So our journey that day began at 3am
we took an hour bus ride to the dock where our
ferry would leave.
We stopped half way at The Hot Bread Kitchen
BEST. ROLLS. EVER.
(Liz and Sam)
The island in the background of this picture
is the Bua province. This is where we stayed for a week
and worked at the Vuya school.
It was super humid in Fiji.
No matter what you were doing.
You had sweat rolling down your body constantly.
And it was their winter.
We went straight to the school.
Everything the kids know about America they have seen in movies.
So they thought we were the coolest thing EVER!
They wanted to hug you, touch you, and just be around you constantly.
One girl asked me if I was Paris Hilton, hahahaha.
They all ran outside of their classrooms to watch us.
It wasn't hard to fall in love with the people there.
Anything you wanted or anything you needed they would just give it to you.
They don't have a lot.
They basically have nothing.
Just the food they grow or can catch.
But they gave us EVERYTHING they had.
We ate better meals than they did.
I just couldn't believe their selflessness.
I haven't met anyone like that in America.
(Taking a taxi means piling in the back of a truck)
Our entire group was split into 3 groups.
Each group stayed at a 3 different villages and every 3 days we would switch.
So after our visit to the school we had to go to the villages
and be welcomed by their chiefs.
We had to crawl into the room where the chief was because
you cannot stand taller than him. We gave him a gift and he spoke a lot
of Fijian so I'm not quite sure what happened, haha.
But he welcomed us and said we are now one of them.
This was our village now too.
We ate our first meal back at the school.
I'll be honest, I don't know what most of that is on my plate.
I would say I ate rice and tomato sauce for lunch and dinner.
For 7 days.
Most of us branched out though and tried everything...
Like my friend Tyler.
He was the only guy in my group so the women made him eat everything.
Haha.
Anyways, it was beautiful there.
I couldn't soak it in that I was actually in Fiji.
This entire experience was pretty overwhelming.
It is a lot to soak in.
My groups first village to stay in was Nabouwalu village.
Those are the beds we slept in.
Mosquito nets were ESSENTIAL.
And if you know me at all
you know bugs are hard for me to deal with.
And there were A LOT of bugs.
And geckos
And frogs
It was really awesome actually.
I woke up a lot during the night to a frog jumping by me.
Or one morning I woke up to a frog just sittin' by my pillow.
No big deal, haha.
Geckos climb all over the cieling.
Oh! And roosters crow hours before the sun comes up.
But you gets used to it... And they crow during the day.
I think they are confused...
This was our bathroom.
We usually took group showers with our swimsuits on because
most of us girls were too scared to go alone haha.
I had my first taste of coconut milk
Which the people will just go climb and get for you.
These are all the women that cooked all our meals.
They are so sweet.
The guy next to me is super funny.
Immediately after this picture his wife slapped him
for putting his arm around me, haha.
I shelled a prawn and ate it.
I am an Elementary Education major
I just have a soft spot for children.
Especially these kids.
They just love you, no matter what. Before they even know you.
Liz (my group leader and was raised on this island) said
the people there would just meet you and act like they've known
you for 15 years. And she was right!
I actually felt like I was at home.
This is a picture of one of our breakfasts.
It is their custom to sit and watch us eat before
they can eat. That was kind of funny just being watched :]
Eating the flesh of the coconut.
It tastes like nothing, so I don't know what we're eating in America.
But it's not coconut.
Walking to work and this is our view! Amazing.
This is the dock or the warf as everyone calls it.
If we were lucky, after work we would make it to the warf
before sunset and jump in the ocean for a bit. Of course the kids joined us.
We were never alone there.
Most kids just wanted to watch you and see what you were doing.
After work, the warf, and then dinner we would usually sit up and talk
Their electricity turns on at 5pm and shuts off at midnight, no matter what.
So sometimes you'd be in the bathroom and all the lights would go out.
Haha, that was pretty funny!
Anyways, they knew we liked to stay up and talk so one day we came home
and they had built us this hut to sit underneath.
I just couldn't believe it!
Our last night in Nabouwalu they threw us a party.
There was lots of music and dancing.
Their music is pretty similar except all of the pop songs are remixed
and have a reggae background.
There was a kava ceremony.
I drank 5 bowls.
It was so sick!
It tastes like eating dirt.
A couple geckos on the ceiling.
The next 3 days we spent in Ravi Ravi.
More to come!
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