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Happy Diwali Everyone!!!!!
So today is the festival of Diwali and this evening I will be celebrating with my family which I am very excited about. I have my schwarkameez all ready (no idea if that is anywhere near the right spelling!!!), the family have all their fireworks, the sweets have been made and we are ready for a very exciting night. The whole town has been alive all week with a sort of excitied buzz, the festival is bigger than Christmas here and it is amazing to see people wandering around in their best saris and fantastic jewellery- it really is beautiful.
Tomorrow I leave for 18 days in New Zealand, staying the majority of the time with my family and then spending 3 days at the end in Auckland. It is a strange feeling, I am extremely excited to be visiting a new country and seeing family who I have not seen for some years, but I also feel quite sad to be leaving Fiji, although I will return I only have about 10 days left and school is pretty much finished- when I return they have just 2 more days before they break up for their summer holidays (a strange concept to comprehend given it is december!!) so I feel as though this part of my expreience has come to an end.
And what an amazing experience it really has been!
I really will never forget the wonderful, exciting and at times frustrating experience I have had at school- what a crazy 9 weeks that have challenged me beyond what I ever expected, but in a strange way I have loved every minute.
So the last 3 weeks at school since my last update......I would like to say they were a normal uneventful 3 weeks, just working with children across the school to help with reading as planned......but of course that could never be the case!!!!
At the end of my last blog I had just spent a day with Eleanoa where we had looked after the whole school as none of the other teachers has turned up. So when I walked in to school the next Monday after a relaxing weekend I was shocked to find Eleanoa not there. I of course was happy to take her class for the day, but was slightly worried. In the evening she called me and told me she was sorry but she just didn't want to come to school that day. She explained that Friday afternoon, after we had had the whole school for the day she took her son into 'Chicken Express' (a sort of KFC inspired place!!) for a milkshake and in there bumped into the headmaster- completely drunk!!! She told him about the 2 of us having the whoel school for the day and in his drunken state this was apparently utterly hilarious to him!!!! Needless to say Elenoa was upset and decided she just couldn't face the lies from all the teachers about where they were on Monday morning, so she had stayed at home.
The next day she returned of course, ready with strength again to continue with her fantastic teaching. So we started off on our reading plan. She had arranged for the empty classroom next to hers to be cleaned out and I took this over as my reading room. I found some coloured card and paper in town that evening and set about making flash cards, for high-frequency words and different phonics sounds and was quite excited about the coming few weeks. I had also found amongst a huge bundle of miscellaneous resources at the volunteering office, some Australian phonics books and so had some materials with which to base some of the lessons too! And for about 2 days, the reading sessions went as planned, the children stuck to the timetable and seemed to enjoy the lessons. I had brought them each a new exercise book (at a cost of about 22 pence each) and you would have thought I had given them gold. They were so excited to put their name on the front and start on the first clean page....it was lovely.
But on the third day, none of the children for the morning sessions came. 80% of the children with reading problems came from one class in the school- the class who Eleanoa and I had assessed a few weeks ago and reported the shocking results to the school manager. Well it appears that the teacher had found out about our assessment and the report to the manager..... so to really help matters was refusing to send her children to me for reading. Pretty much sums up her selfishness completely. I was really upset, but Eleanoa as always encouraged me and told me to just focus on the few children from the other classes that I could still help. Which of course I knew made absolute sense.
The next day however, with my revised timetable and new idea in my mind, I arrived to find my classroom locked. Eleanoa sent a child to the office to find the keys but when they came back, we were told that the key to the classroom had been lost....by the principal...and no one has any idea where it was!!!!!!!
This time instead of upset, I just felt angry. All my resources, the new exercise books, the stickers I had brought with me......locked in a classroom which i could not get into. I sat at the back of Elenoas room for a while and did not speak. I decided in my anger that I was going to find the principal and tell him exactly what I thought of him and his disregard for the children's learning......so off i went around the school but could not find him (probably a good thing in hindsight)........ drunk in Chicken Express no doubt!!!!
I sat at the back of the classroom again quietly for what seemed like ages. I wanted so much to help these children and was doing everything I could to try and do that, but how could I when everything at the school seemed to stand in my way and stop me doing that. After a while Elenoa came up to me with her huge grinning face....she looked at me and just said...'Have you stopped being angry now?!!' And I don't know why, but I just burst out laughing and so did she. How could I stay angry with such a great person around!!!
So we talked...and made our new plan....we were going to forget the rest of the school, it was just too big a problem for us to solve alone and just concentrate on the children we could help and make a difference to, the ones in her class. We would spend our last few weeks together helping teach those children and having fun!!! Good plan!!!!
So that is what we have been doing since, the children have annual exams coing up so I have been doing revision classes, identifying areas where extra help was needed and working on that. Elenoa has been very busy too. She is involved in running training sessions for other teachers around the country and she had a big workshop coming up which she had to prepare for. So I was glad to take the pressure off for her a bit and allow her to concentrate on the arrangements for this.
These few weeks were not without their fair share of dramas of course!!! One morning a child came running upstairs saying there was no water- on investigation it was found that the school had been removed from the meter due to an unpaid bill!!! So the whole school were sent home at 10am!!!! I was unsure that we would be in the next day but when I turned up the next day school was open!!! We were told that the church had been and paid the bill and all was ok, later on Eleanoa went down to investigate and came back laughing. It seemed that the church had decided to be resourceful and rather than pay the bill, fitted their own pipes on to the meter instead!!!!!!!
Another day Eleanoa came in very happy at breaktime, it seemed that today the teachers were supposed to be paid which was always a doubtful time. But she had been given the deposit book and been asked to go to the bank and take out the money for the wages so she skipped off to town! An hour later she returned with a different spirit.....the cheque had bounced. So no wages for any of them. That evening, my room mate and I took her out for pizza....a small gesture, but we had a great time and I think it helped a little. I am learning all the time that it often is the small things that really help in the situations which you cannot change.
2 days later, somehow some money was found and they were all paid.
One day last week I arrived to school and Elenoa said...'Lets take the class on a field-trip tomorrow!' 'Tomorrow??!!' was all i could muster back in slight shock!! 'Yes!!' she exclaimed!!! So that's what we did. No letters home, no risk assessment, no permission slips, no adult to child ratio, no groups, not even a first aid kit!!!! And guess what....no one was hurt, there were no problems and we had a great day!!! Just myself, Elenoa and her nephew set off with the class, walking into town. Our first stop.....the fire station. We were given a tour of the station, the children all got to sit in the engine and then we had a fire safety talk from the officers. It was amazing how much the talk mirrored that of home in many ways...we talked about stop, drop and roll and also safety with matches. Slight difference- the children were told the only time they should use matches was for cooking!! But on the whole the same principles as at home. I was surprised how well resourced the fire station seemed actually, but I was told that in the dry season things like bush fires were a real problem so they had to have a good fire service.
Our next stop was the Nadi Town Council Offices. We were given a talk by an official from there, (no mayor unfortunately...there had not been one since the coup) he talked about the flooding in Nadi in 2009 and the councils plans to protect the town from it happening again.
After this we went to the park and Eleanoa brought all the children ice-creams. She then sent them all off home and took me and her nephew out for lunch. I am always amazed by her generosity. I think having very little money shows a lot about your character as a person. On the one hand it can show selfishness such as the teacher from the school stealing food and money from her class, or on the other hand it can show people who are truely good, who share everything they have regardless of how little with anyone who needs it. (If I haven't mentioned before Elenoa also spent all this week paying for the principal's bus fare to and from school as he had no money.)
So this week was Eleanoa's 2 day workshop. She was so excited about it, I could tell! She told me a number of times that this was the first BIG workshop she had organised and she had a speaker from Australia coming in for the event. A few days before we were chatting and she mentioned the idea of me doing a presentation!!!!!! The workshop was on 'Teaching in a Christian School' and she thought it would be a great idea for me to talk about teaching in a Christian school in England. As nervous as I was I knew it was not something I could turn down so I agreed.
The morning of the first day came, it was being held at Elenoa's church in a village outside Nadi. All I was told was to get to the main bus station in Nadi town centre and then to call her. So I did that, and was told that a taxi was coming to pick me up. Slight confusion.....as I was instructed to wait by what I herd as the 'bin' cart. I agreed, and then spent 10 minutes wandering around, trying to find a 'bin' cart..... I hadno idea what I was looking for really, I wasn't sure if it was some sort of rubbish lorry or actually a cart full of bins!!! After some time I realised there was nothing of either description around and called her back to which she explained....the 'bin' cart.....you know the cart at the entrance which sells.....'beans!!!!' Slight accent barrier overcome, I made my way to the more prominant bean cart....and sure enough a taxi was there for me!
We drove quite a way out of town and eventually reached what I realised was the village. We stopped at a house and another man jumped in the front and explained he would show us to the church. Then we turned off onto what was basically a dirt track and drove for another 5 minutes along it until we reached a hill, when we drove up it we reached the church. The building itself was pretty much wooded poles with a corrogated iron roof and 2 walls. But somehow it felt like a place of worship. We were right up on the hill, overlooking all of the beautiful countryside surrounding us. Eleanoa greated me, with her huge smile as always, and I told her how beautiful her church was....which was absolutely true. 'Well' she replied 'what better place to praise God than right in the middle of his own creation.'
We had a lovely 2 days. I met some wonderful people, it was such a pleasure to meet all of Eleanoa's community, and as always I was overcome with the genrosity shown by all of them. I was given invites for dinner, lunch, the weekend, a trip to the beach... from all these people who I had just met and they were all heartfelt. It really showed me the true generosity of the Fijian people and I very much enjoyed being in their company. In the 2 days I have never eaten so much food either!! There were plates of great food both days, not just at lunchtime but also in the breaks.......supplied all free of charge of course by Eleanoa.
The workshop consisted of a mixture of teachers from all around the area and also a number of priests and ministers. So not at all intimidating when the time came to make my presentation!!! Elenoa introduced me as her special friend from England, and the kind spirit of everyone I met made me feel quite at ease and so i gave my 10 minute talk about dear old Northbourne School and the Christian Community and ethos which it works to teach the children in. It was lovely to talk about the school in that way and afterwards many people said what a great place it sounds like. The talk all based on the principles established at the school over the last few months of course!!!!!!!!
It always amazes me when I sit and type my blog how much can go on in a matter of weeks- and this is just the school update of course, which is far more prominant to my experiences here but there are of course the weekend and evening activities too!!!
A few weeks ago a group of 6 of us headed to Suva, the counties capital. We set off in a mini-van on a 4 hour drive through the hills for the price of just less than 6 pounds each!! The group comprised of myself, 1 Norwegian girl, 1 girl from Belgium and 3 German girls. Quite a cultural mix!!! Whenever someone asked where we were from we simply replied... 'Europe!!' It wasd amazing when we finally arrived in the captial as it felt like being in a big city- which is something I had not felt for a while. The countries business district was as we had expected, large buildings and lots of people and traffic. Not quite a city by western standards of course but it certainly was more built up than we had been used to in recent weeks. We had headed there for the annual Fiji Fashion week and the whole place was buzzing with excitement for it!! We first headed for out hotel/hostel on the edge of town.... a bargain for 5 pounds each a night and checked into our room for 6!!! It was basic, but clean so we were quite happy for the night. We met in another room down the corridor 2 models from the show, so they walked with us into town and showed us the way to the large department store where we could purchase our tickets. We then spent the next couple of hours in the store which actually quite good shopping, even by western standards. We had fun trying on lots of dresses, and 3 of us found new dresses to wear for that evening as well as some gorgeous jewellery!! We then headed back to our accomodation and spent a few hours getting ready!!!
The fashion show itself was great....quite a surreal evening all in all in comparison to our everyday lives in Fiji. It was quite an international event, everyone very dressed up, and when we arrived we were taken into a big marquee and served drinks and hor'dourves before moving to our seats. We also were filmed by fashion TV- very exciting!!!!! The show itself was great, a mix of Fijian and Indian fashions mixed in with some more Westernised styles, and all done by Fijian designers. We were pleased to see some traditional larger Fijian women modelling which was great. And we then attended the 'aftershow party' until the early hours!!! Did I mention our tickets cost 15 pounds each!!!!
The next morning of course reminded us of where we really were as heading into town in search of breakfast we found that the whole city closes on a sunday- a concept long since forgotten at home and ended up finding the one place open and eating there!!! We then headed back to reality on what ended up as a 5 hour journey after our great weekend escape.
Before I mention last weekend, I would just like to point out at this point that we have had some rain the last couple of weeks.........just so you hate me a bit less!!!!
Last weekend saw the departure of my roommate for the last 2 months which was actually really sad and quite strange. But this was then counteracted by a trip to Octopus island resort!! A beautiful island resort 2 hours boat ride away at the tip of the Yasawas. It was a lovely weekend of lazing on the beach, great food and also cocktails. We stayed in the dorm room which consisted of 15 beds, but again it was clean and very comfortable and we were greated with welcome cocktails and fresh flowers on each of our beds!! That evening was movie night!!! It was quite surreal, sitting on sand, watching a movie projected onto the wall, free cinnamon popcorn provided, while watching 'Hot Tub Time Machine!!!!!!' A great, relaxing weekend getaway for a group of 5 of us and a very enjoyable experience for my last weekend in Fiji for the next 3 weeks.
The silver lining to the week days has also been the local Hilton resort. It was discovered a few weeks ago that the pool area is rather easy to sneak in to, and so a few days a week, a number of volunteers walk through the lobby, blending in of course!!! and we all sit around the pool, an infinity pool looking out to the ocean no less and just relax in the sun. A hard-life this volunteering malarky!!!!!
So again what an amazing 3 weeks of learning so much not only about the country and culture but also myself. I feel very sad to be leaving for a few weeks the friends I have made, the generous and amzing culture which I have loved being a part of and of course Eleanoa. But I am so grateful for the wonderful experiences I have had and also look forward to the ones left to come when I reutrn.
So......on with the Diwali celebrations and the next adventure!!! New Zealand here I come!!!!
Love and miss you all xxxxxx
- comments
jordan hi sarah sounds like your adventure is amazing can`t wait until i give you another skype call