Every now and then, it hits me that I’m actually in Fiji right now. Some things are very different from home. For instance, ants are currently crawling in and out of my laptop keys and my legs are on fire from itchy mosquito bites (bug spray helps, but only to an extent). I’m also probably surrounded by a zillion spiders and cockroaches, but I’ve stopped looking for those and only deal with them when they insist on coming near me. But it’s not just the bugs that are different. I’ve started picking up weird speaking patterns, too. Everyone here uses “on” and “off” as verbs, so you might ask someone to “on the switch” or “off the light.” It sounded so strange to me at first, but I’ve caught myself saying it a few times now. A lot of the volunteers/tourists here are British, and I keep having the urge to attempt a British accent. So far I’ve refrained, which is probably good. Another thing I’ll never get used to is driving on the left side of the road/right side of the car. Luckily I don’t drive at all here, but when crossing the street or riding in the bus/taxi, etc., I feel like the cars are going the wrong way and I cringe through all the intersection turns. There are no traffic lights or stop signs here, and I’m surprised I haven’t witnessed a car accident yet.
It’s hard to believe that I’ve got less than five weeks left – in a lot of ways, it still feels like I just got here yesterday. I have so much more that I want to see and do! At the same time though, it feels like ages since I’ve seen my family and friends back home. I miss you all and can’t wait to see you. Other things that I miss include: reliable internet, my bed, not living out of a suitcase, using a real washing machine and dryer, and American power outlets.
Even though I miss a lot, I’m having the time of my life here. I’m absolutely in love with the kids in my class at school. They are the cutest bunch of six-year-olds ever. Even though they use up a lot of my patience, I never get tired of hearing them say “Good morning, Mrs. Julie!” (I’ve given up on telling them that it’s Miss Julie…) or being bombarded by their precious hugs. Here are two of my favorite girls, Akenata and Cecelia:
And this is Manu, who is without a doubt my favorite kid in the entire class. (Shhh, don’t tell anyone!) He is so cute and small, and he’s always so good. He’s really smart and does all his work when I ask him the first time! Yesterday during storytime, he was nicely telling the other kids to be quiet while I read.
Here’s Pio, posing as Spiderman I think. I’m so proud of him – he’s getting much better at math and English!
This week a team of nurses came to school to check all the children and give them their “injections.” The kids in my class were sooo scared of getting shots and kept asking me when/if they had to get their injections. It was really interesting to see how they did the check-ups. First, every kid’s height and weight were measured. Here’s Jennifer getting measured. She was surprisingly very, very well-behaved throughout the whole check-up. :)
Then they all had their eyes checked. Here’s Lario displaying the form:
Then they had to talk to a nurse, who gave them some individualized tips for being healthy, just based on a quick glance-over. There’s one chubby girl in my class, and the nurse told her (in a very humiliating way, in front of all the other kids) that she needed to do “lots of activities or else she would stay like this” and she pulled on the girl’s stomach and arms. I felt so sorry for the girl, all she does is eat what her parents feed her. The nurse herself was not so skinny, but that’s besides the point. She also told several kids with really bad teeth to not eat so many “lollies” (that’s what they call Jolly-Rancher type hard candies), but the real problem is that they’re just not brushing their teeth very often.
Finally came the dreaded injections. Not a single girl in the class cried, but a few of the boys definitely did. One boy even had to be held down by three people because he was so uncooperative. Of course, sweet little darling Manu was very brave:
I was using my camera to distract them from the shots:
After school, I stopped by a local fruit/veggie market near my host house and bought five delicious mandarin oranges (which are actually all green when ripe here) for only $1 (approx. 50 US cents)! It was great, and I wish I had known the fruit was so cheap before now! I also really appreciated the writing on the rubbish bin (aka trash can) outside the market. This is basically my life motto:
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