2007-09-07 Life and Schooling in Fiji

Fiji is loaded with coconut trees and coconut has become a staple of our
diet. Coconut oil has gotten an undeservedly bad reputation for being bad
for your health. I’ve done a lot of research, and not only is it not bad
for you it is actually very good! So I try to eat coconut every day. When
the nuts are green they are filled with coconut water and are delicious to
drink. The water can be used as an oral hydration solution, can be given to
breastfeeding babies and can even be used as an IV solution. When the nuts
get older they develop the harder white coconut on the inside. This can be
eaten right out of the nut or made into coconut milk or coconut oil. This
is also what you see in the packages in the store as shredded coconut. It
is just flaked and dried.
We have been in a very rural part of Fiji. Thawaro is near the tip of the
northernmost island of the Fiji group, and is pretty much off the beaten
track. The only way to get there is by boat. There are no phones and no
roads. There are a few other villages in the area and all the villages have
a boat that they use to go down to the nearest town (40 miles away) to get
supplies. They all fish and sell the fish to buy staples like flour, sugar,
tea, rice, etc. They grow root crops like taro, yams and cassava. They
also have banana, papaya and lemon trees. They tend their coconut farms and
they also grow some beans and a few onions. There are chickens running
around so they have eggs. The women cook over open fires and make the most
wonderful food you can imagine. I don’t know how they do it, but they make
bread like it comes out of a bakery. They eat a lot of fish and use coconut
milk in most everything they cook.
They live in either thatched huts or a combination of concrete, wood and
corrugated galvanized steel (tin roof). The cooking shed is usually
separate from the living quarters and there are communal toilet blocks in
the village. Some of the houses have flower gardens and the village is neat
and well cared-for. They cut the grass with a weed-whacker – someone spends
the day going around the whole village. There is little furniture in the
homes – maybe a cupboard to hold supplies. But no chairs or tables. They
weave mats and everyone sits on the floor on the mat, cross-legged. Our
village had over 100 people living there. There were maybe 2 or 3 families
represented and they conduct village life as a group, with a chief. The men
usually go out to work in the farms or fish during the day. The women with
little children are always around to watch the kids. You’ve heard the
expression "it takes a village to raise a child"? Well, the raising of
children is truly a communal event. As there are few dangers (no roads or
cars) the children have the run of the place and there is always an adult to
look after them.
The children love ball games; that was usually what I would see them doing
when I was in the village. In kindy they loved playdough, and the girls
would roll it out and pretend to make the foods their mothers did. The
boys seemed to prefer the blocks and the one little wooden car we had to
roll around. They loved to color and I was teaching them how to write
some letters and numbers. They were also drawing circles, squares and
triangles. I brought some balloons and that was a big hit! I usually had
between 12-15 kids, aged 3-5. Fijian is spoken at home and English is not
learned until grade school, so the children and I couldn’t understand each
other. Lepsy was the other teacher and she acted as the interpreter. I was
teaching the children some words in English, but when it came to story time
Lepsy would tell the stories. The children had about a half dozen songs
they knew and loved to sing them after play time right before the story.
They were happy, healthy children and a joy to be around.
Proper schooling starts at age 6 with first grade, but I heard that
kindergarten will become mandatory at some point. Our kindy was pretty
informal, and had been intermittent before I got there. We had sessions 3
times a week for 2 hours each session. The children really loved it and
would become very excited when they saw me walk into the village on kindy
days. Thawaro hosted the boarding school for the surrounding villages. The
families bring the children by boat to school on Sunday afternoons and pick
them up the following Friday afternoon to take them home for the weekend.
It is far to long a journey to do every day. The families take turns to
prepare the food for the boarders. The children are responsible for washing
their own clothes and keeping their beds neat and tidy. Some of the little
ones have separation issues at first, but they are lovingly looked after and
sometimes the mom will come and stay with them until they are ready to be on
their own. But the children generally agree that they love being boarders
and like the responsibility of caring for themselves and the freedom to be
independent. They stay at this school until they are 15, and then they go
to Labasa (40 miles away) for more high school. The children wear uniforms
to school and are very well-behaved and polite. I was in the habit of
leaving my dinghy by the boarding school and walking the 40 minutes to the
village and the children all knew my name and would speak to me every day.
Schooling is in English, so by the time the children are older their
English is very good. They seemed to have strict standards and exams.
There have been more cruisers coming through this area and they will usually
donate supplies to the school. We had a few boats donate stickers, paper,
colored pens, playdough, blocks, etc. when I was there. I plan to pick up a
few more things here in Savusavu and send them back to the kindy.
The worst effect of the hurricane last February was the destruction of all
the crops. For over 6 months the villagers had no fresh fruits or
vegetables until the new crops came in. They had to buy supplies from
Labasa, but as the average wage is $8 A DAY that was a real hardship.
(Things are cheaper here, but not THAT cheap.) By the time we left
everything was back in bloom and things were looking up.
Religion plays a large part of village life. The church (Methodist) is the
focal point of the village and Sundays are devoted to church. The children
are not allowed to play on that day. Dress is always modest: the women all
wear lavalavas, and their knees and shoulders are usually covered. No
shorts or tank tops for women. On Sundays the men all wear long-sleeved
shirts with ties. They also wear sulus, which are skirts with a trouser
waist. Once a month Thawaro either hosts or visits their sister village and
a big feast is shared during the day. The services are in Fijian, so the
Sunday we attended we couldn’t understand what was being said, but they
welcomed us in English and we were invited to lunch after the service. The
church itself is small and basic. The Fijians love to sing and the singing
is beautiful. There is no organ or piano. One person just starts singing
and the rest join in. Wonderful! Karen