Wherever the Wind Blows

Being Persistent...When noone else cares

2011-11-08T14:35:00.000-08:00

So in the last few months I have come across something really disheartening.I would suggest an activity to the staff at the school to participate in.Everyone would want to participate then when it comes down to it for them to do their part, it doesn't get done and then the excuses roll in.I have tried on and off to remind them of the work to ensure they get it done but i've come to a point where I have to ask myself how often do I need to keep reminding them?When do I just back off?Maybe it's not sticking because they're not that interested and I should just drop it.But I don't know,maybe I do need to remind continually.however, I don't want to seem like i'm being a hassle to them and they're only doing the work just for me and not for their own benefit and for their students' benefit.Folks out there, how do you think I should handle it?

I do stuff... promise

2011-08-17T11:21:00.001-07:00

Other than the Agricultural Fair and Sports Fetival I planned/cordinated all these events for the students.

Students working on their journals for literacy camp. They would get quiet time at the end of the day to write/draw in them

Students and their teacher at work for the literacy camp

Me in a salwaar kameez-traditional Indian outfit, giving out a prize of brownies to the two classes who worked hardest at separating their waste.

Students lined up at our American Independence Day programme to answer questions and get a goody

My lovely assistant Volunteer Sara, showing pictures of famous Americans

Students checkig out termites at the local Agricultural Fair

Me with a baby chick at the Agricultural Fair

One of my students

Firefighters and students at school

Students walking calmly to the evacuation area for a fire drill

Students lined up at the evacuation area for the fire drill

Sports festival with neighbouring school. The ashy elbow on the right s me. I got to lead warm-ups and cool downs

Sports Festival

The Pre-Vocational Girls class visiting the fire station

The Prevocational girls class at the library

Visiting the police station

Ministry of Health staff visited senior classes to teach about first aid and sexual health

2 Deep Thoughts

2011-08-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

So there hav been two big things running through my brain for quite a few months now that are working my brain into overdrive.I find that they are the types of questions you think about and can't really form an answer for like what came first the chicken or the egg?My two deep thoughts have been about the wonders of the huan brain and religion.

So as you know I work at a school for students with special needs.Many days at work I find myself watching the students and watch in amazement of their varying mental ability levels and try to remind myself of their physical ages.For example there is a female student who is only a year younger than me.It baffles me sometimes how different we are.She is still doing primary school work and has trouble articulating and comprehending the simplest of thoughts at times.

Then there was a situation where a group of male students were packing away some camping items.They were all 14/15 yrs old.But one of them was in a very low special needs class because his mental IQ is very low where as the other boys were doing primary school level work.The divide between these boys is so vast in terms of academic level or even just basic understanding of the world.

I was talking to another female student who is moderately retarded.I saw that she had her legs shaved.I laughed and chuckled at that and how she said her leg hairs looked "jungly."Then I asked her how old she was and she said 14.I had to remind myself that at aorund that age girls are doing that kind of thing-more conscious of their outward appearance and it shouldn't be funny that she's shaving her legs.

Soemthing that I need to remember is that just because they are still in a special school doesn't mean that they're all "children" and "pre-adolescent".

the second thing that has been on my mind is religion.Being in Fiji as a volunteer affords me the ability to be welcomed into different ceremonies places of worship of varying religions.uring these experiences there have bbeen times when I am encouraged to do different movements which are executed as part of the prayers.Most times I do them, but every time I don't feel as though I am doing it in worship of another god, just more of being participatory and showing the people I am around respect for their religion and customs.Then I began to wonder that if these movements would be seen by God as sinful, even though I don't internalize their menaings.
For example, I went and visited a Hind temple.In one room there are several statues of their gods and it is traditional to bow before each god in the room. I did so, but I did it to respect the Hindus present and not as a sign of my faith in the gods.However, is it still an act against God?If the tables were reversed, would a Hindu be reluctant to bow their heads and close their eyes if a Christian prayer was said? I don't know.My cousin Patrice told me of a story in the Bible where certain people refused to eat meat that was originally meant to be sacrificed for false idols where as other were okay with eating it.Is that the same thing, where it's just based on the person?

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Janis has antipathy for English

2011-06-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

So as one of my ongoing projects is that I have undertaken the task of trying to improve the reading abilities of 6 students. I do one on one classes that last about 15 mins at most.We do individual letter sounds, pairing letters together to make new sounds and just listening to students read.
I knew I hated English already among all other academic subjects but now I know that I hate it.English does not make one bit of sense when you're trying to teach it to someone if it's their second language.For example the letter e.When you teach it's letter sound it comes to be e like elephant or egg but the e can take on a different sound when it is in the word the or tremble or gullible.Or even the letter g it can take on two different sounds like grain or german.So the child may pronounce german but say the g like in grain, how do you tell him that's wrong and that sometimes g chooses to be different?How do you learn and teach the difference? Also c and k, a kid can get real confused on those two letters once spelling tests come around and they are trying to sound the word out in their head and it could be a toss up between c and k or it could be both!I probably said this before but my gosh! It's a wonder people can read and now it's not such a shock that there are some people that can't read because it's ridiculously hard in the beginning!
Hats off to Ms. McClaren who helped improve my reading !

Beginning of The End

2011-05-27T16:35:00.001-07:00

So this past week was my one year anniversary of coming to Fiji and really starting my journey as a Peace Corps volunteer.I had gone to see the new batch of volunteers to come in and give them a warm Fiji welcome.It was so odd and awesome to think that that was me a year ago.That I really had no idea what was in store for me and that I never could have prepared for any of it.
I think about how little I know now but how much knowledge I've gained since last year.Here is a list of things I know now that I never thought I would:

1. I can successfully have a conversation by only raising my eyebrows.Non-verbal expression is king here.
2.I now know four langauges-Hindi, Fijian,English and Spanish(but that's quickly fading)
3.Is thoroughly okay with being driven by a maniac over mountains to get to where I need to go.
4.Ants are nutritious and delicious and add pizzazz to any meal.
5.Clean is a very relative word.
6.A flick of the fingers can stop a taxi/bus in a matter of seconds

Then there are a few things I never thought I'd do in a million years
1. Eat pawpaws, mangoes, mandarine oranges, cucumbers, carrots and eggplants ...willingly... on a regular basis
2. Have a yearning to read on a regular basis-i've read so much!
3.Look forward to wearing skirts each day
4.Watch a bollywood movie in theatres

But on a more serious note I have learned that and am still learning that:
1. People will only goes as far as they want to
2. Development will never happen overnight
3. I can only do so much, then I have to give it up to God
4.Two years will never be enough to do everything I want
5. Friends and family are unbelievably important to have in high stress situations

Funny what a difference a year can make while in the Peace Corps.So for those aspiring to become in the Peace Corps lease remember that the most change that you'll see probably won't be with the people you work with but you yourself.

Just Let Loose !

2011-03-31T21:19:00.000-07:00

So today was our monthly Healthy Day where the school sells healthy snacks for the kids to eat and I go around and talk to each class about a health topic.This month was exercise. So I got my jazzercise gear out and was doing different moves with the classes.One thing that was really apparent how alot of the older kids would not allow themselves to let loose and do some dance moves.
There were a real of excuses like my leg hurts or my head hurts or I don't know how to dance or the best one where they just wouldn't even try to move their bodies.I'm thinking why are you all being like this since it's just me and their classmates who they hang out with all the time.There is no reason to not let loose.A cultural thing that may go into this is that Indo-Fijian girls are taught to not allow themselves to let loose and have fun and just be silly. I can understand that to an extent but for all the other kids outside this category I think they just felt so self-conscious about what the other students may think.I thought that reason is so silly, like why does it matter as long as you're having fun and not hurting anybody?
Then I thought back to when I was their age and I remember being the same way at my 6th grade of school class party or ball at Immaculate.I was the same self-conscious girl that these kids are now.Realizing that I understand that there are so many things I miss out on when I close-up and not allow myself to experience different things and just have fun.
So this is my pledge to be more outgoing, to take chances, make mistakes and get messy and forget all those around me watching.

Math and Science

2011-03-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

So one of my grand ideas was to plan a whole wee's worth of activities for the entire school dealing with Math and science. I being the last person to think things through to the end was greeted with many problems. But by the grace of God had a lot of support from local volunteers,teachers and peace corps volunteers who helped pull off an awesome week for the kids.Here's a few pics from the week.Also, be advised that I did nothing of consequence the following week.

What are you doing?

2011-02-25T14:49:00.000-08:00

So since school started back at the end of January it feels like my work has gone into overdrive and I haven't been quite able to get my head into it.A big project i've taken on is doing literacy assessments for two classes.I am trying to assess their reading ability and from there I can know where to start to helping them.I understood it would take a while but I didn't know that this thing would take close to two months to get through.Man it sucks but it's a great way to understand a student's abilities.
Big things are popping in Fiji.Had our school's prefect induction.Prefects are the students who get a bit more power to be able to boss around the other students when need be.Nice to see proud parents.

Also, had a celebration of the Prophet Muhammad's birthday which is observed by Muslims all over.A nieghbouring school came and did different prayers and speeches to teach the school about the prophet.

Fiji also stopped to observe the death of the President(think King of England level) of Fiji.The school spent the day watching the funeral on t.v. and the special ceremonies that were held at the president's home village.

Another cool thing is that I attended my first Hindu wedding-well day two on the groom's side anyway.Indian weddings are traditionally three day extravaganzas where on the first two days the groom and bride have separate events and on day three is a joint affair.When I went, I got to witness the groom being blessed by his close family and being confined to his home.But man the true attraction was the sarees the women wore.All sorts of colours and patterns that you could never even imagine.It was beautiful.I think I've decided that I'll have an Indian wedding in order to have the excuse to buy a million sarees for the events.

Ringing in the New Year

2011-01-07T19:07:00.000-08:00

So for the holiday season I decided to spend my Christmas with my host family back in the village and to spend my New Year's with a big group of peace Corps volunteers in Qamea-an island off Taveuni which is a smaller island in Fiji.I knew before hand that Christmas was going to be a very low-key affair but I wasn't prepared for how low key it turned out to be.The only way you could tell it was Christmas was because so many out of town relatives had come back to stay with family in the village and all the shops in town were jampacked with people buying for Christmas dinner- may I say that my Christmas gift to my family was two chickens and some cupcakes.My family along with many others did not have Christmas trees or exchanged gifts, it was more about getting together, seeing people you hadn't for a while and eating lots of good food.The one special Christmas thing they did was have the choir sing Christmas songs to the Chief and Turaga ni Koro (headman). Man those voices were so beautiful, even in Fijian you can recognize the song Silent Night.

Headed home from Christmas Dinner

Village Turaga Ni Koro( head man in red) ready for cutting of the ribbon

Brand spanking new community hall

It was nice having such a low key Christmas, without the pressures to buy the perfect gift for family and not worrying about getting caught up in the pomp and circumstance and missing the true meaning of Christmas.With this low key Christmas I was able to reflect on all that God has provided in my life and be thankful for the wonderful people and opportunities afforded to me.Remember Jesus is the reason for the season.
There were also other big things happening during this time. A local man was getting ready to be married on New Years eve in the village. I had the privilege of participating in a tevutevu. This is the process of bringing gifts to the home of the bride or groom-whomever you're related to and presenting the wedding gift which 9/10 times is one of these things-pillows/pillowcases/mosquito net/blankets.This can happen up to a week before the wedding or even years after the wedding when you are able to afford a gift.Please keep in mind that the gifts are presented to a representative of the one getting married and not the bride/groom.Also the family receiving the gift must host the gift-giver by preparing grog for them.
In addition to the tevutevu there was a death in the neighbouring village-apparntly he was the oldest living man in the village.Most importantly the village's community hall was finally opened to the public officially.It was a real joyous occasion with the Chinese Embassy in attendance to cut the ribbon since they had given a substantial portion in the building of the hall.It's quite large and will soon be used for a kindergarten and library.
For the New Year which has to be hands down the most fun new year I've ever had I was beach-side with a great group of people, dancing and singing the night away. I should have you know that Fiji is one of the first places to ring in the new year.

So with this new year comes new responsibilities, challenges and triumphs and I'm ready-are you?

Is that Sincere?

2010-12-21T15:48:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to write a quick thing about invitations here in Fiji.As I had said in previous blogs people here are very friendly.Even when it comes to special events.It is very common for a local to invite you to any function being planned such as a wedding,funeral,birthday party even if you just met them and hardly caught each other's names.You think that maybe the person was just trying to be nice and just said it, just to say it.However you quickly find out that it was truly genuine when they see you again after the event happened and ask why you didn't come and that they waited forever for you because it turns out you were going to be the honoured guest or were told about to all the other guests. Many PeaceCorps had this happen and it surely won't be the last.So anytime you're in Fiji that what you think maybe be a non-committal and informal invitation to an event is really a heartfelt, sincere invitation.

Stuff's a Happenin!

2010-11-05T17:15:00.000-07:00

So two great events that recently happened is the celebration of Diwali-festival of lights, celebrated by Hindus all over and Halloween celebrated by Americans all over.Diwali is the celebration of the return of the Lord Rama after 14 years of exile.The story goes that his father had three wives and one wife asked to be fulfilled to wishes without disclosing the wish first. The father agreed and then was told the wishes were to send Rama into exile and then make her own son King.Distraught the father did not know what to do but Lord Rama went on his own free will. While away the city went through a time of great darkness and despair.As soon as Lord Rama came back the twon went back into prosperity.Now Hindus celebrate this event by lighting hundreds of candles all over their home outside and then making and eating alot of sweets to share.Also fireworks are used to lgiht up the night's sky which is really nice to see from my roof top deck.Even nicer is that people decorate their houses with all sorts of Christmas lights.Fun fact is that these lights will be nowhere to be found during Christmas.The actual holiday was yesterday and I went around with my school's head teacher visiting her families and eating sweets for about 6 hours and then drove around the neighborhoods to see the lights the families put up.Man did these people go all out.It truly was go big or go home.They also did it big by buying new sarees and of course I partaked in this and bought myself two sarees, you know I'm always a sucker for a reason to go shopping.
Halloween was celebrated by having a costume party at a hotel. So many of us got together and have such a good time.Lady Gaga made an appearance, spiderman, Jesus, tom cruise in risky business and a few girl guides.The night was awesome and yes I did dress up- a hippie.My first and definitely not my last costume party.Next up is Thanksgiving.

Even more epic failures

2010-11-05T17:10:00.000-07:00

I tried to make potato curry today...epic failure
I tried to wash a shirt without letting the dye bleed onto my other clothes...epic failure
I tried to have a sex-ed class with two combined classes...epic failure
I tried to walk up the footpath without hacking up a lung...epic failure

Don't worry there will be plenty more in the years to come

Do you really need English?

2010-11-05T16:53:00.001-07:00

So if you at one time asked me what I did not want to do in Fiji that would be to teach English classes.That is one thing that deeply did not interest me and I thought went against my own value system of pressuring people to become more Western and devaluing their own language and culture.And then I end up at a school for students with Special needs and just a month ago I started taking on one of the classes t improve their English reading skills without much hesitation.
First off what I think happened is that it's a lot different to say something outside the situation and then be surrounded by the same situation and try to stick to your guns.So after a few classes I started reflecting back on my resolve before I came to Peace Corps.What I am starting to realise a bit is that Fiji is made up of many different cultures with separate languages and even within the languages are a range of dialects which are hard to comprehend if persons of two different dialects were to speak to one another.So I would think it would be easiest and I guess most fair to teach in English at all school levels.A backlash though is that many schools do not provide classes on the students mother tongue and so lose their ability to read their own language.So I would like your feedback. What do you think is best?What is the solution?

Seriously...Seriously...

2010-10-06T18:42:00.000-07:00

So not even a half an hour ago I had a very trange and uncomfortable conversation witha complete stranger.With any good story I'll start from the beginning.I went to an ice-cream parlor to get a brownie sundae because it's my new obsession and good baked goods are few and far between in Fiji.So I am sitting enjoying my sweet indulgence and doing some people watching in the store a man comes up to me and hits me in the arm. So alarmed by this I didn't know what to think or do.He then goes into an ever familiar line of questioning-Where you from? You from Fiji? You from Africa?Turns out he himself is from Ghana and gets VERY excited when he meets other Blacks in Fiji.He then invites himself to sit and tells me a snippet of his life story and how he is plans to go to California and India for his work and then come back.Here's the kicker, when I said I was Peace Corps volunteer he said he was surprised how Peace Corps was still around and that many countries in Africa decided not to have Peace corps since it was a supposed tool for the American government to start wars in Africa.The only silver lining in this whole craziness is that he mentioned without my own prompting that he met a lot of Jamaicans. Apparently they all are working for Digicel. Which I thought made tons of sense since Jamaica has Digicel and we've had that phone company in -country longer than Fiji.I did try to go on the Digicel Fiji website and look up a few names but tha didn't work out.
So I guess the moral of the story is that I get frustrated all the time when I have these run-ins especially since these people come out of nowhere and dive stright into the questions mentioned earlier and most times skip the formalities of trying to introduce themselves or saying hello.
Also, situtations like this have happened in the day time in a bustling street, I don't know how it will be if I am ever alone at night.But then I guess I should never be alone at night.

So we all can watch...and take pictures?

2010-09-24T20:17:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks back one of the teacher's on staff had a death in the family.His mother had died of pneumonia.As a sign of support the staff attended the funeral and of course I came along.This would be my first Muslim funeral.So my day went like this,The staff rode altogether to his home which is about a 1 1/2 hr drive north from the school, which goes through a bad dirt road. I couldn't believe that this teacher goes all that way everyday to get to work.When we got to his home where the funeral ceremony was taking place, everything was already in full swing. The priest was deep into his speech. On the outside of the house was an open air shed with the body, in a open coffin, in the middle on a small riser.Well wishers were able to put small flower arrangements on top of the coffin.Close family members sat up close and personal around the body on the riser.After about an hour of the priest talking he led the eldest son in doing a prayer ceremony with the body and putting things in the coffin.Then close family were allowed to walk around the coffin and pay their last respects.This is when the outpouring of tears came.Women were wailing over the body. What really touched me is that the teacher's niece ad granddaughter of the deceased sat right by the body and began to cry so hard when she took her walk around the body.What was the worst though is when the men were trying to close the coffin in order to transport it to the cemetery a few women tried holding onto the coffin in order to stop them.
The coffin was placed in the back of a 9 passenger van which was held in place by a few men who rode in back.Lucky for me(not really) my van rode right behind the open back van carrying the coffin.As we were on our way to the cemetery one of the men in the van carrying the coffin was creating a trail of mustard seeds. What I later learned is that a trail is made in hopes that f the soul of the dead person follows them the people will be able to get back home before the soul can catch up with them since it has to eat the seeds one by one.
When we got to the cemetery I quickly realized that I and a fellow female teacher were the only women there.Apparently all the women stayed back at the house to grieve.Apparently in the past women were not even allowed to come to the cemetery.At the cemetery the body was taken to a viewing area first then moved onto a pile of wood to be burned.I could see them take the body out of the coffin then on top of the wood, pour ghee(clarified butter) and a heap of wood on top of the body.Guests were welcomed to throw rice and flowers on the body before final prayers were made and the entire pile burned.What was really interesting is the coffin was broken to pieces and put on the piel to be burned and apparently a family could donate the coffins to the cemetery and any less fortunate family could purchase the coffin for a very minimal cost.
I debated on whether to take my camera but I thought it may be inappropriate to take pictures while people were mourning but apparently not so, many people were clicking away getting up close and personal with the body. Now I know for future reference.
However the grieving process is not over yet.For 16 days family members come and stay with the immediate family who suffered the loss and stay day and night cooking for them since is customary for the immediate family not to cook. Because of these overnight stays our teacher has had little to no sleep .

EID Mubarak

2010-09-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

EID Mubarak!

So my first cultural experience with the Muslim community I was fortunate to celebrate EID.This holiday marks the end of a thirty day fast which begins after the sighting of the crescent moon.When a full moon comes out or the new moon there is a large celebration of food and fun in the evenings of Muslim families.The usual greeting for this holiday is Eid Mubarak literally meaning Eid happy but it is understood to mean happy Eid.I was told more about this holiday but I honestly forgot and I didn't take notes as I should have.
The school's head teacher invited the entire staff over to her home to celebrate this event.At about 9 pm we all dug into some good eats-chicken palau(rice and chicken), puri(fried roti), Indian sweets,curry(of course) and tomato chutney( my fave.) Also, since many of the teachers were Fijian there of course was a grog session started up. I had a few bowls and tried to keep up with my drinking companions but I was no match.All in all it was a great time to enjoy the company of others and joke around.Amazing how interesting things can be even without the aid of modern technology.

Epic Failures!

2010-09-09T16:45:00.001-07:00

So I have two epic failures under my belt.
First of which being my continual insistence that I attend the local netball practices for the local teams.As you all may know already I am athletically challenged and have been so for quite sometime. I thought it would be good for me to get to know people in my area and have some type of regular exercise.Thankfully the people I train with are so nice. It may be because I am a foreigner so there may already be little to no expectation of any athletic ability already.They cheer me on as I run slowly, usually the last one to finish our 10 min runs.Sometimes it's so weird because I tell my body to go faster but it just won't do it.
My second epic fail was just yesterday when I tried to teach self esteem to a group of vocational female students.Looking back now on hindsight I can see that I made so many mistakes in how I structured the lesson plan and what teaching tools I could have used.I think though I need a bit more professional direction which I am trying to gain from the other teachers.If any teachers out there reading my blog-J.Rob. Please feel free to give your input on structuring lesson plans and what tools I should use.

In other news I will be celebrating Eid, which is a Muslim holiday today.I will tell you more about it next week.Also, Father's Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of September so I wish all the fathers especially my father a great belated Father's Day.

Here comes the bride all dressed in....masi !

2010-08-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend I went back to my host village to witness my first Fijian wedding of a member of my host family.Before I get into the weekend's details I do want to say that there are things that I see and hear that I will not feel comfortable sharing since it may make the person who did it feel uncomfortable. However, I really want to share these particular experiences with my close family and friends and trust they do not make the information public.So if you want to know please email me and ask me about the undisclosed happenings of my weekend.Moving on.

Friday
I had the extreme pleasure of being driven by my host brother and his family all the way back to the village.He saved me from a painful day's trip via public transport.Thank you Trevor!!! We arrived at about 7:30pm and got a king's welcome, lovely seeing my host family and other villagers after a month away.Everyone was working hard getting things ready for the wedding, three sheds were built in front and back of the house for the festivities. The one in the back was where all the cooking was going on.They were cooking a whole cow which had been slaughtered earlier that day and had a few dozen chickens being cooked.There were these massive metal pots being used to cook all the food.Also of course there were two lovos (earth ovens) being prepared also.Inside the house the main room had been cleared of all furniture and decorated with colourful fabric.The floor was also covered in ibes(mats made of plaited dried palm leaves.) Also, people were drinking grog, chatting and enjoying the night air.The two shed at the front of the house were being decorated too with palm leaves,cloth and ibes.At about 10pm that night we were greeted with a powercut that lasted about half an hour.You cannot imagine how dark it got!But I had my handy dandy flashlight so it was okay.After much laughter and food preparation I went to bed at about midnight leaving everyone else up and what seemed wide awake to work through the night.I was given my old room back where I got to sleep on a bed.When I walked out into the main room though I got a pleasant shock to see that the main room was filled with people sleeping, probably about 10/12.I don't know how they sleep on the hard foor. Even women in their 70's and 80's slept on the floor.

Saturday
I woke up bright and early to the sound of the loli(large hollowed out tree used as a drum) being beaten at 6 in the morning.I was a call to the village o notify them that church was starting.That day I helped to get the final touches together for the wedding. At about 11 am The wedding party processed to the church from their home and the wedding ceremony began.The service was about one hour, short and sweet. The bride and groom exchanged rings and vows, the pastor did a sermon and a representative from either side of the family talked abit.After the service the couple processed out and changed for the reception.Guests went to sit under the sheds and most of the men sat in the house's main room drinking grog of course and laying on their guitars.
A new ceremony I learned about also was a tevutevu. This is where each side of the family offers gifts to the couple to start them on their new life together. It was mostly pillows(about 30 of them), a mosquito net, mounds of food, tanoa(whale's tooth) and grog.What is even more interesting is that if the family cannot give a tevutevu at that time they can do it whenever during the couple's marriage whether it be a month,year or decade later the family can still do one.

Sunday
Of course before leaving I had to see the rest of the people I had become close to during training.I thought that I would have seen them all at the wedding but apparently this was a real busy day since there was also a 21st birthday, house opening, baby's birth and fun day at the nearby school.It was nice taking a stroll down the pah and visiting different families and their kids.

So ...you from where?

2010-08-06T19:26:00.000-07:00

As I settle into my site, gearing up for a whirlwind of excitement that is sure to come within my two year stay I see a pattern emerge as I meet more and more people.The same situation happens so many times during the day and it never fails to amuse me.As you may know being Black helps me to blend in easier with the locals however as I am slowly realizing that there are some features about my face that give my American-ness away.So a person will look at me for a second start talking to me a bit then all of a sudden they look at me even closer and ask me you from where?and I say merkica(USA) and then they say you not Fijian? and I say no and then I am asked where you stay? who you stay with ? are you married?I am truthful for most of the conversation since these are things any local would ask another, instead of asking abstract questions like how you are.The part that I mostly lie about is who I live with. I usually say that I live with a family with two older brothers, just to stay safe and not give them the thought that they can easily rob my home.
Today though this conversation got a bit uncomfortable.I was walking around town on a street of shops that I do not frequent so I could see if I was missing out on any great stores, so of course I was walking pretty slow and peering into all the shops.Apparently this was a bad choice because a man,probably in his late twenties started walking and talking with me asking me if i'm looking for something, where i was going and if I'm Fijian.I talked with him thinking it was weird but that he may just go away in a few minutes to tend to his own shopping duties. The man though continues to walk into a store with me and talk to me, trying to find out where I stay and where I worked. Trying desperately to ignore him he asked if he was making me uncomfortable I said yes and thankfully he just left.From now on I guess it would behoove me to always look like I know where I'm going-no matter what and to speak up from the beginning to be left alone.Oh and to set your hearts at ease this took place in the afternoon on a busy Saturday with lots of people around me.

Hats off to the great teachers of the world!

2010-07-23T00:10:00.001-07:00

So I am working with a school for the next two years as my Peace Corps service.I knew I had a tremendous amount of respect for teachers and the hassle they went through and how much patience and love a person must ahve to dedicate their lives to teaching. However, after only being at the school for two weeks and attending their staff meetings, doing home visits and observing classes that teachers are the most hard working gropu of people-HANDS DOWN.Man kids are wonderful joys to have a round but sometimes you just want to ing their neck, lol.To have the patience to teach children topics for weeks, trying to impart knowledge and seeing at times major absorption of the work or slow pick up of the topic but being faithful to their job and to the students no matter what is continually astounding.the other day I was sitting with a student asking her to read me the story book she had.Most of the words she hadn't mastered so I tried to assist her in learning the words.MAN it took all of me to be patient and work at their pace to learn the words and not get frustrated when a word we went over a page ago looked like she had never seen it before and I had to go over the word again.Another time I was with a studet doing a small addition problem which took us about what felt like an hour to do and still we weren't able to get thoguh it to put the answer on the page.
Also, being on the other side of the desk and observing staff meetings shows how much paperwork a teacher has to do. So many forms to fill out,activity lessons to plan and books to check on a daily basis.It can make even the best of us go crazy.
In summation I wish all the wonderful teachers out there from my schools and any teacher out there who is working so hard to make sure their kids reacht their potential the most deepest gratitude and I want you to know that I apprecite what you are doing and to know that you are doing the most noble profession out there-HANDS DOWN.

Just So you Know

2010-07-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

Hey all! IT's been a little while but I am back to give you another update of my time.I made the Fiji National News! Pretty cool, it was taken during the Peace Corps Swearing In Ceremony where I become an official Volunteer instead of just a trainee.The link is posted on my facebook page or it is on youtube so if you type in something like Fiji 1 news Peace Corps you should get the link.So now i'm world famous! YAY!
In other news I am settling in fine to my new home for the next two years and have been enjoying my site so far.The school that I am at has only a roster of about 100 kids. They are all very wonderful and rambunxious.I can see I will have my hands full with them when I start different programs. The teachers are wonderful, they have a heart of gold to have the patience to work with kids.That is why I will NEVER be a teacher because kids can be way too much.I watch the kids though and I wonder to myself was I like that as a kid? Was I that hyped up ALL the time or always telling on my classmates to the teacher when they did something to me or thinking that water and soap were optional things?Mommy and Daddy can you reply to these inquiries?
My house is wonderful, lots of space, a sitting area and dining area and best of all a wrap around balcony so I can see out into the valley and mountains.So since I'm not in a village living in a little hut with no electricity then I'm sure many more of you are obliged to come visit me.(If that was the only things stopping you)
The town is just a 1/2 hour walk from my house and it is really nice, a huge market , lots of shops to indulge my need to shop and instead of a Mcdonalds on every corner there's a supermarket on every corner-no joke.

Fiji Language 101

2010-07-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

So I thought I'd give a short lesson in Fijian so people can understand what I've been going through trying to learn the native language.Fiji's national language is English and all children are taught it in school.However FIji does have it's own native language.Within this native language though there are a multitude of dialects. Apparently dialects can change from one village to another. Some are simple as removing a letter completely from words to as difficult as changing meanings and uses of words.I am learning the Boan dialect which is kind of the universal dialect that any Fijian would understand, but not necessarily speak.In the Fijian alphabet the letters h , z and x are nonexistent.The letter b makes the mb sound,the letter d has the nd sound, the letter j has the ch sound, the letter q has the ng sound as in Inglewood and the letter g makes the ng sound as in sing.In Fijian many of the words are made from pairing a consonant and a vowel and the word usually ends in a vowel making it hard to understand where a word ends and where one starts when hearing it with an untrained ear.For example here is a simple Fijian sentence : Au kakana vinaka bula vinaka vakalevu. You see there are so many vowels, sometimes I feelt here just are too many.Also, a word can talk on different meanings just by how you pronounce it for example the word dredre can take on the meaning of difficult or laughter if you stress the first or last vowel-I forget which one.I also want to point out that to translate something into Fijian from English would be sucha hassle, things that take a few words in English would literally take a paragraph in Fijian.I don't have any examples of that yet since I am not that far along with my Fijian but I will add to this post later to show you how true it is.

I know where I'm going!

2010-06-23T22:13:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone the big news has come! I will be working in town at a School for special education students. Apparently though special education covers a wide gambit of things. Some students with learning disabilities to others who have down syndrome and autism.I am replacing another volunteer who said the students and staff are wonderful. I am very excited to get started and really start being a part of a community.The students are from kindergarten all the way up to young adult age.There is also a vocational track for the girls who do not go into high school.the students and staff are a rough even mixture of Fijian and Indo-Fijians. This is especially exciting since I will be exposed to both cultures.
My home is minutes away from the school and is generally praised as one of the best homes overall of all the volunteers.YAY!I also get to share the home with another Peace Corps volunteer, which I am very happy about since I will not be so alone and can have a bit of security.There will also be 2 other volunteers living in the same town so we will all be able to see each other on a regular basis.I move in on the 8th of July.

Western thinking...Eastern living

2010-06-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

So i came into Fiji understanding that certain practices may be done differently than what i am used to.However, sometimes I slip up and have a preconceived notion of certain things that I would be getting myself into.My first clash of East and West was at a festival for the province I live in.When I hear festival I think games, music, different food, sweets, booths,lots of movement and mingling.Over here in Fiji that is completely different.There were no games, two dances performed, practically the same food provided which anyone would easily make at home,a few sweets.For about 5 hrs out of the day I could easily say that it was taken up by all the spectators sitting down in sheds and watching the presentation of gifts to the chief.It was interesting to see, but I didn't stay as pumped throughout the day since my preconceptions were totally thrown through the window.

Second clash came at a youth meeting.In Fiji, youth are between the ages of 18 and 35.In my village there is a weekly youth meeting. When I heard youth meeting I thought it would be a very informal gathering of youth to talk, mingle , get to know their peers and have a guided conversation about things that matter to them. Well when I got there it turns out the meeting happens in the church sanctuary, the youth generally dress in what they would wear to church like suit and tie, formal dresses.Also, the meeting is basically a church service at times or just a sermon then everyone goes home.It doesn't seem that there is any time for the youth to just truly hang out , and chat.

Third clash was when I went to a local fast food restaurant and ordered a medium fries.When I got the fries they were on a huge plate which made it look like the fries were a small amount. I paid like $3 Fiji which is $6 US so I really wanted my money's worth. I complained and said that the least they could do was trick me into thinking it was more by putting it in a smaller plate.When I did so the waiters didn't do anything.Apparently people in Fiji don't complain even over food.Also, apparently fast food places only give you one ketchup packet. yes folks only one.

Overall it was interesting to see how differently things are done in Fiji and to realize that things done differently should be looked at as just that different, not any worse or any better.

Peace and Blessings

2010-06-13T02:32:00.000-07:00

Our first grog session to welcome us to Fiji.Fijians must have a grog session as part of welcoming any person to their village or home for the first time.