One afternoon last week, my friend Molly and I went to visit the Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple (say that five times fast) in Nadi Town. Once we entered the gate, we had to take our shoes off and pay a small fee to be shown around. Our guide was a man with very few teeth, and he was helpful at pointing out what the different altars were used for. We were the only visitors that afternoon, but there were a handful of people there to donate offerings of coconut and banana, and it was interesting to watch the offering process. I tried not to stare too much, but I did notice that they had to walk around the temple grounds three times with their offering, stopping at certain places to perform the appropriate rituals. The Hindu religion seems very complicated, and I think it would take a lot of studying to actually know all that we saw. Still, it was easy to appreciate the beautiful architecture and bright colors! Here I am at the main entrance:
On a different evening last week, I went to a Farmer’s Festival in Lautoka, which is about a 30 minute van ride from where I live. It was kind of like a smaller version of an American state fair. There were shops and food stalls and games. I had some cotton candy (or candy floss, as they called it), just because I wanted to make sure it tasted like it does back home. J I also rode the ferris wheel, and that was NOT just like it is back home. It spun around about 20 times faster than any ferris wheel I’ve ever seen, so instead of being slightly boring, it was really fun!
School is still going well for the most part. Sometimes (usually when Sister Vika is out of the classroom), the kids get so loud that my head starts pounding and I just want to start rocking on the floor. Most of the time, though, I really love it. Every now and then, we take the class outside for “exercises,” which involves a lot of stretching and jumping and running in place. Staying out in the sun for a bit usually helps to use up some of their crazy energy. My absolute favorite exercise is when Sister Vika tells everyone to walk like a duck…! Here you can see some of the class demonstrating:
Every Monday morning, we have a school assembly. All the kids sit on tarps outside while a teacher leads everyone in prayer and then gives general announcements about not littering or running, etc. After that, the Virtue of the Week is presented by a class. This week, my class was presenting the virtue of “assertiveness.” Kind of a crappy virtue to be assigned, if you ask me. J It would have been easier to do “love” or “respect” or something along those lines, but no. We had five of the best readers say a couple of sentences each about what it means to be assertive. Then we had the class hold up letters spelling out our virtue. You can see here that Jeremy, holding the V, particularly got into the spirit of things:
The class was so well-behaved during their presentation that we let them color the letters as a reward. It’s now hanging outside the classroom:
I had my first less-than-amazing weekend this past week. Molly and I wanted to see Suva, the capital city of Fiji. We arrived in Suva late Saturday afternoon, leaving us enough time to walk through the bus station and go to the supermarket. Then we had tap water (stupid mistake), and both ended up getting sick. Consequently, we slept in on Sunday and then cancelled our original plan to stay til Monday, opting to go back to Nadi on Sunday afternoon to recover at home. So basically, I was only in Suva long enough to get a few really annoying mosquito bites, eat, and sleep. Though it was disappointing to have travelled for three hours both ways only to not actually do anything, I’m not sure that we’re actually missing out on much. Suva is on the eastern side of the main island of Fiji, and it gets tons of rain and overcast weather. As you might guess, not a lot of tourists go to Suva. The locals will also tell you that it’s cold there, but that’s a lie. There are a few museums and such that would have been cool to see, but the city as a whole just seemed very crowded and dirty. I’m glad that I live in Nadi, on the western side, because we get the most sun and pretty weather.
On the way to Suva, we stopped in Sigatoka (pronounced sing-uh-toe-ka), and that was really fun, so the whole trip wasn’t a waste. We spent a good bit of time looking around a really nice hotel there, called the Outrigger. The beach there was beautiful. Here’s Molly and I:
Outrigger has a really really really nice spa. It sits on top of a big hill, so the views were amazing. The often have weddings there, and I can see why! I think I could have lived in the bathroom there, which had its very own balcony with this gorgeous view:
Yesterday afternoon, I went to visit the Treasure House Orphanage in Nadi. Projects Abroad places volunteers there, so after hearing so much about it from friends who work there, I decided that it was definitely worth seeing. Jennifer, the girl with Down Syndrome in my class, lives at the orphanage, so I was excited about getting to see a little bit of her home life. I think she was confused to see ‘Mrs. Julie’ outside of the classroom, but after she got over the initial shock we had lots of fun playing. Here she is swinging:
An adorable boy named Sireli wanted me to watch him jump on the trampoline:
There was a really cute baby boy, Cedric, there. He’s soooo chubby and whenever any of the House Mums are cooking in the kitchen, he gets really excited and starts making noise. J You can’t really see the full extent of his cute chubbiness in this picture, but it’s still adorable. He’s holding up his pink sock:
My camera was a huge hit at the orphanage. Everyone loved having their pictures taken, and they would giggle hysterically every time they saw themselves on the screen. Here’s another cutie, wearing Molly's sunglasses:
Probably against my better judgment, I let Jennifer take over the camera for a while. She wanted to take a little photo shoot of me and the other volunteers there, and she turned out to be quite a demanding (and hilarious!) photographer. Four of us were sitting on a mat in the grass for the pictures, and she kept wanting us to rearrange ourselves. Every time we got resettled, she would decide to send one of us to the back, etc. At one point, I guess she got tired of seeing my face, so she told me I was “out!” The best part was when she told us to put our heads down for a picture. Of course, we complied. You can see Molly laughing on the side:
Jennifer’s personal favorite picture pose is the classic tongue sticking-out face, so we all had to take several shots like that as well. I have her to thank for this flattering one:
Here’s another picture of afternoon playtime fun at the orphanage. Pia from England is holding Cedric, Victoria from Canada is showing some enthusiasm, and I’m sitting in the swing while Jennifer stands on my lap and Sireli poses in front:
Heather, a really lovely girl from Canada who coordinates the Projects Abroad volunteers in Fiji, is leaving this Thursday after six months here. She has been an extremely helpful friend to all of the volunteers here- she knows the country really well by now, and she’s always available and willing to answer questions and give advice. She’s become good friends with my host mom as well, and we had a farewell barbeque at our house last night in her honor. We ate DELICIOUS beef, lamb chops, pineapple, salad, cassava, and chocolate ice cream! It took all afternoon and evening to prepare, so this was quite a special treat. From left, here’s Shabreen (my host mom), me, Pia (Heather’s replacement from England), and Heather:
