Do you really need English?

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...

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?

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

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!

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 !

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?

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.