IB CAS
Katerina Chen
Fiji Service Trip 2016
During their visit to Fiji the girls spent five days living with a local family in a remote village that had no power or mobile phone coverage and a local stream for bathing. For their service work, the students built a shelter for the Lali (school drum) and mixed cement, laid bricks and painted the structure; painted the library and exterior of the school, donated and sorted library books, laid lino floor tiles in a classroom and taught English songs to students.
From the 17th of April to the 21st of April, a small group of MLC Girls travelled to a rural village in Fiji to complete their Residential Journey for Duke of Edinburgh Gold. (Our original location was Bali, however due safety concerns we relocated) to We I lived in a local home in Nasivikoso Village and travelled to the local elementary school to aid the construction of classrooms and other school buildings. Before our departure, we prepared through a school fundraiser and donation collections.
Donations for Fiji
Earlier this year in February, the severe Tropical Cyclone Winston hit Fiji, resulting in the death of 42 Fijians. Before our departure we had weekly meetings were we organised the fundraiser and our donations in aim to help the local Villages recover from the damage Cyclone Winston created. As we were going to do service work at Nasivikoso school, we decided to aim our donations to be suitable for this elementary school. The donation pile had to consist of goods which would be suitable, durable and useful for the school. While in Fiji, we organised our donations into piles.
Before and After photos from the ABC Website of the extensive damage Cyclone Winston created in Fiji:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-07/fiji-before-after-photos-cyclone-winston/7220784
Donations include:
- Picture Books (From my Book Drive CAS Group Project)
- Stationary e.g. pencils, textas, chalk
- Toys e.g. toy cars, Play-Doh, tennis balls
- medication e.g. Panadol, bandaids
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |
Reflection:
​
Throughout our village stay, we were involved in a variety of service activities. In the elementary school where we painted, concreted and tiled. We repainted classroom walls and tiled the previously bare concreted floors. The most exhausting was mixing the cement. We shoveled rocks from a pile into a wheelbarrow, where we then mixed in water and concrete mix. From this we constructed the base of the Lali house (lali is a Fijian wooden drum) for the school. To finish it off we painted the Lali house as well!
After learning this was the only school available to the children due to their remote location, I realised how any improvement to the facility would vastly impact the local community. However, I did feel that the school needed to have professionals to come improve the facilities, instead of volunteer students. While I understand that it may be too expensive, after talking and making friends with the students, I yearned for only the best facilities possible to be given to them.
While the repainted classrooms improved the classroom's look immensely, i felt that it was only a short term solution and we were only covering up issues in the construction. Our tilling would most likely have to be redone in some years.
​
 |
|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
In all honestly, it was difficult to adjust to the lifestyle in Nasivikoso village. There was no electricity, showers or service, and the house I lived in only consisted of two rooms. With the area of the house being roughly the same as my bedroom at home While I prepared by bringing essentials such as torches, I was not expecting the complete darkness that cloaked the village after sunset. To wash ourselves, we bathed in the river, which was always uncomfortably cold and scattered with playful Fijian children. We also had to wear a sulu, a traditional long skirt to cover our legs, throughout the whole stay. Before our departure we prepared for our stay with group meetings, where we brainstormed items to bring such as bathers and ponchos. I recognized my original discomfort was due to the privileged lifestyle we have being born into developed countries, and how even though we generally have much more, we are less happy. A local said to me, “I know we do not have much, but we are happy”.
​
I expected the home stay component to be tough, not only because I was living in a foreign environment, but also as I would be accompanied by new people constantly. To top it, I had never interacted with my homestay buddy before the trip. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the kindness of my host family and the strong bond created with my homestay buddy throughout the trip. On the rocky four hour drive up a mountain to the village, I would have never expected the difficulty I felt to part with my Fijian family, and my nene beckoning me to return the next year.
On the way to the village we passed through Port Denarau, a major tourist area in Fiji. It was situated on a beautiful bay, with a never ending line of souvenir and clothing shops with Hawaiian style print shirts. This stop made me realize the most ‘Fiji’ a large majority of tourist experience, is the humidity. No locals or Fijians were at Port Denarau, except for the store workers. A vast majority of tourists only experience areas such as Port Denarau in Fiji, or the beaches, disregarding to learn or even experience the culture. Similar to these tourists, I was unaware of the existence of Indian Settlements, cyclones/flooding and the issue of Pinkeye before the trip. I definitely had to reflect on past trips I have made to overseas countries, where like others, I only was involved in touristy activities, and was ignorant to the lifestyle and culture of the country.