Family Volunteering Fiji: Day Three

Some reluctance today from some of the kids following a couple of days of amazing positives but also quite a few lessons and shocks in relation to cultural differences. A consistent theme amongst the team kids has been surprise at the roughness of physical interaction – whether it be in affection or reprimand – a little different from home. Regular prayers, calling the teacher Master and the general feeling of chaos, as well as language differences have all been discussed. Despite these challenges the group has done so well at adapting to what is certainly a different school environment and we are all very proud of them. They taught the students elastics and hand clap games today, and Riley spent most of the day playing rugby!

Stuart’s hat blew out the bus window this morning, provoking lots of noisy amusement by the rest of the gang. Chief Construction Manager John had to stay in bed due to a nasty bout of gastro, so Geoff 2IC headed up the somewhat tired team today. It was an awesome effort by the gang today and the playground is ahead of schedule! The construction team completed a few pieces of equipment, while the painting team engaged team kids, students and parents – who were so keen to help they tried to make us send the kids back to class! Volunteers scrubbed tyres and moved rocks. Emma and Riley guided Class 7 students through a process to develop their own rules for the playground and will work with them tomorrow on sign-writing. The students were so shy they would not answer any questions to start with, and tried whispering them to the teacher to pass on.

Everyone is working really well together and it is definitely a team effort – all members have dedicated roles and everyone shares the task of keeping the kids happy, occupied, sun-screened and fed.

We had a visit from the Radisson Blu Adopt-a-School team today, who have provided some very welcome support to the project and plan to provide additional support to the school in the near future. We were very grateful for their delivery of additional paint supplies as well.

We departed a little late and very weary from a hot and busy day – as we left, the not quite finished playground was already being tested out by students and we all look forward to letting them loose on the finished product over the next 2 days.