Photos

I have hunners of photos that I haven’t put up yet, so here’s some of my favourites:

There have been three attempts to get all 16 GAP volunteers to meet up at a resort. The first time, at the Beachhouse in February was fairly successful with 15 showing up. The second and third times have been less so with only 8 showing up, but ho hum. This photo is from the second time we met up, in March, at Volivoli Beach Resort in Rakiraki, which is in the north of Viti Levu, the mainland. On our last night we took a Sunset Cruise, and it was definitely the highlight of the weekend for me. L-R: David, Jenny, Helen, Emma, Kate P, Kate H, Viv, and Jack in front.
(I’m still trying to get a fish blood stain out of my skirt from that night…)

This photo is from Caqalai (pronounced THANG-a-lie), a tiny tiny coral island in the Lomaiviti group (that’s where I am, folks). It’s by far my favourite resort in Fiji, and super cheap to boot. Also from there:

Sunrise over Moturiki. Not as impressive as the Lavena sunrise, but still nice!

This is a picture of Lovoni village, where I was originally supposed to have been placed.

and here’s me in the Lovoni swimming hole.

This is a sunset I enjoyed on the way to Arovudi village in the north of Ovalau.

Tokou village swimming hole, where I spent a very nice day before being taken out on a bilibili (bamboo raft).

This is Waitovu swimming hole. I love how I accidentally caught that guy in mid air.

Levuka town. The funny tree in front is one of the Baka trees. I love to sit there and look out over the sea, or enjoy a nice cold drink.

This was taken in the Koro Makawa club. Johnny and Viv were a bit drunk. Oh dear.

This is in the Ovalau Club, the only other club in town and probably my favourite one. There’s usually a grog session once the bar closes, and sometimes we join in. This photo is from a long time ago because both Helen and Ben (sitting either side of me) have gone home now

Me and my new best friend Jason at Tommy’s place.

Me and Esther who I used to live with. Nice girl

 

This is a photo from a typical grog session. This one is from Clare’s birthday back in May, in the hut beside her house. I gave my camera to this girl I know and she went mental taking millions of pictures. This one shows Edmund and Tewawa with my guitar in the foreground, and Clare with some Aussie friends in the back.

Me with Dorcas and Samisoni, the kids I used to live with. They’re cute Samisoni once said in Fijian to his mother, “Miss Jenny has beautiful eyes, she’s my Cinderella”. How could I not love him for that?

I spend way too much time in the clubs.

Baby Ba, who I lived with before Esther and Dorcas and Samisoni. He is the most adorable creature. He used to wave me off to school every morning shouting “byeee” and blowing kisses until I was out of sight.

We had a ceremony to bless the new school sign at St James a couple of weeks ago, and here’s the students and school board. Colourful, no?

And finally, here’s me in my lovely sulu and jaba with some of the kids. Apparently all the Fiji Times photographers keep getting hassle when they photograph kids doing the “up yours” sign as opposed to the “peace” sign, so I’ve been trying to teach them the difference, but I don’t think I’m getting anywhere…

Anyway, that’s all for now. Many many more photos can be found on my photobucket, the link of which is on the left somewhere, and there’s even a nifty wee slideshow feature you can use, so knock yourself out. Ciao for now.

A frank opinion

IMPORTANT!

There’s only two more weeks of school. That means I have only two more weeks with an address. Thusly if you’re planning on posting me anything, do as soon as you can, and remind me when it should arrive. I don’t want to leave Levuka with stuff waiting for me at the Post Office like so many other volunteers seem to have done.

And now:

Maybe there’s something in the water here, but people in this country are awfully straightforward. A fair number of conversations with complete strangers has proceeded as follows:

“Bula!”
“Bula.”
“Are you married?”

I’ve never really thought too much about my weight, but I haven’t had much of a choice since coming here, thanks to the very frank opinions of my acquaintances:

“Boy, Miss Jenny, you’re sure getting fat!”

“When I first met you, you were… *stretches hands as far apart as possible*”

“Eighteen??? But you’re so big!”

“Aww, Miss Jenny, you’re so fa… er… healthy!”

And, my favourite, this one from a tiny 4 year old Indian boy,

“Baby come?”

(For the record, although my weight has yo-yo’d a fair bit, overall I’m definitely a little less than I was at the start…)

An old man that I’ve met only once or twice for a few minutes amazed me a little with his perceptiveness. We were holding a ceremony at school to bless the new school sign, and I was in a good mood. I had my camera out, trying to capture a suitable moment to send to the Anglican newsletter. This old man came up to me and said;

“You’re feeling homesick, aren’t you?”

And you know what? I think it’s finally starting to hit me. It’s taken over 6 months, but I’m starting to really look forward to coming home. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still having the time of my life out here, but still I keep finding myself daydreaming about all the things I’m going to do when I’m back in Linlithgow.

Speaking of which, my flights are all sorted. I am leaving Fiji on September 9th, arriving in Scotland September 10th. See you then!

Hot stuff

I had a bit of an adventure this morning. You know that lukewarm shower of mine I’ve been raving about? Well, I was using it this morning when suddenly it burst into flames. No shit! My first thought was “Crap, it might be an electric fire and I’m in a shower, if I get water on it I’m gonna blow the school up”. Holding this thought I grabbed my towel and ran about like a madwoman going “Ahhh! Help me! Fire! In the shower! Nooo!”. One of the other GAP volunteers, Vivian, has been staying with me the past week, and on hearing my cries for help, awoke from her deep slumber, donned her fire-lady outfit and grabbed the hose. I ran back into the bathrooms with the headteacher behind me to find the fire was out and the school intact, which I guess means it wasn’t an electric fire after all.

And thusly the day was saved. Well done Viv!

The downside is, I’m back to having a freezing cold shower. It’s still winter. I’m used to it, though.

Holiday snaps

Hi guys. Time to share with you the photos from my holidays up north. Brace yourself.

My holidays started off by acting like a tourist in Suva:

Yes, you do get McDonald’s in Fiji

This is part of the University of the South Pacific campus. Wish Durham looked like that…

This is the cession stone in central Suva.

This is a street barbecue. It’s only $4 a serve and proper delicious. I reckon someone could make a fortune with these in university towns, as it’s gotta be the best drunk food ever.

After our street barbecue, we went to Tico’s Floating Restaurant for a drink. Tico’s is very posh. I had barely opened the wine list when I realised I felt drunk. “What ho!” I cried, “I have not yet taken a single sip of any intoxicating substance! What could possibly have caused this phenomenon!” Then I realised that, oh yeah, we’re on a boat, and it’s rocking in the waves. Oops. *facepalm*

The next day we took this teensy 12 seater plane up to Labasa, a 45 minute journey.

We checked into our hotel and I donned my tourist gear.

We crossed the Labasa river into town for lunch before getting a lift up to Nagigi to this Hindu temple.

This is Cobra Rock. Devotees swear that it’s growing and they have to keep raising the roof.

The next morning we went back into Labasa town and took a 3 hour bus ride down to Savusavu. The bus ride was incredibly scenic and I tried to take some pictures, but it’s hard when the roads are more potholes than flat.

Savusavu was beautiful, and we had a lorra fun taking pictures around the bay.

Love this picture ’cause you can look at it upside down and it’s still the same. We went kayaking around that island too.

We also went to the hot springs. You can cook vegetables in these. Steamin’.

The next day we went for a trek in the Waisali rainforest reserve:

There was a nice view from the top: 

And we had fun thwacking the spider’s webs out the way

This is Savusavu town, by the way.

Savusavu was our last chance to take cash out for the next week of our journey, so we got megabucks and felt like rich people. Also I had my hair cut by a transvestite, check the new hair-do.

The next part of our journey was Dolphin Bay.

It felt proper isolated.

And they sold lovely home brewed beer for the low low happy hour price of $1.50. Result!

All the guests ate and hung out together and we made some friends there.

Also me and Helen looked quite pretty

Once we were done at Dolphin Bay, we went on to Taveuni, and our first stop was the Waitovu Catholic Mission with this nice church.

Afterwards I went to straddle the date line, thus miraculously being in two days at once! Check it!

The next day we had a picnic up the top of Des Voeux peak, a big hill in the middle of Taveuni. It was kinda cloudy though and my pictures aren’t great so here’s a picture of the hill I took from the other side of the island a few days later:

The next day we went round the other side of the island to Bouma National Park to visit two of the three famous waterfalls. Here’s the biggest one:

There was a nice view on the way up too:

 

We stayed at the gorgeous Lavena lodge, and the next morning I witnessed the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. (No editing on the colours folks)

 

The next day we did this tour - kayaking, walking and swimming. During the walk we saw an Orange Dove. I’m no birdwatcher (shut up Chris) but I hear they’re pretty darn rare:

After that it was back to Suva for a night in the glorious Raintree Lodge, where we ate The Cheesecake that God Intended (with his sidekick Super Apple Pie):

 

and I went a bit mental with the lilypads waiting for the taxi:

The next day I did my shopping in town and then got the boat back to Ovalau, all fresh for school on Monday. Ta-da!

Well, thanks for tuning in folks. Hope it didn’t take too many years to load.

Fijian English

Fiji is essentially a bilingual nation. In fact, many people speak three, four, even five languages. Schools are taught in English, and all forms and signs are in English, so if you’re living in Fiji you kinda have to have a good grasp it. “Fijian” is a pretty broad term when you’re describing the language spoken here, as there are over 300 regional varieties, all of which developed fairly independantly and are significantly different. The Fijians had no written language until the European missionaries arrived in the mid-1800s, and at this point in time the most powerful chiefdom was that of the region of Bau, and so the Bauan dialect has been adopted as “Standard Fijian”, which is the form taught in schools and in any publications and so is the form that an outsider like myself will learn.

So, your average Fijian can speak English, Bauan and their own dialect of Fijian. Many also have a grasp of Hindi as well. (There are actually more Indians in Fiji than there are indigenous Fijians)

I have been trying to learn Fijian. I suspect it’s the only reason my brain hasn’t turned to mush already. It’s quite a challenge - I’ve never been the linguist type (five years of French lessons and all I know is how to say “I feel like chicken tonight”), plus I’ve never tried to learn a language that hasn’t developed along the same lines as English. The grammar in particular is very confusing, but I won’t bore you with the details.

Slightly easier has been getting used to the English that people speak over here. Obviously they have their own distinct accent, and occassionally we have trouble understanding each other (my Scottish accent has toned down considerably here, sorry guys). A few months ago I was looking to buy a mirror and I found I had to pronounce the word as a Fijian would say it  - “meerah” - before they could understand what I was looking for.

Some words are used more often back here, and others are used differently. The words “set” and “true” are used a lot, both as a question and an answer. Words such as “off” and “on” are used as verbs - eg, “Could you off the light please?”

As Fijian is structurally different to English, some words are used in situations that we would not use in English. Does that make sense? Don’t care. If you pass someone in the street that you know and it’s late afternoon, you would say to them “moce!” which literally means “sleep” and is used as “goodbye”. So, people will often say “Bye!” to you as you pass them, which I found a bit weird at first until I worked it out. Same applies with the question “O lako i vei?” - “where are you going?” - which is used as we say “How are you?”. Also, confusingly, the word for thanks in Fijian - “vinaka” - can also mean “No thanks”. So when you offer someone, oh I don’t know, a biscuit, and they wish to decline your invitation they will often just say “Thanks”. Now, to a Brit, that’s gonna mean “yes please”, right? Confusing until you get used to it.

And of course, body language is different too. Fijians are not a demonstrative people and their body language is often very subtle, for example a reply in the affirmative is often represently only by a meaningful blink. The more demonstrative types will show a “yes” not by nodding, but by jerking their head up in time with the forceful raising of their eyebrows, which on the whole is a highly alarming gesture and caused me some concern for the wellbeing of the person in question on my first experience.

Having been here for over 5 months now (!) I have picked up a lot of these habits, so please do not be alarmed if, on my return, I start saying “bye!” all the time and raising my eyebrows a lot.

I have found a super fast way to upload all my pictures, so expect massive photo posts coming your way soon.

Moce mada!

Catch up

Figured it was time to let you all know what the score is.

We’re now well into winter here, and it’s colder than I expected. Well, that’s not true - when it’s hot and sunny, it’s very hot and sunny, it’s just the hot-and-sunny days come a lot less frequently now. The rest of the time, it’s windy and rainy and cold. But it’s all relative - often I’ll think “Ooh, it’s a bit nippy today” then look down and realise I’m wearing shorts, a vest top and flip flops. Could you ever wear that kind of outfit in a Scottish winter? Heck, it’s only recent climate changes that have allowed us to wear that kind of outfit in a Scottish summer, and even that’s pushing it slightly.

I am still working at St. James Anglican Primary School, and will be for the forseeable future. I can’t remember what I’ve said about St. James before, so excuse me if I repeat myself. It’s possibly the poorest school on the island, but the staff (all four of them) are all very friendly and enthusiastic, which is more than you can say for the larger schools, not naming any names, cough cough. St. James hardly had any books in their library until about a month ago, when they had a big donation from a cruise ship. And so, my current job is setting up a library for them. After I’m done there, I’ll be doing some painting around the school and making it look pretty, which will be fun. Also please note - the uniforms at St. James are hot pink, and I love ‘em. HOT pink. Even the boys. It’s fantastic.

I was having some accomodation problems, which I won’t go into as I am not into public slander. So, since the manager for St. James is also the manager for Norah Frazer School for Special Education, which is right next door, I am now living in a room at the back of Norah Frazer. Just since the weekend, and it happened very suddenly, so I apologise for not mentioning this to anyone sooner. I love my wee room there. I have those insect screen things against my windows and door, so I can sleep with my windows open without fear of being munched on, and I can actually lock my door. I have my own wee fridge, which is a freakin’ luxury here. I have a large bathroom to use, which doubles up as the boys toilets during the day, so I also have my own urinal. I have a shower which I can control the temperature of (I’d call it a hot shower but that’s kinda stretching the truth). I also have furniture. I love the fact that I’m not living out of my rucksack anymore, which I kinda have been for the past couple of months. I should end up doing some work at Norah Frazer at some point as well which will be good.

Social life still kickin’. The hockey team was fun but gruelling, and kinda fell down the drain when the accomodation drama started as I was too busy/tired after school to face getting my ass kicked by ten year olds. I still go to Tuesday club every week, and I have a good circle of friends to depend on.

And I can’t believe how scary close this is getting to hometime… 

Death of a Chief

(By the way, Death of a President is not an entertaining film...)

So the Tui Levuka died. He was in his 70s and had heart problems, but still. The town was pandemonium all last week as mourners from all over Fiji flooded our poor tiny little town. Before the funeral, the body was held at the town hospital, which I walk past four times every week day on my way to and from school/lunch break. The body was guarded by these great hulks of men in traditional attire - grass skirts, arms and ankles with similar grass bands, and their bodies painted black. Scary, right? Yet every time I walked past they smiled and waved at me, or made coughing noises to try and make me look at them.

It was a bit of an awkward week for me, given that the only wearable items I own that are black are the following:
- Flip flops
- Small canvas handbag
- Hair bobbles
- Underwear

and I felt glaringly out of place in my pink flowery sulu. But my searches at Levuka’s clothing stores were fruitless and no mourning outfit was found, so I grinned and beared it.

The funeral was a lavish affair, but I wasn’t here to witness it, having gone to the gorgeous tiny coral island of Caqelai for the weekend. (Heaven! White beach, turquoise sea, and you can walk round the island in 15 minutes.) But it was pretty harrowing noticing the great respect that’s held for the chief, even in a 21st century town. The clubs were empty all week, children didn’t play outside, cars drove slowly and no loud music was heard. It shows how well Fiji has done to preserve its traditions from the days before European influence, and I say bravo. It’s also really lovely to see a community having real respect for someone like that - when you come from a ned-infested country like Scotland where complete strangers are beaten up as a hobby, it seems unusual.

And that is all.

New address!

which you can find on the How to Contact Me page. For the next few weeks please warn me if you post me anything ’cause I haven’t quite worked out how often the post is collected or where it will appear at my new school*. ‘Naka.

*which, by the way, is well good!

For the record

Home by Westlife is a very popular song here. “I wanna go home, I miss you” - I’ve played with that line a few times in my head, but it never fits. To tell you the truth, if I didn’t already have my place at Durham University, there’s no way I’d be going home this year. There are very few things I miss about home, so, for the record, I’m going to list them here in the hope that I will appreciate them more when I actually have them.

1. By far, the thing I miss the most is my privacy. For the first two months or so, it was fine. I had my own cosy little room, which I could at least shut the door to. No one came in my room without knocking and expressed permission. Then my hosts brought back their one-and-a-half year old son back from living with the grandparents, and all of a sudden I was sharing my room with two housegirls and had a toddler running in and out and playing with my deoderant. Then I moved house. I’m still sharing my room, the door is broken and doesn’t shut properly, and there’s two toddlers running in and out and playing with my deoderant. Plus, the whole family treat it like a family room and borrow my stuff as they please. Y’know, I love them and all, but it’s driving me a little bit crazy. It’s selfish, but I’ve discovered that I NEED my own personal space, and I swear to Ieeeesha if Durham try give me a shared room for first year all hell will be let loose.

2. Secondmost, I miss piano. Before I left home I was playing at least two hours a day, and to go from that to nothing is strange. I have found two derelict antique pianos since I got here, neither of which are playable, and once I got a few minutes at a four octave non-touch-sensitive keyboard, but that’s it. Guitar just isn’t the same. I also miss trumpet and harp, but to a lesser extent. And thus I am reduced to tapping out Mozart sonatas on desks and hearing the music only in my head. How sad.

3. Sometimes I miss hot showers, more often now that winter is here. Brr.

4. I miss having a reliable phone network. Vodafone Fiji isn’t great. It’s usually vaguely okay within Fiji, if you can get a signal, but outside Fiji? Forget it. I can usually receive texts from the UK fine, but I can rarely reply, and even then only to select numbers, apparently due to random discrimination. Meh.

5. I miss a lack of mosquitos. My skin is now used enough to the bites that they don’t flare up like they did at the beginning, but they’re still annoying as, well, biting flying insects.

6. Sometimes I have weird food cravings. Currently it’s Heinz tomato soup, which you can actually get in Suva, but my desire hasn’t yet reached the level where I’m willing to spend $60 on transport to get a can.

There are a few things that I thought I might miss, but I really don’t. One of them is Scottish people, as a nation, because obviously I miss my friends and family and whatnot. But let’s face it. We’re not particularly nice, and Fijians more than fill up the void. I also don’t miss channel flicking, because Fiji One manages to pack everything that is good about television into one channel, and  they have catchy jingles.

And that’s all I can think of.

Important!

So I’ve just been told that apparently I will be moving school in a few weeks time, to Loreto Primary School. Loreto is the closest primary school to Levuka, 5k away in the village of Tokou. If I have to move to a village, I’m glad it’s Tokou, ’cause it’s as close to Levuka as I can get plus I already have some friends there.

The main thing is that I’m going to have a different postal address, and since it takes a couple of weeks for things to arrive from the UK there’s a chance that if you send me stuff now I’ll be in Tokou by the time it arrives. This is not a problem so don’t stop sending me stuff, it brightens up my day but if you do post me anything within the next few weeks, address to the current Marist Convent address and tell me when you’ve posted it so if it turns out that I’m not there I can go pick it up. ‘Naka!

(of course, this is Fiji, and there’s a chance I won’t move at all…jeez…)

 

UPDATE - 30/5/08

“of course, this is Fiji, and there’s a chance I won’t move at all…jeez…”

Yesterday Sr. Mariana told me that I’m starting at St. James on Wednesday. St. James is a teeny tiny primary school (4 teachers!) at the other end of town, so I’m staying with my current hosts, which is fab. I’m really looking forward to this because I’ve been struggling to find stuff to do the past couple of weeks. So I’ll still have a change of postal address at some point which I will post up later.