devotions because the singing is so beautiful, the children all harmonise and although I can't understand most of the words, the sound is amazing!

After Devotion, lessons start and if a teacher isn't in school, I go and teach their class. Teachers not being available happens fairly regularly as the Head Teacher is often busy with other work, another teacher is pregnant and one is breast feeding. Also, transport on the island is very hit and miss and if a truck doesn't come round to our side of the island, a teacher has no way of getting back to the village after spending the weekend away or after an evening meeting at another school! If all the teachers are in school, I take individual slow readers for 30 minutes each and teach them to read. There aren't many resources and so if a child hasn't learn to read in Class 1, it's very hard for them to catch up or for teachers to have the time to teach them again. I play lots of word games. alphabet fun and go through easy books with the child. I brought children's alphabet flashcards which really come in handy and make learning much more fun!

After recess I take classes 7&8 for English. They're 12/13 year olds who are going into secondary school next year where all their lessons will be taught in English and so I'm trying my best elicit good english language from them and teach them as much english as possible. In the village, the kids don't really have any opportunity to practice their English as we're fairly rural and there are no tourists or other Fijian ethnic groups (who they would use english to communicate with). I really like planning their lessons and trying to make it as interesting as possible! The TEFL teaching course I went on previously really helped me with this. Although English is a major language here in Fiji, in rural schools on the outer islands (like ours) it isn't so widespread. However, all the children are going to boarding schools for secondary education on the main island where english is spoken first almost everywhere.

During lunchtime I read to all the children in the library and am currently just over halfway through Matilda by Roald Dahl. I don't know if all the children understand every word, but I think they enjoy hearing my voice since they do come back every day! I have a lot of fun reading to the kids and am probably enjoy getting to read the book more than them at times!

After lunchtime, I've devoted myself to the library. Viro School has a library, but it was little more than a room with a couple of books which were regularly used by the kids to throw at each other or draw in rather than read. The library would be wrecked if you left the door open and it was quite upsetting to see. The children in the village don't really have any books at home (save for the Bible) and so they haven't really been taught how to treat books or about reading. I brought a lot of kids books from England but was told by the other teacher to not leave them in the library otherwise they would get wrecked. I keep all these books in a big bag (I took about 30!) and let children who've finished their work early read them. The kids really enjoy reading these books since a lot of their reading books are published by the Ministry of Education here and are.... pretty boring to be frank! No witches, wizards, fairies, gallant princes or mermaids in any of their story books and so the books from the UK are really treasured.

What I also noticed when I arrived is that there are a lot books all around the school in every classroom! Enough books to fill a proper library! But they're scattered over the floor and mostly used for decoration (or as something for the kids to hit each other with). So, every afternoon I've been gathering all these books and moving them to the library, ready to sort them all into different reading levels (so I have to read them all too!) and make the library a really special places. It's becoming a big job and I'm starting to devote myself full time to the library and not take the slow readers in the morning. The next volunteer will hopefully have a great library to take the slow readers in next year and so I want to get the library done well as soon as possible!

After school I run Guides on a Wednesday, spend a lot of time making posters for the classrooms and work on the computer. The school received a donation of a computer but no one knows how to use it, so I'm also teaching the other adults and teachers how to turn it on and type up word documents.

My timetable's pretty flexible and sometimes I leave the library to take PE, read or teach songs to different classes (or even, take the kindergarten for an excursion to the beach!). It's a busy life in Viro (not so much Fiji time as I expected!) but it's very fun and rewarding. I just hope I can finish my library in time!

Fiji: Don't say "sunny" Fiji to me!

Currently pouring down with rain as it has been for the last 2 days and it doesn't look like it's going to stop! I hope it's faring a bit better back in England :)

I'm wearing 4 layers of clothes at the moment, even though it's still around 20 degrees. You can definitely say I'm (as an anthropologist might say) going native. I couldn't imagine sleeping with a blanket when I first came and now I have to sleep with one at night! I also wear a jumper first thing in the morning at school.... my blood's definitely turning a bit Fijian!

Fiji: A Guide Camp to Remember

Every week for the past month I've been coming into town to help plan Fiji's Girl Guide Centenary Camp with the other leaders on Ovalau Island. Over the weekend the camp finally happened and was the culmination of a lot of meetings where I didn't understand a lot of what was being said (fast Fijian discussions!), so I was a bit apprehensive at first(!), but the camp turned out to be a spectacular event which I'm so, so pleased I could take my girls to.

This is the biggest Girl Guide Camp to ever happen in Fiji and girls battled through severe flooding in Suva and travelled for hours from many other islands to get to Levuka, Ovalau. It's been a very exciting experience for the whole of Fiji and girls have been on the radio talking about their journeys to the camp.

On the first night of the camp myself and the other Lattitude volunteers on Ovalau and Moturiki were invited to the VIP Dinner with the British High Commissioner (His Excellency), the invited guest speaker for the camp. It was such an exciting evening and very, very cool to be invited to a.... diplomatic dinner! Drinks were on Her Majesty and I was able to eat pasta for the first time in a month (with lobster and chicken also on the table!). I can't imagine me having that opportunity anywhere else but Fiji!

Saturday started with a very early wake up call before going on a march around the colonial town of Levuka. After this there was another ceremony and speeches from Fiji's Chief Guide, The British High Commissioner and other important officials. After this, there was some traditional Fijian entertainment before a talent display from the girls. I'm really proud of my girls who put on a play on how Guides began, which included them dressing up as Boy Scouts! My girls have been practicing dances (mekes) and this play for the past few weeks almost every day after school. I'm really proud of them and they did brilliantly in front of all the crowds.

It was my job to organise all the games for the camp.... games for 300 girls from across Fiji for 2 hours! This was the part of the camp I was most stressed about - gathering equipment, leaders to run the games, teaching the leaders the games, putting the girls into groups, timing the games... etc etc.! But the games went brilliantly which made me so so happy! Ten stations were set up and the girls rotated around the field to try out each new game, with active games interspersed with more relaxed games. At my games station I taught the girls some silly camp songs from the UK and it was so great for me to wander around the camp and hear snippets of my songs being sang by all these girls.

At the closing ceremony I was asked to get the girls to sing the song I taught them again and it was such an amazing experience having 400 girls and leaders singing "It was a crocodile...." at you at the top of their voices in Fiji. Another amazing thing is that I was asked to sit next to Fiji's Chief Guide during the closing ceremony which is such a great honour and a guiding experience I won't forget!

I'm so glad I could celebrate 100 Years of Girl Guides in such a special place, what an experience! I hope I can come back for another of Fiji's Girl Guide Camps in the future and I hope my girls are leaders and rangers there by that time.

After the camp ended and the girls from other islands had left to get the ferry, I got a text from a friend I'd made during the camp. She said the whole ferry was singing the song I taught them. I think you can imagine the smile that broke out on my lips!

Fiji: Class 7 & 8 Learn About Earthquakes

Here's a little film from one of my more interesting lesson plans!

They had to do a big long comprehension on earthquakes from their textbook and I promised them we could make a little film if they all finished in time and worked well. Well, I hope you enjoy the result! :)

Fiji: A Weekend in Viro

Since there appears to be a tropical rainstorm going on outside.... I think I might sit in this cosy internet cafe for a little bit longer!

As a teacher I'm working from 7:30 - 4pm everyday and I get the weekends off. Here's a little bit about my weekend off in my village.

Saturday

A lie in! Eee! I slept in till 7:30 which is incredibly exciting since it seems near impossible to wake up any later here. There's cocks crowing, kids running about and the temperature starts to rise pretty quickly. Spend the morning with the family; playing with baby Katie (named after the previous volunteer), 4 year old Gauna (pronounced ng-ow-na) and the lovely 7 year old (and very grown up!) Perina. The headmaster has taken a boat to Suva, the capital of Fiji to go and buy food supplies and so it's just us girls at home. Go and visit Miss Evi, the teacher who lives next door to us to have tea and play with her baby, Mere who is 2 months old (can everyone say "awwww!").

It's fun to relax, chat and listen to the radio. In Fiji, everyone goes into everyone's houses and is very welcome. Whilst sitting in Miss Evi's house I meet a lot of the kids from school who are drifting in and out, grabbing a biscuit and playing with the baby before leaving. It's really lovely how all the doors are left open and the whole village feels like one big house. Food passes so freely between people and whilst I was sitting outside someone's house talking to them I was given a fish to take to for my dinner and another time I was given a papaya as I was walking down the road!

Afterwards, I go back into to school to continue making some phonics posters for classes 1 and 2 (-ay and -ack). It's much easier to do these after school or in the weekend since school days are busy and I can be working with the children instead. There's a computer and printer in the school that was a donation from Australia, however no one knows how to use it. I've been teaching my host mother, Atila, how to start up a computer, type documents and hopefully by the time I leave, she can be writing out letters for the school! After making my posters I give Atila a computer lesson for as long as baby Katie remains sleeping!

By this time it's late afternoon and one of the girls from class 8, Daiana invites me to go for a walk. Daina, Lose and Perina all come along with me and we walk up the mountain along the river. When we had no water I went to the river to bathe, but walking further up, the river gets deeper and clearer and it's like one great big freshwater swimming pool! So many beautiful swimming spots. All the girls jump in, but seeing as I'm in an ankle length skirt (a sulu) I think it's better I don't! As we walk back... we come to the original diving spot... and with a bit of coaxing "LADE LADE!" or "JUMP JUMP" from the girls... I think whatever! I'm not in Fiji to come and observe and jump right in :)

After this, they tell me tide is high on the beach and so we go swimming in the sea too. It's such a beautiful, amazing experience having all my kids from school splashing around me and seeing the village from the sea. Everyone just dives in to the water fully clothed since you dry out quickly enough and women are allowed to wear long shorts whilst swimming. The girls from my Guide group come around me in the sea and start singing a song I taught them and doing all the actions in the water! They also teach me to shout... "AU TALEI TIKO VITI!" or "I LOVE FIJI". Which is very, very true :)

Sunday

The morning starts with my family mkaing a lovo or earth oven. A big hole is dug in the ground and filled with stones. Then a fire is set and burns to make the rocks hot for a 2 or 3 hours. After this the ash is scraped off and parcels of food wrapped in banana leaves are placed on the stones to cook and covered with coconut leaves for another few hours. It fun to watch the lovo being made and fallen coconuts being scraped to put into the food.

At 9:30 I hop along to the village (which is just down the road) to go to church. I go to Miss Raijeli, the kindergarten teacher's house so that I can walk to church with her. We sit with the choir since she sings with them and the sermon begins. It's all in Fijian and so I can't really understand anything.... but the choir are amazing! Sitting with them is brilliant and they let me sing with them since I can read Fijian. Everyone harmonises beautifully and the sound is so strong. The ladies next to me seem very suprised I sing too, but keep saying "vinaka na sere" to me, which means "thank you for singing". After church finishes, I'm invited back to the afternoon service and to the join in the the choir competition they're having!

Back at home we get to eat the lovo which is delicious and sit outside! Have another computer lesson with Atila and plan my English lessons for the next week before going back to church in the afternoon. This time I turn up on my own and get invited to sit back with the choir again! The Sunday School, Youth Choir, Mother's Choir and Father's Choir all then compete in front of the pastor in a competition.... and I end up singing with every choir except the Father's Choir! I've officially joined the church choir in Viro Methodist Church now which is brilliant since it's my favourite part of church here.

The rain's stopped now so I might venture out to the post office. Au talei tiko Viti :)

Moce!

(Mo-thay meaning good bye)