There were so many things I wanted to say about my experience in Fiji, but now it seems quite out of date. More than a month has passed, and so many things have happened in between.
All in all, the experience was great, and indeed was an eye-opener. The Fijians are lovely, rowdy, warm, hospitable and hardy people. They get high on kava (which is their substitute for alcohol, and which produces a certain skin reaction that actually is a recognised medical condition). They also can't watch their carbohydrate intake, and Maggi (mee) has had huge advertising success in both the inner city and the villages.
Most of us felt we didn't do enough. Our medical supplies had been confiscated by the customs which led to us not being able to do much in the first few days of our trip. In addition, there was a lot of waiting around for the villagers to show up to our education talks etc. They always attribute it to 'Fijian time' (which, by the villagers' standards, operates 2-3 hours slower than the designated time). In Nabukevesi (one of the 2 villages we targeted), we felt we were unable to target the majority because they were unaware about our education talks/unconcerned about the issues we were going to discuss. So yes, we can't help people who don't want to help themselves, ey?
We soon realised that indeed, we WERE in Fiji. We were upset because we couldn't help them to what we thought was the best of our abilities. But on retrospect, maybe.. we still did. These people moved slow; things effected slowly. We had to take baby steps and shouldn't frustrate over their not living up to our standards. It would take a long time to change their lifestyle, their habits, their attitude.
I vividly remember an incident which proved to me how much our little deeds can mean to others, and how we should not belittle them. On our very last day at the village, we were bidding farewell to the people we've come to know over the 2 weeks. I gave a few villagers some heartfelt bear hugs, and was just about to board the bus. Just then, I felt a squeeze on my arm and turned to see this little girl who had wanted to catch my attention. I had missed her. She smiled, bid farewell in a shy manner, and gave me a wave. I smiled back, and gave her a hug. This was the girl whom I had played with in one of the villager's house. I had entertained her and her brother; I had fascinated them with my iPhone. Of course, how could I forget.
I was glad that we did contribute to something bigger than ourselves, and now we've a report describing what we've done, and photos to boot! Our team even managed to sneak in a one day retreat at The Beachouse, and so all was dandy before starting a new term at school :)
Ps. Pictures are up on Facebook. I wanted to load some significant ones here, but am restricted by my internet account, which is ANOTHER story. So, minimal uploading for the next 2 yrs for me.