Fiji Chapter 2!

---

We struck gold at Naveria Heights lodge staying with Sharon and Scott and Sharon's 2 beautiful little boys, Brandon(7) and Dylan (5).
We arrived on Sunday and Easter Monday was a holiday! We were invited along to the Planters Club in Suvasuva for a lunchtime Barbecue and to watch the Billibilli race - A Billibilli is a raft constructed from long pieces of bamboo which Fijians usually use for fishing. We had a fun afternoon meeting lots of people, expats from OZ and NZ and other places as well as some local people and the Chief of Savusavu a very friendly man with a wide (mainly toothless) grin! There was an excellent band playing so Rob was able to join in and became somewhat of a celebrity!When we left we had made many new friends!
On Tuesday we were invited to dinner at Daku Resort, along the coast and owned by friends of Sharons.
Before dinner they put on entertainment for us, Fijian dance and music, performed by two young lads and a very pretty girl, the children of Kenny, the Fijian cook at the resort.I found it mesmerising and very atmospheric as it was performed in front of the pool, with just the outdoor resort lights.
After that we enjoyed a most delicious Fijian meal in the company of the owner, Jayjay, his wife Delia, their 20 year old daughter Olivia and Elliot, her boyfriend - all very nice, interesting people who divide their time between Fiji and Sydney, Australia.
The food was some of the tastiest food I have ever had, particularly the vegetable, Ota - a fern which grows here! Towards the end of the meal Rob sang some Scottish songs for them!!
The following day was probably one of the many highlights of the week for me.
Brandon and Dylan attend the local Primary School and I was able to go to school with them at 8am that morning, to meet the Headteacher called 'Headmaster' and addressed as such!!(I inquired about his name but nobody seemed to know!!) and see round the school.
I then spent time in 4 classes, talking to the children about Scotland, Scottish Culture, Scottish children and Primary Schools in Scotland!
Khumendra Primary is a big primary school with almost 700 children, and three streams Class 1 - Class 8
after that they go to secondary school. There are between 40 and 45 children in each class!
Class 1 is the same as Primary 2 as the children go to Nursery or Kindergarten (aged 5)
The classrooms are not air conditioned, though the small Headmaster's room is! and the classrooms are generally unadorned - very little, if any, children's work is displayed and in fact, very little display of anything.
The children were well behaved and attentive and very smart in uniform of blue shirts for the boys, and dresses for the girls with white ribbons in their beautiful black hair.
I spoke with Class1, Class3 and 2 class 8's. The classrooms were basic but the teachers seemed to make the most of the very few resources they had. There were no computers,TV's or any other technology, just blackboard, chalk and a few jotters which parents have to buy for their children - I didn't see any textbooks.
Many children unfortunately drop out of education at an early stage, as they cannot afford the payments required. Sharon is Chairperson of the parents group and asked all parents to contribute 50c (15p) a month so that there could be a cleaner for the toilets on a daily basis. Most parents decided they could not afford this.
Rob came with me on my visit to the school, and with his harmonica was able to play Scottish Music for the children. I told them about Scottish Country Dancing and before long they were clapping their hands and stamping their feet, in time to the music.
I asked the children if they had any questions but the teacher said they were too shy! However the teacher was not!! and he asked me how much a teacher in Scotland earns!! So I told him about 18,000 pounds for a young teacher starting out - He wrote this on the board and converted it in to Fijian dollars (multiply by 3) Then he wrote a Fijian's teachers salary on the board which was 11000 - 15,000 Fijian dollars (divide by 3 for pounds) and he said he will come and teach in Scotland!! What he didn't realise is that everything costs at least 3 times as much in Scotland!!
The teachers I spoke to, all worked hard to make sure that the children were being given as good an education as they could be, given the circumstances. They proudly showed me their lesson plans, timetables and logs which was their assessment tool, filled in on a daily basis, (I think!) with the children's names down 1 side of a double page, and columns for English, Maths and Science with comments for each child, all hand written. Differentiation appeared to be, by outcome only, with no provision in lesson plans for differentiation of content. There are no learning assistants and no Specialist teachers at all.
All 4 teachers (in the classes I visited ) told me how difficult it was to get the Fijian parents interested enough in their children's education to get them to come on Parents Day, to sign the reports.The Indian and Westerner parents were very keen to see their children doing well, and helped with the homework and supported the school.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the school but it was rather scary that I felt just so at home there!!

The next day we visited a small remote Fijian village where the people live the the traditional Fijian life. There are many many such villages scattered over the country.
We met the Chief of the village who welcomed us with some traditional Fijian words. The village people very lovely, very friendly and one or two had got dressed up to greet us in the colourful 'Sula'. We were supposed to drink Kava with the chief but I was relieved to know that because of Cyclone Tomas the Kava crop had all but been destroyed so Kava was in short supply!
Kava is a liquid which looks like dirty dish water (and apparently tastes similar) It has a narcotic effect ie you get high if you drink enough of it . In the markets you see vast amounts of it, tied in bunches for sale - It is the root of the Kava plant ,and is pounded down with a little water to make this, in my opinion, unappetising drink!
The village consists of 19 families who all came from 2 grandfathers (still alive!) The villagers are all related to each other and live as a community in their own little family houses.
The houses are very basic with handwoven mats on the floor which the women have made- Hand woven from dried leaves. There is an area screened off for sleeping and the rest is the living area. They appear to have very few belongings but are very happy people.
They proudly showed us their church which stands in the middle of the village - much larger than any house there. They are Methodists, and told us they were saving up to buy a fitted carpet for the floor to replace their beautiful handwoven mats. When I said I much preferred the mats, they told me they were 'tired' of the mats!!
They had one small square of carpet behind the altar, which they proudly showed us! It was ghastly - bright red with large gold swirls and made out of a horrid acrylic material - Rob made it better by saying that it was exactly the sort of carpet his mother would have loved - and it was!!
They were pleased about that!!
They go to church twice on Sundays and once on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays to say prayers and sing and listen to the Pastor. Several men in the village are pastors and they take it in turn to conduct the services.
A few of the villagers took us on a walk, to a beautiful waterfall where we could swim. A young 16 year old girl appointed herself as my special guide and did not leave my side, taking my arm over any rough stones - I felt like an old granny!! which I'm sure she thought I was!!
She was not at school that day as her brother had taken her bus fare. She had risen at 6am and walked with the other students from the village, 2 miles up the hill, to catch the bus at 7.30am. At the bus stop her brother would not hand over her bus money so she could not get on the bus and had to come back to the village.
She told me she would like to be a nurse and work in Dubai- She could do this when she was 20, if she passed her exams. She would come home to visit but she did not want to live in the village when she was grown up. I think Fiji is changing, unfortunately.
When we got to the waterfall, some of us went swimming and we ate fresh pieces of coconut - delicious- Amelia, the lady from the village and Tua (my friend) jumped into the pool to swim, with all their clothes on! Amelia was fully dressed with her lovely Sula on, made from beautiful red material. It was obviously the way they always swim, as it was second nature for them to plunge in and reappear a good distance away!! Tua told me they frequently swim at the waterfall, but for the last 3 weeks they had been coming and not swimming, as there was so much clearing up to do after the cyclone, and all the villagers helped with this - though the youngsters did most of the work!! When we left I gave Tua some money for her bus fare. However when Sharon asked me how much I had given her she said it was her bus fares for a month!!

Savusavu, the little town we were staying in, had a few restaurants, a couple of bars, a Kava Saloon!, and a few assorted shops - (none with air-conditioning,) a market and a Post Office, a bus and taxi area and a Primary School. It is very un-touristy with only 1 resort which caters mainly for groups of people who come to paint, practice Yoga, sing and write. They even had a Jane Austen Appreciation Week recently!
Over the week, as we met more people, Rob and I became known in the village and we wereoften greeted by Bula's and by smiling men and women mimicking harmonica playing and pointing at Rob!!

On our last full day in Savusavu, we helped Sharon with the Fun Run which she had organised, in order to raise money for a water filter at the school, so that the children would have clean water to drink.
We started early in the morning ( the best time as it gets so hot) and by 9am more than 60 children and 10 adults had signed up to take part, and all had had their number written in red marker on their forearm by me!
We waited until 9.30 for the local police to arrive so that the few vehicles using the road could be stopped. The 1 k race was run first - half a K along the road and half a K back!
Rob and I were there to take the times with Sharon's watch. The children did very well with the fastest, covering the distance very quickly!
The next run was the 5 K, and by then it was 32+ degrees and any distance would be difficult to run. This took much longer, with a young Australian lad, who runs 100K per week, coming in first by a long shot!
When everyone was back, there was prize giving then a barbecue for all the kids and adults. They had a great time and afterwards all went off to play in the sea!
That evening after supper, Sharon took us to the Kava Bowl - a type of pub run by a woman from Cornwall and her Indian husband!There we met some very colourful characters who had all been drinking Kava since the early afternoon!
A very large, hairy, Fijian man introduced himself to us and offered me a bowl of Kava- I had to take it but had only one mouthful,- which was disgusting, then handed it back to him. I thought it would be rude to refuse!
He told me he had 9 children and he loved children! Brandon and Dylan, at this point, were hiding behind Sharon, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible!.
He introduced us to his son 'Diamond' who was apparently a Champion Welterweight Boxer and also a singer in a band and he had travelled the world!
He did some incredible Gymnastics for us, after falling off the Kava table where he had been sitting cross-legged! The kava bowl flew up in the air, as he unbalanced ( he was the worse for wear!) but was deftly caught by his father, but not before much of the Kava liquid had splashed over me, and given Diamond a very wet bottom!!
After listening to Diamond's proud boasts, about his boxing and singing career, and his father's agreements, little Dylan fell fast asleep, so luckily, it was time to leave - another little Fijian experience!
Sadly, the wonderful week came to an end, and we flew back to Nadi the next day, to get the flight to LA and the American experience!
We are so looking forward to that, because we are picking Catriona and Bob up in Norfolk, Virginia, then driving down the Outer Banks, to Ocracoke (where Simon was told he had 'struck gold' after his briefing for his BUNAC summer experience several years ago) for a 2 week holiday with them before we come home on 12th May!We will be able to catch up with some of our friends and Rob is hoping to play along wth the local bluegrass band again.
As we left Savusavu , we were thrilled that some of our new friends had come to the tiny airport to wish us well and say goodbye - Such lovely people living in their paradise - I do hope we get back to see them again but they all know that they would get a very warm welcome from us, if they ever visit Scotland!!

---

Comments

[Trisha]

Sounds fantastic as usual! Enjoy the next leg. Lots of Love Trisha

[noreen]

Time has flown
Hi Mary, what a time you've had in Fiji, so many memories, you won't want to come home. I can't bleive you are home in a month - it doesn't seem any time at all since you left. We've had rottener weather than you though. Hope you have a great time in USA. You sound as if you might need a rest. Lesley due in three weeks but is lying in breech position so liable to get a Caeserian in about a fortnight if Splodge doesn't do a double somersalt and get into a more traditional position. awaiting next instalment Noreen XX